Friends:
 

How does Sense-Desire Muddle the Mind?

A Brahmin Priest once asked the Blessed Buddha:
Master Gotama, what is the cause of being unable to remember something
that has been memorized over a long period & also that which has not been?
Brahmin, when the mind is obsessed, beset, and dominated by sense-desire,
and one does not understand any safe escape from this arisen sense-desire,
in that moment, one neither sees nor understands, what is advantageous,
neither for oneself, nor for others, nor for both...
On such occasions, even texts, that have been long memorized, cannot be
recalled by mind. Why is this neglect so? Imagine a bucket of water mixed
with dyes or paints: Yellow, blue, and crimson red. If a man with good eyes
were to inspect the reflection of his own face in it, he would neither see nor
recognize his own face! So too, brahmin, when the mind is obsessed,
beset,
and dominated
by sense-desire, on that occasion those texts, that have been
long memorized does not recur to the mind, not to speak of those texts,
events and things, that have not been memorized at all…



More on the folly vanity of desire for simple Sense Pleasure (Hedonism):

http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/Why_Not.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/III/Craving_is_Pain.htm  
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/Canon/Sutta/AN/AN.I.1-2.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/Canon/Sutta/AN/AN.I.3-4.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/The_Charcoal_Pit.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/Canon/Sutta/AN/AN.I.3-4c.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Colourful_but_Muddy.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/Craving_is_Catastrophic.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/The_Fire_of_Sense-Desire.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/III/What_is_Disadvantageous.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Joys_of_the_Flesch_and_Beyond.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Happiness_of_the_Flesh_and_Beyond.htm


Hieronymus Bosch: The Garden of Earthly Delights...

Blissful is being without passions in this world,
Blissful is the overcoming of all sense-desires!
Udana II, 1

Source (edited extract):
The Grouped Sayings of the Buddha. Samyutta Nikāya.
Book [V:121-2] section 46: The Links. 55: To Sangarava...


Is Hedonism Happiness?
 


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Updated: 04 Jul 2010  http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Colourful_but_Muddy.htm