In the face of the Deathless, what worth are your sensual pleasures? For all delights in sensuality are burning & boiling, aggravated, aglow... A blazing grass firebrand, held in the hand: Those who let go do not get burned. Sensuality is like a firebrand. It burns those who do not let go.
— Thig 16.1
Ornamented, finely clothed garlanded, adorned, her feet stained red with lac, she wore slippers: a courtesan. Stepping out of her slippers — her hands raised before me palm-to-palm over her heart — she softly, tenderly, in measured words spoke to me first: 'You are young, recluse. Heed my message: Partake of human sensuality. I will give you luxury. Truly I vow to you, I will tend to you as to a fire. When we are old, both leaning on canes, then we will both become recluses, winning the benefits of both worlds.' And seeing her before me — a courtesan, ornamented, finely clothed, hands palm-to-palm over her heart — like a snare of death laid out, apt attention arose in me, the drawbacks appeared, disenchantment stood at an even keel: With that, my heart was released...
— Thag 7.1
Seeing a form unmindfully, focusing on its pleasing features, one knows with mind enflamed and remains fastened to it.
One's feelings, born of the form, grow numerous. Greed & provocation injure one's mind. Thus amassing stress one is said to be far from Unbinding. [And so on with the rest of the six senses.] One not enflamed with forms — seeing a form with mindfulness firm — knows with mind unenflamed and doesn't remain fastened there. While one is seeing a form — and even experiencing feeling — it falls away and does not accumulate. Faring mindful. and thus not amassing stress, one is said to be in the presence of Unbinding. [And so on with the rest of the six senses.]
— SN 35.95
'The passion for his resolves is a man's sensuality, not the beautiful sensual pleasures found in the world. The passion for his resolves is a man's sensuality. The beauties remain as they are in the world, while the wise, in this regard, subdue their desire.'
— AN 6.63
They [the unawakened]: blinded by sensual pleasures, covered by the net, veiled with the veil of craving, bound by the Kinsman of the Heedless* like fish in the mouth of a trap.
— Thag 4.8
With sensual lust I burn. My mind is on fire. Please, Gotama, out of kindness, tell me how to put it out.
From distorted perception your mind is on fire. Shun the sign of the beautiful, accompanied by lust. See fabrications as other, as stress, not as self. Extinguish your great lust. Don't keep burning again & again.
— Thag 21.1
Focusing on foulness in the body, mindful of in & out breathing, seeing the calming of all fabrications — always ardent — he is a monk who's seen rightly. From that he is there set free. A master of direct knowing, at peace, he is a sage gone beyond bonds.'
— Iti 85
As I, heedful, examined it aptly, [a vision of a beautiful person growing sick, unclean, & putrid] this body — as it actually is — was seen inside & out. Then was I disenchanted with the body and dispassionate within: Heedful, detached, calmed was I, unbound.
— Thig 5.4
'I argue for this,' doesn't occur to one when considering what's grasped among doctrines. Looking for what is ungrasped with regard to views, and detecting inner peace, I saw.
— Sn 4.9
Engaged in disputes in the midst of an assembly, — anxious, desiring praise — the one defeated is chagrined. Shaken with criticism, he seeks for an opening. he whose doctrine is [judged as] demolished, defeated, by those judging the issue: He laments, he grieves — the inferior exponent — 'He beat me,' he mourns. These disputes have arisen among contemplatives. In them are elation & dejection. Seeing this, one should abstain from disputes, for they have no other goal than the gaining of praise. He who is praised there for expounding his doctrine in the midst of the assembly, laughs on that account & grows haughty, attaining his heart's desire. That haughtiness will be his grounds for vexation, for he'll speak in pride & conceit. Seeing this, one should abstain from disputes. No purity is attained by them, say the skilled.
— Sn 4.8
That, say the skilled, is a binding knot: that in dependence on which you regard another as inferior.
— Sn 4.5
Whoever construes 'equal' 'superior' or 'inferior,' by that he'd dispute; whereas to one unaffected by these three, 'equal' 'superior' do not occur. Of what would the brāhman* say 'true' or 'false,' disputing with whom, he in whom 'equal,' 'unequal' are not... As the prickly lotus is unsmeared by water & mud, so the sage, an exponent of peace, without greed, is unsmeared by sensuality & the world. An attainer-of-wisdom isn't measured, made proud, by views or by what is thought, for he isn't affected by them. He wouldn't be led by action, learning; doesn't reach a conclusion in any entrenchments. For one dispassionate toward perception there are no ties; for one released by discernment, no delusions. Those who grasp at perceptions & views go about butting their heads in the world.
— Sn 4.9
View the world, Mogharāja, as empty — always mindful, to have removed any view about self. This way one is above & beyond death. This is how one views the world so as not to be seen by Death's king.
— Sn 5.16