Tu Viện Quảng Đức105 Lynch Rd, Fawkner, Vic 3060. Australia. Tel: 9357 3544. quangduc@quangduc.com* Viện Chủ: HT Tâm Phương, Trụ Trì: TT Nguyên Tạng   

Itivuttaka

20/03/201413:55(Xem: 3735)
Itivuttaka

Khuddaka Nikaya
---o0o---

Itivuttaka

This Was Said by the Buddha

Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Read an alternate translation by John D. Ireland (excerpts only).

---o0o---

Contents

Translator's Introduction(^)

The Itivuttaka, a collection of 112 short discourses, takes its name from the statement at the beginning of each of its discourses: this(iti)was said (vuttam)by the Blessed One. The collection as a whole is attributed to a laywoman named Khujjuttara, who worked in the palace of King Udena of Kosambi as a servant to one of his queens, Samavati. Because the Queen could not leave the palace to hear the Buddha's discourses, Khujjuttara went in her place, memorized what the Buddha said, and then returned to the palace to teach the Queen and her 500 ladies-in-waiting. For her efforts, the Buddha cited Khujjuttara as the foremost of his laywomen disciples in terms of her learning. She was also an effective teacher: when the inner apartments of the palace later burned down, killing the Queen and her entourage, the Buddha commented (in Udana vii.10) that all of the women had reached at least the first stage of Awakening.

The name of the Itivuttaka is included in the standard early list of the nine divisions of the Buddha's teachings -- a list that predates the organization of the Pali Canon as we now know it. It's impossible to determine, though, the extent to which the extant Pali Itivuttaka corresponds to the Itivuttaka mentioned in that list. The Chinese canon contains a translation of an Itivuttaka, attributed to Hsüan-tsang, that strongly resembles the text of the Pali Itivuttaka, the major difference being that parts of the Group of Threes and all of the Group of Fours in the Pali are missing in Hsüan-tsang's translation. Either these parts were later additions to the text that found their way into the Pali but not into the Sanskrit version translated by Hsüan-tsang, or the Sanskrit text was incomplete, or Hsüan-tsang's translation was left unfinished (it dates from the last months of his life).

The early history of the Itivuttaka is made even more complex by the fact that it was originally an oral tradition first written down several centuries after the Buddha's passing away. For a discussion of this issue, see the Historical Notes appended to Dhammapada: A Translation.

Whatever the history of the text, though, it has long been one of the favorite collections in the Pali Canon, for it covers a wide range of the Buddha's teachings -- from the simplest to the most profound -- in a form that is accessible, appealing, and to the point.

However, although the discourses in the Itivuttaka cover many topics, they all relate to a common theme: the consequences of one's actions, or kamma.Because this theme is so central to these discourses, and because it is so commonly misunderstood, I would like briefly to explain it here.

The Buddha's teachings on action, or kamma, and his accompanying teachings on rebirth, are often dismissed as unessential to his teaching, something he simply picked up from his Indian environment. Actually, they are central to his teaching, and form one of his most original insights. Although many people assume that the Buddha derived his teachings on kamma from a view of the cosmos as a whole, the line of experiential proof was actually the other way around. After directly observing and analyzing the role of action in shaping his experience of time, he then followed the implications of his observations to confirm his vision of the process of rebirth and the structure of the cosmos that lies under the sway of time.

In the course of his Awakening, the Buddha discovered that the experience of the present moment consists of three factors: results from past actions, present actions, and the results of present actions. This means that kamma acts in feedback loops, with the present moment being shaped both by past and by present actions; while present actions shape not only the present but also the future. This constant opening for present input into the causal processes shaping one's life makes free will possible. In fact, will -- or intention -- forms the essence of action. Furthermore, the quality of the intention determines the quality of the act and of its results. On the mundane level there are three types of intentions: skillful, leading to pleasant results; unskillful, leading to painful results; and mixed, leading to mixed results, all these results being experienced within the realm of space and time. However, the fact that the experience of space and time requires not only the results of past actions but also the input of present actions means that it is possible to unravel the experience of space and time by bringing the mind to a point of equilibrium where it contributes no intentions or actions to the present moment. The intentions that converge at this equilibrium are thus a fourth type of intention -- transcendent skillful intentions -- which lead to release from the results of mundane intentions, and ultimately to the ending of all action.

