book or sutta club??

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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: Dhamma study club

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

A sutta or other Dhamma text focus is fine. But I would prefer a graded approach from basic to advanced, using either a series of suttas or topics or a book recommended by Bhante Dhammanando or any other Bhikkhu.
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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retrofuturist
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Re: Dhamma study club

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings Will,
Will wrote:A sutta or other Dhamma text focus is fine. But I would prefer a graded approach from basic to advanced, using either a series of suttas or topics or a book recommended by Bhante Dhammanando or any other Bhikkhu.
There's no reason why theoretically, we couldn't have a separate Basic Class and Advanced Class. I'd just have to work out how to structure it.

Metta,
Retro. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
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Ben
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Re: book or sutta club??

Post by Ben »

Thanks Retro
That sounds like a good idea. Some thought should go into where to place the 'electro-vihara'. My personal preference is the Classical sub-forum but many members may find the stricter guidelines of the Classical sub-forum may constrain questions or interpretations they have already formed about certain texts.
Kind regards

Ben
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jcsuperstar
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Re: book or sutta club??

Post by jcsuperstar »

retro, your ideas are great. kinda exactly what i was looking for.
i dont know if we need 2 groups though.. that would be a lot to ask of who ever is leading it. but if you think its a good idea, okay.
สัพเพ สัตตา สุขีตา โหนตุ

the mountain may be heavy in and of itself, but if you're not trying to carry it it's not heavy to you- Ajaan Suwat
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jcsuperstar
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Re: book or sutta club??

Post by jcsuperstar »

Ben wrote:Thanks Retro
That sounds like a good idea. Some thought should go into where to place the 'electro-vihara'. My personal preference is the Classical sub-forum but many members may find the stricter guidelines of the Classical sub-forum may constrain questions or interpretations they have already formed about certain texts.
Kind regards

Ben
yeah i dont know if thats the best place for it. as i thought it would be a good idea to ask how these teachings are relevent to our modern lives... but i dont think making it wholely modern is the right course either.
สัพเพ สัตตา สุขีตา โหนตุ

the mountain may be heavy in and of itself, but if you're not trying to carry it it's not heavy to you- Ajaan Suwat
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retrofuturist
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Re: book or sutta club??

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings,

The modern section seems to make sense to me because it aims to cover all Theravada perspectives, from Buddha to Buddhaghosa to Buddhadasa... just like 'real-life' Theravada circa 2009, rather than circa 509.

Metta,
Retro. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
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jcsuperstar
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Re: book or sutta club??

Post by jcsuperstar »

sounds good :hug:
สัพเพ สัตตา สุขีตา โหนตุ

the mountain may be heavy in and of itself, but if you're not trying to carry it it's not heavy to you- Ajaan Suwat
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DNS
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Re: book or sutta club??

Post by DNS »

Sounds like an online Kalyana Mitta (spiritual friends) group. Some Dhamma centers have those where various topics or books are taken and discussed one at a time for more in-depth analysis. :twothumbsup:
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Dhammanando
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Re: book or sutta club??

Post by Dhammanando »

Hi JC,
jcsuperstar wrote:we could ask Dhammanando to lead it. maybe he knows some sutta learning scheme or what not so we'd have an order to do them in. also he could help with pali terms.
Due to the very limited time at my disposal, I would prefer to stick to chiming in rather than leading discussions. If leading, I would feel obliged to be online every day and to reply to every question, which I don't anticipate will be possible in the coming months.

I do, however, have one suggestion for group study: Ñāṇamoli's Life of the Buddha. This would be a good complement to Bhikkhu Bodhi's In the Buddha's Words, consisting in like manner of passages from the Suttas, but with the first rather than the second refuge as its focus.

Best wishes,
Dhammanando Bhikkhu
Rūpehi bhikkhave arūpā santatarā.
Arūpehi nirodho santataro ti.


“Bhikkhus, the formless is more peaceful than the form realms.
Cessation is more peaceful than the formless realms.”
(Santatarasutta, Iti 73)
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mikenz66
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Re: book or sutta club??

Post by mikenz66 »

I'm not sure that the sequence matters too much, since people will come and go, but I'd go for some of the Suttas from the Majjhima Nikaya. They are a nice size to discuss, and there is a lot of information in the form of talks and writings that could be used as background.

There are Bhikkhu Bodhi's talks:
http://www.bodhimonastery.net/bm/about- ... ikaya.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
BSWA talks (Ajahns Brahm, Vayama, Brahmali, etc)
http://www.bswa.org/audio/podcast/DhammaTalks.rss.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Talks by Bhante Vimalaramsi
http://www.dhammasukha.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Pressing out Pure Honey, by Sharda Rogell
PDF here: http://www.dharma.org/bcbs/Pages/publications.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Shaila Catherine has been running courses on the MN. She's up to the last fifty here:
http://www.imsb.org/programs/MajjhimaNi ... tFifty.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A small group here has done the first two fifties (I only joined midway through the second) and I guess we'll start on her notes for the last fifty in a month or two.

All of the above use the Nanamoli/Bodhi translation. They all take rather different approaches.

My suggestion would be to just have someone compile a list of maybe 50 suttas from the MN in some sort of order and discuss one per week. The easiest way to compile a list would be to just use Bhikkhu Bodhi's ordering:
http://www.bodhimonastery.net/bm/images ... llabus.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Once we had a list assigning Suttas to weeks it would basically run itself... Anyone could "kick off" the next week.

Metta
Mike

EDIT: Of course using Nanamoli's book or In the Buddha's Words would also be fine... :reading:
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jcsuperstar
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Re: book or sutta club??

Post by jcsuperstar »

well the good thing about the MN is that i have a copy, wait i mean that there are alreay other places online we can get inspiration... and various monks who we can read from on how to see these discourses.

i'd be fine with that.

EDIT: i dont care what order theyre in, so i sugesst that those who have some sort of preference about this speak up and it'll be you guys who pick the order.
สัพเพ สัตตา สุขีตา โหนตุ

the mountain may be heavy in and of itself, but if you're not trying to carry it it's not heavy to you- Ajaan Suwat
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retrofuturist
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Re: book or sutta club??

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings JC,

I think Mike's idea about following Bhikkhu Bodhi's program is a good one.

I'll start knock up something based on this.

Metta,
Retro. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
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jcsuperstar
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Re: book or sutta club??

Post by jcsuperstar »

im excited... kinda makes me feel like a dork... but i'm excited :geek:
สัพเพ สัตตา สุขีตา โหนตุ

the mountain may be heavy in and of itself, but if you're not trying to carry it it's not heavy to you- Ajaan Suwat
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retrofuturist
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Re: book or sutta club??

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings,

Now open for business...

Dhamma Wheel Study Group
http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewforum.php?f=25" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Please provide comments and feedback in this thread.

Thanks everyone for your ideas and input. :thumbsup:

Metta,
Retro. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
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jcsuperstar
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Re: book or sutta club??

Post by jcsuperstar »

oh oh if theres a bodhi talk on it, can the link to that be put in the thread too?
สัพเพ สัตตา สุขีตา โหนตุ

the mountain may be heavy in and of itself, but if you're not trying to carry it it's not heavy to you- Ajaan Suwat
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