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Deep Joy of the Here and Now
True love can either help us grow on our spiritual path or disrupt us by causing suffering. The Samiddhi Sutta explores this through a dialogue between a young monk and a goddess. The goddess questions why a young man would abandon worldly pleasures to seek happiness in a distant future. Her inquiry contains two primary notions: first, that happiness lies in indulging in sensual pleasure, and second, that spiritual practice requires sacrificing present joy for a future reward. Samiddhi clarifies that he has not abandoned the present moment, but has instead given up untimely pleasures for the deepest pleasure of the here and now. This teaching highlights that the Dharma is defined by three characteristics:
- Sāndṛṣṭika: dealing directly with the present moment, embracing and transforming suffering while touching the wonders of life for healing.
- Akālika: transcending time, meaning the Dharma is effective immediately and is lovely in the beginning, middle, and end.
- Ehipassika: inviting everyone to come and see for themselves, offering a direct experience of the truth.
Happiness is often mistakenly sought through five kinds of sensual desire: fame, profit, sex, overeating, and oversleeping. These objects are like a hook with bait or a bare bone that provides no nutrition; they lead to a path of death and the destruction of the body, mind, and environment. To find liberation, one must understand the four gāthās offered by the Buddha:
- “Beings produce wrong perceptions concerning objects of desire. That is why they are caught in desire. Because they do not know what desire really is, they proceed on the path to death.”
- “When you know the true nature of desire, the desiring mind will not be born. When there is no desire and no perception based on it, at that time no one is able to tempt you.”
- “If you think you are greater, less than, or equal, you cause dissension. When those three complexes have ended, nothing can agitate your mind.”
- “Putting an end to craving, name, form, and removing pride, your knots are all untied. Extinguishing anger, internal knots, and seeking, you are liberated in all worlds, in this life and in lives to come.”
Part of the following collection
Trung Quan Luận 15