There are these Five Minor Mental Chains (Samyojana

April 17, 2012

Friends:

The Blessed Buddha once emphasized:
Bhikkhus, there are these five Lower mental chains. What five?

1: The mental chain of belief in 'my same identity' (sakkāya-ditthi)

2: The mental chain of sceptical doubt (vicikicchā)

3: The mental chain of clinging to rule & ritual (sīlabbata-parāmāsa)

4: The mental chain of lust for sensuality (kāma-rāga)
5: The mental chain of anger and ill will (vyāpāda)

There exist these 5 Lower mental chains! The Noble 8-fold Way should be
developed for the direct experience of these five minor mental chains,
for the full understanding and elimination of them, and for their final
overcoming, destruction and full abandonment! This Noble 8-fold Way is
developed for the breaking asunder all of these five minor mental chains!

Explanation of these mental, yet harder-than-steel chains:

1: Belief in "my identity" construing an internal fake ‘stable same entity’.

2: Sceptical doubts about the perfection of Buddha’s self-enlightenment.

3: Blind superstition in rules & rituals projecting into them a false efficacy.

4: Lust for sensing is addiction to all seen, heard, sensed, and cognized.
5: Ill will is all hate & derivatives such as anger, aversion, and irritation.
These Chains bind beings to birth in the 6 lower worlds, where all beings are
dominated by sense-desire!

Mental chains are not visible, yet quite real, & harder than any steel!