Skip to main content

SN 46.55 the sutta on the beer goggles effect, and why the similes are the best ones on 5niv hindrances

 

similes for 5niv⛅

AN 3.101 simile of 3 levels of gold impurities preventing samadhi and 6ab ⚡☸. 5niv are the 2nd level moderate impurities.
AN 5.23 simile of gold impurities (instead of 'nivarana' calls 5niv 'cittassa upakkilesā') preventing samadhi and 6ab ⚡☸. Also uses keywords from j4🌕 āneñja⚡.
AN 5.51 simile of river split into 5.
DN 2 similes 1. in debt, 2. ill, 3. imprisoned, 4. slave, 5. crossing desert
MN 140 references goldsmith removing impurities, similar to AN 3.101 and AN 3.102, but doesn't call out 5 elements of 5niv by names.
SN 46.33 5 impurities of gold (copper, tin, silver...) make gold (samadhi mind) brittle and unworkable.
SN 46.55 similes for not seeing one's reflection in bowl of water: 1. water is colored with dyes, 2. heated by fire, boiling and bubbling, 3. overgrown with moss, 4. stirred by the wind, 5. murky, muddy.


Above are full pali + english sutta links. 

Definition of beer goggles: (merriam wesbster dict.)

the effects of alcohol thought of metaphorically as a pair of goggles that alter a person's perceptions especially by making others appear more attractive than they actually are

Bart Simpson can demonstrate the Beer Goggles effect in 20 seconds


That piece of animation is an amazing work and brilliant craftsmanship. 

You probably should watch it a few times to notice the details, especially how not just the visual faculty is impaired by the goggles, but the hearing faculty as well!

Listen to what Bart hears what his aunt says while he's wearing the goggles,

and what he hears when she says the same thing without the goggles on.

Brilliant writing and craftsmanship.


Why the similes in SN 46.55  are the best ones on 5niv hindrances

1. Because all 5 hindrances are connected to the same body of water.

2. Water represents the state of the mind. Disturbed water with impurities, is under the influence of the 5niv hindrances. Though the sutta doesn't explicitly say this, the fact that it's in the SN 46 (bojjhanga samyutta), and the nivarana chapter (on hindrances), the metaphor is clearly saying that the water, when undisturbed and undefiled with impurities, represents the mind in samadhi-samobjjhanga (mind in undistractible lucidity)  and upekkha-sambojjhanga. (equanimous-observation of one's state of mind as it actually is).  

3. The sutta does make a very interesting explicit connection between the sati (memory/rememberfulness) aspect of samadhi. That the 5niv hindrances hinders the ability of our long and short term memory recall. 


Samadhi War elephant metaphor expanded to include the water filled googles

The elephant mahout (rider, representing the sampajano, dhamma-vicaya, pañña factor) wearing googles with pure water free of 5niv.

 






sampajano = mahout

sati = elephant, always remembers, everything relevant to the goal of defeating the enemy. 

samadhi = the war elephant is khamo (resilient),   undistractible, imperturbable to the fearsome stimuli of combat. 

Dhamma = the weapons

viriya = the army of fighters wielding the weapons of Dhamma.

samadhi = 4 jhanas, the quality and skill which the warriors and elephant fight

samadhi, jhanas =  weapon quality, sharpness, lethal capability (of destroying mara) . 

goggles with clear water = samadhi mind free of 5niv hindrances, seeing clearly, lucidly (yatha bhuta).


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Advice to younger meditators on jhāna, sex, porn, masturbation

Someone asked: Is porn considered harmful sexual.activity? I don't have a sex life because I don't have a partner and I don't wish to engage in casual sex so I use porn to quench the biological urge to orgasm. I can't see that's it's harmful because nobody is being forced into it. The actors are all paid well and claim to enjoy it etc. The only harm I can see is that it's so accessible these days on smart devices and so children may access it but I believe that this is the parents responsibility to not allow unsupervised use of devices etc. Views? Frankk response: In another thread, you asked about pleasant sensations and jhāna.  I'm guessing you're young, so here's some important advice you won't get from suttas   if you're serious about jhāna.  (since monastics are already celibate by rule)   If you want to attain stable and higher jhānas,   celibacy and noble silence to the best of your ability are the feedstock and prerequiste to tha
Post a Comment
Read more

SN 48.40 Ven. Thanissaro comments on Ven. Sunyo's analysis

This was Ven. Sunyo's analysis of SN 48.40: https://notesonthedhamma.blogspot.com/2024/05/exciting-news-honest-ebt-scholars-like.html And here is Ven. Thanissaro's response to that analysis: I think there’s a better way to tackle the issue of SN 48:40 than by appealing to the oldest layers of commentarial literature. That way is to point out that SN 48:40, as we have it, doesn’t pass the test in DN 16 for determining what’s genuine Dhamma and what’s not. There the standard is, not the authority of the person who’s claiming to report the Buddha’s teachings, but whether the teachings he’s reporting are actually in accordance with the principles of the Dhamma that you know. So the simple fact that those who have passed the Buddha’s teachings down to us say that a particular passage is what the Buddha actually taught is not sufficient grounds for accepting it. In the case of the jhānas—the point at issue here— we have to take as our guide the standard formula for the jhānas, a
Post a Comment
Read more

1min. video: Dalai Lama kissing boy and asking him to suck his tongue

To give more context, this is a public event,  * everyone knows cameras are rolling  *  it's a room full of children * the boy's mom is standing off camera a few feet away watching all of this * the boy initiated contact, he had already had a hug with Dalai Lama earlier and then asked Dalai Lama for another hug which triggered this segment  17 min. video showing what happened before that 1 min. clip and after, with some explanation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT0qey5Ts78 16min talk from Ajahn Acalo with his thoughts on Dalai Lama kissing boy, relevance to Bhikkhu monastic code, sexual predators in religion in general, and how celibate monastics deal with sexual energy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK2m0TcUib0 The child's comments about the incident in a filmed interview later https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/world-news/2023/04/18/643eba5d46163ffc078b457c.html The child: It's a great experience It was amazing to meet His Holiness and I think it's a great ex
Post a Comment
Read more