Opinions and Views

by | Jul 15, 2025 | Uncategorized

Opinions and Views

Online programs offered July 15-17, 2025

Image by GraphicMama-team from Pixabay

Sutta Study – PV*
(Tuesday July 15th, 8am Pacific Time) 

  • With Sarabha

  • Honeyball (MN 18). part 2

Embodiment Exploration – July 2025
(Thursday, July 17th, 9 am Pacific Time)

  • Taking it seriously

  • How does that land

  • Rigid or open

Reflection and Meditation – PV*
(Thursday, July 17th, 7 pm Pacific Time) 

  • Topic: Perception unbound Special offering from Ayya Sucitta

* PV denotes that this is a regular Passaddhi Vihara program that continues all year on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Link to all Zoom programs from Passaddhi Vihara’s Events Page

Suttas

With Sarabha

(Below is a combo translation with most parts from Bhante Sujato, some from Bhante Bodhi, and a tiny bit of edits from Ayya Niyyanika)

Text: So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Rājagaha, on Mount Vulture’s Peak.

Now at that time a wanderer called Sarabha had recently left this Dhamma and training. He was telling a crowd in Rājagaha, “I learned the teaching of the ascetics who follow the Sakyan, then I left their teaching and training.”

COMMENT: It is said (AA.i.412 f ) that Sarabha joined the Order at the request of the Paribbājakas. They had failed to find any fault with the Buddha’s life, and thought that his power was due to an “āvattanīmāyā,” which he and his disciples practised once a fortnight behind closed doors. Sarabha agreed to find it out and learn it. He therefore went to Gijjhakūta, where he showed great humility to all the resident monks. An Elder, taking pity on him, ordained him. In due course he learned the pātimokkha, which, he realized, was what the Paribbājakas took to be the Buddha’s “māyā.” Having learned it, he went back to the Paribbājakas, taught it to them, and with them went about in the city boasting that he knew the Buddha’s teaching and had found it worthless.  – Pali Dictionary

Then several mendicants robed up in the morning and, taking their bowls and robes, entered Rājagaha for alms. They heard what Sarabha was saying.

Then, after the meal, when they returned from alms round, they went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him, “The wanderer called Sarabha has recently left this teaching and training. He was telling a crowd in Rājagaha: ‘I learned the teaching of the ascetics who follow the Sakyan, then I left their teaching and training.’ Worthy sir, please go to the wanderers’ monastery on the banks of the Serpentine river to see Sarabha the wanderer out of compassion.” The Buddha consented with silence.

COMMENT: Sometimes the bhikkhus just come back a tattle on each other.  It is nice when they ask the Buddha to go see someone out of compassion.
Then in the late afternoon, the Buddha came out of retreat and went to the wanderers’ monastery on the banks of the Serpentine river to visit Sarabha the wanderer. He sat on the seat spread out, and said to the wanderer Sarabha, “Is it really true, Sarabha, that you’ve been saying: ‘I learned the teaching of the ascetics who follow the Sakyan, then I left their teaching and training.’”

COMMENT: The Buddha checks from the source about what he heard from others.  This is a critical practice many omit when they confront someone about what they have heard was done.  Even if your source of information is someone you consider reliable, check it out with the person who was said to have done something.

When he said this, Sarabha kept silent.

For a second time, the Buddha said to Sarabha, “Tell me, Sarabha, what exactly have you learned of the teachings of the ascetics who follow the Sakyan? If you’ve not learned it fully, I’ll fill you in. But if you have learned it fully, I’ll agree.” For a second time, Sarabha kept silent.

COMMENT: Notice that the Buddha is not placing any “good” or “bad” judgement on the questions. Here the Buddha asks for clarification of what was said.  He then offers to share further teachings if Sarabha hasn’t learned the teachings fully  or to agree if Sarabha has learned fully.

COMMENT: Before asserting our own opinions, the act of listening attentively and with care to the other person’s thoughts is the first step in cultivating a right view. It is also a way to develop the wisdom to understand the essence of a situation from a third-person perspective.

If each of us deepens our practice, we will not fall into the folly of discriminatory judgment.  – Ayya Sucitta

For a third time, the Buddha said to Sarabha, “Sarabha, the teachings of the ascetics who follow the Sakyan are clear to me. What exactly have you learned of the teachings of the ascetics who follow the Sakyan? If you’ve not learned it fully, I’ll fill you in. But if you have learned it fully, I’ll agree.” For a third time, Sarabha kept silent.

