Ud 3.10: Loka Sutta — (Surveying) the World
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I have heard that on one occasion, the Blessed One was staying at Uruvelā on the bank of the Nerañjarā River at the root of the Bodhi tree — the tree of awakening — newly awakened. And on that occasion he sat at the root of the Bodhi tree for seven days in one session, sensitive to the bliss of release. Then, with the passing of seven days, after emerging from that concentration, he surveyed the world with the eye of an Awakened One. As he did so, he saw living beings burning with the many fevers and aflame with the many fires born of passion, aversion, & delusion.
Then, on realizing the significance of that, he on that occasion exclaimed:
Whatever contemplatives or brahmans say that liberation from becoming is by means of becoming, all of them are not released from becoming, I say.
And whatever contemplatives or brahmans say that escape from becoming is by means of non-becoming, all of them have not escaped from becoming, I say.
Note
- 1.
- In other words, regardless of whatever one bases one's construal of an experience on, by the time the construal is complete, the base has already changed.
- 2.
- Reading sabb'upadhiṃ hi with the Thai edition. The Burmese and Sri Lankan editions read upadhiṃ hi: "For this stress comes into play in dependence on acquisition." The parallel passage in the Udānavarga (32.36) agrees with this latter version.
- 3.
- This passage indicates the way out of the dilemma posed above, that one cannot gain release either through becoming or non-becoming. Rather than focus on whether one wants to take "what has come to be" in the direction of becoming or non-becoming, one develops dispassion for "what has come to be" as it occurs, and this provides the way out. On this point, see The Paradox of Becoming, chapters 2 and 6.