The Buddha's direct perception of the power of intention confirmed for him the process of rebirth: if experience of the present moment requires the influence of past intentions, then there is no way to account for experience at the beginning of life other than through the intentions of a previous lifetime. At the same time, the power of the qualityof intention provided the framework for Buddha's vision of the cosmos in which the process of rebirth takes place: there are pleasant levels of rebirth -- the worlds of the Brahmas and the higher devas; unpleasant levels -- hell, the realms of the hungry shades, common animals, and the angry demons; and mixed levels -- the human realm and some of the lower deva realms. Even in the pleasant levels of rebirth, however, the pleasure is unstable and impermanent, giving no sure release from suffering and pain. The only secure release comes through transcendent skillful intentions, leading to the experience of nibbana,totally beyond the process of rebirth and the constraints of space and time.

Nibbana itself is totally unconditioned and so cannot be analyzed, apart from a distinction in how it is experienced before and after death (see §44). However, the path of practice leading to nibbana can be analyzed. It has eight factors -- right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration -- and goes through four levels of Awakening. The early texts say very little about the content of these Awakening experiences, but are very specific about how these experiences function in effecting lasting changes in the mind. Stream-entry -- in which one enters the "stream" to nibbana, gaining one's first glimpse of the deathless and cutting through the mental fetters of self-identity views, uncertainty, and grasping at precepts and practices -- ensures that one will be reborn at most only seven more times. Once-returning ensures that one will be reborn only once more on the human level. Non-returning -- which cuts through the mental fetters of sensual passion and irritation -- ensures that one will never be reborn on the human level. If one goes no further in this life, one will be reborn in one of the five Brahma realms called the Pure Abodes and attain full Awakening there. Arahantship -- which cuts through the mental fetters of passion for form, passion for formlessness, restlessness, conceit, and ignorance -- frees one entirely from the suffering caused by craving, and from the cycle of rebirth as a whole.

This, then, is the picture of the cosmos that derives from the Buddha's insight into the power of intention. And what shapes skillful intention? Two connected qualities: appropriate attention (§16) and right view (§99). Appropriate attention focuses on questions that help foster skillfulness in one's actions, and avoids questions that get in the way of developing that skill. On the mundane level, right view provides a proper understanding of action and its potential for producing mundane pleasure and pain. On the transcendent level, it reduces experience simply to cause and effect, skillful and unskillful -- expressed in terms of the four noble truths -- without focusing on whether there is anyone performing the action or experiencing the result. This untangles the mind from issues of space and time, and allows it to act in a way that opens to transcendent release. Simply put, appropriate attention asks the right questions; right view provides the right answers. The interplay between these two mental qualities explains the question-and-answer format used in many of the discourses in the Itivuttaka. And, given the role of right view in skillful action, the fact that all of the discourses deal with right view means that they are all aimed -- directly or indirectly -- at helping the reader reach true happiness by using those views to foster skillful intentions in his or her own life.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Metta Forest Monastery
March, 2001



Glossary
(^)

Acquisition (upadhi)

The mental "baggage" that the unawakened mind carries around. The Culaniddesa lists ten types of acquisition: craving, views, defilement, action, misconduct, nutriment (physical and mental), irritation, the four physical properties sustained in the body (earth, water, wind, and fire), the six external sense media (forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, and ideas), and the six forms of sensory consciousness (eye-consciousness, ear-, nose-, tongue-, body-, and intellect-consciousness). The state without acquisitions is Unbinding (see below).

