Random Verses from the Buddhist Texts

“So this holy life, bhikkhus, does not have gain, honour, and renown for its benefit, or the attainment of virtue for its benefit, or the attainment of concentration for its benefit, or knowledge and vision for its benefit. But it is this unshakeable deliverance of mind that is the goal of this holy life, its heartwood, and its end.”

(Majjhima Nikaya Sutta 29 Verse 7, a Theravada Text)

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SW-User

Another very fundamental text from the Theravada Canon of Scripture. This from the Majjhima Nikaya, Sutta 2

[i]This is how he attends unwisely: "Was I in the past? Was I not in the past? What was I in the past? How was I in the past? Having been what, what did I become in the past? Shall I be in the future? Shall I not be in the future? What shall I be in the future? How shall I be in the future? Having been what, what shall I become in the future? Or else he is inwardly perplexed about the present thus: "Am I? Am I not? What am I? How am I? Where has this being come from? Where will it go?"

When he attends unwisely in this way, one of six views arise in him. The view "self exists for me" arises in him as true and established; or the view "no self exists for me" arises in him as true and established; or the view "I perceive self with self" arises in him as true and established; or the view "I perceive not-self with self" arises in him as true and established; or the view "I perceive self with not-self" arises in him as true and established; or else he has some such view as this: "It is this self of mine that speaks and feels and experiences here and there the result of good and bad actions; but this self of mine is permanent, everlasting, eternal, not subject to change, and it will endure as long as eternity." This speculative view is called the thicket of views, the wilderness of views, the contortion of views, the vacillation of views, the fetter of views. Fettered by the fetter of views, the untaught ordinary person is not freed from.......suffering, I say.

He attends wisely: "This is suffering"; he attends wisely "This is the origin of suffering"; he attends wisely "This is the cessation of suffering"; he attends wisely "This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering."

Again, remember what I have left undeclared as undeclared and remember what I have declared as declared. And what have I left undeclared? "The world is eternal"- I have left undeclared. "The world is not eternal" - I have left undeclared. "The world is finite" - I have left undeclared. "The world is infinite" - I have left undeclared. "The soul is the same as the body" - I have left undeclared. "The soul is one thing and the body is another" - I have left undeclared. "After death an enlightened one exists" - I have left undeclared. "After death an enlightened one does not exist" - I have left undeclared. "After death an enlightened one both exists and does not exist" - I have left undeclared. "After death an enlightened one neither exists not does not exist" - I have left undeclared.

Why have I left this undeclared? Because it is unbeneficial, it does not belong to the fundamentals of the holy life, it does not lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nirvana. That is why I have left it undeclared. And what have I declared? "This is suffering", "This is the origin of suffering", "This is the cessation of suffering", "This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering".[/i]