Book of Eights: Chapter 11

Jeroen

This chapter is titled “the discourses on quarrels and disputes”, and it has a long introduction by Gil, who calls it ‘an important discourse’. It’s quite a lengthy poem.

It has two main parts, the first of which is a question-and-answer session examining the basis of quarrels. This starts with a stanza on ‘what is cherished’, continues with desire, then pleasantness / unpleasantness, then sense contact, then name-and-appearance. It’s a descending order from what’s in the mind to what’s in external reality.

The second part of the poem is continues the question-and-answer, but focussed on how these things disappear. In the end the Buddha says:

Some learned ones say
The highest purity of the spirit goes only this far.
But some who claim to be experts explain it occurs at the time
When there is no residue of grasping.

Knowing, ‘both these claims are conditional’,
A sage investigates conditionality.
Knowing, the liberated one doesn’t get into disputes.
This wise one doesn’t associate with
Becoming or not-becoming.

The next chapter, insterestingly, is “living without conflict”.

lobster

The highest purity is beyond pure and impure, samsara and nirvana differences ...

Don't bow to a Buddha, be one. Too hard? Ah well back to Noble Truth Uno again ...

Sadly I do not have the book, after all study efforts are to be studied ... and learned from ...

Too harsh? Ah well ... what say the learned ones?