Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Mar 20, 2021 2:38 AM
Title: Re: Homosexuality
Content:
I think your spell-checker has changed viriya into virus.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Mar 20, 2021 1:37 AM
Title: Re: Sutta Nipata in Russian from 1899
Content:
It's by Nikifor Ilarionovich Gerasimov from Fausboll's English translation. There's also a digital version of it:

http://www.theravada.ru/Teaching/Canon/Suttanta/suttanipata.htm


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Mar 20, 2021 12:27 AM
Title: Re: Source for the Pāli Canon in English
Content:
And so ceteris paribus we can usually (though not invariably) anticipate that a later translation will be superior to an earlier one. 

To this general rule there are two exceptions: (1) those where the later translator is simply less capable that the earlier one (e.g., Walshe's DN and Horner's Milinda are inferior to the earlier ones by Thomas Rhys Davids, because the earlier translator was a lot more intelligent than Miss Horner and had a lot more years of Pali study behind him than Maurice Walshe); and (2) verse translations where the later translator has decided to prioritize the creation of good poetry over fidelity to the text's meaning (e.g., as a translation of the Suttanipāta E.M. Hare's Woven Cadences is far better poetry than the pioneering rendering by Fausboll, but if it's accuracy you want, then Fausboll's the man.

Or at least Fausboll would be the man if it weren't for the fact that his translation has been superseded by those of Norman, Jayawickrama and Bodhi. Why superseded? Because Fausboll, though arguably the greatest of all 19th century Western Pali scholars, only had one version of the Suttanipāta to translate from and it happened to be a bad one. The three later scholars had many editions to consult, as well as the commentary.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Mar 18, 2021 9:35 AM
Title: Re: Jesus is the Only Way?
Content:
This story is decades old and has been largely disowned by Christian missionary outfits in Asia.

https://web.archive.org/web/20130410063245/http://www.ccgm.org.au/index.php?g=articles&a=0036


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Mar 17, 2021 5:36 PM
Title: Re: SuttaCentral 2021: we are live!
Content:
Thanks Paul and BKh.

I can't understand why everyone's enthusing about this latest version. I could find what I was looking for much more quickly and easily with the older version and quickest and most easily of all with the very first version.

Actually the first version (still surviving as legacy.suttacentral.net, but unfortunately no longer updated) is still my first port of call, simply because I have a slow connection and it loads much faster than its newfangled successors.

"Old truths, old laws, old boots, old books and old friends are the best."
(An old Polish saying)


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Mar 17, 2021 1:04 PM
Title: Re: SuttaCentral 2021: we are live!
Content:
I can't make head or tail of the new format. 

 

Could someone kindly tell me how I would go about finding, say, the Pali text of MN 2?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Mar 15, 2021 5:46 PM
Title: Re: Theravāda, Anatta, and Mindstreams
Content:
For moral motivation, the recognition of the sentience of others, along with the golden rule, are deemed sufficient. Adding the concept of a supposed "sanctity of life" to the mixture would be just painting legs on a snake.


"All tremble at the rod. All fear death. Comparing others with oneself, one should neither kill nor cause to kill."
Dhammapada 129


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Mar 15, 2021 1:35 PM
Title: Re: Homosexuality
Content:
I can't remember which one it is. I think the source is given in Peter Harvey's book on Buddhist ethics.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Mar 15, 2021 12:47 AM
Title: Re: Homosexuality
Content:
As far as I'm aware, the specification of certain types of sexual act (oral and anal sex, and masturbation) as being intrinsically breaches of the third householder's precept (regardless of whom one's partner might be) is a peculiarity of Tibetan Buddhism, based on late Sarvāstivādin texts. The Buddha in the suttas doesn't go into such matters at all and confines himself to listing improper partners. Likewise the later Theravādin texts.

As for homosexuals, the suttas don't specify what would be an improper partner for them, but the majority opinion among Theravada teachers is that they should try to observe analogous restraints to those of a heterosexual layperson, i.e., to be faithful to their partner and to not enter into relations with someone who's already spoken for or who's still under the guardianship of his/her family members .


