Tevijja Sutta

First off, I wish I could find a map with where this occurred. When you google, there is nothing. Manasākaṭa is only mentioned this one time in the sutta, and you get this sutta as the one reference. 

The river Aciravatī is now called Rapti and flows into the Ganges river. The best approximation of where we are is Kosala. Malaria and mountains have prevented its development into these times, and they produce hashish from growing marijuana, according to Wikipedia. 

Some Brahmins are discussing their interpretation of the spiritual path. They go to the Buddha and somehow he convinces them they don't know what they're talking about because they haven't seen or know the Brahma. They have read what will become the Rig Vega. They don't known the sun or the moon either. If you want to marry the finest lady of the land, if you don't know her yet, what do you really know? If you build a ladder, but don't know where to put it, you're not really getting anywhere. The prayers and invocations to the gods of the Rig Veda are like try to cross a river, and then asking for the shore to come to them. 

The Buddha sees sensuality, the five senses, as preventing people from crossing the river. It is like a chain. The five hindrances prevent people from crossing the river: sensual desire, ill will, dullness and drowsiness, restlessness and remorse, and doubt.

Further being encumbered by possessions, ill will, enmity, corruption and power is another encumbering factor. Even as they seek to come together, they drift apart. 

You know the roads to where you live. The Buddha lives in enlightenment so he can show the way.

Follow ethics, defeat the hindrances, dwell in rapture in meditation. The body becomes tranquil. Blissfulness and concentration arise. Meditate with love (the Brahmaviharas), compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity. Sujata has a note:

Basically the Buddha thinks you'll find what you're looking for spiritually by doing the Brahmaviharas instead of whatever the proto-Hindus, the followers of Brahmanism are doing. If you're full of possessions, ill will, enmity, corruption and power, then you won't be reborn with the Brahma. 

I can find a paper on this sutta. J. S. Kruger has some books that don't really make it to where I live. Buddhism from the Buddha to Ashoka seems like an interesting book, but there are no reviews. 

The author is from South Africa. "his main interest has been the development of a framework that would accommodate all religions, understood as the human being’s need for radical and comprehensive orientation within the universe" (Google Books).

Kruger seems to interested in keeping things open instead of closing them. He reads the sutta closely. "Thus 'Buddh-ism', the tag that would be attached to it by Westerners in modern times, is really a misnomer, suggesting final closure." To him the Dhamma is "the truth, which is one, but not exclusivistic, and not confined to any religion, since it lies beyond the reach of every system." It plays havoc among certainties, and also inspire confidence amid the uncertainties. He doubts present people can return to the cultural context of this sutta. He ends:

"In the religious pluralism of our day, it would not accept any dogma as unnegotiable basis for dialogue, matching it against others. Rather, it would shift the focus of attention radically from dogma and form to the quality of existence, inspired by liberating personal insight, as the heart of religion. It would interpret itself as the ferment of ultimate freedom, at least latently present in diverse religious and philosophical traditions in the East, the West and Africa -- however uniquely and exemplarily perfected in the life and teachings of its great discoverer."

That seems nice and all, but feels added on, by someone who's about uniting all religions.

For me, the Sutta is just more confirmation that doing the Brahmaviharas is a good practice, keep it up. I've evolved into a form of alternating days with anapanasati, and doing all 4 of them at once in an hour sit, 15 minutes each quality. I sometimes do individual meditations on metta, karuna, mudita, upekkha when I'm sitting in watching my daughter. Or by the lake. 

I reinforced that equanimity according to Sujata has a quality of being ready, standing ready, not disengaged.

References:

Krüger, J. S. “BUDDHIST HERMENEUTICS: THE CASE OF THE TEVIJJA SUTTA.” Journal for the Study of Religion, vol. 1, no. 1, 1988, pp. 55–62. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24764218. Accessed 26 June 2024.

Tevijja Sutta on Sutta Central translated by Sujato. I also read the Walsh translation.