Sagathavagga: Devatasamyutta

1: Cross the flood. The four floods which keep us submerged in the round of existence:

a. Flood of sensuality

b. Flood of existence

c. Flood of views

d. Flood of ignorance.

45:171 on these floods: “This Noble Eightfold Path is to be developed for direct knowledge of these four floods, for the full understanding of them, for their utter destruction, for their abandoning.”

Flood of views: D I 12-38, the Brahmajala Sutta, lists the sixty-two kinds of wrong views. I won’t list them all there, but some are:

eternity of the self

eternity of the world

eternalists (there’s a story about a being who is a Brahma)

corruption in mind – envy

infinite world

self after death

In short, it’s a cornucopia of the various viewpoints which abounded in northern India in the B’s day.

By not halting, friend, and by not straining, I crossed the flood. This would normally be the way that one crossed a flood. Thus there is a slightly ambiguous character to this answer; it is designed to elicit a question of ‘how’ from the devata.

When I came to a standstill, friend, then I sank; but when I struggled, then I got swept away.

The ‘standstill’ is halting: the defilements, the hindrances. The straining or struggling is volitional formations – views and concepts – which can sweep us away. There are seven dyads for understanding:

Sink	Swept Away
defilements	volitional formations
craving and views	other defilements
craving	views
eternalist view	annihilationist view
slackness	restlessness
sensual pleasures	asceticism
unwholesome volitional formations	mundane wholesome volitional formations

A brahmin who is fully quenched

The use of brahmin here means an arahant. (This occurs in other suttas as well.) In the Dhammapada, verse 388 we have:

‘As “one who has banished wrong” is one a brahmana’

and then a series of verses 396 – 423 that identify the brahmana. Consider 420:

Whose course

Gods, gandhabbas, and humans do not know,

Whose intoxicants are extinct, an arahant,

that one I call a brahmana.

Note the use of “quenched.” It’s interesting: you quench fire and thirst. The actual word is parinibbuto – which is parinirvana in Sanskrit.

This is what the devata said. According to the commentary, he became a stream-enterer on the spot. The Pali Canon has a surprising number of sudden awakening experiences. Stream-entry as being similar to bodhicitta – see Sangharakshita’s “The Bodhisattva Ideal”, pg. 43:

“…the evidence we have suggests that from a purely spiritual perspective, as far as we can tell, what was originally meant by Stream Entry is more or less the same as what is meant by the arising of the bodhicitta.”

2: …emancipation, release, seclusion…

Emancipation – nimokkha. This is the path, the way.

Release – pamokkha. This is the fruit: at the moment of the fruit beings have been released from the bondage of defilements.

Seclusion – viveka. This is Nibbana, separating all beings from suffering.

OR we can think of all three as designations for Nibbana, for upon the attainment of Nibbana, beings are emancipated, released, separated from all suffering.

By the utter destruction of delight in existence

This seems to mean the destruction of craving for existence.

3: The stages of life successively desert us. Youth deserts us at middle age; middle age deserts us at old age; all three desert us at the time of death.

5: Cut off five: the five lower fetters – identity view, doubt, distorted grasp of rules and vows, sensual desire, ill-will.

Abandon five: the five higher fetters – lust for form, lust for the formless, conceit, restlessness, ignorance.

Develop five (in order to cut off and abandon the other ten): the five spiritual faculties – faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom.

A bhikkhu who has surmounted five ties: these are lust, hatred, delusion, conceit, and views.

…crosser of the flood: crossing the four floods, described in the commentary to #1.

6: When the five faculties are asleep, the five hindrances are awake. (Faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom.) There is also the inverse: when the five hindrances are awake, the five faculties are asleep. One gathers dust from the five hindrances; one is purified by the five faculties.

7: The other doctrines are spelled out quite distinctly in D I 12 – 38, the Brahma’s Net sutra.

Those awakened ones:

a. omniscient Buddhas b. Paccekabuddhas

c. arahant disciples d. Those awakened through learning

9: It doesn’t matter if you go forth and live in the forest alone if you are filled with conceit and/or unconcentrated. But if one is of lofty mind, everywhere released one can cross beyond the realm of death.

