Becoming & Non-becoming

§38. “Overcome by two viewpoints, some devas & human beings adhere, other devas & human beings slip right past, while those with vision see.

“And how do some adhere? Devas & human beings enjoy becoming, delight in becoming, are satisfied with becoming. When the Dhamma is being taught for the sake of the cessation of becoming, their minds do not take to it, are not calmed by it, do not settle on it or become resolved on it. This is how some adhere.

“And how do some slip right past? Some, feeling horrified, humiliated, & disgusted with that very becoming, relish non-becoming: ‘When this self, at the break-up of the body, after death, perishes & is destroyed, and does not exist after death, that is peaceful, that is exquisite, that is sufficiency!’ This is how some slip right past.

“And how do those with vision see? There is the case where a monk sees what has come into being as come into being. Seeing what has come into being as come into being, he practices for disenchantment with what has come into being, dispassion toward what has come into being, cessation of what has come into being. This is how those with vision see.” —Iti 49

§39. This world is burning.
Afflicted by contact,
it calls disease a ‘self.’
By whatever means it supposes [anything],
it becomes otherwise than that.
Becoming otherwise,
the world is 
	attached to becoming,
	afflicted by becoming,
and yet delights 
	in that very becoming.
Where there’s delight,
	there is fear.
What one fears
	is stressful.
This holy life is lived
for the abandoning of becoming.

Whatever contemplatives or brahmans say that liberation from becoming is by means of becoming, all of them are not released from becoming, I say.

And whatever contemplatives or brahmans say that escape from becoming is by means of non-becoming, all of them have not escaped from becoming, I say.

For this stress comes into play
in dependence on every acquisition.
With the ending of every clinging/sustenance,
there’s no stress coming into play.
	Look at this world:
Beings, afflicted with thick ignorance,
are unreleased 
from passion for what has come to be.
All levels of becoming,
	anywhere,
	in any way,
are inconstant, stressful, subject to change.
Seeing this—as it’s come to be—
with right discernment, 
one abandons craving for becoming
and doesn’t delight in non-becoming.
From the total ending of craving
comes fading & cessation without remainder:
	unbinding.
For the monk unbound
through lack of clinging/sustenance,
there’s no further becoming.
He has conquered Māra,
	won the battle,
having gone beyond becomings
		: Such. —Ud 3:10

§40. 	People are
	possessed by conceit
	tied up with conceit
	delighted with becoming.
Not comprehending conceit,
they come to becoming again.
But those who, letting go of conceit,
are, in its destruction, released,
conquering the bond of conceit, 
	go beyond 
	all bonds. —Iti 8

§41. Abandon anger,

be done with conceit,

get beyond every fetter.

When for name & form

you have no attachment

—have nothing at all—

no sufferings, no stresses, invade. —Dhp 221

§42. Once Ven. Sāriputta and Ven. Upasena were staying near Rājagaha in the Cool Forest, at Snakeshood Grotto. Then it so happened that a snake fell on Ven. Upasena’s body [and bit him]. Then Ven. Upasena said to the monks, “Quick, friends, lift this body of mine onto a couch and carry it outside before it is scattered like a fistful of chaff!”

When this was said, Ven. Sāriputta said to Ven. Upasena, “But we don’t see any alteration in your body or change in your faculties.”

Then Ven. Upasena said, “Quick, friends, lift this body of mine onto a couch and carry it outside before it is scattered like a fistful of chaff! Friend Sāriputta, in anyone who had the thought, ‘I am the eye’ or ‘The eye is mine,’ ‘I am the ear’ or ‘The ear is mine,’ ‘I am the nose’ or ‘The nose is mine,’ ‘I am the tongue’ or ‘The tongue is mine,’ ‘I am the body or ‘The body is mine,’ ‘I am the intellect’ or ‘The intellect is mine’: in him there would be an alteration in his body or a change in his faculties. But as for me, the thought does not occur to me that ‘I am the eye’ or ‘The eye is mine,’ .… ‘I am the tongue’ or ‘The tongue is mine,’ .… ‘I am the intellect’ or ‘The intellect is mine.’ So what alteration should there be in my body, what change should their be in my faculties?”

Now, Ven. Upasena’s I-making, my-making, & obsession with conceit had already been well rooted out for a long time, which is why the thought did not occur to him that “I am the eye” or “The eye is mine,” .… “I am the tongue” or “The tongue is mine,” .… “I am the intellect” or “The intellect is mine.”

Then the monks lifted Ven. Upasena’s body on a couch and carried it outside. And Ven. Upasena’s body was scattered right there like a fistful of chaff. —SN 35:69

§43. Ven. Sāriputta said, “Friends, just now as I was withdrawn in seclusion, this train of thought arose to my awareness: ‘Is there anything in the world with whose change or alteration there would arise within me sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair?’ Then the thought occurred to me: ‘There is nothing in the world with whose change or alteration there would arise within me sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair.’”

When this was said, Ven. Ānanda said to Ven. Sāriputta, “Sāriputta my friend, even if there were change & alteration in the Teacher would there arise within you no sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, or despair?”

“Even if there were change & alteration in the Teacher, my friend, there would arise within me no sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, or despair. Still, I would have this thought: ‘What a great being, of great might, of great prowess, has disappeared! For if the Blessed One were to remain for a long time, that would be for the benefit of many people, for the happiness of many people, out of sympathy for the world; for the welfare, benefit, & happiness of human & divine beings.’”

“Surely,” [said Ven. Ānanda,] “it’s because Ven. Sāriputta’s I-making & mine-making and obsession with conceit have long been well uprooted that even if there were change & alteration in the Teacher, there would arise within him no sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, or despair.” —SN 21:2