Search found 839 matches

by Viscid
Sun Mar 03, 2019 9:14 pm
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Are 'maps' counter-productive?
Replies: 16
Views: 3829

Are 'maps' counter-productive?

I have a friend who is getting serious about his meditation practice, and he's really into the book ' The Mind Illuminated ' by Upasaka Culadasa which is a guidebook that presents a list of all the milestones one should be hitting as a meditator. My question is whether an explicit 'map' of these mil...
by Viscid
Wed Jun 10, 2015 6:59 pm
Forum: Connections to Other Paths
Topic: Paññobhāsa Bhikkhu's Blog
Replies: 35
Views: 11214

Re: Paññobhāsa Bhikkhu's Blog

http://thebahiyablog.blogspot.ca/2015/06/third-anniversary-issue-challenge.html" I just read his June 6 blog entry and I get the feeling that I'm reading the early beginnings of a cult. Not that I'm sure what Pannobhasa is trying to organize should be called a 'cult,' but I think that word as ...
by Viscid
Tue Jun 09, 2015 6:46 pm
Forum: Connections to Other Paths
Topic: Paññobhāsa Bhikkhu's Blog
Replies: 35
Views: 11214

Re: Paññobhāsa Bhikkhu's Blog

Paññobhāsa is back in the United States after spending a year and a half in Myanmar, and is now looking to organize a group of 'serious' spiritual practitioners (whom he unfortunately calls 'Dharma Samurai--' a term liable to attract inflated egos.) http://thebahiyablog.blogspot.ca/2015/06/third-ann...
by Viscid
Sun Nov 30, 2014 6:25 pm
Forum: Connections to Other Paths
Topic: Ingram, et al - "Hard Core Dharma" & claims of attainment
Replies: 1063
Views: 223380

Re: Ingram, et al - "Hard Core Dharma" & claims of attainmen

That is helpful. So, everyone who claims to be ariya can present their vision of the Buddha's teachings and and it should not be commented upon. Don't like this thread, don't read it. Not that it shouldn't be commented on, just that it really isn't worth the heated exchange that is currently going ...
by Viscid
Sun Nov 30, 2014 5:36 pm
Forum: Connections to Other Paths
Topic: Ingram, et al - "Hard Core Dharma" & claims of attainment
Replies: 1063
Views: 223380

Re: Ingram, et al - "Hard Core Dharma" & claims of attainmen

I hope you all recall that the first schism was (supposedly) caused by disagreement over the fallibility of arahants. We all have an implicit understanding about the nature of arahantship. Some of us inform that understanding through a strict interpretation of suttas, while others will incorporate o...
by Viscid
Mon Nov 24, 2014 9:50 pm
Forum: Lounge
Topic: BuDhaGirl Mindful Jewelry
Replies: 22
Views: 4872

Re: BuDhaGirl Mindful Jewelry

Thanks tilt. Bought an anklet.
by Viscid
Thu Nov 13, 2014 6:21 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Zen, Zazen and Dogen
Replies: 324
Views: 46418

Re: Zen, Zazen and Dogen

Here's a dialogue I had on another forum with a 'teacher' . The teachers' responses are full of crap. This is what I would say: You can only start from where you are, and quite frankly there is no way you cannot have a goal or an agenda in mind when trying to do the practice. Well said. Though, if ...
by Viscid
Wed Nov 12, 2014 10:48 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Zen, Zazen and Dogen
Replies: 324
Views: 46418

Re: Zen, Zazen and Dogen

It sounds to me like you might be misreading Hakuin's story. First, he is not holding it up as a proper satori - he is extremely self-critical "pride, arrogance, smug." Secondly far from rejecting koans, he was one of the prime systematisers of the koan system. Nevertheless, I'd say that ...
by Viscid
Tue Nov 11, 2014 8:35 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Zen, Zazen and Dogen
Replies: 324
Views: 46418

Re: Zen, Zazen and Dogen

This is perhaps off-topic, but I've been thinking about this for the past few days and don't really want to start a new thread (or a blog): I'm reading this translation of Hakuin's ' Four Ways of Knowing.' In the introduction Hakuin's enlightenment experience is described thusly: He said that he “co...
by Viscid
Fri Nov 07, 2014 9:42 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Zen, Zazen and Dogen
Replies: 324
Views: 46418

Re: Zen, Zazen and Dogen

Dogen’s famous passage from the Genjo-koan: "To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by shoho, all dharmas. To be enlightened by all dharmas is to remove the barrier between self and other." [/b] The fi...
by Viscid
Fri Nov 07, 2014 8:34 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Zen, Zazen and Dogen
Replies: 324
Views: 46418

Re: Zen, Zazen and Dogen

[...] cutting food and boiling rice as enlightenment [...] In case of an arahat (with both personality-view and the conceit "I am" absent), yes. In any other case, no. So, you are saying that you cannot do these actions fully attentive, without being lost in a sense of self. That is sad. ...
by Viscid
Fri Nov 07, 2014 5:26 pm
Forum: Ordination and Monastic Life
Topic: No more ordination for foreigners in southern Thailand?
Replies: 23
Views: 7239

Re: No more ordination for foreigners in Thailand

Time to build more Western monasteries.
by Viscid
Thu Nov 06, 2014 8:43 pm
Forum: Connections to Other Paths
Topic: Socrates, a Paccekabuddha?
Replies: 55
Views: 8969

Re: Socrates, a Paccekabuddha?

Do we have "ancient seers" that we need to sneak in through the back door? Is it a matter of applying a film of Dhammic authority onto favored external philosophies/persons/utterances? The whole field blossoms with questions, in my case. The paccekabuddha category probably arose in respon...
by Viscid
Wed Nov 05, 2014 10:24 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Maintaining samvega when things are going well
Replies: 21
Views: 4463

Re: Maintaining samvega when things are going well

I wonder how necessary a belief in rebirth is to having a proper sense of samvega.. Dying once is unfortunate. Dying innumerable times in innumerable ways is horrific. The inalterable fact that one is going to suffer in myriad forms, regardless of how comfortable their life is now, is much more cond...
by Viscid
Wed Nov 05, 2014 8:20 pm
Forum: Connections to Other Paths
Topic: Socrates, a Paccekabuddha?
Replies: 55
Views: 8969

Re: Socrates, a Paccekabuddha?

(5) “‘As long as they live the arahants abandon and abstain from liquor, wine, and intoxicants, the basis for heedlessness. Today, for this night and day, I too shall abandon and abstain from liquor, wine, and intoxicants, the basis for heedlessness. I shall imitate the arahants in this respect and...