“But, sir, how is there the cutting off of business in each and every respect in the Noble One’s training? Sir, please teach me this.” “Well then, householder, listen and apply your mind well, I will speak.” “Yes, sir,” said Potaliya. The Buddha said this:

1. The Dangers of Sensual Pleasures “Householder, suppose a dog weak with hunger was hanging around a butcher’s shop. A deft butcher or their apprentice would toss them a skeleton scraped clean of flesh and smeared in blood. What do you think, householder? Gnawing on such a fleshless skeleton, would that dog still get rid of its hunger?” “No, sir. Why not? Because that skeleton is scraped clean of flesh and smeared in blood. That dog will eventually get weary and frustrated.” “In the same way, a noble disciple reflects: ‘With the simile of a skeleton the Buddha said that sensual pleasures give little gratification and much suffering and distress, and they are all the more full of drawbacks.’ Having truly seen this with right understanding, they shun equanimity based on diversity and develop only the equanimity based on unity, where all kinds of grasping to the worldly pleasures of the flesh cease without remainder.