Then those wanderers said to Sarabha, “The ascetic Gotama has offered to tell you anything you ask for. Speak, reverend Sarabha, what exactly have you learned of the teachings of the ascetics who follow the Sakyan? If you’ve not learned it fully, he’ll fill you in. But if you have learned it fully, he’ll agree.” When this was said, Sarabha sat silent, dismayed, shoulders drooping, downcast, depressed, with nothing to say.

COMMENT: It is traditional to ask up to three times.  On Sarabha not replying even on the third asking, it is not surprising that the wanderers would prod Sarabha to do so.

Also, if the commentary is correct, it may be these very wanderers who asked Sarabha to go and learn the Buddha’s teaching, so they have a vested interest in knowing if he completed that task or not.

Knowing this, the Buddha said to the wanderers:

“Wanderers, someone might say to me: ‘You claim to be a fully awakened Buddha, but you don’t understand these things.’ Then I’d carefully pursue, press, and grill them on that point. When grilled by me, they would, without a doubt, fall into one of these three categories. They’d dodge the issue, distracting the discussion with irrelevant points. They’d display annoyance, hate, and bitterness. Or they’d sit silent, dismayed, shoulders drooping, downcast, depressed, with nothing to say, like Sarabha.

Wanderers, someone might say to me: ‘You claim to have ended all defilements, but you still have these defilements.’ Then I’d carefully pursue, press, and grill them on that point. When grilled by me, they would, without a doubt, fall into one of these three categories. They’d dodge the issue, distracting the discussion with irrelevant points. They’d display annoyance, hate, and bitterness. Or they’d sit silent, dismayed, shoulders drooping, downcast, depressed, with nothing to say, like Sarabha.

Wanderers, someone might say to me: ‘Your teaching does not lead someone who practices it to the complete ending of suffering, the goal for which it is taught.’ Then I’d carefully pursue, press, and grill them on that point. When grilled by me, they would, without a doubt, fall into one of these three categories. They’d dodge the issue, distracting the discussion with irrelevant points. They’d display annoyance, hate, and bitterness. Or they’d sit silent, dismayed, shoulders drooping, downcast, depressed, with nothing to say, like Sarabha.”

COMMENT: We see three criticisms the Buddha receives and how he replies.  We also see three responses from the one who did the criticizing when they really don’t want clarification, they just want to look like they are right or superior.

Criticisms:

  1. You claim to be a fully awakened Buddha, but you don’t understand these things
  2. You claim to have ended all defilements, but you still have these defilements
  3. Your teaching does not lead someone who practices it to the complete ending of suffering, the goal for which it is taught.

Buddha’s responses:

I’d carefully pursue, press, and grill them on that point.

Comment: The Buddha asks for clarification and to understand the details of their criticism.  

We can assume he would follow the same guideline as he used with Sarabha if they did reply:

“If you’ve not learned it fully, I’ll fill you in. But if you have learned it fully, I’ll agree”

Responses of the criticizer when they don’t want to be wrong:

  1. They’d dodge the issue, distracting the discussion with irrelevant points.
  2. They’d display annoyance, hate, and bitterness. 
  3. Or they’d sit silent, dismayed, shoulders drooping, downcast, depressed, with nothing to say.

Then the Buddha, having roared his lion’s roar three times in the wanderers’ monastery on the bank of the Serpentine river, rose into the air and flew away.

COMMENT: If Sarabha and the other wanderers had any doubts about the Buddha being extraordinary, this psychic display, which was very rare for him to show outside of the Saṇgha, might have done the trick.

Soon after the Buddha left, those wanderers beset Sarabha on all sides with sneering and jeering. “Reverend Sarabha, you’re just like an old jackal in the formidable wilderness who thinks, ‘I’ll roar a lion’s roar!’ but they still only manage to squeal and yelp like a jackal. In the same way, when the ascetic Gotama wasn’t here you said ‘I’ll roar a lion’s roar!’ but you only managed to squeal and yelp like a jackal.