Dhammapada 46:

Knowing this body to be like foam,

Awakening to its mirage nature,

Cutting out Mara’s flowers, one may go

Beyond the sight of the King of Death.

Mara’s flowers: the whirls of the three levels of existence.

Beyond the sight…: beyond Mara’s range, to Nibbana.

10: Complexion: the condition of the complexion is understood to indicate success in meditation.

A V:340 (Book of the Elevens, #16): eleven advantages to be looked for from the release of the heart through amity – this includes “his complexion is serene.”

S 21:3 “Friend Moggallana, your faculties are serene, your facial complexion is pure and bright. Has the Venerable Mahamoggallana spent the day in peaceful dwelling?”

At S 28:1 the same is said to Sariputta by Ananda.

11: Tavatimsa: Realm of the Thirty-Three. 33 youths have been reborn here as a result of meritorious deeds. Nandana is the garden of delight in Tavatimsa.

This is the impermanence and unsatisfactoriness of such places exemplified. The deva thought of the glory as permanent, where in reality it remains impermanent and samsaric.

12: How many people see acquisitions as the ultimate delight, truly not understanding how they so easily lead to sorrow.

13: No affection like that for oneself: we will always care for ourselves – feed, clothes, etc.

No wealth equal to grain: if we’re starving, it’s really the only thing that matters.

The rain is supreme: rain is the visible manifestation of the earthly cycle, without which we would all cease.

14: Each of the Buddha’s replies is much more to the point. This is especially noticeable in the obedient woman as opposed to the maiden; taking away the sexism, the point is that a good woman who is loving and attentive and a true partner is better than someone whose primary qualification is virginity. The good son is the one that matters, and not just because he happens to be first born.

I can’t ascertain whether or not primogeniture was the rule in the Buddha’s day, but there seem to be some indications along these lines.

15: The forest can seem welcoming or forbidding, depending on your point of view. In and of itself it is neither; we simply add these interpretations.

16: The Buddha formulates this in a positive manner: dispel the energy of torpor, and the path is opened.

17: The intentions should be understood as the three wrong intentions – sensuality, ill-will, harming.

S 35:240 is the “simile of the tortoise”: the tortoise pulls in its head and extremities and the jackal can’t harm it as a result. We can think of our head and extremities as the sense-doors, and Mara as the jackal. In guarding our sense-doors we are protecting ourselves.

A bhikkhu would not blame anyone: the bhikkhu will always speak helpfully and compassionately.

19: The Buddha can say that he has no little hut—i.e., a woman’s womb in which he has been born—because he will no longer have a human birth.

20: Beings who perceive what can be expressed: this refers to the aggregate world, the world of mental and physical perception. This easily gives rise to the concept of “I”, given the self-ness nature of the aggregates.

One does not conceive ‘one who expresses’: if we can come to full understanding of the aggregates—i.e., use of the non-discursive mind—then we are not going to be drawn into concepts of “I”.

Boy, does this sound Mahayana or what?

That does not exist for him

by which one could describe him…

The arahant goes beyond the range of verbal expression, beyond the discursive.

One not shaken in the three descriptions: that is, “I am better”, “I am equal,” “I am worse.” These are the three modes of conceit.

In S 45:162 the Noble Eightfold Path is stated as the way for their understanding, abandonment, and destruction.

In S 46:41 the Seven Factors of Enlightenment are cited as the way into abandoning these modes of conceit.

Having abandoned sense pleasures…not pursue a course that is painful and harmful: the middle way. Avoid the extremes and stay within the Noble Eightfold Path.

21: As if his head were on fire: here’s that most striking of metaphors again. The importance of sensual lust—surely the most powerful of the hindrances.

Note that the Buddha brings up the importance of abandoning identity-view, which seems to me would take care of the sensual lust problem as well.

22: It does not touch…it will touch refers to karma. One acquires harmful karma if one wrongs the innocent which then “touches”—that is, ripens.

The notion of dust against the wind shows up in a number of other places. This very verse is found as Dhammapada 125.

23: The tangle is craving. This verse forms the opening of the Visudhimagga and is carefully analyzed therein.

