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The Buddha’s final words
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Verses from the Burden Sutta
Bhārasuttagāthā
The closing verses of the Bhāra Sutta: the five aggregates are a burden, picking it up is suffering, putting it down is ease.
When it is chanted
Chanted before sitting, or when something feels too heavy to keep carrying.
It works best chanted slowly, asking yourself along the way what it is you have taken hold of.
Background
In the Bhāra Sutta the Buddha separates out four things: the burden, the one who carries it, the taking up of it, and the setting down of it. The burden is the five aggregates of clinging — form, feeling, perception, formations, consciousness. The carrier is the person. The taking up is craving. The setting down is the fading away of that craving.
What is worth noticing is that the aggregates are not heavy in themselves. What makes them heavy is holding them as me and mine. The teaching is not to throw away the body or the feelings, but to put down the grip on them.
The closing verses sum it up: having set the heavy load down and not picked up another, having pulled up craving root and all, one is no longer hungry, and is at peace.
Pali
- Bhārā have pañcakkhandhā bhārahāro ca puggalo The five aggregates are the burden, and the carrier of the burden is the person.
- Bhārādānaṃ dukkhaṃ loke bhāranikkhepanaṃ sukhaṃ Taking up the burden is suffering in the world; setting it down is ease.
- Nikkhipitvā garuṃ bhāraṃ aññaṃ bhāraṃ anādiya Having set the heavy load down, and not taken up another,
- Samūlaṃ taṇhaṃ abbuyha nicchāto parinibbutoti having pulled up craving root and all, one is without hunger, fully at peace.
Where it comes from in the Tipiṭaka
Click to read the actual page it refers to
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