Today, the 8th waning day of Pyatho, we are going to explain the 12th gætæ of the Sutta. Æsavakhino
pahønamæno, The bhikkhu in whom all asava are absent, and who has rejected the nine kinds of mæna, has overcome through meditational insight all the essential conditions which are like roads for desires and lust. Æsava means that which flow. There are four kinds of æsava, namely, (1) Kæmæsava, (2) Bhavæsava, (3) Di¥¥hæsava and (4) Avijjæsava. Kæmæsava is the flowing of desires and lust from the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind, seeing and sight, hearing and sound, smelling and smell, tongue and taste, body and touch, mind and though, imagination and ideas from all of these flow desires, lust. All æsavas are kilesæs. Flowing out of lust, desires and sensuality is kæmæsava. Delight in living the life is bhavæsava. Wrong beliefs, such as thinking of impermanent as permanent, suffering as pleasure and absence of self a presence of self is avijjæsava. We all must strive to dry up these flowings, and how to do it is as you all know full well; that is, by means of meditation. If one becomes a sotæpanna, one rejects the obvious kinds of kæmæsava, such as, adultery and fornication, theft, telling lies and taking liquor and narcotics. He has rejected wrong beliefs. And whatever of moha that would drag one down to hell, too. Further, rejection in these areas is effected by the sakadægæmi. When one reaches the stage of an anægæmi one is fully rid of kæmæsava, but he still has a liking for bhava (existence) either corporeal or incorporeal. That is why anægams usually pass on from human or deva existences to corporeal and incorporeal brahmæ regions. He has not rid himself of bhavæsava. Only on attaining the state of an arahanta does one rid himself completely of bhavæsava and avijjæsava. All lobha, dosa and moha are dried up then. When one is clean of æsava one becomes an arahanta. And an arahanta has already rid him-self of mæna. Mæna means pride or conceit, and it is of nine categories. There is conceit in high esteem for oneself, in thinking of oneself as an equal to others, and also in thinking a superior to others or thinking that one is inferior to others. These three categories of conceit prevail in the higher, middle and lower strata of society. So there are nine categories of conceit. The arahanta has none. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HUMILITY AND BASE PRIDE Now, the question may be raised about the pride regarding the thought that one is inferior to others. Can it be called conceit? To think lowly of oneself must be humility, you’d say. It is not humility. It is not taking a humble position in deference to others. It is a vicious pride shown by insolent behaviour toward those higher and nobler than oneself. It is competing with the noble ones. It’s like this. “We are ordinary monks, so we can behave as we like. We need not keep dignity as those senior monks do.” In the same way among laymen, the attitude and behaviour denoting, “We are lower rankers. We can do as we wish to; we need not keep up dignity like those higher officials and rich men”. This is pride indeed; it is what may be called base pride. Such pride is called in Pæ¹i, hina mæna. Pride with equals is sadisa mæna. Pride of superiority is seyya mæna. If one thinks highly of himself because he deserves high esteem, he is said to have yæthæva mæna (true pride). If one does not deserve the esteem, he claims, then he is said to have false pride, or a-yæthæva mæna. When one has become a sotæpanna, one has got rid of false pride but true pride remains. It remains with sakadægaµ too, and even with anægaµ. True pride leaves one only on attaining the state of an arahanta. So when one has become an arahanta, one is completely rid of all the nine categories of pride. This and the other about the riddance of æsava are the attributes of an arahanta. The following two lines also describe the attributes of an arahanta. This sermon contains so many of the attributes of an arahanta. The next line in the stanza refers to rægapatha, the path of ræga. All conditioned things are like the path for progress of ræga. In other words, all the things in sensual, corporeal and incorporeal regions that proliferate upædæna or attachment, are the path of ræga. Simply said, all the secular life which is apart from Nibbæna, or the life-producing misery (Dukkha Saccæ), the constant flux of life, contributes to the occurrence of ræga. It must be overcome. All conditioned things, all the factors of misery that are in the flux of physical and mental phenomena must be approached with meditational insight and then overcome. As the insight develops, the yogø will know matter and mind separately, cause and effect separately and the transitoriness of the pheonmena. Then the yogø will be able to overcome the changing flux, the conditioned things, by knowing the anicca, dukkha and anatta nature. Such overcoming is in fact, tada³ga pahæna or momentary abandoning. As meditational insight develops, one reaches the stage of sotæpanna magga phala, and abandons all the ræga that could drag one down to hell. The abandonment continues through anægæmi to arahatta magga insight, and all rægas are overcome. The attributes of an arahanta enumerated so far are riddance of asava, and overcoming of ræga. The third line of the stanza says that an arahanta adopts a gentle and serene attitude, and because in him is totally absent all kinds of kilesæ, his mind is stable. MUST ABANDON WILDNESS AND HAVE SERENITY To have acquired serenity is to be entirely free of all the wild elements that constituting kilesæ. Physical and speech sins must be wiped out by søla (moral practice). Sensual thoughts and ideas must be expelled by samædhi (concentration). Some wild elements remain however, in the form of anusaya kilesæ, the innate kind and must be done away with by vipassanæ and ariya magga insight. Once the arahatta magga phala stage is reached, all the wild elements that are in kilesæ, will have been expelled and serenity is gained. And that also is an attribute of an arahanta. Then the other attribute is stability of the mind. It denotes peace resulting from riddance of all kilesæ. Stability of the mind can be achieved by ordinary sæmædhi and jhæna samædhi but in this context stability of the mind means the state of the mind of an arahanta who knows peace as a result of abandonment of all kilesæ. An arahanta’s mind is stable all the time; there is no difference between the time he is engaged in jhæna and the time when he is not. He can be engaged in jhæna for the entire day or for the entire week. The last line of the gæthæ says, as usual, that the bhikkhu who has abandoned all attachment lives properly in this world. This gæthæ directs the yogøs to strive to attain the state when in them are absent all the categories of kilesæ. May they be able to work in the meditation prictice to gain magga phala insight and thus reach the ultimate state of Nibbæna. Sædhu! Sædhu! Sædhu! End of Part XI
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