DooDoot wrote: ↑Wed Aug 18, 2021 1:28 am
Very dangerous looking video, where the monk denounces: "making value judgments". It was already posted, as taught in AN 10.58: "all dhamma practices are
governed by mindfulness"; which means mindfulness remembers the sampajanna of what is right & wrong. The whole Buddhist Path is about the value judgment of what is "right & wrong".
This monk appears very virtuous & gentle in his behaviour (morality) but also appears to think like a Zen Buddhist in Theravada robes.
Hi DooDoot,
First, thank you for the PDF you sent me.
As for Ajahn Sumedho, actually the fact that Sati is memory, recollection and value judgement (we 100% agree on this) is not a diffused knowledge and the a different meaning is engrained in almost every Dhamma Teacher that I've read, lay or monk. It is in those years that I've seen, after discovering this myself, you, Frankk (yes, you almost agree with him too on this issuee, because if you careful read the suttas this is a thing that cannot possibly be missed or misinterpret), I've seen Levman raise the question about the meaning of Sati in a paper and Analayo trying to defend the bare awareness and present-moment definition with poor arguments in a response paper. I've seen Thanissaro say something very similar in the present moment is not the goal. STOP. So this Sati misrepresentation is so engrained in every buddhist that It is the de facto standard for everyone.
Edit: I would have to say that actually the first time I've read about sati= remembering is thanks to Analayo in "Satipatthana", even if his conclusion that "Sati enhances memory" was very disapponting.
What is important btw is that Sumedho in other words many times suggest that you have to make value judgements. His words:
When you are meditating and letting go of everything, your feelings calm down, and what is left is that there are no thoughts and feeling dominating consciousness".
"When we really contemplate suffering, we no longer incline towards grasping hold of desire, because it hurts, is painful, there is no point in doing it. So, from that time on, we understand, ‘Oh! That’s why I’m suffering; that’s its origin. Ah! now I understand. It’s that grasping hold of desire that causes me all this misery and suffering, all this fear, worry, expectation, despair, hatred, greed, delusion. All the problems of life come from grasping and clinging to the fire of desire."
Allure, Dangers, Drawbacks, Disenchantment, Dispassion.
Sumedho uses "value judgement" most of the time in the sense that you don't have to react "i like it" "i don't like it", "I'm bad because I like it" that is a very common western reaction from one that comes from Christian background. But it is clear, especially from his 4 noble truths booklet, that the value judgement "letting go of sensual pleasure is good" is there and that his mind is infused about this value judgement all the time, that the value judgement "aversion is to be abandoned" is there. The suggestion to really look, to really examine the five aggregates and their nature of anicca is, especially on the "I AM" construct, are there. He uses a different language because almost everyone in the world gives sati that meaning, but all the true 7 factors are there in Sumedho, even the Sutta's Sati.
This is a testimony of the greatness of the Teaching of the Buddha. You can totally misinterpret a word, but there are mechanism that can still bring you forward because the Dhamma is exposed in many ways with many strategies.