23 (Day) Notes | Sabbāsava Sutta (MN 2) | Sutta Study @ Buddhist Maha Vihara, Brickfields | Bhante Dr. G. Chandima

 

While wise attention (yoniso manasikāra) aids on the path of freedom and escape from the circle of birth and death, its polar opposite, unwise attention (ayoniso manasikāra), keeps one bound in the cycle of birth and death. The Buddha said this very clearly in the 'Discourse on All Fermentations' (Sabbāsava sutta) of the Majjhima Nikāya (the collection of the Buddha's middle-length discourses). There are three fermentations or influxes (āsava) that exist at the deepest level of the mind that prolong dukkha and one's existence in the cycle of birth and death:

1. The influx of sense desire (kāmāsava)
2. The influx of desire for existence (bhavāsava)
3. The influx of ignorance (avijjāsava)

While the Sabbāsava Sutta exclusively mentions the aforementioned three influxes, other Buddhist texts, most notably the Abhidhamma (Buddha's Higher Teaching), delineate four additional influxes:

1. The influx of sense desire (kāmāsava)
2. The influx of desire for existence (bhavāsava)
3. The influx of wrong views (diṭṭhāsava)
4. The influx of ignorance (avijjāsava)

In this discourse, the Buddha stated that:

“Monks, the ending of the fermentations is for one who knows and sees, I tell you, not for one who does not know and does not see. For one who knows what and sees what? Appropriate attention (yoniso manasikāra) and inappropriate attention (ayoniso manasikāra). When a monk attends inappropriately, unarisen fermentations arise, and arisen fermentations increase. When a monk attends appropriately, unarisen fermentations do not arise, and arisen fermentations are abandoned.”

An untaught ordinary person does not know what is fit for attention and what is unfit for attention. Such things that are unfit for appropriate attention are issues connected with one’s identity and existence such as:

16 Doubts

1. Was I in the past?

2. Was I not in the past?

3. What was I in the past?

4. How was I in the past?

5. Having been what, what was I in the past?

6. Shall I be in the future?

7. Shall I not be in the future?

8. What shall I be in the future?

9. How shall I be in the future?

10. Having been what, what shall I be in the future?

11. Am I?

12. Am I not?

13. What am I?

14. How am I?

15. Where has this being come from?

16. Where is it bound?

Unwise attention to the above doubts will result in the formation of one of six types of wrong views about self, such as:

1. I have self (eternalism)
2. I have no self (annihilationism) 
3. I perceive self through self (taking the aggregate of perception [sañña] as self while taking other aggregates as self)
4. I perceive non-self through self (taking the aggregate of perception [sañña] as self while taking other aggregates as not-self)
5. I perceive self through non-self  (taking the aggregates other than aggregate of perception [sañña] as not-self and trying to consider the aggregate of perception [sañña] as self)
6. Self of mine is constant, everlasting, and eternal (totally abandoned to eternalism)

As long as these erroneous self-perceptions persist, one is doomed to exist in the cycle of birth and death and is not free of birth, aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, agony, misery, and despair.