As If Struck by Two Darts

One time the Buddha spoke to the monks about how both those who had no knowledge of the teachings and those who were knowledgeable experienced pleasant, painful, and neutral feelings. What was the difference between the untaught person and the well-taught student?

The Buddha explained that when a person who did not know the teachings underwent painful feelings, this person would become sad and extremely upset, and lament what had happened to him. So this person would feel the pain both physically and mentally. It would be like throwing a dart at someone and then immediately throwing a second. Struck by both darts, the untaught person first would feel the bodily pain and then would become upset and grieve. Thus, he would experience two kinds of feeling: the physical pain and the mental realization of pain.

Feeling pain, this untaught person resents and fights that pain. Seeking to end the pain, he seeks to overcome it with sensual enjoyment—his only known way of relieving painful feelings. But the enjoyment of sensual happiness leads to further craving for such happiness, because he does not understand the feelings or the dangers of his habitual way of reacting to these painful feelings. Such a person also reacts out of ignorance to feelings that are neither painful nor pleasant. So whether the feeling is pleasant, painful, or neutral, this person acts out of, and is thus bound by, ignorance. Birth, aging, death, pain—all suffering binds one who is untaught.

But the well-taught student does not react with sadness and despair, does not bemoan his condition or become upset. This student understands the suffering is physical, not mental. Such a student is like one who is struck by the first dart, but not the second. Experiencing the physical pain, but not the mental pain, this person does not feel despair or grief, does not lament what has happened.

This well-taught student knows the physical pain is there but does not resent it. So he does not fight that feeling in his mind. He does not need to seek sensual happiness to alleviate the painful feeling because he knows a better way to react to such bodily feelings. By not seeking sensual happiness, he does not fall prey to craving. Such a student understands the dangers of reacting imprudently to painful feelings. He does not even react out of ignorance to neutral feelings. So whether the feeling is pleasant, painful, or neutral, this person is not bound by them. Whether birth, aging, death, or pain—the well-taught student remains unfettered.

The Buddha said that this was the difference between the untaught person and the well-taught student in regards to pleasant, painful, and neutral feelings.