You’re just like a marsh hen who thinks, ‘I’ll cry like a cuckoo!’ but they still only manage to cry like a marsh hen. In the same way, when the ascetic Gotama wasn’t here you said ‘I’ll cry like a cuckoo!’ but you still only managed to cry like a marsh hen.

You’re just like a bull that thinks to bellow only when the cow stall is empty. In the same way, you only thought to bellow when the ascetic Gotama wasn’t here.” That’s how those wanderers beset Sarabha on all sides with sneering and jeering.

COMMENT: The way the wanderers behaved doesn’t sound very kind but it might have been friendly ribbing.  It also was a justifiable chastisement of Sarabha’s claims and hopefully Sarabha took note and set aside pride in favor of willingness to fully learn.

Honeyball (MN 18) – part 2

(see last week for part 1)

COMMENT: In part one last week we saw Daṇḑapāṇi’s response to the Buddha fitting more of category two above of annoyance and bitterness when he left the Buddha after only a short time.  “When [the Buddha] had spoken, Daṇḍapāṇi shook his head, waggled his tongue, raised his eyebrows until his brow puckered in three furrows, and departed leaning on his staff.”

Note: (part 1, from last week, is mostly not included, nor is part of the intro with Mahā Kaccāna. Most of the translation is from Bhikkhu Sujato, a few inserts from I.B. Horner are also included, with only a change from the word ‘man’ to ‘person’)

… Then in the late afternoon, the Buddha came out of retreat and went to the Banyan Tree Monastery, sat down on the seat spread out,

and told the mendicants what had happened.

… “Mendicant, judgments driven by proliferating perceptions beset a person.

If they don’t find anything worth approving, welcoming, or getting attached to in the source from which these arise, just this is the end of the underlying tendencies to desire, repulsion, views, doubt, conceit, the desire to be reborn, and ignorance. This is the end of taking up the rod and the sword, the end of quarrels, arguments, and 

This is where these bad, unskillful qualities cease without anything left over.”

That is what the Buddha said.

COMMENT: This is where we pick up from last week.

When he had spoken, the Holy One got up from his seat and entered his dwelling.

Soon after the Buddha left, those mendicants considered,

“The Buddha gave this brief summary recital, then entered his dwelling without explaining the meaning in detail.

Who can explain in detail the meaning of this brief summary recital given by the Buddha?”

Then those mendicants thought,

“This Venerable Mahākaccāna is praised by the Buddha and esteemed by his sensible spiritual companions.

He is capable of explaining in detail the meaning of this brief summary recital given by the Buddha.

Let’s go to him, and ask him about this matter.”

Then those mendicants went to Mahākaccāna, and exchanged greetings with him.

When the greetings and polite conversation were over, they sat down to one side. They told him what had happened, and said:

“May Venerable Mahākaccāna please explain this.”

“… Though you were face to face with the Buddha, you overlooked him, imagining that you should ask me about this matter.

For he is the Buddha, …, the Realized One.

That was the time to approach the Buddha and ask about this matter.

You should have remembered it in line with the Buddha’s answer.”

“Certainly… That was the time to approach the Buddha and ask about this matter.

…

Still, Mahākaccāna is praised by the Buddha and esteemed by his sensible spiritual companions.

…

Please explain this, if it’s no trouble.”

“Well then, reverends, listen and apply your mind well, I will speak.”

“Yes, reverend,” they replied.

Venerable Mahākaccāna said this:

“Reverends, the Buddha gave this brief summary recital, then entered his dwelling without explaining the meaning in detail:

‘Judgments driven by proliferating perceptions beset a person.

COMMENT: “Judgment” (saṅkhā) is the way we “appraise” or “assess” ourselves, especially in relation to others. 

“Proliferation” (papañca) is the compulsion of the mind to spread out in endless inner commentary that hides reality. 

 “Beset” (samudācaranti) conveys the sense that the person is overwhelmed and swamped, no longer the agent of their existence. 

 A “person” (purisa) is the conventional sense of self that arises from desire and identification. – Bhikkhu Sujato

papañceti proliferates (about); forms various opinions (about) 

papañca various opinions; proliferation; endless conceptualization; lit. expanding; spreading

If they don’t find anything worth approving, welcoming, or getting attached to in the source from which these arise, just this is the end of the underlying tendencies to desire, repulsion, views, doubt, conceit, the desire to be reborn, and ignorance. This is the end of taking up the rod and the sword, the end of quarrels, arguments, and disputes, of accusations, divisive speech, and lies. This is where these bad, unskillful qualities cease without anything left over.’  

