2019.12.10 Tuesday

Itivuttaka 37

This was said by the Blessed One, said by the Arahant, so I have heard: “Endowed with two things, monks, a monk lives full of ease in the here-&-now and is appropriately aroused for the ending of the effluents. Which two? A sense of urgency toward things that should inspire urgency1 and, feeling urgency, appropriate exertion. Endowed with two things, a monk lives full of ease in the here-&-now and is appropriately aroused for the ending of the effluents.”

1. Urgency = saṁvega. Other meanings for this term include awe, shock, dismay, and alienation. In the Pali Canon, this emotion is often accompanied by fear and a sensed need to escape from overwhelming danger. The things that should inspire urgency are the first four of the five reflections listed in AN 5:57: “I am subject to aging, have not gone beyond aging. I am subject to illness, have not gone beyond illness. I am subject to death, have not gone beyond death. I will grow different, separate from all that is dear & appealing to me.” Appropriate exertion is indicated by the fifth reflection: “I am the owner of actions, heir to actions, born of actions, related through actions, and have actions as my arbitrator. Whatever I do, for good or for evil, to that will I fall heir.”

https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Iti/iti37.html

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