UNDERSTANDING THE GREAT MISFORTUNE OF TISSA THERA (CASE STUDY) - Dhammapada verse 240

Welcome back to the Sutta Meditation Series Podcast.

Following on from our last Dhamma session looking into a question on the Byasana Sutta, we now examine The Great Misfortune of Tissa Thera from Dhammapada verse 240 as a case study on rebirth in lower realms. This is useful to enable us to understand this Dhamma.

Tissa Thera was very attached to his robe and was reborn as a louse (animal realm) living in that same robe he was attached to. He was at risk of further being reborn into the hell realm, when the Buddha stepped in. We use this account of Tissa Thera to go over how this could happen, particularly referencing different parts of Venerable Mahakaccana's teaching from the Hāliddikāni Sutta (SN 22.3), the Buddha's teaching in the Samādhi-bhāvanā Sutta (SN 22.5) and Khattiya Sutta (AN 6.52) to understand this Dhamma.

*These previous Dhamma talks are linked to what we examine in this session:

• — Why it's difficult to renunciate the world https://bit.ly/3CthhLu
• — Abandoning craving through the arising and passing away of the five aggregates https://bit.ly/3ycUpxb

Other suttas that are mentioned directly or indirectly in this talk:

• — Byasana Sutta (AN 5.130)
• — Tissatthera Vatthu (Dhp 240)
• — Saṅgīti Sutta (DN 33)
• — Suttavebhaṅgiya (Pe 9)
• — Vipallāsa Sutta (AN 4.49)
• — Upādāna Sutta (SN 45.173)
• — Hāliddikāni Sutta (SN 22.3)
• — Vatthūpama Sutta (MN 7)
• — Khattiya Sutta (AN 6.52)
• — Loka Sutta (Ud 3.10)

The video of this talk has been published to the Sutta Meditation YouTube channel - https://youtu.be/THhJLaOOt38

Blessings of the Triple Gem. Theruwan saranai

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