Saṃyukta Āgama (283), Part One

(1) Original text: 如是我闻。一时。佛住舍卫国。祇树给孤独园。尔时世尊。告诸比丘。若于结所系法。随生味着。顾念心缚。则爱生。爱缘取。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: When the World-Honored One taught the dharma of dependent arising at a Dharma assembly in the Jeta Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika's Park, in the country of Śrāvastī, He told the bhikṣus: If, with regard to the dharmas to which your fetters are bound, you follow them by generating savoring attachment, and your mind, ever mindful of them, becomes bound, then craving arises. Craving conditions grasping; grasping conditions existence; existence conditions birth; birth conditions aging, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress. Thus, thus, the great mass of suffering entirely comes together.

When the mind generates savoring attachment and continually dwells upon them, craving arises; because of craving for the dharmas to which the fetters are bound, the mind will generate grasping and cling without letting go; because of clinging and refusing to let go, the mind inevitably does not depart from these dharmas, and the karmic seeds of future lives are thereby stored, so there must be the five-aggregate world of future lives; when the karmic seeds of future lives ripen, the five-aggregate body will be born again, without deviation from these dharmas; because there is birth, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress will accompany the five-aggregate body, and thus the immense suffering of measureless birth and death gathers together again.

A fetter (saṃyojana) is a shackle, an affliction, a bond, a confinement of the mind. There are nine fetters: the fetter of craving, the fetter of aversion, the fetter of delusion, the fetter of jealousy, the fetter of self-view, the fetter of grasping, the fetter of doubt, the fetter of stinginess, and the fetter of conceit. Where can these fetters bind oneself? They bind one within the cycle of rebirth in the three realms and six paths. Then what are the dharmas to which the fetters are bound? They are the sense objects of the six dusts—people, affairs, and phenomena—the worldly dharmas of the three realms. What does "following them by generating savoring attachment" mean? It means believing that worldly, mundane dharmas have flavor and interest, that they can satisfy one's craving and other afflictions; the mind therefore yearns for them, and then mindful recollection arises. What does mindful recollection mean? The mind constantly thinks of them, dwells upon them, longs for them, wanting to obtain them, and thus will continually grasp at them.

What is the bondage of the mind? It is the mind being entangled and bound by these dharmas. Once bound, the mind gives rise to craving and other afflictions. What manifestations follow once craving arises? Grasping, seizing, cherishing, clinging without letting go. Who grasps and who binds whom? On the surface it is one's own mind that grasps and seizes the dharmas of the six dusts; in reality, the mind has been seized and bound by the dharmas of the six dusts. Therefore the most serious consequence of the mind's bondage is grasping—storing karmic seeds and producing the future existence of the three realms.

If a bhikṣu, or any other practitioner, with regard to the fetters of birth and death that can bind his own mind, generates craving in accordance with those fetters—believing that the dharmas to which the fetters are bound are full of flavor, very enjoyable, very comfortable—and if his mind constantly dwells upon these dharmas, then the mind will be bound by these fetters, and in this way craving will arise. Once craving arises, a mind of grasping will arise within, and then one will grasp at these fetters; as long as sentient beings have any grasping in their minds, the conditions—or causes and conditions, or seeds—for future birth are formed; once the seeds of future birth are formed, when the causes and conditions ripen, or when the seeds ripen, a living being will be born; after the living being is born, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress will appear accompanying that being. What are the causal conditions for the birth of a future living being? It is the receptacle-world of the three realms: the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm.

Once craving arises, there is grasping and possession; after grasping, the three-realm existence is produced, the conditions for future survival are complete, and the dharmas of the three realms will arise; with the dharmas of the three realms, life will arise within them. After life is born, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress will accompany it, and the great mass of suffering entirely comes forth. If craving and other afflictions are extinguished, the knots of the mind are untied; without bondage, one is no longer bound by the three realms, the five desires, and the six dusts, and thus the mind is liberated.