The Noble Truth of Accumulation
After the Water-Splashing Ceremony period, that is, 21 days after the Buddha Shakyamuni attained enlightenment beneath the Bodhi tree and expounded the Avatamsaka Sutra, he came to Deer Park and, for the sake of the five brothers led by Kaundinya, turned the Dharma wheel three times (the turning of indication, exhortation, and verification). Venerable Kaundinya was the first to awaken, and afterward the other four also attained awakening.
The Buddha’s first teaching was called the Turning of the Dharma Wheel of Indication:
“This is suffering, whose nature is oppression.
This is accumulation, whose nature is causation.
This is cessation, whose nature is realizable.
This is the path, whose nature is cultivable.”
He then continued with what is called the Turning of the Dharma Wheel of Exhortation:
“This is suffering; you should know it.
This is accumulation; you should cut it off.
This is cessation; you should realize it.
This is the path; you should cultivate it.”
He then continued with what is called the Turning of the Dharma Wheel of Verification:
“This is suffering; I have known it.
This is accumulation; I have cut it off.
This is cessation; I have realized it.
This is the path; I have cultivated it.”
“Know suffering, end accumulation, admire cessation, cultivate the path.” This means: One must know suffering, eliminate the causes of suffering, aspire toward the realm of stillness and tranquility, and practice the path of the sages. This is the general meaning of the Four Noble Truths. There are two kinds of suffering: the suffering of desire and the suffering of delusion.
**The suffering of desire:** These are fundamental sufferings. For example, craving wealth gives rise to the desire for wealth; craving beauty gives rise to sensual desire; craving fame gives rise to the desire for fame; craving food gives rise to the desire for food; craving sleep gives rise to the desire for sleep. These are the five desires.
**The suffering of delusion:** This is suffering caused by ignorance. Ignorant people do not understand right and wrong, nor do they care about good and evil. They strive to do whatever benefits themselves, acting in distorted ways, and will inevitably reap karmic consequences in the future. Ignorant people cling to everything as their own possession. Unable to distinguish black from white, they blame Heaven and resent others.
There are also three other kinds of suffering: suffering of suffering, suffering due to decay, and suffering due to conditioned existence; and eight sufferings: birth, aging, sickness, death, separation from loved ones, association with those one hates, not obtaining what one seeks, and the flourishing of the five aggregates. Beyond these, there are immeasurable kinds of suffering. Today’s discussion concerns the Noble Truth of Accumulation.
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## The Noble Truth of Accumulation
The Noble Truth of Accumulation means accumulation and gathering. It refers to the gathering of afflictions, which cause one to give rise to delusions, create karma, and receive karmic retribution. Although afflictions arise through accumulation, they are primarily summoned by one’s own nature. If the rubbish in the mind is completely swept away, then false thoughts do not arise and afflictions do not emerge. When the mind is as clear as a mirror, wisdom manifests, and one no longer engages in upside-down dreaming and delusion. There are countless accumulated afflictions that produce suffering. Today we will briefly discuss one hundred names for accumulated afflictions mentioned in the Avatamsaka Sutra.
1. **Bondage**: Being bound by emotions and tied by love is accumulation.
2. **Destruction**: When happiness is destroyed and pleasure is ruined, suffering naturally arises.
3. **Attachment**: Loving something without letting it go and clinging to it as good.
4. **Deluded awareness**: Mistaken perception and erroneous awakening.
5. **Entering**: Moving toward afflictions, like being trapped in mud and unable to pull one’s feet out.
6. **Certainty**: Definitely having afflictions yet remaining unaware of them.
7. **Net**: Being trapped like a fish caught in a net after freely swimming in rivers and seas.
8. **Idle speculation**: Speech that is not truthful but merely frivolous.
9. **Following along**: Acting according to afflictions.
10. **Root of inversion**: Accumulation is the root of distorted thinking.
11. **Following birth and death**: Flowing endlessly through the cycle of birth and death.
12. **Defiled attachment**: Polluted clinging and attachment.
13. **Burning**: Like being consumed by fire.
14. **Circulation**: Endless wandering through samsara.
15. **Root of ruin**: Destroying all fundamental wholesome practices.
16. **Continuation of realms**: Continuing through the twenty-five realms of the three worlds.
17. **Evil conduct**: Doing only evil deeds.
18. **Attachment**: Craving and clinging to the five desires.
19. **Source of illness**: Illness arises from afflictions; without afflictions, the root of illness disappears.
20. **Portion**: Everyone has a share of affliction, though its extent is unclear.
21. **Corruption**: Afflictions lead to deterioration and ruin.
22. **Root of ignorance**: The fundamental root of stupidity. We all inherently possess the Buddha’s wisdom and virtue, but through misuse they become ignorance. Like lamp oil that is continually burned away, its light gradually dims until darkness remains. Darkness is ignorance. With ignorance, false thoughts arise daily; false thoughts are the root of stupidity.
23. **Great resentment**: Resenting this and hating that until it becomes great hostility.
24. **Sharpness**: The suffering of accumulation is like the sharpest blade, causing great harm. As the sutra says: “Desire harms people like honey on a sharp blade, dangerous enough to cut the tongue.”
25. **Loss of flavor**: When one is afflicted, even food loses its taste.
26. **Hostility**: Harboring vengeance and wanting revenge.
27. **Not one’s own possession**: Afflictions are not inherently ours but come from outside.
28. **Guide to evil paths**: Like an evil friend leading one into danger.
29. **Increasing darkness**: Increasing darkness means lacking light and wisdom.
30. **Destroyer of wholesome benefit**: It destroys all benefits that are good for you.
31. **Unreal thing**: Afflictions and ignorance arise and cease falsely and have no true existence.
32. **Only a name**: Merely a label without substance.
