AN 10.95 Uttiya Sutta [Book Of The Tens]

Salaam.

Salaam.

Salaam.

Welcome to Uddharsangha.

2500 years ago,

Buddha gave the teachings or the knowledge in Pali language.

The initial recording of all these teachings was done in Pali.

Those are the five Nikayas.

These five Nikayas were not translated into English or other languages initially.

Many commentators who did not follow the language properly and gave their own understanding in the commentaries.

So essentially what happened?

Some essential teachings got contorted.

A few of them are about what the Buddha taught and what the Buddha did not teach.

A few of them are about what the Buddha declared and what the Buddha did not declare.

So today's sutta will help us understand what really did the Buddha teach and not teach and what did he declare and not declare.

So if you get lost again down the road reading certain commentaries or listening to other people,

You can come back to this sutta and become very clear.

So the sutta is from Anguttara Nikaya,

Book of the Tens,

Sutta No.

95,

Uddhaya.

So that is A.

N.

10.

95,

Uddhaya.

Then the wanderer Uddhaya approached the Blessed One and exchanged greetings with him.

When they had concluded their greetings and cordial talk,

He sat down to one side and said to the Blessed One,

How is it Master Gautama?

Is the world eternal?

Is this alone true and anything else wrong?

This is Uddhaya's question.

He is asking if the world is eternal.

Eternal means it does not have a beginning and it does not have an end.

It has always been and will always be there.

So Uddhaya is asking,

Buddha,

Is this your view?

Have you declared so?

So then Uddhaya says,

Uddhaya,

I have not declared that the world is eternal.

This alone is true.

Anything else is wrong.

So then Uddhaya asks the second question.

Then Master Gautama,

Is the world not eternal?

Is this alone true and anything else wrong?

So he is asking the opposite question now.

So does this mean that the world has a beginning,

Has an end?

It is not eternal.

So Buddha says,

Uddhaya,

I also have not declared that the world is not eternal.

This alone is true.

Anything else is wrong.

Usually we always want an answer in a yes or a no.

Our intellect,

Our mind wants to poke and find the answer from an external source and it always wants the two extremes.

The Buddha was very clear about not declaring anything that which you cannot experience as your own reality.

What is his primary teaching?

His primary teaching is,

Be with reality as it is.

Not as you want it to be,

Not as you want it to not be,

But exactly the way it is.

So if I just take somebody else's viewpoint or somebody else's answer on something so philosophical and hold on to it,

Does it become my reality?

Suppose I hold on to somebody else's philosophical view for 20 years,

30 years,

40 years.

Does it become my truth?

Come on,

I've been holding on to it for 40 years of my life.

It must be true.

Till the time it is the view,

A philosophical view or an answer by somebody else,

It does not become your truth or your reality.

So Uddiya asks the next question.

How is it then,

Master Gautama,

Is the world finite?

This alone is true.

Anything else is wrong?

He says,

Uddiya,

I have not declared that the world is finite.

This alone is true.

Anything else is wrong?

Uddiya does not stop,

Huh?

He goes on to say,

How is it,

Master Gautama,

Is the world infinite?

This alone is true.

Anything else is wrong?

Buddha says,

Uddiya,

I also have not declared that the world is infinite.

This alone is true.

Anything else is wrong?

So Uddiya asks the next question,

Number 5.

Are the soul and the body the same?

This alone is true.

Anything else is wrong?

Buddha says,

Uddiya,

I also have not declared that the soul and the body are same.

This alone is true.

Anything else is wrong?

Uddiya does not stop and asks question number 6.

Is the soul one thing,

The body another?

This alone is true and anything else is wrong?

Buddha says,

I also have not declared so that the soul is one thing and the body another.

This alone is true and anything else is wrong?

So question number 7,

Uddiya goes to,

Does the Tathagata exist after death?

Tathagata is another form of addressing Buddha.

Tathagata means the one who has reached the other shore.

So his question is,

The one who is enlightened or reached the other shore,

Does he exist after death?

Is this alone true and anything else is wrong?

Buddha says,

Uddiya,

I also have not declared that the Tathagata exists after death.

This alone is true.

Anything else is wrong?

So Uddiya asks the next question.

Does the Tathagata not exist after death?

This alone is true.

Anything else is wrong?

Buddha says,

Uddiya,

I also have not declared that the Tathagata does not exist after death.

This alone is true.

Anything else is wrong?

Uddiya asks,

Does the Tathagata neither exist nor not exist after death?

Is this alone true and anything else wrong?

Uddiya,

I also have not declared that the Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist after death.

This alone is true.

Anything else is wrong?

Do you see this?

All these questions are very philosophical.

They are not experiential.

Whether it is about the beginning of creation or the end of creation or whether the soul and body are one or whether the Tathagata,

The enlightened one,

Exists after death or does not exist after death.

All these questions are not relevant for a sincere spiritual seeker's own spiritual path.

They are not relevant for a sincere spiritual seeker to attain Nibbana or enlightenment.

