{"collection":"Samyutta Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_sn22.90/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_sn22.90","id":"suttacentral_sn22.90","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/sn22.90/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Early Buddhist Texts","Samyutta Nikaya"],"text":"At one time several senior mendicants were staying near Varanasi in the deer park at Isipatana. Then in the late afternoon, Venerable Channa came out of retreat. Taking a latchkey, he went from dwelling to dwelling, going up to the senior mendicants and saying, \u201cMay the venerable senior mendicants advise me and instruct me! May they give me a Dhamma talk so that I can see the teaching!\u201d When he said this, the senior mendicants said to Venerable Channa: \u201cReverend Channa, form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness are impermanent. Form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness are not-self. All conditions are impermanent. All things are not-self.\u201d Then Venerable Channa thought, \u201cI too think in this way. \u2026 And yet my mind does not leap forth, gain confidence, settle down, and become decided about the stilling of all activities, the letting go of all attachments, the ending of craving, fading away, cessation, extinguishment. Because of anxiety, grasping arises and keeps turning back to the thought: \u2018So who then is my self?\u2019 But that doesn\u2019t happen for someone who sees the teaching. Who can teach me the Dhamma so that I can see the teaching?\u201d Then Venerable Channa thought, \u201cVenerable \u0100nanda is staying near Kosamb\u012b in Ghosita\u2019s monastery. He\u2019s praised by the Buddha and esteemed by his sensible spiritual companions. He\u2019s quite capable of teaching me the Dhamma so that I can see the teaching. Since I have so much trust in Venerable \u0100nanda, why don\u2019t I go to see him?\u201d Then Channa set his lodgings in order and, taking his bowl and robe, set out for Kosamb\u012b. He went to see \u0100nanda in Ghosita\u2019s monastery, exchanged greetings with him, and told him what had happened. Then he said, \u201cMay Venerable \u0100nanda advise me and instruct me! May he give me a Dhamma talk so that I can see the teaching!\u201d \u201cI\u2019m already delighted with Venerable Channa. Hopefully you\u2019ve opened yourself up and severed your hard-heartedness. Listen well, Channa. You are capable of understanding the teaching.\u201d Then right away Channa was filled with lofty rapture and joy, \u201cIt seems I\u2019m capable of understanding the teaching!\u201d \u201cReverend Channa, I heard and learned in the presence of the Buddha his advice to the mendicant Kacc\u0101nagotta: \u2018Kacc\u0101na, this world mostly relies on the duality of existence and non-existence. But for one who truly sees the origin of the world with right understanding, the concept of non-existence regarding the world does not occur. And for one who truly sees the cessation of the world with right understanding, the concept of existence regarding the world does not occur. This world is for the most part shackled by getting involved, grasping, and insisting. But if\u2014for all that getting involved and grasping, mental fixation, and insistence and underlying tendency\u2014they do not get attracted, grasp, and fixate on the thought, \u2018my self\u2019, they\u2019ll have no doubt or uncertainty that what arises is just suffering arising, and what ceases is just suffering ceasing. Their knowledge of this is independent of others. This is how right view is defined. \u201cAll exists\u201d: this is one extreme. \u201cAll does not exist\u201d: this is the second extreme. Avoiding these two extremes, the Realized One teaches by the middle way: \u201cIgnorance is a requirement for choices. Choices are a requirement for consciousness. \u2026 That is how this entire mass of suffering originates. When ignorance fades away and ceases with no residue left behind, choices cease. \u2026 That is how this entire mass of suffering ceases.\u201d\u2019\u201d \u201cReverend \u0100nanda, this is how it is when you have such venerables as spiritual companions to advise and instruct you out of kindness and sympathy. And now that I\u2019ve heard this teaching from Venerable \u0100nanda, I\u2019ve comprehended the teaching.\u201d","title":"With Channa","tradition":"Samyutta Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":617}