Hoa Vo Uu (Buddha Dharma Education Association)
Venerable Shravasti Dhammika
The Buddha’s Words of Wisdom
I will teach you the burden, the taking hold of the burden, the lifting it up and the putting it down.
And what is the burden? The answer is the five clinging aggregates. What five? Body, feeling, perception, mental constructs and consciousness. This is the burden.
And what is the taking hold of the burden? The answer should be: it is the person of such-and-such a name, of such-and-such a village. This is the taking hold of the burden.
And what is the taking up of the burden? It is that craving for sense pleasures, craving for becoming and craving for unbecoming—that is called lifting up the burden.
And what is the putting down of the burden? It is the withering and fading of craving, the giving up of craving, the renouncing of it, freedom from it, the absence of it. That is putting down of the burden.
The five aggregates are the burden.
The seizer of the burden is man.
Taking it up is sorrow indeed,
And happiness is laying it down.
If one lays this heavy burden down,
And takes up no new one,
Then he has pulled out craving, roots and all.
He is fulfilled, he is free.
