Samyukta Āgama (285), Part Two

(2) Original text: 又作是念。取复何缘。何法有故取有。何法缘故取有。即正思惟。如实无间等起知。取法味着。顾念心缚。爱欲增长。彼爱有故取有。爱故缘取。取缘有。有缘生。生缘老病死忧悲恼苦。如是如是纯大苦聚集。

Explanation: The Buddha said: I again gave rise to a doubt, wondering: on account of what does the grasping of the five-aggregate body exist? Because of the existence of what dharma does grasping come to be? Conditioned on what dharma does grasping arise? After giving rise to such a thought, I immediately entered into right contemplation, and then there arose true, unbroken, uninterrupted wisdom, realizing that the reason there is a mind of grasping is that there is craving and clinging to the worldly dharmas of the five aggregates; the mind constantly dwells upon these dharmas, and thus the mind is bound by them, and the craving and desire for the worldly dharmas of the five aggregates continually grow. Because there is craving, there is a mind of grasping; because of craving, grasping arises. Because of grasping, the existence of the three realms' world comes about; because there is the three realms' world, living beings are born into it. After a living being is born, there is aging, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress, and immense great suffering thus accumulates.

The meaning conveyed by this passage is that craving and desire are the direct root of the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death; therefore craving is suffering, not bliss—it is the cause of suffering, not the cause of bliss. Sentient beings are upside-down and do not understand this principle; they crave everywhere, clinging and never letting go, and have never entered deep meditative concentration to carefully ponder: what in this world is worth craving and clinging to? What is the result of such craving? Is there any bliss to be gained? What is the substance of craving? What is truly worth craving without letting go, worth grasping without cease?

If the causal conditions are complete—in a solitary, quiet place, one carefully and calmly engages in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) toward all dharmas and all mental activities—one will truly come to know that in fact nothing in all dharmas is worth craving, that all desires are unreal and are all suffering, that there is fundamentally nothing in the world, and indeed no world at all. Then the mind becomes empty; when the mind is empty, suffering is extinguished, bliss is attained, and one is liberated. The key is to have the courage to trace things back to their source, to investigate link by link, to deeply examine what mind and dharmas really are and what they contain. In the end, one will discover that mind and dharmas are nothing at all, that there is nothing at all—and then the affairs of the world will be ended and resolved, and one will be liberated and at ease.