An Understanding of the Bahiya Sutta | A Glimpse of the Buddha's Mind

Among the Buddhist teachings I have come across, the Bahiya Sutta stood out as a very clear and concise summary of all that is to be understood. It didn't hit home straight away though. Not in the way it hit Bahiya. In the sutta, Bahiya is a venerated sage himself, but he begins to doubt whether he is an Arahant himself.

And he seeks out the Buddha and begs the Buddha to deliver the Dharma to him. And the Bahiya Sutta contains what the Buddha said to Bahiya. Bahiya understood something from these few words that has been lost on most people who are reading this through the ages. And that's what we'll focus on in this video.

An understanding that takes the Bahiya Sutta from seeming like a discourse on there being no self, to something that can actually end mental and psychological suffering. Help you deal with the day-to-day business of life. So, for the sake of brevity I will start the sutta from the point where Bahiya approaches the Buddha. In the video description you will find a link to the full text.

Reaching the town where Bahiya knows Buddha is staying, he finds a group of monks and goes to them and says, "Where, venerable sirs, is the Blessed One - the arahant, rightly self-awakened - now staying? We want to see that Blessed One - the arahant, rightly self-awakened."

"The Blessed One has gone into town for alms."

Then Bahiya, hurriedly leaving Jeta's Grove and entering Savatthi, saw the Blessed One going for alms in Savatthi - serene and inspiring serene confidence, calming, his senses at peace, his mind at peace, having attained the utmost tranquility and poise, tamed, guarded, his senses restrained, a Great One.

Seeing him, he approached the Blessed One and on reaching him, threw himself down, with his head at the Blessed one's feet, and said, "Teach me the Dhamma, O Blessed One! Teach me the Dhamma, O One-Well-Gone, that will be for my long-term welfare and bliss."

When this was said, the Blessed One said to him, "This is not the time, Bahiya. We have entered the town for alms."

A second time Bahiya said to the Blessed One, "But it is hard to know for sure what dangers there may be for the Blessed One's life, or what dangers they may be for mine. Teach me the Dhamma, O Blessed One! Teach me the Dhamma, O One-Well-Gone, that will be for my long-term welfare and bliss."

A second time the Blessed One said to him, "This is not the time Bahiya. We have entered the town for alms."

A third time Bahiya said to the Blessed One, "But it is hard to know for sure what dangers there may be for the Blessed One's life, or what dangers there may be for mine. Teach me the Dhamma, O Blessed One! Teach me the Dhamma, O One-Well-Gone, that will be for my long-term welfare and bliss."

"Then, Bahiya, you should train yourself thus:

In reference to the seen, there will be only the seen.

In reference to the heard, only the heard.

In reference to the sensed, only the sensed.

In reference to the cognized, only the cognized.

That is how you should train yourself.

When for you there will be only the seen in reference to the seen, only the heard in reference to the heard, only the sensed in reference to the sensed, only the cognized in reference to the cognized, then, Bahiya, there is no you in connection with that.

When there is no you in connection with that, there is no you there.

When there is no you there, you are neither here nor yonder nor between the two.

This, just this, is the end of stress."

Through hearing this brief explanation of the Dhamma from the Blessed One, the mind of Bahiya of the Bark-cloth right then and there was released from effluents through lack of clinging. Having exhorted Bahiya of the Back-cloth with this brief explanation of the Dhamma, the Blessed One left. Shortly after this, Bahiya dies of a freak accident. And the Buddha asks the monks to cremate his body and build him a memorial.

The monks then ask the Buddha, "What is Bahiya's destination? What is his future state?"

"Monks, Bahiya of the Bark-cloth was wise. He practiced the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma and did not pester me with issues related to the Dhamma. Bahiya of the Bark-cloth, monks, is totally unbound."

Then, on realizing the significance of that, the Blessed One on that occasion exclaimed:

"Where water, earth, fire, and wind have no footing:

There the stars don't shine, the sun isn't visible.

There the moon doesn't appear.

There darkness is not found.

And when a sage, a brahman through sagacity, has realized [this] for himself, then from form and formless, from bliss and pain, he is freed."

Now let's go back to the heart of this sutta and try to understand it in the way Bahiya did. See, these days in modern non-duality teachings the "no-self" is stressed upon. There is no you, there is no me, and so on.

But that's only half the truth.

The Buddha is not denying Bahiya's existence. If he really saw Bahiya as inexistent, he could walk by him like he would by a rock. So there is someone to talk to.

If there wasn't, why preach? Why teach? And when Bahiya died, the Buddha asked the monks to build him a memorial. So there's a subtlety to the teaching here. The insight here is not that you do not exist, but that if you examine this world carefully, you will find that you do not exist in it at all.

All you will find is the seeing, the hearing, the feeling, the sensing, the cognizing. But there's no you in relation to all of that. Because all of that is subjective. Is the phenomena being observed.

And you are not that.

You cannot be found in this transient realm; in space, in time. You're not in this world. You're nothing in terms of phenomena.

Nothing subjective. And nothing objective either because objects too are what can be observed. But this does not prove that you do not exist. Rather, it is demonstrating what you are. For Bahiya this was all that was required.

And it can be for you too. Because it breaks your connection, your dependence, or your perceived dependence on experience. The idea that your existence depends on this one life, or that these experiences have any real effect on you.

This is not how we see the world. We are ruled by our thoughts and emotions, by what the next experience brings, and our anxiety over the future, or remorse over the past. All minds are ruled by experience. This is what changed for Bahiya.

In the realization that your existence is not dependent on these passing experiences in any way, you at once see that you are inseparable from what lies beyond all experiences. The unborn, unconditioned Emptiness. The Ultimate Reality. You do not owe your existence to this one stream of experience; to this life.

As soon as you realize this, you are free. You find that you are already free. This is liberation. It is not a change in experience but in your relationship to all experiences.

You do not need them; you do not depend on them for your happiness or well-being. You do not want them anymore. Your only relation to experience is that they depend on you. You do not depend on experience.

You stand apart from all these interdependent forms. This realization is what can give you the power to be unconcerned by all passing experiences. And to be unconcerned is to be completely content. To be in peace.

Even a little peace is enough. The Bodhisattvas are not experiencing something other than the peace you are familiar with. You may say that they are experiencing more peace than I have ever felt. But just a little peace is enough.

Take your first step into Nirvana, then you can judge it. There's no apathy there. In being unconcerned with experience, you are free to love. Free to be.

And to let be. And to help where you can, through the force of your unconditional love. This is Nirvana; the quenching of the flame. The end of desire; clinging, craving, the doubt of lacking something.

The belief that this realm of experience can grant you that something. It is the end of that myth. And in that you find the intrinsic peace of just being. Of just being you.

What Bahiya begged the Buddha for, was his own well-being; for a lasting peace. This is what all minds seek. It is never even imagined that this would be the outcome. That what is found is not a particular state.

What is found is that you are at no distance from Reality. Indistinguishable and inseparable from that Emptiness which is also Fullness. This realization is enough. More than what was asked for.

Nothing more can be asked for beyond this. This is the superimposition of the knowledge that I am and I am not. In terms of phenomena, in terms of all that is observable and exists in time and space, I am not. But in terms of what is undoubtedly real, and not changing moment to moment, I am.