It is here this tangle is cut: name-and-form is here viewed as the breaking point for the links that make up the tangle. If we can break through our perception of form (in that we mistakenly see essence within it) then we can hack through the tangle, having gotten started on it here.

24: This one reminds me again of Hui Neng’s verse about no dust on the mirror. The devata sees reining in the mind from everything as being free from all suffering, but the Buddha points out the mind under control need not rein in everything—only those sources of defilement. This makes sense: do we want to rein in metta, karuna, mudita, upekkha?

25: Would he still say, ‘I speak’?: is it possible for arahants to speak in ways that imply a belief in a self? The devata is asking the Buddha this question.

The Buddha answers that the arahant will use the language of conventional reality. The terms are used without grasping them: pace Diamond Sutra in which all beings are enlightened, no beings are enlightened, so we can say that all beings are enlightened. In short, the arahant may use such terms as expressions, but they can be used safely given that they are seen for what they are.

26: The metaphor here is of the light—the Dharma as the source of light, the Dharma as light. Hafiz:

A poet is someone

Who can pour light into a cup

Then raise it to nourish

Your beautiful, parched, holy mouth.

And of course Jesus’ saying: I am the light of the world. (John 8:12). Those who follow him do not wander in darkness, but will have the light of life.

27: Certainly the streams are those of lust, hatred, delusion. The round is the round of samsara. It is in the ceasing of name-and-form, the ending of the four elements, that is the ending of samsara, thus nirvana.

28: The avid here is relatively perjorious—it refers to those who are ardent in the pursuit of wealth, property, sensual pleasures. You are no longer avid at the stage of arahant—expunging the ignorance which has been at the root of the craving.

29: Four wheels: walking, sitting, standing, lying down.

The foul bag is the mother’s womb from which it is produced.

Filled up and bound with greed: the body is filled with impurities, which are bound up—preventing their draining out—by greed, including greed for the very body itself.

The thong that is cut is hostility; the strap the other defilements.

…craving with its root: ignorance is the root of craving, just as it is often pictured as the most effective break point of the chain of causation.

30: The question of: how does the life of the wanderer release one from suffering, is a good one. It is not immediately obvious just why shaving the head, living in the forest, begging, etc., are good ways to remove suffering. On the surface, in fact, it seems as though such a lifestyle would add discomfort and inconvenience. The Buddha’s answer is clear enough—you must expunge desire for just those comforts and conveniences before it is possible to achieve the end of dukkha.

31: The Satullapa host is a group of 700 sailors who took refuge and precepts and were reborn in the Tavatimsa heaven following the sinking of their ship. The arrived to see the Buddha and to praise him.

The six final lines of the verse differ for each reciter, then the Buddha adds his own. The final line of each verse is as follows:

One becomes better, never worse.

Wisdom is gained, but not from another.

One does not sorrow in the midst of sorrow.

One shines amidst one’s relations.

Beings fare on to a good destination.

Beings abide comfortably.

Buddha: One is released from all suffering.

Wisdom is gained, but not from another: you can’t get this true wisdom anywhere else but from the true Dharma of the good.

You have all spoken well in a way.: The Buddha is going to add the ultimate. All of the others are contained in his conclusion, which is the “point” of practice, as it were.

NOTE: there is a chapter in the Dhammapada about association with the good, the wise. Chapter VI, “The Sagacious”, vs. 76 – 89. Consider 78 – 79:

Let one not associate

With low persons, bad friends.

But let one associate

With noble persons, worthy friends.

One who drinks of dhamma sleeps at ease,

With mind calmly clear.

In dhamma made known by noble ones,

The wise one constantly delights.

32: They do not die among the dead: the commentary points out that a miser’s possessions are no different from a corpse’s, since neither is given to anyone.

Of those who sacrifice a thousand: although the commentary says nothing on this, I rather wonder if this might be also some kind of dig at the Brahmanical types who do animal sacrifices.

Since they give while unsettled in righteousness: this makes me think of, of all things, “The Godfather Part III”. Michael Corleone makes a gigantic gift to the Catholic Church, in what is clearly an atonement; he wishes to “go legitimate.” A bit later he attempts t buy off a group of Mafia types who are in various ventures with him. All of these attempts backfire. The Church officials who accept the money are, if anything, even more corrupt than Michael, and the Mafiosi he is attempting to shed are embroiled in a blood feud which eventually results in the (accidental) assassination of Michael’s daughter.

