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Putting Down the Burden

SN 22.22, the Bhāra Sutta — set 4, Not-Self and Dependent Arising

Reading time: about 2 min · 303 words

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Before you read

This short text asks you to picture your whole experience as a load you are carrying.

The load is the five clung-to heaps: form, felt experience, recognition, putting-together activities and knowing, when they are taken personally. The one carrying it is simply the person, called here by name and clan. Picking the load up is ignorant wanting, and putting it down is that wanting fading and ending.

If you have read the four noble truths, you will recognize the last two answers: they are the same words, about the origin and the quenching of dissatisfaction. The image says what those truths mean in practice. The weight is not life itself; it is the taking up.

The closing verses add one more thing. Putting the burden down does not mean picking up a different one, and the wanting is pulled out by the root, not just set aside for a while.

Translation

The Setting

At Sāvatthī, the Buddha said:

"Bhikkhus, I will teach you the burden, the carrier of the burden, the taking up of the burden, and the putting down of the burden. Listen.

The Burden

"And what is the burden, bhikkhus? It should be said: the five clung-to heaps. Which five?

  • the form clung-to heap
  • the felt-experience clung-to heap
  • the recognition clung-to heap
  • the putting-together-activities clung-to heap
  • the knowing clung-to heap

Bhikkhus, this is called the burden.

The Carrier of the Burden

"And what is the carrier of the burden, bhikkhus? It should be said: the individual, this venerable one of such a name and such a clan. Bhikkhus, this is called the carrier of the burden.

Taking Up the Burden

"And what is the taking up of the burden, bhikkhus? It is that ignorant wanting that leads to renewed becoming, accompanied by relishing and passion, delighting here and there. That is:

  • ignorant wanting for sensuality
  • ignorant wanting for becoming
  • ignorant wanting for non-becoming

Bhikkhus, this is called the taking up of the burden.

Putting Down the Burden

"And what is the putting down of the burden, bhikkhus? It is the complete fading and quenching of that very ignorant wanting: giving it up, relinquishing it, freedom, non-attachment. Bhikkhus, this is called the putting down of the burden."

That is what the Buddha said. After saying this, the Sugata, the Teacher, went on to say:

Verses

"The five heaps are indeed a burden, and the individual is the carrier of the burden. Taking up the burden is dissatisfaction in the world; putting the burden down is satisfaction.

They have put the heavy burden down and taken up no other. They have pulled out ignorant wanting together with its root; they are free of hunger and have reached complete quenching."

The first discourse is finished.

Words used in this translation (14)
becoming
This project's rendering of "bhava" -- the settling of experience into a way of being that feels like somebody being something. Often translated "existence."
bhikkhus
Buddhist monks -- those who have left household life to practise full time. The Buddha's usual way of addressing the assembly, roughly "friends" in force.
burden
The five clung-to heaps pictured as a load: experience taken personally. Ignorant wanting picks it up; someone who has laid down the burden no longer takes it up.
clung-to heaps
The five categories experience gets sorted into and then grasped as "me" or "mine" -- body, feeling, recognition, mental activity, and awareness. Not clinging to the categories themselves, but to the sense of ownership placed on top of them.
complete quenching
The complete going out of greed, aversion, and delusion. In AN 3.69 and SN 1.1 it describes something a person reaches while alive, not death.
dissatisfaction
This translation's rendering of "dukkha," the Buddhist term for the unsatisfying, unstable quality of ordinary experience. Often translated "suffering," but that can sound more dramatic than the everyday sense of things not quite being right.
fading
The fading away of attraction and investment in experience, as passion cools.
form
This project's rendering of "rūpa" -- the physical, material aspect of experience, one of the five heaps.
heaps
This project's rendering of "khandhā" (usually translated "aggregates") -- the five piles experience gets sorted into: form, felt experience, recognition, putting-together activities, and knowing.
ignorant wanting
Wanting something you can't have right now. This project's rendering of "taṇhā", often translated "craving". We call it ignorant because it comes from not seeing clearly; ordinary, sensible wanting is something else.
knowing
This project's rendering of "viññāṇa" (often translated "consciousness") -- bare awareness of an object through one of the senses or the mind.
quenching
An extinguishing image for dissatisfaction and its causes going out. Different Pali words use this image on different pages, so the exact scope comes from the sentence.
recognition
This project's rendering of "saññā" (often translated "perception") -- the mind's act of identifying and labeling what it encounters.
world
A word whose scope shifts with the teaching. It can mean the lived world we build through the senses and the mind, or the wider physical cosmos. The surrounding passage shows which sense it has.
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