Alternate Translation:

‘Whatever is the origin, monk, of the number of obsessions and perceptions which assail a person, if there is nothing to rejoice at, to welcome, to catch hold of, this is itself an end of a propensity to attachment, this is itself an end of a propensity to repugnance, this is itself an end of a propensity to views, this is itself an end of a propensity to perplexity, this is itself an end of a propensity to pride, this is itself an end of a propensity to attachment to becoming, this is itself an end of a propensity to ignorance, this is itself an end of taking the stick, of taking a weapon, of quarrelling, contending, disputing, accusation, slander, lying speech. In these ways, these evil unskilled states are stopped without remainder.’ – I.B. Horner’s translation

This is how I understand the detailed meaning of this summary recital:

Eye consciousness arises dependent on the eye and sights. The meeting of the three is contact. Contact is a condition for feeling. What you feel, you perceive. What you perceive, you think about. What you think about, you proliferate. What you proliferate is the source from which judgments driven by proliferating perceptions beset a person. This occurs with respect to sights known by the eye in the past, future, and present.

COMMENT: In this passage, Mahākaccāna deftly unfolds the meaning inside the syntax. For consciousness, contact, and feeling, he repeats the standard analysis of sense experience linked to dependent origination (SN 12.43), where each item, expressed as a noun, leads to the next like falling dominoes. Pivoting on feeling (cp. SN 12.43:4.5, DN 15:18.6), he switches to verbs; feeling exerts a force that motivates desire, even though desire itself is left unstated here. In the Pali, the subject of the verbs is implicit, assuming an agent who is feeling, perceiving, thinking, and proliferating. But with proliferating, the syntax changes again. The agent is fully manifest as the “person” who, tragically, is no longer the subject in control of the process, but the hapless object of the swarm of judgments that beset them. It is at this point that time is introduced, as the concept of the “person” binds the mind to suffering in the three periods of time. If we relate this to the origin story, Daṇḍapāṇi has become the “person” he is, full of bitterness and resentment, because of his chronic ruminations on perceived injustices of the past. 

This passage also clarifies the grammatical relationship between the main terms: perception leads to proliferation and proliferation results in judgments.  – Bhikkhu Sujato

Ear consciousness arises dependent on the ear and sounds. …

Nose consciousness arises dependent on the nose and smells. …

Tongue consciousness arises dependent on the tongue and tastes. …

Alternate Translation:

Gustatory consciousness arises because of tongue and tastes; the meeting of the three is sensory impingement; feelings are because of sensory impingement; what one feels one perceives; what one perceives one reasons about; what one reasons about obsesses one; what obsesses one is the origin of the number of perceptions and obsessions which assail a person in regard to tastes cognisable by the tongue, past, future, present. – I.B. Horner

Body consciousness arises dependent on the body and touches. …

Mind consciousness arises dependent on the mind and ideas. The meeting of the three is contact. Contact is a condition for feeling. What you feel, you perceive. What you perceive, you think about. What you think about, you proliferate. What you proliferate is the source from which judgments driven by proliferating perceptions beset a person. This occurs with respect to ideas known by the mind in the past, future, and present.

COMMENT: Here, rather unsatisfactorily, “ideas” renders dhammā. Dhamma in the sense of “what is known by the mind rather than the senses” doesn’t readily map on to a common concept in English. Attempts include “mind objects”, which introduces the Abhidhammic idea of “object” to the suttas, where it is entirely absent; or “(mental) phenomena”, which doesn’t really fit the common meaning of “phenomena” as being what is perceptible by the senses. Etymologically, the correct word would be “noumena”, but this is used only as a technical term in Kantian philosophy where it has a rather different sense. Ñāṇamoḷi’s “idea” might be the least bad option, in the sense of a thought, concept, sensation, or image present in consciousness.  – Bhikkhu Sujato

Where there is the eye, sights, and eye consciousness, it will be possible to discover evidence of contact.

