Foundational Wisdom

Module 10 of An Introduction to Buddhist Practice Course home 1: Part 1: Buddhist Life2: The Buddha3: Generosity4: Harmlessness5: Purity6: Harmony7: Refuge8: Part 2: Buddhist Path9: The Higher Training10: Foundational Wisdom11: Perfecting Virtue12: Cultivating the Mind13: Disentangling the Mind14: Awakening15: Conclusion

Photo by Joi Ito, CC BY 2.0

Homework

Chapter 8 from Buddhist Life, Buddhist Path – Bhikkhu Cintita (.pdf) (.epub) (.pdf)

AN 5.16 Punakūṭa Sutta: The Second on the Peak (.pdf)

• Of all the spiritual powers, wisdom is chief in that it guides the others.
• For the four other spiritual powers listed here, what does it look like if someone puts that one as chief?

Buddhism: The Only Real Science – Ajahn Brahm (.pdf)

• Ajahn Brahm reassures us that Buddhism is scientific and rational, containing things that we can discover and prove in ourselves.

AN 10.61 Avijjā Sutta: (The Fuel for) Ignorance

• The Buddha explains what fuel keeps ignorance going, and fuels the path out.

SN 22.101 Vāsijaṭa Sutta: The Adze Handle Simile – Joseph Goldstein (.mp3) (.text)

• Liberation is for one who knows and sees the origin and passing away of the aggregates, and it happens as the natural result of cultivating the Noble Eightfold Path.
• Interestingly, right intention is not the desire to attain liberation, and the desire for liberation doesn’t lead to liberation. Rather, cultivating renunciation, goodwill and harmlessness, and developing the mind accordingly, is the motivation that leads to nibbāna.
• While it’s impossible to know “today I’ve made this much progress” it is possible over larger time spans to reflect and see how our practice has changed our character.

Becoming Your Own Therapist – Thubten Yeshe (.pdf)

• A short series of talks and Q-and-As on Buddhist wisdom by a modern Tibetan master.

Lecture

Reality – Bhante Yuttadhammo (.mp3) (.mp3)

Continue to Part 11, Perfecting Virtue

...or go back to part 9