Aggregate (khandha)

Any one of the five bases for clinging to a sense of self: form (physical phenomena, including the body), feelings, perceptions (mental labels), thought-fabrications, consciousness.

Arahant

A "worthy one" or "pure one;" a person whose mind is free of defilement and thus is not destined for further rebirth. A title for the Buddha and the highest level of his noble disciples.

Avici

The lowest level of hell. Hells in Buddhism are places of temporary, not eternal, torment. A being goes to hell, not because any outside power has sent him/her there, but through the power of his/her own actions. When the results of the actions come to their end, the being is released from hell.

Becoming (bhava)

States of being that develop first in the mind and allow for birth on any of three levels: the level of sensuality, the level of form, and the level of formlessness.

Brahma

An inhabitant of the highest, non-sensual levels of heaven. The Great Brahma is one of the more powerful inhabitants of these heavens. As an adjective,brahmameans "sublime," "ideal," "embodying the best qualities. As such, it is often used to describe the arahant or the highest qualities of the Dhamma.

Brahman

The Brahmans of India have long maintained that they, by their birth, are worthy of the highest respect. Buddhists borrowed the term "brahman" to apply to arahants to show that respect is earned not by birth, race, or caste, but by spiritual attainment through following the right path of practice. Some of the passages in the Itivuttaka use the word brahman in this special sense; others in a more ordinary sense. The intended sense should be obvious from the context.

Deva

Literally, "shining one." An inhabitant of the heavenly realms.

Dhamma

(1) Event; a phenomenon in and of itself; (2) mental quality; (3) doctrine, teaching; (4) nibbana. Sanskrit form: Dharma.

Enlightened one (dhira)

Throughout this translation I have rendered buddhaas "Awakened," and dhiraas "enlightened." As Jan Gonda points out in his book, The Vision of the Vedic Poets,the word dhirawas used in Vedic and Buddhist poetry to mean a person who has the heightened powers of mental vision needed to perceive the "light" of the underlying principles of the cosmos, together with the expertise to implement those principles in the affairs of life and to reveal them to others. A person enlightened in this sense may also be awakened, but is not necessarily so.

Fabrication (sankhara)

Sankhara literally means "putting together," and carries connotations of jerry-rigged artificiality. It is applied to physical and to mental processes, as well as to the products of those processes. In some contexts it functions as the fourth of the five aggregates -- thought-fabrications; in others, it covers all five.

Fermentation (asava)

One of four qualities -- sensuality, views, becoming, and ignorance -- that ferment in the mind and flow out of it, creating the flood of the round of death and rebirth.

Heart (manas)

The mind in its role as will and intention.

Jhana

Meditative absorption. A state of strong concentration, devoid of sensuality or unskillful thoughts, focused on a single physical sensation or mental notion which is then expanded to fill the whole range of one's awareness. Jhana is synonymous with right concentration, the eighth factor in the noble eightfold path.

Kamma

Intentional act, bearing fruit in terms of states of becoming and birth. Sanskrit form: karma.

Mara

The personification of temptation and death.

Patimokkha

The basic code of monastic discipline, composed of 227 rules for monks and 310 for nuns.

Sakka

King of the devas in the Heaven of the Thirty-three.

Samsara

Transmigration; the "wandering-on"; the round of death and rebirth.

Sangha

On the conventional (sammati)level, this term denotes the communities of Buddhist monks and nuns; on the ideal (ariya)level, it denotes those followers of the Buddha, lay or ordained, who have attained at least stream-entry.

Stress (dukkha)

Alternative translations for dukkhainclude suffering, burdensomeness,and pain.However -- despite the unfortunate connotations it has picked up from programs in "stress-management" and "stress-reduction" -- the English word stress,in its basic meaning as the reaction to strain on the body or mind, has the advantage of covering much the same range as the Pali word dukkha.It applies both to physical and mental phenomena, ranging from the intense stress of acute anguish or pain to the innate burdensomeness of even the most subtle mental or physical fabrications. It also has the advantage of being universally recognized as something directly experienced in all life, and is at the same time a useful tool for cutting through the spiritual pride that keeps people attached to especially refined or sophisticated forms of suffering: once allsuffering, no matter how noble or refined, is recognized as being nothing more than stress, the mind can abandon the pride that keeps it attached to that suffering, and so gain release from it. Still, in some of the verses of the Itivuttaka, stressseems too weak to convey the meaning, so in those verses I have rendered dukkhaas pain, suffering,or suffering & stress.