33: Certainly the giving of that which is righteously gained is better than that which is unrighteously gained. (See above note on #32.)

Having passed over Yama’s Vetarani River: Yama is the god of the underworld; Vetarani is the equivalent of the River Styx.

Giving discriminately too is good: there are two discriminations here. 1) the offering – giving superior instead of inferior. 2) The person to whom one gives.

This seems critical on both counts. A wino in the gutter wants booze but it is hardly good to give it.

But the path of Dhamma surpasses giving: important advice. Here in the West we are taken with Engaged Buddhism, which is indeed a very fine thing. However, we must take care to practice, follow the path. We do as much good in our practice as we do providing sandwiches to the homeless.

34: The state of no-more-coming-back: I read this verse as bringing up the essential drawback to being a deva. Because here there are just desirable things, it is much more difficult to understand lust and craving, and thus more difficult to obtain release.

They are not sense pleasures…the wise remove the desire for them. It isn’t the thing, it’s our reaction to the thing. The things are as they are; with no desire for them they are not sense pleasures.

35: Devas who stand in the air are being disrespectful. These devas have come picking a fight.

It doesn’t take much for the Buddha to put them to right. The alight on the earth and beg pardon rather quickly. But the Buddha smiles—and they find fault with this. He then calms them down all over again.

This impresses me as one prickly group of devas.

36: If lack of faith does not persist: interesting wording. Essentially it means “if faith is acquired.” But this is strange—then “fame and renown come to him” which seems negative, not positive.

37: The month following Vesakha is Jetthamula.

This occasion seems to be a fine and grand one, with a political dispute having been settled, and 500 monks from the two opposing factions all having achieved arahantship on the same day.

Having cut through barrenness, cut the crossbar,

Having uprooted Indra’s pillar…

These are identified in the commentary as lust, hatred, and delusion.

One with vision refers specifically to the five eyes of the Buddha:

1. Knowledge of the degrees of maturity in the faculties of beings

2. Knowledge of omniscience (the universal eye)

3. Knowledge of the three lower paths (the Dhamma eye)

4. The divine eye

5. The fleshly eye

NOTE that these are also listed in the Diamond Sutra, in reverse order—that is, the fleshly eye comes first. Each is found to be without essence.

They will fill the hosts of devas: the sub-commentary assures us that even mundane going for refuge protects us from rebirth in a plane of misery. But if I were to achieve Stream Entry, then a higher birth as a deva is more possible.

38: This incident takes place late in the Buddha’s life given that the stone splinter was the work of Devadatta.

…bodily feelings have arisen that are painful, racking, sharp, piercing, harrowing, disagreeable..he endures them…without becoming distressed.

The Buddha could feel pain just like anybody else. But the pain is simply accepted—here it is—without distress. He remains mindful and clearly comprehending.

…not blocked and checked by forceful suppression: although this phrase is apparently very tricky to understand in Pali and the translation is far from certain, it makes sense in context. The Buddha does not suppress the pain; there is no battle here.

39: Pajjuna is a deva-king, and not necessarily a human therefore. He is said to have daughters. Question: can devas reproduce? Perhaps he had the daughters when human. A partial answer is found concerning the devaputta, or “sons of the devas” who are said to be beings who are reborn spontaneously in the laps of the devas.

Those ignorant people…pass on to the terrible Roruva hell…those who have peace…will fill a host of devas. I think it’s important here to make the distinction here between honest doubt and inquiry, and the all-skeptical doubt which becomes cynicism.

Sangharakshita, The Bodhisattva Ideal pg. 188, concerning the three lower fetters of the ten fetters that bind us to samsara:

The second fetter is doubt: not in the sense of objective, cool, critical enquiry—which is actually the sort of doubt that Buddhism encourages—but a soul-corroding unease that won’t settle down in anything, that is full of fears and humours and whimsicalities, that won’t be satisfied, that doesn’t want to know and shies away from knowing, that won’t try to find out and then complains that it doesn’t know.

