I lsten to Thanissaro daily and think you have to listen to a lot in order to put his criticisms in context. Otherwise, there is alot of nuance and subtlety that might be missed. Interestingly, Ven.Thanissaro seems to keep up to date on developments in Psychology. He often compares buddhist practice...

The part that sticks with me is when he says:

If you want something that's not in your control, then you want to be a slave, for your happiness is now under somebody else's control. Do you want to be a slave or free ?

I believe the author had been a slave.

Perhaps worldly and unworldly pleasant feelings would be a better translation. I think the feeling you get when you buy a new car vs the feeling you get when you watch your child open a christmas present, or graduate from college are a couple of examples of worldly and unworldly pleasant feelings. W...

Over 60 percent of university students are women, and 50,000 books were published in Iran. Isn't that reform? These are highly educated, vibrant societies. I think some in the west like focus on some negative qualities of other societies in order to prop thier own egos. This is the Asian Century. Th...

The problem with blaming Islam for ISIS is that the direct cause for the rise of this organization was the Invasion of Iraq and attempted overthrow of Assad which allowed ISIS to take over Syrian oil fields. The seed of hatred is in us all, but the wars that west started caused it to grow. Iran and ...

If France, Britain, and other European countries had resisted the imperial temptation — if they had never sent armies to places like Syria, Iraq, India, or North Africa — they would not be facing the terror that afflicts them today. Sorry, I find this statement ignorant at best and disingenuous at ...

What is very strange is that France is giving millions in weapons to "rebels" in Syria to overthrow Assad. These "rebels" are al-qaeda. I can provide citations. France is financing groups identical to ISIS. Its almost as if some in France want to be attacked because they benefit ...

Communism was a sort of an atheist-religion. It had a founder (Marx) and prophets (Lenin and Mao), holy books: Mao's little red book and the Communist Manifesto. They even had pilgrimages; those who went to line up and view the embalmed body of Lenin in Moscow. It even had a "higher power"...

Rise of Isis: documentary on how the west's war mongering unleashed these barbaric thugs on the world. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/rise-of-isis/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.op...

I wonder why people don't call me a Googlist when I use Google maps to navigate to my destination But why people call me a Buddhist when I use the 8-fold path that Buddha showed? It is not relevant to me if the person I interact is a Buddhist or not.. what is relevant (from the practice pov) is whe...

Ven Analayo recommends using the breath as if it were your last beath approach. See his wonderful guided meditation. Includes all Satipatthana including charnel ground/death meditation. http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/439/talk/26718/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; He has also...

What about downloading books and pdfs ?

The unrestricted spread of knowledge might bring great benefits to everyone regardless of copyright laws.

The Thai Forest founders, like Ajahn Mun, encountered a lot of resistance due to identity politics. They were accused of not following Thai Buddhist customs. Ajahn Mun said he wasn’t interested in Thai customs or the customs of any society — as they were, by definition, the customs of people with gr...

http://secularbuddhism.org/2015/09/11/compassion-and-emptiness-in-early-buddhist-meditation-a-review/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; A review of Ven Analayos new book on the brahmaviharas. The tittle is a little misleading. It covers all brahmaviharas, and teaches how to tr...

http://windhorsepublications.com/compassion_and_emptiness_in_early_buddhist_meditation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Ven Analayo's new book on the brahmavihara says to Meditate on Equanimity, the fourth brahmavihara, when the hindrance of aversion/anger has already arisen....