Without Discoverable Beginning (The limitations of science)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Sunday, January 15, 2012, 02:57 (4695 days ago)

"Grass and Sticks"
(SN 15:1; II 178)

The Blessed one said this:

"Monks, this samsara is without discoverable beginning. A first point is not discerned of beings roaming and wandering on hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving. Suppose, monks, a man would cut up whatever grass, sticks, branches, and foliage there are in this Jambudipa [Pali for "rose apple land"] and collect them together into a single heap Having done so, he would put them down, saying for each one: 'This is my mother, this my mother's mother.' The sequence of that man's mothers and grandmothers would not come to an end, yet the grass, sticks, branches and foliage in this Jambudipa would be used up and exhausted. For what reason? Because monks, this samsara is without discoverable beginning. A first point is not discerned of beings roaming and wandering on hindered by ignorance and dettered by craving. For such a long time, monks, you have experienced suffering, anguish, and disaster, and swelled the cemetery. It is enough to become disenchanged with all formations, enough to becoe dispassionate toward them, enough to be liberated from them."

--
\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"