One should do no evil in all the world: this verse is found at 1:20. It reminds me of the Dalai Lama’s wonderful sound-byte description of the essence of Buddhism: always help others. If you can’t help them, at least don’t harm them.

41: You can’t take it with you. There’s no point in leaving it behind, even to one’s heirs.

There is a powerful metaphor: to give is to remove it from the fire (vide Fire Sermon). Having given, it will not burn in the house. That which you give is salvaged.

It may be a cliché by now, but I am reminded of Jacob Marley and the chain he forged, link by link, year after year.

Note that possessions are a worry: thieves take them away, or kings.

This is not a recommendation of a possession-free life. Note the lines:

…the wise person

Should enjoy himself but also give.

Having given and enjoyed as fits his means

Blameless he goes to the heavenly state.

42: But the one who teaches the Dhamma

Is the giver of the Deathless.

The teachings are priceless; they are the gift of the eternal.

43: I’m not 100% clear regarding the answer here, but it seems to me that the one who gives out of faith need not delight in food, inasmuch as the support of merit accrues to him both in this world and the next.

44: This one is rich in metaphor.

Ocean	craving
One root	ignorance
Two whirlpools	views of eternalism & annihilationism OR pleasant and painful feeling I suggest: birth and death
Three stains	lust, hatred, and delusion
Five extensions	the five cords of sensual pleasure
Twelve eddies	Six internal and six external sense faculties

45: A nice way of addressing the enlightened Buddha. I’m a bit amused by the commentary to the phrase treading the noble path as saying that it is present meant as past tense, for the Buddha has trod the path but, having achieved perfect enlightenment, is not treading it now.

46: The background story is required for this to make any sense. This is a monk who was reborn in Tavatimsa heaven as a deva, but didn’t realize it right away. He goes to the Buddha because he sees this as a predicament: he wanted arahantship, not deva-birth.

The straight way is the Noble eightfold Path. The chariot is also the Path.

The commentary can’t resist adding that the Buddha concluded with teaching the Four Noble Truths and the deva became a sotapanna.

47: Parks have cultivated flowering trees while groves have wild trees.

Another good example of the mutual dependence set up between sangha and community. They must support each other. The sangha is viewed as a critical and important part of the community, and not parasitical.

48: Anathapindika was reborn in no less than the Tusita heaven! He was especially devoted to Sariputta.

The second verse: Action, knowledge…clan or wealth helps to clarify even more the critical relationship between sangha and community.

49: Here is the ‘simple’ teaching that puts the issue in as black & white as does the most basic country parson. Remember though: it is not a permanent destination; you never give up on anyone.

Then again, neither is the positive rebirth as a deva or favored human. It isn’t permanent, either.

50: During Ghatikara’s life, the Buddha was a youth named Jotipala, who went forth as a bhikkhu under the Buddha Kassapa. The potter Ghatikara’s earthly name was Bhaggava. Note that the Buddha reveals in verse 11 that he has known this deva all along: Ghatikara does not give the name Bhaggava, but the Buddha finally addresses him by that name.

Note: Kassapa was the Buddha immediately preceding Gotama. See Buddhavamsa, pg. 89 (#25). Jotipala was a master of the Vedas. According to the Buddhavamsa, Ghatikara was one of Kassapa’s chief attendants.

51: Virtue, faith, wisdom, and merit are not to be lost, which last.

52: The same four, as not decaying and secure.

53: Although there are many companions and friends in the current life, merit is the friend of the future life, since it is merit which brings us favorable karma and a happier rebirth.

54: Sons are the support… because they can support us in old age.

55: Craving produces the spinning mind which is samsara; suffering is the greatest fear.

56: Same as 55, except for the last line: the person is not freed from suffering—which is the greatest fear.

57: The same as 55 – 56, but now the last line is that kamma determines the person’s destiny.

58: In the line Women are the stain of the holy life I think we can interpret this as “sexual desire” plus the “come-thither” or invitational aspect of the opposite sex.

Austerity and the holy life: non-extreme asceticism and restraint from sexual activity.

59: Faith and wisdom as partner and teacher, respectively.

