There is nothing here that has not been explained beforeAnd I have no skill in the art of rhetoric;Therefore, lacking any intention to benefit others,I write this in order to acquaint it to my mind. ~Shantideva, A Guide to the Boddhisatva’s Way of Life, Translated by Stephen Batchelor
Tag: Buddhism
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Especially Buddhism…
Brought to you by the inimitable Mr. Alan Watts. :)
Sometimes ideas get all wrapped up and around and through each other and a clever theory, when gently prodded, reveals itself a writhing, gnarly mess. Maybe this doesn’t happen to you? It totally happens to me. I think I understand a thing, I get all excited about it, I try explaining it to someone, or […]
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Incremental Backups
Because the more people coming up with silly Dhamma T-shirts, the better. :) (link)
Edit: If you want to start with Part 1, that’s here. The meditation teacher Leigh Brasington wrote a book on Dependent Origination which he self published and made available for Dāna on his website. He kindly (and enthusiastically!) read my previous post on DO and Conditionality. With his permission, here’s an image we cobbled together: A few […]
After I left military service in 2014, I moved to Paris and studied Philosophy for two years. The most important course I took during that time was “Modern Critical Theory” where a long-limbed, curly-cue of a Frenchman introduced me to Postmodernism and Critical Theory. In that course I read Western thinkers touching into the same concepts […]
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Now Get On With It.
You probably know the Indian parable of the Blind People and the Elephant (Ud 6.4), where a group of folks who are blind-since-birth are brought together ’round an elephant. I propose a different ending. What if, instead, the blind people figure it out by working together?
Part 1 – Are there two Nibbānas?
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On Anurodha, “Liking”
In your day-to-day, off-the-cushion experience, what part of the 12-link Dependent Origination cycle (12-nidanas) do you notice most readily? I ask because I think it may be the case that many of us spend our days “liking” stuff or “disliking” stuff. But liking/disliking is not in the 12-nidanas. When I first began learning about Dependent Origination I was surprised to […]
(TL;DR: No. Pain is not Vedanā.)
When I first began studying Dependent Origination, it was not clear to me where DO (paṭiccasamuppāda) ended and Conditionality (idappaccayatā) began. Today it’s a little more clear; here’s what I think, and why I think it matters: Conditionality (idappaccayatā) is the way the world is. All phenomena are dependent on (conditioned by) other phenomena. The […]
Greetings! I’m currently participating in one of Bodhi College’s long courses, the Committed Practitioners Programme. Every month we are offered a “Continuing Investigation”. For January we were invited to read Majjhima Nikāya 26, the Ariyapariyesanā Sutta, typically translated “The Noble Search”. Since I’ve not made it very far in my Pāli language studies, I built […]
This talk was made available by Audio Dharma; the talk is available here: Buddhism Before the Theravada Part 4. If you’d like to explore further, we’ve produced a podcast episode about this talk (Episode 5, if you’re already subscribed). I’d love to hear what you think! Okay, okay. Just one more thing. A friend of […]
This talk was made available by Audio Dharma; the talk is available here: Buddhism Before the Theravada Part 3. If you’d like to explore further, we’ve produced a podcast episode about this talk (Episode 4, if you’re already subscribed). I’d love to hear what you think! One more thing… a friend of mine said that […]
This talk was made available by Audio Dharma; the talk is available here: Buddhism Before the Theravada Part 2. If you’d like to explore further, we’ve produced a podcast episode about this talk (Episode 3, if you’re already subscribed). I’d love to hear what you think! Okay, okay. One more thing… I made a very […]
This talk was made available by Audio Dharma; the talk is available here: Buddhism Before the Theravada Part 1. If you’d like to explore further, I’ve also written a commentarial blog post about this talk and we’ve produced a podcast episode on it (Episode 2, if you’re already subscribed). I’d love to hear what you […]
Last year my dharma practice transmogrified. Let’s call this Part 1: What Happened. I had been practicing in a general way for some years. Omnivorous, secular, hot on cognitive science and evolutionary psychology while grazing here and there the texts and contemplative practices of various religious traditions. Rummaging around in the dharma bin, but unable […]
