Part III: It's Been a Long Time (sutra)

Maurice O'C. Walshe, "Great Discourse on the Lineage" (DN 14); Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Spiritual evolution occurs in cycles (bisquich.com)

• Part I: It's Been a Long Time (sutra)
• Part II: It's Been a Long Time (sutra)

The Buddha: "Then the Bodhisattva Vipassi thought, 'I have found the insight-way to enlightenment, namely:

1. "By the cessation of mind-and-body, consciousness ceases;
2. by the cessation of consciousness, mind-and-body ceases;
3. by the cessation of mind-and-body, the six sense bases cease;
4. by the cessation of the six sense bases, contact ceases;
5. by the cessation of contact, feeling ceases;
6. by the cessation of feeling, craving ceases;
7. by the cessation of craving, clinging ceases;
8. by the cessation of clinging, becoming ceases;
9. by the cessation of becoming, birth ceases;
10. by the cessation of birth aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and distress cease. Thus this whole mass of suffering ceases." 

"And at the thought, ‘Cessation, cessation,’ there arose in the Bodhisattva Vipassi insight into things never before realized accompanied by knowledge, vision, awareness, and light.

  

Buddha Peace Pagoda inset (Valdnad)

"Then, disciples, at another time the Bodhisattva Vipassi dwelled contemplating the rise and fall of the Five Aggregates of Clinging: 'Such is the (1) body, such its arising, such its passing away; such is (2) sensation... such is (3) perception... such are the (4) formations [usually represented by volition]... such is (5) consciousness, such its arising, such its passing away.'

  

"And as he remained contemplating the rise and fall of the Five Aggregates of Clinging, before long his mind was freed from the corruptions, freed without remainder. [That is, he became completely enlightened and liberated from all future rebirth.]
  
"Then, disciples, the Blessed One, the Arhat, the fully-enlightened Buddha Vipassi thought, 'Suppose I were now to teach Dharma?' Then he thought, 'I have attained to this Dharma, which is profound, hard to see, hard to grasp, peaceful, excellent, beyond reasoning, subtle, to be apprehended by the wise.

   

"'But this generation delights in clinging, rejoices and revels in it. But for those who so delight, rejoice, and revel in clinging this is hard to see, namely, the conditioned [dependently originated] nature of things. 

   

"Equally hard to see would be the calming of all the mental formations, the abandonment of all substrates of rebirth, the waning away of craving, dispassion, cessation, [so as to see] nirvana. And if I were to teach Dharma to others and they did not understand, that would be wearisome and troublesome."
  
"And to the Buddha Vipassi there occurred spontaneously this verse never heard before:
  

"This that I’ve attained why should I proclaim?"

Those full of lust and hate can never grasp it.

Upstream this Dharma subtle, deep does aim.

So hard to discern, the passion-blinded cannot see it."

   

Maha Brahma (Thai Erawan Shrine)

"As the Buddha Vipassi pondered in this way, his mind was inclined to inaction rather than to teaching the Dharma. And, disciples, the Buddha Vipassi’s reasoning became known to a certain Great Brahma [telepathically], who thought:
  
"'Alas the world is perishing. It will be destroyed because the mind of Vipassi, the Blessed One, the Arhat, the Fully Enlightened Buddha, is inclined to inaction rather than to teaching the Dharma!'
   
"So this Great Brahma, as swiftly as a strong man might stretch his flexed arm or flex it again, disappeared from the Brahma plane and reappeared before the Buddha Vipassi. Arranging his upper robber over one shoulder and kneeling on his right knee, he saluted the Buddha Vipassi with joined hands and said:
   
"'Venerable sir, may the Blessed One teach Dharma, may the Well-Farer teach Dharma! There are beings with little dust in their eyes who are perishing from not hearing Dharma: they will become knowers of Dharma!" More

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