I have multiple ideas as to how the practice ultimately works. A common mistake: having ideas about how something is to be. It is an inevitable and excusable fault of a conditioned mind seeking answers which are already apparent, but which the mind has not yet grasped or realized because there is s...

I requested my library purchase Larry Rosenberg's Breath by Breath and Ven. Analayo's Satipatthana, but both requests were rejected. I am wondering if there are free authorized online versions of these books and where they can be found if so. Try this. It's a large download, though (47MB). Satipatt...

I am finding that if I use anapanasati I find it excruciatingly difficult to stay focused. I mean more than any other method I have ever used. It gets to the point currently where its almost a sleep induction exercise!! :shrug: I have used this method in the past to calm the mind as a precursor to ...

‘deathless’ ( amaro ) was also an epithet for the ātman of the Upaniṣads: sa vāeṣa nahān ajātmā, ajaro, amaro’ mṛto’bhayo brahma; abhayaṃ vai brahma, abhyaṃ hi vai brahma bhavati ya avaṃ veda . || Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad IV. 4.25 || “This is that great unborn Self who is undecaying, undying, immort...

polarbuddha101 wrote: You're assuming that aversion is impossible to uproot, hence you're assuming that nibbana, the destruction of passion, aversion, and delusion is also impossible.

No. You are.

A distinction without a difference. A distinction with a clear difference. You say aversion can arise even in an arahant, the suttas deny that is the case. If you wish to believe that, go right ahead. It's no skin off my nose. Like I say, practice really hard and find out for yourself. Nothing clar...

It is not so much that the arising of disliking or aversion can take place (as it most assuredly can, even in an arahant, who is confronted by a conventional situation which may seem to be unjustified, in the mind). It is about not taking it personally (i.e. remaining unperturbed that it has arisen...

Put in the language of Zen, anger presupposes someone to be "angry," at some thing or some one else. What about disliking? What about choosing? Doesn't it presupposes someone to "dislike" at some thing or some one else. With apologies to the OP of this thread (which has been tem...

Maybe revulsion to counteract craving is equal in force to craving so that net result is zero. Example: Lets say that craving is 5 units of force to the left. If one develops 5 units of force to the right (anger) then the net result is zero. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find any recommendations...

Is there anything even remotely resembling the idea of grace - help from outside of ourselves - in the Suttas or the writings of Theravada Buddhists that you know of? Kalyāṇa-mittatā aside, no. Not only NO, but HEAVENS NO! The question alone betrays the ignorance of the questioner with regard to th...

Can some one explain what Access Concentration is? Tony... Hi Tony, Some here may disagree with my take, depending on whose instruction they follow, but I find that speaking from one's personal experience is always the best policy and the quickest route to the truth (at least from one's own opinion...

To whom or where, may it be asked?

In other words, if you're going to posit dukkha into existence, then where is the testimony of its existence?

Lets say you want to eat the cake, when you eat it - you experience pleasure. But when you stop eating it, the pleasure stops and eventually you['re] back where you started from. If one tries to eat one cake after another cake, then very soon what was sources of pleasure will feel painful. If cake ...

frank k wrote:I've heard Japanese scholars have done work in establishing the chronology of pali suttas. Is any of this available online?

Good question, Frank. I'll be interested to see who responds to this and with what evidence.

It's important, first of all, to note that the first two steps are not something that one really practices, at least in the same way that one practices the next 14. (1) While breathing in long he fully comprehends: I breathe in long. While breathing out long he fully comprehends: I breathe out long...