🪷 “The Dog Bites Its Owner”: Rooting Out the Canker of Clinging (AI GENERATED)

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Bhadante Lord, what is the shortest path to root out excessive canker?

Behold Maharaj, via keeping in mind that everything shall not be clung to.

This short dialogue—sharp as a blade, clear as a bell—offers the essence of liberation. It draws a line between bondage and freedom. But to see that line, we must first look at the nature of clinging and its root.

🐕 The Dog Bites Its Owner

Imagine this scene: A monk stands peacefully, while a dog—once tame, now confused—bites his arm. This dog is no enemy. It is his own. And yet, it bites.

In this image:

  • The dog symbolizes clinging (upādāna).
  • The monk represents the self under siege by attachment.
  • The target of the bite—the body, the self, the sense of “I” and “mine”—is composed of the five aggregates (pañcakkhandha): form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness.

Clinging is intimate. It feeds off what is close. It arises from within what we usually defend or identify with. The aggregates are not enemies—they are functional processes—but clinging makes them so. And when clinging turns aggressive, the dog bites its own master.

🔁 From Cling to Canker: Reading the Inner Circuit

"When cankers arise, clinging arises. There are cankers, there is clinging."
Here, the Buddha offers a deep causal insight. Canker (āsava) is the hidden fuel—craving, ignorance, becoming—that leaks into the mind and poisons perception. Clinging is its visible effect.

So we reverse-engineer the process:

  1. Effect: Clinging arises.
  2. Cause: Cankers are present.
  3. Solution: Remove the cankers to end clinging.

This is not merely diagnosis; it is method. It is yonisomanasikāra—wise attention. We trace backward from the output to the input. This same logic underpins:

  • Interdependent origination (paṭiccasamuppāda): From feeling arises craving; from craving, clinging.
  • The Four Noble Truths: From suffering, trace back to craving. Understand the cause to end the effect.

True contemplation is like following the thread of a snare until we reach the hand that tied it. With careful seeing, we uproot the cause—not merely its symptoms.

🧠 Yonisomanasikāra: Relearning the Gaze

The Buddha’s teaching is not blind rejection. “Everything shall not be clung to” is not nihilism—it’s clarity. It says: Form is form, not self. Feelings come and go. Perception changes. Cling, and we suffer. Know this, and we are free.

To uproot excessive canker:

  • Don’t fight the dog.
  • Trace its bite to your own misplaced affection.
  • See the canker. Know it. Cease it.

🪶 Closing Reflection

We are often bitten by what we hold too tightly. The path begins—not with war, but with wisdom. Not with suppression, but with seeing. And the shortest path?

Behold Maharaj, via keeping in mind that everything shall not be clung to.

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