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Mar 13, 2021 5:46 PM
Title: Re: the lounge
Content:
It's technically possible to bring it back, but I don't see any good reason to do so. Do you?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Mar 13, 2021 9:34 AM
Title: Re: Homosexuality
Content:
Since the Buddhist perspective is a non-theistic one, it can't be said that bodies are "designed" at all, let alone designed for one sort of sexual act but not another.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Mar 10, 2021 7:16 PM
Title: Re: Homosexuality
Content:
Nope, still not right. Let me help you out....

"The evidence consists in the fact that pandakas are not mentioned in those suttas that were believed to be early by the Taiwanese Mahayanist Yìnshùn Dǎoshī, whose sutta stratification scheme happens to be the favoured one at Sutta Central. As such my argument should persuade those who accept this scheme, but not those who favour other stratification schemes, nor those who reject stratification tout court."

There!


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Mar 10, 2021 4:58 PM
Title: Re: Homosexuality
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Mar 9, 2021 3:44 PM
Title: Re: Questions about monk life
Content:
They grew up and put away childish things.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Mar 9, 2021 7:32 AM
Title: Re: Discouragement and perfectionism in virtue
Content:
Kāmada Sutta, SN 2.6

[Kamada:]
So hard it is to do, Lord,
It's so very hard to do!

[Buddha:]
But still they do what's hard to do,
Who steady themselves with virtue.
For one pursuing homelessness,
Content arrives, and with it joy.

[Kamada:]
So hard it is to get, Lord,
This content of which you speak!

[Buddha:]
But still they get what's hard to get,
Who delight in a tranquil mind.
The mind of those, both day and night,
Delights in its development.

[Kamada:]
So hard it is to tame, Lord,
This mind of which you speak!

[Buddha:]
But still they tame what's hard to tame,
Who delight in senses at peace.
Cutting through mortality's net,
The nobles, Kamada, proceed.

[Kamada:]
So hard it is to go, Lord,
On this path that gets so rough!

[Buddha:]
Still nobles, Kamada, proceed
On paths both rough and hard to take.
Those who are less than noble fall
On their heads when the path gets rough.
But for nobles the path is smooth
— For nobles smooth out what is rough!

(Olendzki tr.)

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn02/sn02.006.olen.html

Other translations...

https://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?t=21642


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Mar 8, 2021 10:44 PM
Title: Re: Source for the Pāli Canon in English
Content:
That's not a translation. It's the romanised Pali.

The Dhammasangani is the one I recommended.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Mar 8, 2021 6:05 AM
Title: Re: What will happen to an Arahant if nobody gives food, shelter, and clothes?
Content:
The two chief disciples, Sāriputta and Moggallāna, are higher. After them come the eighty great disciples.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Mar 8, 2021 5:05 AM
Title: Re: What will happen to an Arahant if nobody gives food, shelter, and clothes?
Content:
Well, they did wish to feed Mahākassapa, who was actually a great disciple (mahāsāvaka), not a chief disciple (aggasāvaka). But what the devas' general bhikkhu-feeding policies might be, I've no idea.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Mar 7, 2021 10:18 PM
Title: Re: What will happen to an Arahant if nobody gives food, shelter, and clothes?
Content:
If no humans offer him food it's possible that devas may feed him through the pores of his skin, as they once wished to do with Mahākassapa. If that doesn't happen then he'll "mindfully await his time like a hireling his wages."


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Mar 7, 2021 1:17 PM
Title: Re: Paul Trafford on the Fifth Precept
Content:
It's paultraf. An Englishman with a Thai mother. I've never met him myself, but I knew his mother quite well as she was one of the regulars at the Burmese vihara I used to attend in the early 80's.

https://www.dhammawheel.com/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=1678


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Mar 7, 2021 10:52 AM
Title: Re: Source for the Pāli Canon in English
Content:
With the exception of the Dhammasangani and Yamaka each of the seven books has only one English translation so far. The Dhammasangani and Yamaka have two, of which the more recent ones are better (as is usually the case with translations of Pali texts).