This talk was made available by Dharma Seed. Re-contextualising Mindfulness. Sati in Buddhist Psychology, sati in Mind-development, Images of sati. Establishing the Fourfold Mindfulness: (satipaṭṭhāna) as map and as four channels of experience. Insight Meditation Society — Retreat Center : Mindfulness, Insight, Liberation: The Foundations of Mindfulness-Based Modalities and Research. This is the time when one of us […]
Frequently Akincano refers to what he calls “Buddhist Psychology”. I’m curious if this is a phrase used across the Bodhi College team? For myself, as I explore these disciplines of Mind and Human Flourishing (that is: Cognitive Science, Philosophy, Psychology, Neuroscience, and Contemplative Practice), I find it increasingly important to select the most appropriate (dare […]
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Bhikkhu Jayasara Mindmaps
I have long been a proponent of MindMapping as a brainstorming and categorization technique. Today I discovered that Bhikkhu Jayasara (of Bhavana Society) digs them too. Back in 2017 he posted several MindMaps of Buddhist concepts. Do take a look. They are well done. To wet your appetite, here’s his MindMap for “All the Defilements”:
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Majjhima Nikāya 2 — All the Effluents
As I begin to explore the Tipiṭaka (the Pāli Canon, the Buddhist scriptures that began to be written maybe about 400 years after Gotama’s death), I find that I need to further translate the scholarly renditions (from Bikkhus Ñanamoli, Bodhi, Ṭhānissaro, etc), into an every-day English that I can more readily access. This seems to […]
This talk was made available by Dharma Seed. Vedanā, Practice on Attention and Sati. Gaia House : Stillness and Insight Good. I’d like to ask for your attention. A few clarifications of our exercise. 00:20 We have started identifying aspects of breathing, have started taking up the exercise of returning attention to a chosen process, to […]
This is one of a series of transcripts of contemporary talks which I have found particularly instructive. This talk was made available by Dharma Seed. Vedanā — Feeling tone and attention. Practice instruction. Insight Meditation Society — Retreat Center : Cultivation — Investigation — Contemplation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students. Good. Let me request your attention again for some clarifications about our exercise. […]
This talk was made available by Dharma Seed. Citta — The Knowing Heart. Citta [as] the seat of experience. References to citta in the discourses. Upadana — four forms of grasping. The vision of atammayata “unconcoctability”. Insight Meditation Society — Retreat Center : Mindfulness, Insight, Liberation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students So I’m glad to have made it. Just got lost […]
This talk was made available by Dharma Seed. Review of Tools — Orientation. Four satipatthana paradigm as a map. Instruction on meditative skills resourcing — orienting — attuning — forming intentions. Insight Meditation Society — Retreat Center : Mindfulness, Insight, Liberation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students 0:02 So, good morning everyone. We’re in the midst of our retreat. I trust you feel some of this […]
This talk was made available by Dharma Seed. Citta the Knowing Mind. Insight Meditation Society — Retreat Center : Mindfulness, Insight, Liberation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students 01:11 Once more I’d like to request your kind attention for some thoughts. We’ve been exercising what we, somewhat casually, call the mind. As you are probably aware, this is […]
This talk was made available by Dharma Seed. Cittānupassanā: Contemplation of Mind States. Insight Meditation Society — Retreat Center : Mindfulness, Insight, Liberation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students I’d like to indulge your attention for some considerations around Cittānupassanā, the contemplation of mind states. A mind state is different from the three other Satipaṭṭhānas in character. Body […]
This talk was made available by Dharma Seed. Flavors of Not Knowing. Insight Meditation Society — Retreat Center : Mindfulness, Insight, Liberation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students I’d like to request your kind attention for few thoughts on practice. I was going to give you a lofty discourse on the nature of the Citta. At the heart […]
This talk was made available by Dharma Seed. A Psychological Take on Bhavana: Four Dimensions of Meditation Practice. Insight Meditation Society — Retreat Center : Mindfulness, Insight, Liberation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students I’d like to request your attention for a little story that I will begin with and some scattered thoughts on a number of little […]
Dharma PhD 