Disclaimer: This translation does not guarantee complete accuracy, please confirm with the original page text.
[513 Eighth Declaration - Gotama! All the gods who are food-conscious, fear-conscious, sexual-conscious, and possession-conscious, are they few, many, equal, or special in number? // [737 Q.] Bhagavan! Among these gods who are food-conscious, fear-conscious, sexual-conscious, and possession-conscious, which ones are fewer, more, equal, or special? [737 A.] Gotama! The fewest are the food-conscious gods, (compared to them) the fear-conscious gods are many times more, (compared to them) the sexual-conscious gods are many times more, and compared to them, the possession-conscious gods are many times more. Discussion - The two sutras (Sutras 736-737) present the idea of the abundance of possession-consciousness among gods and the idea of the four types of consciousness in relation to internal experience. They also discuss the relative scarcity of the four types of consciousness compared to each other. Why is possession-consciousness the most prevalent among gods? - Because gods are mostly possession-conscious. They are always attached to gold, gems, and jewels, which are the causes of possession-consciousness. The scarcity of the four types of consciousness among gods - The fewest are the food-conscious gods, because the time when gods are deprived of food is very long, and the time when they use food-consciousness is very short. Therefore, they are few in number when asked about them. The fear-conscious gods are many times more than the food-conscious gods, because fear-consciousness remains with many gods for a long time. The sexual-conscious gods are many times more than the fear-conscious gods, and the possession-conscious gods are many times more than them, as explained earlier. // // // Declaration Sutra: Eighth Declaration ends. // 1. Declaration Sutra Malay. Commentary, page 224