SN 45.1: Avijja Sutta — Ignorance

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mikenz66
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Re: SN 45.1: Avijja Sutta — Ignorance

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“Bhikkhus, true knowledge is the forerunner in the entry upon wholesome states, with a sense of shame and fear of wrongdoing following along.
Spk: True knowledge (vijjā) is knowledge of one’s responsibility for one’s own action (kammassakatāñāṇa). Here, too, it is a forerunner by way of both conascence and decisive support.
Shame (hiri) and fear of wrongdoing (ottappa) are called “the guardians of the world” (ANI 51,19-28).
AN 2.9 http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .irel.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
  • "Bhikkhus, these two bright principles protect the world. What are the two? Shame and fear of wrongdoing. If, bhikkhus, these two bright principles did not protect the world, there would not be discerned respect for mother or maternal aunt or maternal uncle's wife or a teacher's wife or the wives of other honored persons, and the world would have fallen into promiscuity, as with goats, sheep, chickens, pigs, dogs, and jackals. But as these two bright principles protect the world, there is discerned respect for mother... and the wives of other honored persons."
For a detailed discussion of hiri and ottappa, see As 124-27, presented more concisely at Vism 464-65 (Ppn 14:142).
Visuddhimagga XIV.142
  • 142. (xi)–(xii) It has conscientious scruples (hiriyati) about bodily misconduct,
    etc., thus it is conscience (hiri). This is a term for modesty. It is ashamed (ottappati)
    of those same things, thus it is shame (ottappa). This is a term for anxiety about
    evil. Herein, conscience has the characteristic of disgust at evil, while shame has
    the characteristic of dread of it. Conscience has the function of not doing evil and
    that in the mode of modesty, while shame has the function of not doing it and that
    in the mode of dread. They are manifested as shrinking from evil in the way
    already stated. Their proximate causes are self-respect and respect of others
    [respectively]. [465] A man rejects evil through conscience out of respect for himself,
    as the daughter of a good family does; he rejects evil through shame out of
    respect for another, as a courtesan does. But these two states should be regarded
    as the guardians of the world (see A I 51).
For a wise person who has arrived at true knowledge, right view springs up. For one of right view, right intention springs up. For one of right intention, right speech springs up. For one of right speech, right action springs up. For one of right action, right livelihood springs up. For one of right livelihood, right effort springs up. For one of right effort, right mindfulness springs up. For one of right mindfulness, right concentration springs up.”
BB: Spk says that at the moment of the mundane path these are not all found together, but they are found together at the moment of the supramundane path. Even in the development of the mundane path it would be a mistake to see the eight factors as following in direct sequence. Right view is the guide for all the other path factors and the direct condition for right intention. Right view and right intention jointly condition the next three factors, which make up the virtue group. These in turn serve as the foundation for right effort and right mindfulness, the effort being the application of energy to the practice of the four establishments of mindfulness. The fruit of right effort and right mindfulness is right concentration.
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