Contents
This book opens with Ven. Sāriputta—the Buddha’s disciple foremost in discernment—answering the question, “What does your teacher teach?” by saying, “Our teacher teaches the subduing of desire and passion.” The first chapter explores some of the implications of this answer, and lists some of the questions it raises.
The second chapter contrasts Ven. Sāriputta’s answer with some of the other philosophies taught at the time, to show what his listeners would have found distinctive about his answer. The main point of difference is that, whereas other philosophies taught the powerlessness of human action, or kamma, to shape the present moment, the Buddha affirmed that power and made it the foundation both of what he taught and how he taught. The next three chapters then treat the Buddha’s teachings on kamma in detail. Chapter 3 explores the Buddha’s teachings on kamma as he would explain it in personal terms. Chapters 4 through 6 explore his explanations of kamma in impersonal terms, in the framework of his view of the general principle of causality, and in the way in which that principle works out in detail in a teaching called dependent co-arising. Dependent co-arising traces the network of causes by which action leads to suffering down to the factor of ignorance of the four noble truths. Chapter 6 includes an overview of the four truths.
3. Proactive People with Proactive Minds
Chapters 7 through 10 explore the multiple roles of desire and passion in the sequence of dependent co-arising, showing how they constitute, in different guises, both the first noble truth—suffering and stress—and the second, the origination of suffering and stress.
9. Desire & Passion Engendering Conflict
Chapters 11 through 14 explore the role of dispassion—the ending of desire and passion—in the third noble truth, the cessation of suffering.
13. Possible, Desirable, Objectively True
Chapters 15 through 17 explore the paradoxical role of desire and determination in the fourth noble truth, the path of practice leading to the end of suffering, and the qualities of character needed to keep that determination on track.
15. Desires & Determination on the Path
Chapters 18 through 35 explore the fourth noble truth—the kamma that puts an end to kamma—under the framework of the triple training in heightened virtue, heightened mind, and heightened discernment. Chapters 18 through 23 focus on the training in heightened virtue.
Chapters 24 through 28 focus on the training in the heightened mind.
28. Other Maps of Concentration
Chapters 29 through 35 focus on how the training in the heightened mind leads to the training in heightened discernment.
30. Discernment in Concentration
31. Mindfulness, Concentration, & Discernment at the Breath
Chapter 36 discusses the fruits of the path: the levels of awakening.
Chapter 37 summarizes the main points covered in the book, answering the questions raised by Ven. Sāriputta’s original answer, while chapter 38 offers some suggestions as to what personal reasons may have led him to formulate the answer as he did.
The appendix gives, in full, the discourse in which Ven. Sāriputta’s original answer is found.
Appendix: Ven. Sāriputta’s Answer