They are mere philosophy and Buddha did not entertain anything philosophical.

Anything that which was outside the domain range of experiencing and attaining through direct experience.

He stuck only to the domain of direct experience and the rest he remained silent about or he did not declare.

When I asked you,

How is it Master Gautama?

Is the world eternal?

Is this alone true and anything else wrong?

You said Uddiya,

I have not declared the world is eternal.

This alone is true.

Anything else is wrong?

But when I asked you,

Then Master Gautama,

Is the world not eternal?

Is this alone true and anything else wrong?

You said Uddiya,

I also have not declared the world is not eternal.

This alone is true.

Anything else is wrong?

When I asked you,

How is it Master Gautama?

Is the world finite?

Is the world infinite?

Are the soul and the body the same?

Is the soul one thing,

The body another?

Does the Tathagata exist after death?

Does the Tathagata not exist after death?

Does the Tathagata neither exist nor not exist after death?

Is this alone true and anything else wrong?

You said Uddiya,

I also have not declared all of the above,

Including the Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist after death.

This alone is true.

Anything else is wrong?

What then has Master Gautama declared?

Uddiya must be a very strong philosopher,

Only interested in the mysticism and those things that are not experiential.

If you have noticed,

Mysticism gives you a shock factor.

You get very interested in learning about it.

But experiential teachings require you to change.

The ego is more attracted towards mysticism than wanting to experience and transform into a purer being.

Do you notice this?

If not,

Check.

Isn't this true about you?

Your ego is very interested in that which is mystical,

That which evokes a shock factor in you,

That which evokes a surprise factor in you.

Your ego is very interested in something like that.

It may or may not contribute to your growth.

That is not important.

The shock factor is what attracts you.

And the ego runs away from that which requires you to transform and change in order to become a purer being,

A happier being.

A more wholesome inner environment requires effort and the ego likes to run away from this effort.

So,

There are most of the people out there who are so-called philosophers more interested in the mysticism of so-called spirituality than the experiential teachings that require transformation or change within you.

Buddha only taught that which requires you to transform,

Change,

Become pure and move closer towards awakening.

He was not interested in anything outside the domain range of pure experiencing.

He was not interested in talking or discussing or teaching anything that is not related to real self-experiencing.

So,

By now,

Uddiya is really perplexed and is asking then what has Master Gautama declared.

So,

Let's see what the Buddha has declared.

Through direct knowledge Uddiya,

I teach the Dhamma to my disciples for one,

The purification of beings.

Purification is inner wholesomeness,

Inner purity.

Purity in thought,

Action and speech.

Second,

For the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation.

Only a sincere seeker recognizes that all my sorrow,

All my lamentation is related to my mind's petty desires.

And such a person who learns to just be a witness to these desires rather than feverishly hopping around in the mind.

Creating Alice in Wonderland stories about that desire.

He himself leads himself to pain and lamentation.

Buddha teaches that the way to get out of any dukkha or sorrow is to recognize the root cause and the root cause is craving.

Number three,

The passing away of pain and dejection.

Means there is a way for this sorrow of yours to end.

There is a way for this pain and dejection to pass away.

And he teaches that particular truth that it will pass away by seizing the craving.

Because craving leads to dukkha.

When the craving ceases,

The dukkha ceases.

This is the passing away of pain and dejection.

And number four,

For the achievement of the method for the realization of Nibbana.

There is a proper method given by the Buddha.

He has laid it down step by step how one can reach Nibbana.

These steps are laid down in Sammasati and Sammasamadhi.

This is what the Buddha taught.

That is it.

He did not teach anything beyond these four steps.

Where else have you heard these four steps?

These are the four noble truths.

That is the domain range of teachings by the Buddha.

Anything else,

Rites,

Rituals,

Traditions,

Anything else besides these four is an addition later on down the ages by the other so called scholars.

In fact,

Buddha did not even want to call it Buddhism.

The word Buddhism was coined later on.

That is why I don't call this a Buddhist class or a Buddhist reading.

This is simply the Buddha's teaching.

The way he wanted it to be.

So now Uddiya still does not stop with his questioning.

He asks,

But when Master Gautama through direct knowledge teaches the Dhamma to his disciples for the purification of beings,

For the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation,

For the passing away of pain and rejection,

For the achievement of the method for the realization of Nibbana,

Will the entire world be thereby emancipated or half the world or a third of the world?

Uddiya really doesn't stop on his philosophical questioning journey.

He's really asking the same thing again and again.

When this was asked,

The Blessed One remained silent.

Then it occurred to the venerable Ananda.

The wanderer Uddiya had better not adopt the evil view.

What is the evil view that Uddiya can just adopt by Buddha's silence and which many commentators down the ages really misunderstood his silence and thought as?

When I ask the ascetic Gautama the most elevated questions of all,

He falters and does not answer.

It must be that he is unable to do so.

This is what Uddiya could think.

Correct?

Just because Buddha remains silent.

This Ananda is thinking.

So,

Ananda is thinking this would lead to the wanderer Uddiya's harm and suffering for a long time.