Tathagata

Literally, "one who has become authentic (tatha-agata),"or "one who is really gone (tatha-gata),"an epithet used in ancient India for a person who has attained the highest religious goal. (For other etymologies, see §112.) In Buddhism, it usually denotes the Buddha, although occasionally it also denotes any of his arahant disciples.

Unbinding (nibbana)

Because nibbanais used to denote not only the Buddhist goal, but also the extinguishing of a fire, it is usually rendered as "extinguishing" or, even worse, "extinction." However, a study of ancient Indian views of the workings of fire (see The Mind Like Fire Unbound)reveals that people of the Buddha's time felt that a fire, in going out, did not go out of existence but was simply freed from its agitation, entrapment, and attachment to its fuel. Thus, when applied to the Buddhist goal, the primary connotation of nibbanais one of release, along with cooling and peace. Sanskrit form: nirvana.

Vinaya

The monastic discipline. The Buddha's name for his own teaching was, "this Dhamma-and Vinaya," this doctrine and discipline.

Gửi ý kiến của bạn
Tắt
Telex
VNI
Tên của bạn
Email của bạn
24/04/2019(Xem: 9539)
Chanting - The Heart Sutra in English - Su Co Giac Anh
11/12/2018(Xem: 9657)
Social Values-In The Metta Sutta by_Dr. Bokanoruwe Dewananda
22/05/2018(Xem: 36336)
The Buddhist community is extremely upset by the inappropriate and disrespectful use of the image of Buddha, The Buddhist community is extremely upset by the inappropriate and disrespectful use of the image of Buddha, in a display at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) entitled the 'Eternity-Buddha in Nirvana, the Dying Gaul, Farnese Hercules, Night, Day, Sartyr and Bacchante, Funerary Genius, Achilles, Persian Soldier Fighting, Dancing Faun, Crouching Aphrodite, Narcisse Couché, Othryades the Spartan Dying, the Fall of Icarus, A River, Milo of Croton'. It can also be seen at: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/131149/ Although this display has been in place for some months, we have only just been made aware of its' existence. We are not usually outspoken, but this display desecrates the image of Buddha by placing images of these mythical images on him and in doing so, showing no apparent regard or respect for Him.
29/05/2017(Xem: 3026)
Dhamma is a teaching. Pada is a verse. Dhammapada is a basic scripture in Buddhism, has 423 verses in 26 chapters. Each verse has a meaning that shows a noble way of living. In India, there was the Rigveda as the ancient scriptures of the Hindu. Likewise, Dhammapada was also considered as a sacred ancient Buddhist scripture which nurtures the noble thought for Buddhist followers, monks, or nuns. The content of the Dhammapada (based on the translated text by venerable Thích Minh Châu) is as follows:
27/03/2017(Xem: 32922)
The Seeker's Glossary of Buddhism By Sutra Translation Committee of USA/Canada This is a revised and expanded edition of The Seeker's Glossary of Buddhism. The text is a compendium of excerpts and quotations from some 350 works by monks, nuns, professors, scholars and other laypersons from nine different countries, in their own words or in translation. The editors have merely organized the material, adding a few connecting thoughts of their own for ease in reading.
04/06/2016(Xem: 2872)
Thus have I heard, at one time the Buddha was staying at Isipatana, near Varanasi. At that time, the Blessed One expounded the supreme knowledge he had realised to the group of five ascetics. "There are two extremes that one who has gone forth from worldly life should not practise. Which two? 1) That which is devoted to sensual pleasure with reference to sense objects, which is lowly, common, vulgar, unworthy and unprofitable; and 2) That which is devoted to self-affliction, which is painful, unworthy and unprofitable. Avoiding both of these extremes, the Middle Path realised by the Tathagata produces vision and knowledge, and leads to tranquility, to direct insight, to the extinction of defilements, to enlightenment, to Nibbana."
