The Greater Craving-Destruction Discourse Mahṅ Taṃhṅsaṃ khaya Sutta (MN 38)

- suttas - - evening talks - short morning talks - lectures - guided meditations - talk collections - other themes - chants - - - - à¹à¸à¸¢ - Franā§ais - Espaā±ol - - Portuguāªs - Ð ÑÑÑÐºÐ¸Ð¹ - - - Ð£ÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½ÑÑÐºÐ° Submit Search - Home - Suttas - MN - MN 38 The Greater Craving-Destruction Discourse ## Browse Suttas Go to Majjhima Nikṅya index MN index Show outline show outline ## Outline - (Top) - Introduction - Consciousness Classified by Requisite Condition - On Becoming - Nutriment & Dependent Co-arising - The Arising of Stress & Suffering - The Cessation of Stress & Suffering - Inappropriate Questions Avoided - The Birth & Growth of a Being - Limited Awareness - The Path to Unlimited Awareness - Virtue - Sense Restraint - Mindfulness & Alertness - Abandoning the Hindrances - The Four Jhṅnas - Unlimited Awareness const prefersTocHidden = window.sessionStorage.getItem('user-prefers-toc-hidden') ?? window.localStorage.getItem('user-prefers-toc-hidden') ?? false; if (prefersTocHidden) { const tocToggleButton = document.getElementById("tocToggle"); const bookToc = document.getElementById("bookToc"); bookToc.classList.remove("show"); tocToggleButton.setAttribute("aria-expanded", false); tocToggleButton.querySelectorAll("[data-show-text]").forEach(el => { el.setAttribute("data-hide-text", el.innerText); el.innerText = el.getAttribute("data-show-text"); }); } ## The Greater Craving-Destruction Discourse Mahṅ Taṃhṅsaṃkhaya SuttaÂ Â (MNÂ 38) ## Introduction This sutta teaches how to understand the relationship of consciousness to rebirth in a way that helps put an end to rebirth. Although the Buddha never used any word corresponding to "rebirth" in his teachings, he did describe birth as a process following on death again and again as long as the appropriate conditions are present. In other words, even though he didnât use the word "rebirth," his teachings on birth are teachings on repeated birth: how it happens, how it inherently involves suffering and stress, and how it can be brought to an end. The idea that death can be followed by birth was not universally accepted in India in the Buddhaâs time. As DNÂ 2 and MNÂ 102 show, some prominent contemplative schools actively rejected the idea of rebirth while others affirmed it. Thus when the Buddha taught rebirth, he wasnât simply following an unexamined cultural assumption. He was consciously taking a stand on one of the controversial issues of his time. However, his explanation of rebirth differed from other schools on both sides of the issue in that he avoided the question of whether or not thereâs a "what" that gets reborn, or if there is a "what," what it is (SNÂ 12:12; SNÂ 12:35). He also discouraged such speculations as, "If I take rebirth, what was I in the past, and what will I be in the future?" (MNÂ 2) He put all these questions aside because they interfered with the path of practice leading to the end of suffering. Instead, he focused on the process of how birth happens, because the process involves factors that are immediately apparent to oneâs awareness throughout life and lie enough under oneâs control to turn them toward the ending of birth. An understanding of the process as process—and in particular, as an example of the process of dependent co-arising—can actually contribute to the end to suffering, because it gives guidance in how to apply the tasks appropriate for the four noble truths to all the factors in the process leading up to birth. One of the salient features of dependent co-arising is its lack of outside context. In other words, it avoids any reference to the presence or absence of a self around or a world behind the processes it describes. This allows one to focus directly on the factors of the process as factors, parts of a causal chain. And this, in turn, makes it easier to notice which factors—such as ignorance—cause suffering and should thus be abandoned; which ones—such as attention and intention—can be converted to the path to the end of suffering, and so should be developed before they, too, are abandoned; and which ones—such as clinging and becoming—constitute suffering, and so should be comprehended to the point of disenchantment and dispassion, leading to release. This sutta concerns a monk—Sṅti, the Fishermanâs Son—who refuses to heed the Buddhaâs care in treating all the elements of the process of wandering on from birth to birth as processes. Sṅti states that, in his understanding of the Buddhaâs teachings, consciousness is the "what" that does the wandering on. His fellow monks and then the Buddha treat him and his erroneous view in a way that parallels the way they treat Ariṭṭha Formerly-of-the-Vulture-Killers in MNÂ 22. First the narrator notes that the view is not merely wrong, but actually evil and pernicious: To adopt it would be to place an obstacle in oneâs path. The monks try, unsuccessfully, to dissuade Sṅti from his view, after which they report the case to the Buddha. The Buddha calls Sṅti into his presence, a