So what does Ananda do?

Then the venerable Ananda said to the wanderer Uddiya,

Well then,

Friend Uddiya,

I will give you a simile.

Some intelligent people here understand the meaning of what is said by means of a simile.

Suppose a king had a frontier city with strong ramparts,

Walls and arches and with a single gate.

The gatekeeper hosted there would be wise,

Competent and intelligent,

One who keeps out strangers and admits acquaintances.

While he is walking along the path that encircles the city,

He would not see a cleft or an opening in the walls even big enough for a cat to slip through.

He might not know how many living beings enter or leave the city.

But he could be sure that whatever large living beings enter or leave the city,

All enter and leave through that gate.

Is this clear?

There is a very big city which has proper walls.

It's a walled city.

It has a single gate.

The gatekeeper knows that no big living being,

Which is a human,

Can enter the city other than that single gate.

Yeah,

Maybe certain other living beings like frogs or ants or spiders can get in.

But no big living being like a human can get into this city other than that single gate.

So too friend Udaya,

The Tathagata has no concern whether the entire world will be emancipated or half the world or a third of the world.

But he can be sure that all those who have been emancipated or who are being emancipated or who will be emancipated from the world,

First abandon the five hindrances,

The corruptions of the mind that weaken wisdom and then with their minds,

Well established in the four establishments of mindfulness,

They develop correctly the seven factors of enlightenment.

It is in this way that they have been emancipated or are being emancipated or will be emancipated from the world.

Do you get this?

He's not concerned about everybody because not everybody wants to be emancipated from the world.

What is the meaning of emancipated?

Liberated from the delusion of this world.

They are still enjoying this delusion.

Very few fortunate ones recognize there is a futility in life.

It is pointless.

There has to be something about it and they start going deeper into their selves and recognize that their sorrow or pain is because of their own mind and the feverishness of their mind and now they want to be liberated from this feverishness.

They want to be liberated from the dukkha or sorrow of the mind.

Now as they go deeper,

They realize to be emancipated or liberated from the sorrow of this mind also equals being emancipated from this world.

That does not mean how to commit suicide.

It simply means to get out of the cycle of birth and death.

You take birth because of your cravings.

Your cravings lead to feverishness.

That is stress.

That is anxiety.

You are not happy.

That is dukkha or pain or sorrow.

You keep looking for a way to get out of this sorrow but you are not ready to let go of your delusion.

So you are born again when you die and you go through this entire cycle of pain again but you are still not ready to let go of your delusion.

You are still enjoying it.

So you get stuck in this cycle of birth and death.

The intelligent one recognizes that this cycle of birth and death needs to be dropped and that is emancipation from the world.

The Buddha gave the way how to be emancipated from the world.

He said first recognize there are hindrances in the mind.

These corrupt the mind.

You get into an unwholesome state.

So get rid of these corruptions of the mind because they weaken your mind.

With a pure mind only can you practice mindfulness.

The practice of mindfulness will be taught in the Buddha weekend.

When you practice these four establishments of mindfulness you develop one by one the seven factors of enlightenment.

He had laid down the path very clearly and when you develop these factors of enlightenment you slowly step by step get emancipated from the world.

It is only for people who are interested in awakening from this delusion of the world.

Those who are hypnotized by the delusion and enjoy being hypnotized.

It is not for those people.

Buddha's teaching was very targeted.

It was a targeted audience.

The audience that is really willing to transform themselves to get out of pain.

This is the clear teaching of the Buddha.

Not anything else.

No rites,

No rituals,

No chanting,

No dancing,

No singing,

No philosophical discussions,

No discussions for the sake of it,

No by the way debates,

No conjectures,

No sectarianism,

No religious debates.

He was not into all this.

He was very clear.

All those who are seeking emancipation from sorrow,

From dukkha.

Only those people who are interested can come and learn the targeted steps that would lead one to nirvana.

And that is why it is said most of the sadhaks who went to Buddha achieved very higher states or they got enlightened.

In history it has been recorded as the highest number of enlightenments.

Friend Uddiya,

You asked the Blessed One from a different angle the same question that you had already asked him.

Therefore,

The Blessed One did not answer you.

There is an art of answering,

Right?

You answer only when the other person has the listening ear.

Otherwise,

You remain silent.

And Buddha had answered him once but Uddiya did not get it the first time.

So the next time Buddha was silent.

It's a wonderful teaching.

It clarifies what the Buddha declared,

What the Buddha did not declare.

It clarifies what the Buddha taught and what he did not teach.

He gives you very clear cut boundary of his teaching.

So,

If you remain in this clear cut boundary,

You are bound to reach awakening,

The highest potential of your human existence.

You can be your own light.

Therefore,

Do not believe me.

Do not believe even the Buddha.

You start experimenting with all these teachings and arrive at your own truth.

This is what the Buddha taught.

Be with reality as it is.

Not as you want it to be,

Not as you want it to not be but as it is.

Apu,

Bipu,

Bhavana.

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