SN 18.21 Anusaya Sutta. Tendency.

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SN 18.21 Anusaya Sutta. Tendency.

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SN 18.21 Anusaya Sutta. Tendency.
Translated by Bhante Sujato


Rāhula asks how to see so that conceit no longer occurs. The Buddha teaches him to investigate the five aggregates in terms of not-self.

https://suttacentral.net/sn18.21

At Sāvatthī. Then Venerable Rāhula went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him: “Sir, how does one know and see so that there’s no ego, possessiveness, or underlying tendency to conceit for this conscious body and all external stimuli?” “Rāhula, one truly sees any kind of form at all—past, future, or present; internal or external; coarse or fine; inferior or superior; far or near: all form—with right understanding: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’ One truly sees any kind of feeling … perception … choices … consciousness at all—past, future, or present; internal or external; coarse or fine; inferior or superior; far or near: all consciousness—with right understanding: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’ That’s how to know and see so that there’s no ego, possessiveness, or underlying tendency to conceit for this conscious body and all external stimuli.”
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Re: SN 18.21 Anusaya Sutta. Tendency.

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Notes from Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation:
  • “Venerable sir, how should one know, how should one see so that, in regard to this body with consciousness and in regard to all external signs, I-making, mine-making, and the underlying tendency to conceit no longer occur within?”
    • Spk: In regard to this body with consciousness (imasmiṃ saviññāṇake kāye): he shows his own conscious body. And in regard to all external signs (bahiddhā ca sabbanimittesu): the conscious body of others and insentient objects. Or alternatively: by the former expression he shows his own sentient organism and that of others (reading with Se attano ca parassa ca saviññāṇakam eva); by the latter, external form not bound up with sense faculties (bahiddhā anindriyabaddharūpaṃ ). (The compound) ahaṅkāramamaṅkāramānānusayā is to be resolved thus: I-making (ahaṅkāra), mine-making (mamaṅkāra), and the underlying tendency to conceit (mānānusayā). (So the text in Be and Se, but if, as seems likely, the plural termination derives from the asamāhāra compound, after resolution the last member should be mānānusayo.)
      “I-making” is regarded as the function of wrong view (the view of self), “mine-making” of craving. The root conceit is the conceit “I am” (asmimāna), so conceit is also responsible for “I-making.”
  • “Any kind of form whatsoever, Rāhula, whether past, future, or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, inferior or superior, far or near—one sees all form as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.
    • This elevenfold classification of each of the five aggregates is analysed in detail at Vibh 1-12.
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Re: SN 18.21 Anusaya Sutta. Tendency.

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Analysis from Piya Tan:
“Me” The Nature of Conceit [The psychological complexes and narcissism]
http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-con ... .-piya.pdf

This rather long document analyses a number of suttas, including SN 18.21, on the 32nd page of the document (with page number 57).
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Re: SN 18.21 Anusaya Sutta. Tendency.

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The next sutta is almost identical, but answers the question:
“Sir, how does one know and see so that the mind is rid of ego, possessiveness, and conceit for this conscious body and all external stimuli; and going beyond discrimination, it’s peaceful and well freed?”
https://suttacentral.net/sn18.22
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Re: SN 18.21 Anusaya Sutta. Tendency.

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SN 18.21 wrote:Evaṃ kho, rāhula, jānato evaṃ passato imasmiñca saviññāṇake kāye bahiddhā ca sabbanimittesu ahaṅkāramamaṅkāramānānusayā na hontī

That’s how to know and see so that there’s no ego, possessiveness, or underlying tendency to conceit for this conscious body and all external stimuli.
Notes from Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation:

Spk: In regard to this body with consciousness (imasmiṃ saviññāṇake kāye): he shows his own conscious body. And in regard to all external signs (bahiddhā ca sabbanimittesu): the conscious body of others and insentient objects.
This appears exactly the same as SN 12.19 although my impression is SN 12.19 is not generally explained this way.
Avijjānīvaraṇassa, bhikkhave, bālassa taṇhāya sampayuttassa evamayaṃ kāyo samudāgato. Iti ayañceva kāyo bahiddhā ca nāmarūpaṃ, itthetaṃ dvayaṃ, dvayaṃ paṭicca phasso saḷevāyatanāni, yehi phuṭṭho bālo sukhadukkhaṃ paṭisaṃvedayati etesaṃ vā aññatarena.

Bhikkhus, for the fool, hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving, this body [collection] has thereby originated. So there is this body [collection of internal aggregates] and external name-and-form [external minds-&-bodies]: thus this dyad. Dependent on the dyad there is contact. There are just six sense bases, contacted through which—or through a certain one among them—the fool experiences pleasure and pain.

https://suttacentral.net/sn12.19/en/bodhi
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