Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta: The Sermon

Meditation

Meditation for Beginners

 

Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta: The Sermon

 

 

Indulging in sensual pleasures [kamasukhallikanuyoga]

 

        Something which you will find at the beginning of every sutta are Ananda’s words ‘Euam me sutam…’: i.e. ‘Thus have I heard (directly from the Lord Buddha)’.

 

        On one occasion, the Blessed One was staying at the Isipatana Deer Park close by the town of Benares [Varanasi]. At that place, the Buddha summoned the ‘group of five’ [pancauaggiya] and addressed them thus:

 

        O! Bhikkhus! Monks who wish to overcome suffering must strictly avoid the two extremes of practice, namely:

 

 

Monks who wish to overcome suffering must strictly avoid the two extremes of practice

 

        1. Sensual indulgence [kamasukhallikanuyoga]

 

        2. Self-mortification [attakilamathanuyoga]

 

1. Indulging in sensual pleasures [kamasukhallikanuyoga]

 

Sensual indulgence is being enamoured by the pleasures of the five senses (i.e. images, sounds, aromas, tastes and physical contact) – and endless hankering after the pleasures therein, until such hankering becomes a habit. Reliance on such sense pleasures becomes so engrained in one’s being that one has no more thought of renunciation or of going forth into the monkhood.

 

to be continued...

 

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