Objects and Doors - The bond is the desire and lust

In both the sense-door process and the mind-door process, javana-cittas arise ; these javana-cittas are, if one is not an arahat, either kusala cittas or akusala cittas. When visible object is experienced through the eye-door, one does not yet perceive a person or a thing, but, already in the sense-door process, attachment to what is seen can arise, or aversion towards it, or ignorance. Defilements are deeply rooted, they can arise through all six doors. We may think that the enslavement to the objects which are experienced through the sense-doors is caused by the objects. Defilements, however, are not caused by objects, they are accumulated in the citta which experiences the object.

 

We read in the 'Kindred Sayings' (IV, Salāyatana-vagga, Fourth Fifty, Ch. III,

par. 191, Kotthika) that Sāriputta and Mahā-Kotthika were staying near

Vārānasī at Isipatana, in the Antelope Park. Kotthika said to Sāriputta :

 

K. 'How now, friend?

Is the eye the bond of objects, or are objects the bond of the eye?

Is the tongue the bond of savours, or are savours the bond of the tongue?

Is mind the bond of mind-objects, or are mind-objects the bond of the mind?'

 

S. 'Not so, friend Kotthika.

The eye is not the bond of objects, nor are objects the bond of the eye,

but that desire and lust that arise owing to these two.

That is the bond. And so with the tongue and mind...

it is the desire and lust that arise owing to savours and tongue,

mind-objects and mind.

 

Suppose, friend, two oxen, one white and one black,

tied by one rope or one yoke-tie.

Would one be right in saying that the black ox is the bond for the white one,

or that the white ox is the bond for the black one?'

 

K. 'Surely not. Friend.'

 

S. 'That is right, friend. It is not so.

But the rope or the yoke-tie which binds the two, - -

that is the bond that unites them.

So it is with the eye and objects,

with tongue and savours,

with mind and mind-objects.

It is the desire and lust which are in them

that form the bond that unites them.

 

If the eye, friend, were the bond of objects,

or if objects were the bond of the eye,

then this righteous life for the utter destruction of dukkha,

could not be proclaimed.

But since it is not so,

but the desire and lust which are in them is the bond,

therefore is the righteous life for the utter destruction of dukkha proclaimed...

 

There is in the Exalted One an eye, friend.

The Exalted One sees an object with the eye.

But in the Exalted One is no desire and lust.

Wholly heart-free is the Exalted One.

There is in the Exalted One a tongue...a mind.

But in the Exalted One is no desire and lust.

Wholly heart-free is the Exalted One.

 

By this method, friend, you are to understand, as I said before,

that the bond is the desire and lust which are in things.