004/MN004A Bhayabherava Part 1
The fourth sutta in the Majjhima Nikaya is the Bhayabherava Sutta, the Sutta on Fear and Dread. Now this is an important sutta. It contains a summary of several important aspects of the Buddha's teaching.
It has a central theme about the conquest of fear and dread, but it also covers other dimensions. So I shall probably make more than one podcast about this sutta.
The general setting of the sutta is provided by a time when a chaplain from the royal court comes to visit Gautama, the Buddha, to inquire about his teaching. And in particular, the chaplain wants to know if the followers of the Buddha practice in the same way as the Buddha does, and, especially, if they spend substantial times in solitude, as he does, often in solitude, deep in the forest, which is something which the chaplain points out is likely to raise feelings of fear and dread.
Alone in the forest, the dark of night, animals, snakes, and so on, all kinds of fears can arise. And the Buddha firstly says, yes, his disciples do follow in his footsteps in this way. And he gives an account of his own experience.
He says that he had seen that for many people, for most people, for many practitioners, a practice of this kind raises fear and dread. And he considered that this was because their minds were impure.
And he then thought, “But I am not like that. My own mind is pure. I go into the forest purified. And in that state, I enjoy great solace and peace dwelling in the forest."
So the first section of the sutra gives a summary of the ways in which people's minds are often not purified. And this gives us a picture of the goals, the aims of the Buddha's program of character development. Or you could say the natural consequences of having a spiritually awakened mind.
So what are the things that the Buddha would like to see diminished, eliminated, overcome by awakening? He begins with the three poisons. If the mind is covetous, full of lust, or on the other hand, it's full of ill will or hate, then these things will come up when one is alone, in solitude.
What happens when you're in solitude is that your habitual tendencies recur. They upwell. This is the samudaya. They come up.
Much of our social intercourse is concerned with keeping them down, maintaining the polite conventions of society, so that these unpleasant sides of ourselves, our shadow nature, never comes up. But when we are in solitude and there is no such conventional behaviour going on, then these things can come up: sloth and torpor, restlessness, an unpeaceful mind. Maybe you recognize that sometimes you have one or other of these conditions. Either you're feeling slothful, you can't do anything, you just want to opt out of life. Or, on the other hand, your mind is busy, busy, busy, restless, worried, unpeaceful. Or one may be self-obsessed, given to self-praise, disparagement of others. Again, this will set up an imbalance in the mind.
Or just plain anxiety, alarm, terror. The person who is desirous of gain, honour, renown. Or on the other hand, lazy and wanting in energy. These people will not have a peaceful mind.
Or to put it more generally, a mind that is unconcentrated. So the Buddha is saying that because he had overcome these difficulties in himself, his mind was concentrated and it was not in a flap or a panic, not ambitious, he was able to be in solitude in peace, and could enjoy these times of solitude. So this is the first teaching in this sutra.
Thank you very much.
Namo Amida Bu.
005/MN004B Bhayabherava Part 2
Let us continue with the Bhayabharata Sutta, the sutta on fear and dread. This sutta in a way gives a synopsis of what we might call the Buddha's methods of psychotherapy. We saw in the previous podcast, when we looked at the first section of the sutta, that the Buddha asserts that if one's mind is purified, cured we might say, if it is not filled with greed, hate and delusion, if it is free of anxiety and depression, if it is not ruled by ego, ambition and rivalry, then there is no basis upon which fear and dread can arise.
One can be in solitude and enjoy it, there is no problem. And this state of pure mind arises out of an experience of awakening, enlightenment. So we can say it is a depth psychology, it is an analytical psychology, one that changes the mind at a deep level that then eliminates a whole variety of symptoms.
This is one approach that the Buddha uses. In this second section of the sutta that we want to talk about, the Buddha adopts what in modern terminology we would call a more behavioral or behaviorist approach. He talks of going into the forest, into a place where many people would be alarmed or frightened, and sitting there in meditation and contemplation and finding that he is having various sensations, thoughts, and each time something comes up he is thinking, is this the fear and dread arising? And then he thinks, well why should I be reacting in this way? I should subdue this fear and dread.
