Bahiya Sutta
The Bahiya Sutta purports to be of an instant Awakening. Understanding this via experience is the what all the meditation and philosophy is for. Truly understand this at the experiential level and you will be Awakened.
The following recounts the story of a wanderer named Bahiya. He stopped the Buddha on the street in Savatthi and said, “Venerable Sir, you are the Samana Gotama. Your Dharma is famous throughout the land. Please teach me that I may understand the truth.”
The Buddha replied, “We’re on our alms round, Bahiya. This is not the right time.”
“Life is uncertain, Venerable Sir. We never know when we are going to die; please teach me the Dharma.”
This dialogue repeats itself three times. Three times over, the Buddha says the same thing, and Bahiya responds in the same way. Finally, the Buddha says, “When a Tathagata (the Buddha) is pressed three times, he has to answer. Listen carefully, Bahiya, and attend to what I say:
In the seen, there is only the seen,
in the heard, there is only the heard,
in the sensed, there is only the sensed,
in the cognized, there is only the cognized.
Thus you should see that indeed there is no thing here; this, Bahiya, is how you should train yourself. Since, Bahiya, there is for you:
in the seen, only the seen,
in the heard, only the heard,
in the sensed, only the sensed,
in the cognized, only the cognized,
and you see that there is no thing here, you will therefore see that indeed there is no thing there.
As you see that there is no thing there, you will see that you are therefore located neither in the world of this, nor in the world of that, nor in any place betwixt the two. This alone is the end of suffering.”
Upon hearing these words, Bahiya was immediately enlightened. Moments later he was killed by a runaway cow. So he was right: life is uncertain. Later Bahiya was awarded the title of “The Disciple Who Understood the Teaching Most Quickly.”
My Commentary:
Unless one is Bahiya, one does not usually ‘get’ this until they make progress toward Awakening. At some point you will really understand it. What does the Buddha mean by ‘only’ as in “only the heard”? What is missing? Assuming we are talking about hearing a bird - the things that are are dropped towards Awakening are