Friends:
Not
Examining
the Five Clusters of Clinging causes Assumption to arise:
At Savatthi the wanderer Vacchagotta approached
the Blessed One & greeted him.
Having concluded their compliments, he sat down aside & asked the Blessed Buddha:
Master Gotama, what is the cause, condition & reason, why these various
speculative
views arise in the world:
This Universe is eternal, or This Universe is not eternal. &;
This Universe is finite, or This Universe is infinite.
Vitality & the body are the same,
or biological life is one thing, the body is another.
The Tathagata exists after death,
or The Tathagata does not exist after death.
The Tathagata both exists & does not
exist after death. Or;
The Tathagata neither exists, nor does not exist after death ?
The Blessed Buddha replied:
It is, Vaccha, because of neither knowing form, nor feeling, perception, nor
mental
construction, nor consciousness, nor the cause of origin of
form, feeling, perception,
mental construction, & consciousness, nor the cause of ceasing of form, form,
feeling,
perception, mental construction, & consciousness, nor the Way to cease form,
feeling,
perception, mental construction, & consciousness that these
various
speculative views,
such as: "This Universe is eternal, finite etc. etc." arise in
the world!!!
This ignorance,
this not seeing, this not understanding, this not fully knowing, this not
breaking through,
this not comprehending, this not penetrating, this not discerning, this not
discriminating,
this not differentiating, this not closely investigating, this not directly
realizing, friend
Vaccha, is the cause,
& reason,
why those various speculative views arise in this world!!!
Source:
The Grouped Sayings by the Buddha. Samyutta Nikaya. Book III 257-263
The Vacchagotta section 33. Thread on Not Knowing:
Aññānā Sutta (1-55)
http://www.pariyatti.com/book.cgi?prod_id=948507
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/index.html
Updated:
21 Nov 2008
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Because_of_Not_Examining.htm