COMMENT: I take this passage as an encouragement to meditators who may be intimidated by the complex analysis that preceded. Mahākaccāna is assuring his audience that if they can see the fundamentals of sense experience, the rest of the process “will make itself known” (paññāpessati). | I render the repetitive phrase phassapaññattiṁ paññāpessati idiomatically as “will discover evidence of contact”, but more literally it might be “the making known of contact will make itself known”.  – Bhikkhu Sujato

Where there is evidence of contact, it will be possible to discover evidence of feeling.

Where there is evidence of feeling, it will be possible to discover evidence of perception.

Where there is evidence of perception, it will be possible to discover evidence of thought.

Where there is evidence of thought, it will be possible to discover evidence of being beset by judgments driven by proliferating perceptions.

Where there is the ear …

nose …

tongue …

body …

mind, ideas, and mind consciousness, it will be possible to discover evidence of contact.

Where there is evidence of contact, it will be possible to discover evidence of feeling.

Where there is evidence of feeling, it will be possible to discover evidence of perception.

Where there is evidence of perception, it will be possible to discover evidence of thinking.

Where there is evidence of thinking, it will be possible to discover evidence of being beset by judgments driven by proliferating perceptions.

 

Where there is no eye, no sights, and no eye consciousness, it will not be possible to discover evidence of contact.

Where there is no evidence of contact, it will not be possible to discover evidence of feeling.

Where there is no evidence of feeling, it will not be possible to discover evidence of perception.

Where there is no evidence of perception, it will not be possible to discover evidence of thinking.

Where there is no evidence of thinking, it will not be possible to discover evidence of being beset by judgments driven by proliferating perceptions.

Where there is no ear …

no nose …

no tongue …

no body …

no mind, no ideas, and no mind consciousness, it will not be possible to discover evidence of contact.

Where there is no evidence of contact, it will not be possible to discover evidence of feeling.

Where there is no evidence of feeling, it will not be possible to discover evidence of perception.

Where there is no evidence of perception, it will not be possible to discover evidence of thinking.

Where there is no evidence of thinking, it will not be possible to discover evidence of being beset by judgments driven by proliferating perceptions.

 

This is how I understand the detailed meaning of that brief summary recital given by the Buddha.

If you wish, you may go to the Buddha and ask him about this.

You should remember it in line with the Buddha’s answer.”

Then those mendicants, approving and agreeing with what Mahākaccāna said, rose from their seats and went to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and told him what had happened, adding:

“Mahākaccāna clearly explained the meaning to us in this manner, with these words and phrases.”

“Mahākaccāna is astute, mendicants, he has great wisdom.

If you came to me and asked this question, I would answer it in exactly the same way as Mahākaccāna.

That is what it means, and that’s how you should remember it.”

When he said this, Venerable Ānanda said to the Buddha,

“Sir, suppose a person who was weak with hunger was to obtain a honey-cake. Wherever they taste it, they would enjoy a sweet, delicious flavor.

In the same way, wherever a sincere, capable mendicant might examine with wisdom the meaning of this exposition of the teaching they would only gain joy and clarity.

Sir, what is the name of this exposition of the teaching?”

“Well then, Ānanda, you may remember this exposition of the teaching as ‘The Honey-Cake Discourse’.”

That is what the Buddha said.

Satisfied, Venerable Ānanda approved what the Buddha said.

Embodiment Exploration

Image ref: Clker-Free-Vector-Images

This week’s topic: Opinions and Views

The suttas this week show us how we might speak and shape our bodies if someone asks about our strongly held views and also how views and opinions come to exist.

So, two things we might explore this week are:

  1. What do we do when our views get examined
  2. How can we shape ourselves to navigate our own views

Reflection and Meditation

Dhamma reflection and lightly guided meditation.

Topic: Perception unbound Special offering from Ayya Sucitta

References

Embodiment

Lisa Fisher’s Everyday Blackbelt (Mind-body training for more peaceful relationships)

Nkem Ndefo’s Lumos Transforms (Embody change, unlock potential, transform our world.)

Paul Linden’s Being in Movement (mindbody education, stress reduction, compassionate power, peacemaking)

Suttas

With Sarabha (AN 3.64)

Translations:  Bhikkhu Sujato, Bhikkhu Bodhi

Honeyball (MN 18)

Translations:  Bhikkhu Sujato, Bhikkhu Suddhāso, Nyanamoli Thera, I.B. Horner