04/11/2014(Xem: 10952)
The Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, from the deep course of Prajna Wisdom, saw clearly that all five skandhas are empty, thus sundered all bonds of suffering. Sariputra, know then: form does not differ from emptiness, nor does emptiness differ from form. Form is no other than emptiness, emptiness no other than form. The same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses and consciousness. Sariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness. None are born or die, nor are they defiled or immaculate, nor do they wax or wane. Therefore, where there is emptiness, there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no impulse, nor is there consciousness. No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind. No color, sound, smell, taste, touch, or object of mind. There is no domain of sight, nor even domain of mind consciousness. There is no ignorance, nor is there ceasing of ignorance. There is no withering, no death, nor is there ceasing of withering and death. There is no suffering, or cause of suffering, or c
20/03/2014(Xem: 3127)
The Pali Canon is a vast body of literature: in English translation the texts add up to several thousand printed pages. Most (but not all) of the Canon has already been published in English over the years. Although only a small fraction of these texts are available on this website, this collection can be a good place to start.
05/04/2011(Xem: 5266)
The Five Mindfulness Trainings are one of the most concrete ways to practice mindfulness. They are nonsectarian, and their nature is universal. They are true practices of compassion and understanding. All spiritual traditions have their equivalent to the Five Mindfulness Trainings. The first training is to protect life, to decrease violence in onc-self, in the family and in society. The second training is to practice social justice, generosity, not stealing and not exploiting other living beings. The third is the practice of responsible sexual behavior in order to protect individuals, couples, families and children. The fourth is the practice of deep listening and loving speech to restore communication and reconcile. The fifth is about mindful consumption, to help us not bring toxins and poisons into our body or mind.
19/10/2010(Xem: 2090)
The Tipitaka (Pali ti, "three," + pitaka, "baskets"), or Pali Canon, is the collection of primary Pali language texts which form the doctrinal foundation of Theravada Buddhism. Together with the ancient commentaries, they constitute the complete body of classical Theravada texts. The Pali Canon is a vast body of literature: in English translation the texts add up to several thousand printed pages. Most (but not all) of the Canon has already been published in English over the years. Although only a small fraction of these texts are available on this website, this collection can be a good place to start.
facebook youtube google-plus linkedin twitter blog
Nguyện đem công đức này, trang nghiêm Phật Tịnh Độ, trên đền bốn ơn nặng, dưới cứu khổ ba đường,
nếu có người thấy nghe, đều phát lòng Bồ Đề, hết một báo thân này, sinh qua cõi Cực Lạc.

May the Merit and virtue,accrued from this work, adorn the Buddhas pureland,
Repay the four great kindnesses above, andrelieve the suffering of those on the three paths below,
may those who see or hear of these efforts generates Bodhi Mind, spend their lives devoted to the Buddha Dharma,
the Land of Ultimate Bliss.

Quang Duc Buddhist Welfare Association of Victoria
Tu Viện Quảng Đức | Quang Duc Monastery
Senior Venerable Thich Tam Phuong | Senior Venerable Thich Nguyen Tang
Address: Quang Duc Monastery, 105 Lynch Road, Fawkner, Vic.3060 Australia
Tel: 61.03.9357 3544 ; Fax: 61.03.9357 3600
Website: http://www.quangduc.com ; http://www.tuvienquangduc.com.au (old)
Xin gửi Xin gửi bài mới và ý kiến đóng góp đến Ban Biên Tập qua địa chỉ:
quangduc@quangduc.com , tvquangduc@bigpond.com
VISITOR
110,220,567