Anālaya

Renderings

• allīyati: to adhere to

• allīyati: to cling

• ālaya: clinging

• anālaya: letting go

Introduction

1) Ālayo: ‘repository,’ ‘shelter’ or ‘abode’

The noun ālayo has two broad meanings. Firstly ‘repository,’ ‘shelter’ or ‘abode’:

• ‘the great ocean, fearsome repository of heaps of gems’
☸ mahāsaraṃ bahubheravaṃ ratanagaṇānamālayaṃ (S.5.400).

• the terrified crane ‘takes flight, looking for shelter’
☸ palehiti ālayamālayesinī  (Th.v.307).

• the body, ‘the abode of many miseries’
☸ bahu dukkhānamālayo (Thī.v.270).

2) Ālayo: ‘clinging,’ ‘adhering to.’ Anālayo: ‘letting go.’

We concentrate here on the second broad meaning, calling ālaya ‘clinging’ or ‘adhering to,’ and anālayo ‘letting go.’

Illustrations

Illustration: allīyissanti, adhere to

Shall it be that those non-Buddhist ascetics, whose teachings are badly explained, should adhere to and undertake a rains residency period?
☸ vassāvāsaṃ allīyissanti saṅkāsayissanti.

Shall it be that these birds, having made nests in the tree-tops, should adhere toand undertake a rains residency period?
☸ vassāvāsaṃ allīyissanti saṅkāsayissanti.

But these ascetic disciples of the Sakyans’ Son, walk on tour during the cold season, hot season, and wet season, trampling down crops and grass, and bring about the death of many small beings (Vin.1.137).

Illustration: allīyetha, to cling to

But if you cling to, prize, treasure, and cherish this perception [of reality] so perfect and pure would you then have understood that the teaching explained by me is comparable to a raft, being for the sake of crossing [the flood of suffering], not for the sake of clinging to it?
☸ Imañce tumhe bhikkhave diṭṭhiṃ evaṃ parisuddhaṃ evaṃ pariyodātaṃ allīyetha keḷāyetha dhanāyetha mamāyetha api nu tumhe bhikkhave kullūpamaṃ dhammaṃ desitaṃ ājāneyyātha nittharaṇatthāya no gahaṇatthāyāti? (M.1.260).

Illustration: allīyanti, to cling to

So long as they are not free of attachment, desire, love, thirst, passion, and craving regarding those sand castles, they cling to them, prize, treasure, and cherish them.
☸ yāvakivañca tesu paṃsvāgārakesu avigatarāgā honti avigatacchandā avigatapemā avigatapipāsā avigatapariḷāhā avigatataṇhā tāva tāni paṃsvāgārakāni allīyanti kelāyanti dhanāyanti mamāyanti (S.3.190).

Illustration: ālayo, clinging

The fondness, clinging, attraction, and cleavingwithin these five grasped aggregates is the origin of suffering.
☸ Yo imesu pañcasupādānakkhandhesu chando ālayo anunayo ajjhosānaṃ so dukkhasamudayo (M.1.191).

Illustration: ālaya, clinging

For beings who take pleasure and delight in clinging, finding satisfaction in clinging
☸ ālayarāmāya kho pana pajāya ālayaratāya ālayasammuditāya (M.1.167).

Illustration: ālaya, clinging; anālaye, letting go

Beings take pleasure and delight in clinging, find satisfaction in clinging. But they really listen to the teaching of letting go taught to them by the Perfect One, they lend an ear, they apply their minds to understand [it].
☸ ālayārāmā bhikkhave pajā ālayaratā ālayasammuditā sā tathāgatena anālaye dhamme desiyamāne sussūsati sotaṃ odahati aññācittaṃ upaṭṭhapeti (A.2.131).

Illustration: anālayo, letting go

The complete passing away and ending of this same craving, the giving up and relinquishment of it, the freedom from it, the letting go of it, is called the ending of suffering.
☸ Yo tassāyeva taṇhāya asesavirāganirodho cāgo paṭinissaggo mutti anālayo ayaṃ vuccatāvuso dukkhanirodho (M.1.49).

Illustration: anālaya,letting go

Bhikkhus, I will teach you letting go and the path leading to letting go. Please listen.
☸ anālayañca vo bhikkhave desissāmi anālayagāmiñca maggaṃ taṃ suṇātha

And what is letting go? The destruction of attachment, the destruction of hatred, the destruction of undiscernment of reality: this is called letting go.
☸ Katamañca bhikkhave anālayaṃ: yo bhikkhave rāgakkhayo dosakkhayo mohakkhayo idaṃ vuccati bhikkhave anālayaṃ

And what is the path leading to letting go?
☸ Katamo ca bhikkhave anālayagāmī maggo

Inward calm and insightfulness: this is called the path leading to letting go
☸ samatho ca vipassanā ca. Ayaṃ vuccati bhikkhave anālayagāmī maggo (S.4.369).