Dhammasaṅganī 
A Buddhist Manual of Psychological Ethics (C.A.F. Rhys Davids, 1900)
Dhammasaṅganī (U Kyaw Khine, 1996)

Vibhaṅga
Book of Analysis (U Thittila, 1969)

Dhātukathā
Discourse on Elements (U Nārada, 1962)

Puggalapaññatti
Designation of Human Types (B.C. Law, 1922)

Kathāvatthu
Points of Controversy (S.Z. Aung, 1915)

Yamaka
Book on Pairs (U Nārada, 1998)

Book of Pairs and its Commentary (L.S. Cousins and C.M.M. Shaw. Only first two of the three parts complete).

Paṭṭhāna 
Conditional Relations (U Nārada, 1969. Only first two of three parts complete)


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Mar 7, 2021 9:53 AM
Title: Paul Trafford on the Fifth Precept
Content:
https://www.academia.edu/34976455/Avoiding_pam%C4%81da_An_analysis_of_the_Fifth_Precept_as_Social_Protection_in_Contemporary_Contexts_with_reference_to_the_early_Buddhist_teachings


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Mar 7, 2021 1:50 AM
Title: Re: Is Nibbana a product of Mara?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Mar 7, 2021 1:34 AM
Title: Re: Which Theravada school is the closest to early Buddhism?
Content:
It works all right for me. But you will find a link to the article on this page:

https://ocbs.org/lance-cousins/


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Mar 6, 2021 8:41 PM
Title: Re: Which Theravada school is the closest to early Buddhism?
Content:
The scholar may be "modern" but he does no more than reiterate what Vasumitra (and perhaps Bhavya) say.

Here's a much more thorough article on the name by Lance Cousins...

https://tinyurl.com/38s23xvt


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Mar 6, 2021 6:45 PM
Title: Re: Is Nibbana a product of Mara?
Content:
The highest good obtains both before and after. It is experienced only before. (Unless we are using "experienced" only in the sense of "undergone", not in the sense of "felt").


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Mar 6, 2021 5:19 PM
Title: Re: Is Nibbana a product of Mara?
Content:
As I read it, the statement from the London Buddhist Vihara is probably contrasting the Buddhist soteriology with that of outside teachings in which the highest good is experienced only after death.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Mar 6, 2021 5:08 PM
Title: Re: Proper Understanding About Right Livelihood
Content:
No, not on a subject that I've never researched or given any thought to.

I assume that Buddhists who are earnest about right livelihood and who are considering employment in the GMO field will already be acquainted with the arguments of both the advocates and the critics, and so will already be far better placed than I to weigh up the potential benefits and harms of such employment.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Mar 6, 2021 3:50 PM
Title: Re: Is Nibbana a product of Mara?
Content:
The Suddhāvāsas, Pure Abodes, are the five Brahma realms into which anāgāmins are reborn and where they will attain arahatta.

What has this to do with the question of whether nibbāna is experienced in this life?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Mar 6, 2021 3:42 PM
Title: Re: Which Theravada school is the closest to early Buddhism?
Content:
Obviously the diversity of opinion on this is one of the factors that makes it likely there'll be a diversity of answers to the OP's question.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Mar 6, 2021 3:19 PM
Title: Re: Is Nibbana a product of Mara?
Content:
If one is still "experiencing what is agreeable and what is disagreeable," then one is still alive 

https://suttacentral.net/iti44/en/ireland


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Mar 6, 2021 3:05 PM
Title: Re: What to do about tipitaka.fandom.com
Content:
Spelling note:

Tipiṭaka - Three Baskets.

Tipitika - a child with three fathers.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Mar 5, 2021 8:42 PM
Title: Re: Proper Understanding About Right Livelihood
Content:
I don't presently have any opinion as it's a subject I know nothing about..