60: This one is fun: a little instruction in literary criticism in the midst of these other matters.

61: Even when something doesn’t have a name, it is given a “no-name” such as “that” or sometimes even something like “thingamabob.” But it always has some kind of name, some kind of label.

62: It’s intriguing that it is the understanding of mind that leads to its not dragging the world around.

63: Now it is craving that drags the world around. But: craving really is mind; the understanding of craving is the understanding of mind.

64: Thought is its means of traveling about. The mind can take us anywhere instantaneously and often does without our volition. The true understanding of the mind is the understanding of craving, this desire of the mind to take itself elsewhere.

65: The same as #64, but uses cut off all bondage instead of coming to know Nibbana.

66: Death, old age, craving desire: the fuel for the fire. All is burning, all is on fire.

67: The world is shut in by death: even though our existence is not a lakshana, not an encapsulated essence, we tend to consider it as something which is finite and bounded—by birth and death. Thus we are mentally imprisoned within these concepts.

68: Shut in, ensnared, enveloped, established on: metaphors for death, suffering, craving, old age—the fetters.

69: To cut off all bondage, one must first recognize that desire is the cause of the bondage, and so one must forsake desire to cut off all bondage.

70: The six are the internal bases of eye, ear, tongue, nose, body, and mind. The harassment is the six external bases—the contact of the six internal, and the consciousness of desire that arises. We are crowded, harassed, and bullied by the desires which spring up from our perceptions.

71: With its poisoned root and honeyed tip. It can be momentarily enjoyable to return anger, tit for tat, or to let off steam. But then comes the poison at the root—either an escalation in which anger leads into confrontation and then even battle, or with hurt and upset and alienation. Its effects are felt for a long time: the poison is long-lasting.

72: Token: the standard by which something is discerned.

73: One living by wisdom: for a householder, this means living by the five precepts and giving alms. Could this also be interpreted as living by prajña, the true wisdom of the way things are?

74: This one’s fun because the answer devata gives the ordinary, everyday answer, while the Buddha gives a more developed and lasting answer.

What happens	Devata	Buddha
Rising up	a seed	knowledge
Falling down	the rain	ignorance
Going forth	cattle	sangha
Most excellent of speakers	son	the Buddha

75: The many bases are the variety of meditation subjects, or kasinas. People become frightened by them and wind up embracing one of the sixty-two erroneous views as listed in the Brahmajala Sutta of the Digha Nikaya.

76: Greed is the impediment to wholesome states: see “Buddhism Pure and Simple”, pgs. 51 – 61, and “Being Good”, pgs. 26 – 30.

It is said that greed isn’t there naturally; it is the ripening of seeds planted earlier.

Six fissures in the world: those traps, or holes we can all into—laziness, negligence, indolence, lack of self-control, drowsiness, lethargy. They’re called fissures because they’re dark, cramped places where there is no chance for healthier states of mind to take root and grow.

77: They arrest a thief when he takes away,

But an ascetic who takes away is dear.

There’s removal and there’s removal. The ascetic comes to take away ignorance, the rusty sword of anger, delusion. Thus his return is anticipated with pleasure.

78: This is possibly more prosaic than it seems. The relinquish refers to not giving oneself away as a slave. But I suppose it could also refer to the relinquishing of oneself to the hindrances and in particular to sensual desires—becoming enslaved to that new car, better clothes, the latest food fad, etc.

79: Faith secures provisions for a journey: in the Avatamsaka Sutra: “The teachings of the Buddha are like a great sea. They are entered by faith and crossed by wisdom.”

Desire drags a person around: in the Sutra of Supreme Mindfulness: “…when you taste greed you are like a fish who swallows a hook.”

This sutra adds another metaphor, that of birds caught in a snare.

80: I was a bit puzzled by this one at first: at the start, it is written in metaphor with wisdom and mindfulness being called the source of light and the wakeful one, respectively. Then suddenly it shifts into much more humdrum matters—cattle and ploughing. and then the rain which nurtures. But that’s just the point: wisdom lies in the cattle, mindfulness in the ploughing.

81: When he stands firmly established: even the monk requires time and effort to build a foundation of virtue; it does not happen automatically.