Search found 5841 matches

by SDC
Mon Mar 25, 2024 11:15 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Guarding against the nonchalance of the worldly attitude
Replies: 45
Views: 751

Re: Guarding against the nonchalance of the worldly attitude

Not always. There some permanant processing changes in the way the mind and brain operate with their use, corrolated with the now better understood neuroplastic connectivity changes. So its doesn't just stop with the memory of the experience. Secondly, insights are often associated with shifts in p...
by SDC
Sun Mar 24, 2024 5:45 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Guarding against the nonchalance of the worldly attitude
Replies: 45
Views: 751

Re: Guarding against the nonchalance of the worldly attitude

I can’t believe you are still advocating for the practical use of psychedelics in Dhamma practice. Its not just me, there are plenty who do and there is very solid research to support this position now. For practitioners who are relying on development and direct personal experience, what “plenty” d...
by SDC
Sun Mar 24, 2024 2:40 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Guarding against the nonchalance of the worldly attitude
Replies: 45
Views: 751

Re: Guarding against the nonchalance of the worldly attitude

I can’t believe you are still advocating for the practical use of psychedelics in Dhamma practice. If you’re relying on a purely sensual experience to motivate you to practice, then your focus is fixed in the absolute wrong direction of renunciation. In essence, the assumption here is that an overwh...
by SDC
Sat Mar 23, 2024 9:42 pm
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Which one should I follow?
Replies: 12
Views: 464

Re: Which one should I follow?

Instead of trying to find out who is right, go with what seems least wrong, and least overwhelming. Are you willing to follow the precepts? Are you willing to look out for how you speak? For how you think? That really all you need to do in order to start practicing. Most disagreements you find on th...
by SDC
Wed Mar 06, 2024 11:58 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: How to deal with cowardice and anxiety?
Replies: 7
Views: 208

Re: How to deal with cowardice and anxiety?

Virtue.
Diligence.
Kindness.
Self-honesty.

Not for the praise/acknowledgement of others, but for the benefit for all, including yourself - because YOU value the lifestyle they can help shape.
by SDC
Wed Mar 06, 2024 12:43 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The relationship between kamma and sankharas
Replies: 12
Views: 267

Re: The relationship between kamma and sankharas

But note that it says that speaking or acting with ill intent has negative consequences. Does the Pali Canon also say as much of thinking? I mean, I know that it does in at least a sort of indirect way, but I'm wondering if having come to a negative conclusion about reality is understood as having ...
by SDC
Tue Mar 05, 2024 8:56 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The relationship between kamma and sankharas
Replies: 12
Views: 267

Re: The relationship between kamma and sankharas

For example, if I have an intensely negative experience and then conclude "I always fail" while in an intense negative state of mind, is there a textual basis in the Pali Canon for the idea that this can almost have a kind of psychokinesis-type effect that will bring negative circumstance...
by SDC
Wed Feb 28, 2024 2:32 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Practices around Dependant Origination
Replies: 56
Views: 2102

Re: Practices around Dependant Origination

But I do think it's quite clear that the development of virtue, tranquillity, and wisdom reinforce each other and develop differently for different people. For example, there are very explicit statements about different orderings of the development of samatha and vipassana in AN3.31, AN4.194, AN4.1...
by SDC
Tue Feb 27, 2024 11:59 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Practices around Dependant Origination
Replies: 56
Views: 2102

Re: Practices around Dependant Origination

I'm currently working in an ancient tradition which uses mindfulness of breathing for lay people, with an emphasis on jhanas. Everything seems to be fine... Well, I’m not sure you should be considering your lifestyle ordinary, because if you’re making effort to not be devoted to sensuality the aspi...
by SDC
Tue Feb 27, 2024 9:45 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Practices around Dependant Origination
Replies: 56
Views: 2102

Re: Practices around Dependant Origination

Can’t speak for Joe, but the virtue and sense restraint, but more to the point, the lifestyle, cannot be overstated. Too many contemporary notions of meditation point to available benefits on account of mental striving alone, and that is really misleading. A person developed in virtue and restraint...
by SDC
Tue Feb 27, 2024 9:44 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Practices around Dependant Origination
Replies: 56
Views: 2102

Re: Practices around Dependant Origination

And experienced teachers have advised enough people to know that different people develop in different ways. That there are different development trajectories is quite clear in the suttas. Going to have to politely disagree with you here. There are certainly some notable exceptions in the suttas, b...
by SDC
Tue Feb 27, 2024 8:27 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Practices around Dependant Origination
Replies: 56
Views: 2102

Re: Practices around Dependant Origination

Can’t speak for Joe, but the virtue and sense restraint, but more to the point, the lifestyle, cannot be overstated. Too many contemporary notions of meditation point to available benefits on account of mental striving alone, and that is really misleading. Yes, there are all kinds of feel-good idea...
by SDC
Tue Feb 27, 2024 4:35 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Practices around Dependant Origination
Replies: 56
Views: 2102

Re: Practices around Dependant Origination

To Joe’s overly dramatic point, a person with mind that is not inclined towards wholesome, familiar with wholesome, appreciative of wholesome (wholesome in the sense that it is not inclined away from sensuality and cruelty), meditation can end up being nothing more than the next practice employed t...
by SDC
Tue Feb 27, 2024 3:05 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Practices around Dependant Origination
Replies: 56
Views: 2102

Re: Practices around Dependant Origination

We don't even know how this person life in his real environment. Without someone to fall to, it is a suicidal act and only harming his life to ask meditate right away. Meditating on the meaning of the aggregates, dependent origination etc is a suicidal act? I take you don't meditate? To Joe’s overl...
by SDC
Mon Feb 26, 2024 1:34 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Identity View
Replies: 5
Views: 380

Re: Identity View

It seems to me that identity view arises right when craving takes place. Why/How is it that with the arising of craving, identity view arises? Are you asking about attavādupādāna ? Clinging to self-view? It isn’t so much that craving “takes place” as much as there is a perpetual liability to every ...