If bhavaṅga is “unconsciousness”, then it certainly is not unconsciousness in the sense of a mental blank. In fact bhavaṅga is understood in the texts as in most respects sharing the same properties as other types of consciousness; bhavaṅga is not something different from consciousness, rather it is consciousness operating in a particular mode
]]>The point of commonality of the teachings is that they are all concerned with how something works: none of them is concerned with what something is, or, indeed, with what it is not. Most crucially, they are focused on how all the factors of human existence in the cycle of lives are dependent on other factors.
]]>In reality there are only three things: mind, matter, and Dhamma.
]]>Kamma is neither fatalism nor a doctrine of predetermination.
]]>… people from 30 yojana around flocked to witness this spectacle, and you can well believe it. This must have been the most astonishing and spectacular thing that they had ever seen
On how the early legend of Sankassa gives us confidence that the Pāli-Canon was well-preserved.
]]>… whatever (is) seen, heard, or thought, the good say ‘putting down’
A short note on the grounds for valid knowledge in the pre-Abhidhamma Pāli.
]]>Isn’t the Abhidhamma the highest?
]]>I’m gripped by a somewhat peculiar trepidation as I tiptoe into the hallowed portals of the abhidhamma, my feet echoing too loudly in the cavernous austerity.
]]>The Buddha was not a butterfly collector.
We may begin with one simple list, but the structure of early Buddhist thought and literature dictates that we end up with an intricate pattern of lists within lists
]]>These are the over two hundred kinds of knowledge that arise in one who develops concentration by mindfulness of breathing with sixteen grounds
… the earliest extant, detailed commentary on Buddhist meditation available in an Indic language
The Path of Discrimination was a key influence on later meditation manuals (such as the medieval Visuddhimagga) and is the oldest such commentary in existence, giving us a rare insight into the early Indian commentarial and meditation traditions.
For a translation of the entire Paṭisambhidāmagga, see SuttaCentral
]]>The fossils found clearly show that there has been a development from reptile to bird, even though the particular animal whose remains have been discovered was of course not the first one to start jumping or gliding from one tree to the next. Comparable to the fossils of an archaeopteryx, some early discourses reflect particular stages in the development of Buddhist thought.
]]>Although you do not move…
]]>Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance.
A classic of modern psychology, Thinking, Fast and Slow explains the two halves of our brain and how they contribute to our sometimes-less-than-rational behavior.
]]>Insofar as it disintegrates, it is called the ‘world.’
]]>The magga, then, is not a ‘path’ as a series of steps, but a particular way of approach, a way of operating, an orientation that is fully equipped only when it has eight factors. It can then do its work of perfecting noble sīla, then noble samādhi and then noble paññā.
]]>… the Noble Eight-factored Magga is neither the general practice of Buddhism, including ordinary levels of samatha and vipassanā meditation, nor, as in the developed Abhidhamma-cum-commentarial view, only the instant prior to stream-entry. It is a specific eight-factored way of approach, or skilful method that can arise when the mind is free of the five hindrances, especially during a sermon on the four ariya-saccas or when there is samatha and strong vipassanā into the three marks
If you can intentionally kill out of compassion, then fine, go ahead. But are you sure? Are you sure that what you think are friendliness and compassion are really friendliness and compassion? Are you sure that some subtle aversion and delusion have not surfaced in the mind?
]]>]]>Seeing this, a learned noble disciple grows disillusioned with the eye, sights, eye consciousness, eye contact, feeling, and craving. Being disillusioned, desire fades away. When desire fades away they’re freed.
Note that, pace the title, this philosophy is not what the Buddha taught “as it is” but is rather the Pāli as interpreted by the commentarial tradition.
]]>To approach what, for the want of a better term, we call the mythic portions of the Nikayas with the attitude that such categories as “mythic symbol” and “literally true” are absolutely opposed is to adopt an attitude that is out of time and place. It seems to me that in some measure we must allow both a literal and a psychological interpretation. Both are there in the texts.
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