33. **Impure**: Polluted and unclean.
34. **Place of birth**: Arising where afflictions exist.
35. **Grasping**: Clinging to things as one’s own.
36. **Worthless thief**: Something base and without value.
37. **Growth**: Growth of unwholesome roots.
38. **Burden**: Increasing the suffering of beings.
39. **Producer**: Giving rise to afflictions.
40. **Coarse and violent**: Rough, wild, and cruel.
41. **Detestable**: Unwelcome and tiresome.
42. **Name only**: No true reality, only false and evil names.
43. **Endless**: Endless accumulation of karma and afflictions.
44. **Portion**: Each of the twenty-five realms has its share.
45. **Object of attachment**: This truth of accumulation should not be loved or clung to.
46. **Capable of biting and seizing**: Like animals devouring one another, consuming wisdom and life itself.
47. **Vile**: Extremely base and lowly.
48. **Attachment**: Causing beings to love and cling to it.
49. **Vehicle**: Carrying afflictions and ignorance.
50. **Movement**: Constant agitation and gathering of afflictions.
51. **Craving and attachment**: Clinging to the five desires and sexual attachment.
52. **Completion of evil**: Once evil is accomplished, one receives a future rebirth.
53. **Great wrongdoing**: Faults and sins.
54. **Swift**: Karmic retribution comes quickly.
55. **Grasping**: Clinging and greed.
56. **Conception**: Formed through deluded thoughts and afflictions.
57. **Fruit**: After creating accumulation, one must endure suffering as its result.
58. **Inexpressible**: Afflictions are too numerous to describe.
59. **Untouchable**: There is nothing tangible to grasp because it is made of affliction.
60. **Circulation**: Endless wandering through the six realms.
61. **Corruption**: Destroying all wholesome roots.
62. **Turbidity**: Like muddy water.
63. **Regression**: Causing people to lose the Bodhi mind.
64. **Powerlessness**: Lacking strength to cultivate wholesome roots.
65. **Dispersion**: Losing the Bodhi mind and spiritual attainments.
66. **Contradiction**: Contrary to reason and natural principle.
67. **Disharmony**: Not being in harmony.
68. **Action**: Whatever is done becomes karmic retribution.
69. **Taking**: Choosing ignorance and affliction.
70. **Desire of mind**: Longing for affliction, ignorance, false thought, and attachment.
71. **Vast ground**: A broad field where afflictions gather.
72. **Leading toward**: Leading toward the three evil destinies.
73. **Distant from wisdom**: Far removed from Prajna wisdom.
74. **Leaving disasters behind**: Producing many calamities.
75. **Fear**: Bringing intimidation and fear.
76. **Indulgence**: Ignoring rules and acting recklessly.
77. **Gathering**: Collecting all afflictions together.
78. **Place of attachment**: The location where clinging occurs.
79. **Householder**: The master within the house of suffering.
80. **Binding**: Being tied up and deprived of freedom; ordinary beings are bound by the five desires and cannot attain liberation.
81. **Ground**: Soil that nurtures afflictions.
82. **Convenient means**: Easily gathering afflictions.
83. **Untimely**: Without any fixed time.
84. **Unreal dharma**: Not a true teaching.
85. **Bottomless**: A bottomless pit that can never be filled with afflictions.
86. **Gathering**: Collecting all afflictions together.
87. **Departing from precepts**: Leaving moral discipline and thus being unable to prevent wrongdoing.
88. **Dharma of affliction**: Methods that generate affliction.
89. **Narrow view**: Limited understanding; seeing what is near but not far, seeing oneself but not others.
90. **Accumulated filth**: Dust and dirt gathering together.
91. **Practice**: A practice of suffering.
92. **Poisonous anger**: The poison of rage.
93. **Combination**: Afflictions combining to form the truth of accumulation.
94. **Link of feeling**: The feeling-link in the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination.
95. **Ego-mind**: Afflictions arise from self-centeredness.
96. **Mixed poison**: Various poisonous defilements cultivated together.
97. **False designation**: An empty and deceptive name.
98. **Contrary**: Contrary to the principle of one’s true nature.
99. **Tormenting heat**: The burning heat of affliction.
100. **Frightening**: Afflictions make people fearful and alarmed.
**Subduing:** One should subdue the suffering of afflictions and know how to leave suffering behind before obtaining happiness. Before each Dharma lecture, people request teachings because they seek to leave suffering and gain happiness. Yet everyone wishes to leave suffering while at the same time not truly seeking happiness. Why? This is the strange aspect of human nature. The more they are taught to leave suffering, the more they draw near to it.
**Direction of mind:** The minds of ordinary people tend toward affliction. Teach them to move toward peace and happiness, and they do not cultivate; instead, they head toward evil.
**Able to bind:** Afflictions obscure beings’ wisdom and bind their spiritual powers.
**Arising with thought:** Afflictions arise according to mental thoughts. Once a deluded thought appears, afflictions follow. Without deluded thoughts, there are no afflictions.
**Going afterward:** Accumulation leads behind toward the three evil destinies, whereas the Path leads ahead toward the four holy realms.
**Mutual combination:** Good and evil mix together. Where there is good and evil, there are afflictions; where there are afflictions, there are karmic obstructions.
**Discrimination:** Where there is a discriminating mind, there are afflictions.
**Gate:** The gate of suffering and the gate of affliction.
**Stirring:** Its nature is restless and unstable.
**Concealment:** Hiding one’s faults and not revealing them to others.
These one hundred names of accumulated afflictions are a path leading beings toward self-awakening. Self-awakening means that in whatever one does, one turns the light around and reflects within, seeking answers in oneself and maintaining a spirit of self-examination. In other words, one is no longer confused. To be free from confusion is to possess genuine understanding. Genuine understanding benefits all sentient beings.
