The main reason I'm still interested in perhaps ordaining, if possible, is to live in an environment more conducive to the cultivation of samma-sati and samma-samadhi, yet I read that for some folks, meditation was easier as a layman? Is this a common experience?? I would recommend monasteries that...

Gossip and such is due to boredom aka restlessness. Better to move your attention to either 1) The Dhamma (4NT, 3C) or 2) Meditation object like the breath

And the final finally - It is totally possible for lay normal people to attain first jhana from time to time Then Anathapindika the householder, surrounded by about 500 lay followers, went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there the Bles...

As I've always said, and said again in the rituals thread from earlier this week. Stream entry fruit = seeing dependent origination (4NT) or dependent originated phenomena (3 characteristics) Stream entry path (aka faith or dhamma followers) = understanding and accepting dependent origination or dep...

MN 128 speaks about Light AND Vision (vision is an abhinna that arises in 4th jhana). Did you not see the sutta I quoted talking about only seeing Light and not Vision? The vision of light and form is possible even before the first jhana is reached, as is the attainment of some iddhi. In the fourth...

According to the suttas. We do know is that there are nimittas: Samatha nimitta & Abyagga nimitta which arise together and lead to one pointedness and that Cittassa nimittaṃ comes after, which I already quoted first comes pleasure, then comes patterns of the mind (cittassa nimitta) Which suttas...

Seeing light means access concentration. According to whom? This is indicated by many teachers, for example, Achan Li Dhammadharo. If it's not in the suttas, then it's just speculation. Seeing light comes later and stabilizes around fourth jhana According to whom? ;) According to the suttas. We do ...

Antaradhana wrote: ↑Tue Jul 09, 2019 1:00 pm

budo wrote: ↑Tue Jul 09, 2019 12:57 pmI don't see access concentration mentioned anywhere in that sutta.

Seeing light means access concentration.

According to whom?

Seeing light comes later and stabilizes around fourth jhana, tranquility (passadhi) arises way before that.

And here in the same sutta, the Buddha describes attaining samadhi, and then losing it It describes how the monks reached the concentration of access (the threshold of the first jhana or a very short entrance to it, accompanied by the appearance of nimitta), and then its loss, due to one or another...

The five main obstacles + the additional obstacles listed in MN 128 are the obstacles for the first jhana. And here in the same sutta, the Buddha describes attaining samadhi, and then losing it: While meditating … So kho ahaṃ, anuruddhā … pe …tassa mayhaṃ, anuruddhā,etadahosi: ‘Terror arose in me, ...

Then why is desirelessness described as a goal? "He has cut off the whirlpool And reached desirelessness , The stream dried up now no longer flows. The whirlpool cut off whirls no more. This, even this, is suffering's end." Cūḷavagga of the Udāna Yes, generally you are right. However, the...

an excerpt from MN 31 this is another superhuman state, a distinction in knowledge and vision worthy of the noble ones, a comfortable abiding, which we have attained by surmounting the preceding abiding Any thoughts on this? Budo, Antaradhana, Pondera Notice how it is called jhana of the worthy one...

An Unconscious Person does not have bright and clear faculties. Budo. The "faculties" here appear to be the five physical sense organs (rather than mental facilities). :roll: Friend, there are these five faculties each with a separate range, a separate domain, and they do not experience o...

To sum up, it the purpose of a Buddhist to remove all types of desire, or just some of them? If you only need to remove some of them, why is this not specified? (instead of just saying: “desire is the root of all suffering”) Is there something that I’m missing about the concept of “desire”? Thanks ...

On the diversity of faculties: "Udayin, there are these four types of people to be found existing in the world. Which four? There is the case where a certain person is practicing for the abandoning & relinquishing of acquisitions. As he is practicing for the abandoning & relinquishing o...