And he goes on to say,
- while I walked the fear and dread came upon me. I neither stood nor sat nor lay down until I had subdued that fear and dread.
- while I stood, the fear and dread came upon me. I neither walked nor sat nor lay down until I had subdued that fear and dread.
- while I sat, the fear and dread came upon me. I neither walked nor stood nor lay down till I had subdued that fear and dread.
- while I lay down, the fear and dread came upon meI neither walked nor stood nor sat till I had subdued that fear and dread.
So this was a campaign within himself, a task which he set himself: I will defeat this fear and dread. If it comes upon me, I will, by my own willpower, I will overcome it. And in particular, I will not let it rule me.
I will not let it change what I am doing. If I am doing something and the fear and dread comes, I will persist in doing that until the fear and dread has gone away. The fear and dread will be defeated.
He treats it as if it is a demon that comes to attack him. I will not let it have its way, he is saying. So this is a second type of therapy.
It's a second attempt, a second methodology for changing one's character. One can confront the phobia, we might say in our modern technical language, and overcome it by, in this case, what would perhaps technically be called flooding, allowing the thing to come forward and defeating it. So this is a second methodology, a second form of therapy employed and recommended by the Buddha.
It is distinct from the first insight method. Both are presented as effective methods.
Thank you very much.
Namo Amida Bu.
006/MN004C Bhayabherava Part 3
The third section of the Bhayabherava Sutta gives a description of the healthy state of mind of one who has gone beyond fear and dread. It also gives a list of some of the benefits that are accessible to one who is liberated in this way. It's given as a self-report by the Buddha: This is what I experienced. This is what followed. So let's first of all look at the Buddha's definition of mental health.
He says that when he had defeated fear and dread, when he was liberated, when he was enlightened, he noticed that he had tireless energy. This is a quite a good sign of mental health. I think we can say that in terms of Buddhist psychology, we would analyze most states that in other approaches might be called neurotic and so on, as being fundamentally due to a conflict of intention, a conflict of energies.
In other words, a great deal of one's energy is being wasted fighting oneself. So if one has resolved this, then there will be much more energy available for all the things of life, for work, for love, for enjoyment and so on. So tireless energy is the first factor.
Then unremitting mindfulness, like he had a sense of what his life was all about. He was purposeful. He didn't forget what his life was about. He didn't become lost and confused. Again, a good sign of mental health.
Thirdly, his body was tranquil and untroubled. Of course, we're all aware of how closely body and mind are connected, that you can often detect problems of the mind through the body and vice versa. If the mind is disturbed - the heart is troubled - then it sets up all kinds of problems in the body.
But fourthly, his mind was concentrated, unified. As I said a minute ago, he wasn't fighting himself. His mind, the alaya, was not full of contradictions.
So this is the Buddha's definition of full mental health: tireless energy, unremitting mindfulness, the body tranquil and untroubled, and the mind concentrated and unified.
And somebody who is in this state, who has achieved or been granted this degree of liberation, has access to a number of things, we might say benefits.
The first of these is the ability to enter into the jhanas, the four jhanas, the four stages of meditation. We should probably talk about these in more detail in another podcast. But the four stages of contemplation culminate in equanimity.
He has insight into knowledge of his previous lives. When one has a satori experience, one may have visions of previous lives. In this sutta it says the Buddha could see many, many of his previous lives. Also an ability, perhaps connected with this, to see the rising and falling of other beings, to see how they will fare in future lives as a result of the actions that they are committing now.
Then comes an understanding of the four truths for noble ones. Dukkha, Samudaya, Nirodha, Marga, again material for another talk.
And finally, he said one has a direct knowledge of one's liberation: Birth is destroyed. The holy life has been lived. What had to be done has been done. There is no more coming into any state of being. This is the classic description in the Pali texts definition of the state of nirvana.
Thank you very much.
That's completed the Bhavabherava
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