Numbered Discourses 4.10

1. At Wares Village

Yokes

“Bhikkhus, there are these four yokes. What four? The yokes of sensual pleasures, future lives, views, and ignorance.

And what is the yoke of sensual pleasures? It’s when you don’t truly understand sensual pleasures’ origin, ending, gratification, drawback, and escape. So greed, relishing, affection, infatuation, thirst, passion, attachment, and craving for sensual pleasures linger on inside. This is called the yoke of sensual pleasures. Such is the yoke of sensual pleasures.

And what is the yoke of future lives? It’s when you don’t truly understand future lives’ origin, ending, gratification, drawback, and escape. So greed, relishing, affection, infatuation, thirst, passion, attachment, and craving for continued existence linger on inside. This is called the yoke of future lives. Such are the yokes of sensual pleasures and future lives.

And what is the yoke of views? It’s when you don’t truly understand views’ origin, ending, gratification, drawback, and escape. So greed, relishing, affection, infatuation, thirst, passion, attachment, and craving for views linger on inside. This is called the yoke of views. Such are the yokes of sensual pleasures, future lives, and views.

And what is the yoke of ignorance? It’s when you don’t truly understand the six fields of contact’s origin, ending, gratification, drawback, and escape, so ignorance and unknowing of the six fields of contact linger on inside. This is called the yoke of ignorance. Such are the yokes of sensual pleasures, future lives, views, and ignorance. These are bad, unskillful qualities that are corrupting, leading to future lives, hurtful, resulting in suffering and future rebirth, old age, and death. That’s why someone yoked to them is called: ‘one who has not found sanctuary from the yoke’.

These are the four yokes.

There are these four kinds of unyoking. What four? Unyoking from sensual pleasures, future lives, views, and ignorance.

And what is unyoking from sensual pleasures? It’s when you truly understand sensual pleasures’ origin, ending, gratification, drawback, and escape. So greed, relishing, affection, infatuation, thirst, passion, attachment, and craving for sensual pleasures don’t linger on inside. This is called unyoking from sensual pleasures. Such is unyoking from sensual pleasures.

And what is unyoking from future lives? It’s when you truly understand future lives’ origin, ending, gratification, drawback, and escape. So greed, relishing, affection, infatuation, thirst, passion, attachment, and craving for continued existence don’t linger on inside. This is called unyoking from future lives. Such is unyoking from sensual pleasures and future lives.

And what is unyoking from views? It’s when you truly understand views’ origin, ending, gratification, drawback, and escape. So greed, relishing, affection, infatuation, thirst, passion, attachment, and craving for views don’t linger on inside. This is called unyoking from views. Such is unyoking from sensual pleasures, future lives, and views.

And what is unyoking from ignorance? It’s when you truly understand the six fields of contact’s origin, ending, gratification, drawback, and escape, so ignorance and unknowing of the six fields of contact don’t linger on inside. This is called unyoking from ignorance. Such is unyoking from sensual pleasures, future lives, views, and ignorance. These are bad, unskillful qualities that are corrupting, leading to future lives, hurtful, resulting in suffering and future rebirth, old age, and death. That’s why someone unyoked from them is called: ‘one who has found sanctuary from the yoke’.

These are the four kinds of unyoking.

Yoked to both sensual pleasures and the desire to be reborn in a future life; yoked also to views, and governed by ignorance,

sentient beings continue to transmigrate, with ongoing birth and death. But those who fully understand sensual pleasures, and the yoke to all future lives;

with the yoke of views eradicated, and ignorance dispelled, unyoked from all yokes, truly those sages have slipped their yoke.”