Search found 1401 matches

by sunnat
Mon Mar 18, 2024 2:01 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: "If we owned our body, it would obey our every command"
Replies: 41
Views: 774

Re: "If we owned our body, it would obey our every command"

Instead of ‘to own’ use the idea of ‘a part of me, or my self’ or ‘I-making’. Obviously money etc is not part of me. The tendency to I-make things outside the body is intellectually understood to be wrong. Equanimous mindfulness in relation to feelings regarding things like money, family etc shows h...
by sunnat
Sun Mar 17, 2024 11:49 pm
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: breath concentration
Replies: 6
Views: 345

Re: breath concentration

calmly, being aware of the breath as it is, one is not doing all the other stuff. iow: letting go of them. Remember what got you to a stage that you now crave for. Were you chasing that then. Stop chasing, wanting, liking, missing and you cultivate the conditions that makes ephemeral phenomena like ...
by sunnat
Wed Mar 13, 2024 11:16 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Venerating the Dhamma as the Impersonal Divine Cosmic Order symbolized by the Thousand Spoked Wheel symbol
Replies: 146
Views: 4336

Re: Venerating the Dhamma as the Impersonal Divine Cosmic Order symbolized by the Thousand Spoked Wheel symbol

Without clearly defining divine and venerate this exchange remains just a thicket of views. When such definitions are based on personal predilections there is no clarity. What is most helpful to the path walker? Because there is no creator god, divinity is best understood by virtue of inherent unive...
by sunnat
Sat Mar 09, 2024 7:28 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: anicca
Replies: 103
Views: 4246

There was a story of a disciple of Confucius wandering along a turbulent river wondering how to cross it. Like a good disciple he had memorised much of his masters wisdom but could think of nothing that would help. Then, on the other side of the river came a brown robed monk who didn’t stop at the r...
by sunnat
Mon Mar 04, 2024 12:41 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: What is the best place (limb) to start studying Dependent Origination?
Replies: 7
Views: 400

Re: What is the best place (limb) to start studying Dependent Origination?

🙂there is an opportunity to elaborate. There is a tendency to intellectualise so a pointer to a mindset or attitude or perhaps way of thinking, devoid of analysis, goes deeper in answering not just this question but many diverse ones. Basically what is suggested is that an open mind is well formed t...
by sunnat
Mon Mar 04, 2024 3:55 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: What is the best place (limb) to start studying Dependent Origination?
Replies: 7
Views: 400

Re: What is the best place (limb) to start studying Dependent Origination?

it can be easiest to start with the funny bone.

A happy mind is an open and calm mind, so be happy, peaceful and liberated.
by sunnat
Fri Mar 01, 2024 8:38 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Anicca, Dukkha,Anatta with a new angle
Replies: 3
Views: 313

All conditioned, composed, things are constantly changing, decaying, decomposing. There are no things that do not constantly change. The impression that something does not continually change is a delusion born of inattention born of craving and ignorance. Possibly a confusion arises from the phrase ...
by sunnat
Mon Feb 26, 2024 1:02 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Identity View
Replies: 5
Views: 380

Re: Identity View, not self, origination and cessation

Again, The Blessed one addressing those in training, the virtuous Bhikkhus, MN148 : covering the six sets of six "If anyone says, ‘Mind [or any of the sense bases] is self’, that is not acceptable. The rise and fall of mind is seen and understood, and since its rise and fall are discerned, it w...
by sunnat
Mon Feb 26, 2024 1:51 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Practices around Dependant Origination
Replies: 56
Views: 2102

Of all the causes and effects it is feelings that is the point at which stepping off the cycle of samsara becomes directly possible Lord Buddha makes it quite clear in MN148, the Chachakka Sutta, “The Six Sets of Six” : ( feelings are all sensory impressions of the six sense doors which amounts to t...
by sunnat
Fri Feb 23, 2024 12:03 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Right livelihood
Replies: 9
Views: 285

Re: Right livelihood

by cultivating harmlessness, compassion, loving kindness, sympathetic joy, and insight meditation one comes to know whether whatever one does is supportive of The Dhamma. There may then be a gradual transition from grossly evil practices to what is good. Examples that come to mind is the guy who wro...
by sunnat
Thu Feb 22, 2024 1:45 am
Forum: Connections to Other Paths
Topic: Feelings, conventions and gravity
Replies: 20
Views: 705

Re: Feelings

“ some misguided men learn the Dhamma—discourses, stanzas, expositions, verses, exclamations, sayings, birth stories, marvels, and answers to questions—but having learned the Dhamma, they do not examine the meaning of those teachings with wisdom. Not examining the meaning of those teachings with wi...
by sunnat
Mon Feb 19, 2024 5:58 pm
Forum: Connections to Other Paths
Topic: Christian-Buddhism?
Replies: 876
Views: 20626

“ find what you are looking for in Buddhism and Christianity ” - belief in a sky- daddy ((father who art in heaven*) that bestows salvation to the believer, and opens the pearly gates to an eternal heaven for the soul to enjoy or sends the unbelievers soul to suffer an eternal hell) and remain wande...
by sunnat
Sat Feb 17, 2024 8:49 pm
Forum: Lounge
Topic: Nas Daily on Buddhism
Replies: 25
Views: 1058

Re: Nas Daily on Buddhism

the monk said, when asked if there is any thing in life that doesn’t change, ‘yes. the process of change’. The Dhamma as ‘the process of change’ is a simple and good answer. (nibbana is not a thing). it ends with the idea that Buddhism makes everyone, whoever and wherever they are, better. Well said...
by sunnat
Thu Feb 15, 2024 10:59 pm
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Remaining Focused on the Breath
Replies: 16
Views: 822

Immediately before the above quoted passage is written this: “ In the matter of tranquillity meditation: of the forty meditation exercises that are prescribed, mindfulness of respiration is the easiest to establish continuously at all times. ” I wonder then if it is ‘great wisdom’ that is to be unde...