[Poohoppesmase]

This quotes made me think that an arahant has mastered the Four Noble Truths but there is still some kind of "residue" that is about the feeling without clinging to them. In this way, mastering the Four Noble Truths is not enough?

Hello Kaarine

I personally find the term 'residue or fuel remaining' descriptively remote. The Pali is upādisesa. When I look up the Pali dictionary, which is very difficult to follow, I cannot find much difference between the terms upādi and upadhi. Both terms appear to be related to upādāna, which can mean 'burdensome'. Upādāna of course is attachment & dukkha. The term 'sesa' means 'remaining' or 'left'.

Feelings can have a kind of 'burdensome' or 'impinging' quality, such as when the Buddha was old:
...when the Blessed One had entered upon the rainy season, there arose in him a severe illness, and sharp and deadly pains came upon him. And the Blessed One endured them mindfully, clearly comprehending and unperturbed. In the Puttamansa Sutta, the Buddha provides to following striking similie for sense contact & feelings:
"And how, O monks, should the nutriment sense-impression be considered? Suppose, O monks, there is a skinned cow that stands close to a wall, then the creatures living in the wall will nibble at the cow; and if the skinned cow stands near a tree, then the creatures living in the tree will nibble at it; if it stands in the water, the creatures living in the water will nibble at it; if it stands in the open air, the creatures living in the air will nibble at it. Wherever that skinned cow stands, the creatures living there will nibble at it.

"In that manner, I say, O monks, should the nutriment sense-impression be considered. If the nutriment sense-impression is comprehended, the three kinds of feeling are thereby comprehended. And if the three kinds of feeling are comprehended, there is, I say, no further work left to do for the noble disciple. So to give you my opinion to your question, there is no alternative to the Four Noble Truths because mindfulness & wisdom can only serve as an antidote for craving & attachment. Mindfulness & wisdom cannot stop feeling because feeling (vedana khanda) is related to the nervous system. Where as craving & attachment are related to sankhara khanda or the fabricating mind. Craving & attachment are related to volition whereas as feeling is related to the autonomic nervous system.

About the two kinds of Nibbana, my opinion is contrary to most Buddhist views on the matter. Such as with yourself, the impression I gain is most Buddhists regard Nibbana without fuel remaining as something higher than Nibbana with fuel remaining.

My opinion, which is purely speculative, is that in the Buddha's time, most seekers were searching for a Nibbana without fuel remaining. They were seeking the most sublime states of mental stillness, such as the spheres of nothingness, spheres of neither perception nor non perception and the cessation of perception & feeling.

However, in declaring the Four Noble Truths, which state Nibbana is the cessation of craving & attachment, the Buddha declared the end of suffering is not the cessation of feeling. In other words, he declared the best Nibbana we can achieve must include Nibbana with fuel remaining. There will still remain some vedana (feeling) or sensory impingement.

So the Buddha declared there are two kinds of Nibbana. In my opinion, his special or unique contribution was declaring a Nibbana with impingement remaining because most seekers, such as yourself, imagine Nibbana to be a state free of all impingement or disturbance.

With metta



He discerns that 'Whatever disturbances that would exist based on the effluent of sensuality... the effluent of becoming... the effluent of ignorance, are not present. And there is only this modicum of disturbance: that connected with the six sensory spheres, dependent on this very body with life as its condition.'

So this, his entry into emptiness, accords with actuality, is undistorted in meaning, pure — superior & unsurpassed.

Ananda, whatever contemplatives and priests who in the past entered & remained in an emptiness that was pure, superior & unsurpassed, they all entered & remained in this very same emptiness that is pure, superior & unsurpassed. Whatever contemplatives and priests who in the future will enter & remain in an emptiness that will be pure, superior & unsurpassed, they all will enter & remain in this very same emptiness that is pure, superior & unsurpassed. Whatever contemplatives and priests who at present enter & remain in an emptiness that is pure, superior & unsurpassed, they all enter & remain in this very same emptiness that is pure, superior & unsurpassed.

Cula-suññata Sutta: The Lesser Discourse on Emptiness