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Mar 5, 2021 5:03 PM
Title: Re: Is mind and chit the same?
Content:
In the Abhidhamma and its commentaries citta and mano are the same thing.

In the Suttas, the passages mentioning citta and mano are of three kinds:

1. Those where it's clear that they denote the same thing.
2. Those where it's clear that they denote different things.
3. Those where it's a point of dispute whether they denote the same thing or different things. In this third case it's usual for ābhidhammikas to hold that the two terms are the same and for suttantikas to hold that they're different.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Mar 5, 2021 4:46 PM
Title: Re: Proper Understanding About Right Livelihood
Content:
If someone were to consider the reasons (as given in the commentaries) for why these five occupations are wrong livelihood, and were then to observe that these same reasons would also apply to occupations that didn't exist in the Buddha's time, and were then to include these too in wrong livelihood, then he wouldn't really be making any change to the wrong livelihood teaching. In fact he would be doing exactly what Vinaya scholars do when they apply the mahāpadesas to adjudge whether something that exists now but didn't exist in the Buddha's time should be allowable or unallowable for a bhikkhu. To make such reasoned judgements is to apply the teaching, not to change it.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Mar 3, 2021 6:24 PM
Title: Re: Ven. Pandita on the third precept
Content:
One is safe so long as hiri and ottappa are habitual states. These are the mainstay of sīla, being relatively easy to arouse. Letting go is harder and so most people can't rely upon their ability to do it on each occasion when a temptation presents itself.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Mar 3, 2021 3:45 PM
Title: Ven. Pandita on the third precept
Content:
https://www.academia.edu/35658593/Sexual_Misconduct_in_Early_Buddhism_A_New_Approach_Draft_


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Mar 3, 2021 2:57 PM
Title: Re: Online Ph.D in Buddhist Studies
Content:
Then I'm afraid I don't know what the problem is. There's a help desk here that might help.

https://networks.h-net.org/help-desk


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Mar 2, 2021 11:59 PM
Title: Re: Online Ph.D in Buddhist Studies
Content:
First you have to sign up. Have you done that yet?

https://networks.h-net.org/user/register


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Mar 2, 2021 6:37 PM
Title: Re: Online Ph.D in Buddhist Studies
Content:
I suggest you post your query to H-Buddhism. Good luck.


https://networks.h-net.org/h-buddhism


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Mar 2, 2021 5:51 PM
Title: Re: Kāmāsavo
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Mar 2, 2021 12:28 AM
Title: Re: Kāmāsavo
Content:
Cognativity doesn't suffice to "show" anything at all about a word's meaning, for where two words are etymological cognates their meanings may be...

The same: French chat and English cat.
Or similar: German Hund and English hound.
Or different: sovereign and soprano.
Or even opposite: guest and host.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Mar 1, 2021 4:15 AM
Title: Re: How do the modernist hell-deniers interpret AN 3.36?
Content:
According to the commentaries the nirayapālas are vemānikapetas and Lord Yama is the vemānikapetarājā.

A vemānikapeta is a being who, owing to the ripening of mixed dark and bright kamma, gets to spend half his time in a celestial mansion (vimāna) and the other half in a peta state. The vemānikapetarājā is their chieftain.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Feb 28, 2021 5:45 PM
Title: Re: Phra Khantipalo
Content:
Laurence Mills, as he now calls himself, was still alive in November last year when he celebrated his 88th birthday at the nursing home in Australia where he's lived for the last few years. It's most likely that he's still alive now as there haven't yet been any death announcements or obituaries, which there surely will be when he does finally take his leave.

Regarding his status, many years ago he disrobed from being a Theravada bhikkhu in order to pursue his interest in Dzogchen. Later he was re-ordained as a novice in the Vietnamese sangha. I don't know whether he is still technically ordained or not, but all the photos from recent years show him in lay clothes.

Here's a Facebook page dedicated to him and managed by his supporters and friends.

https://m.facebook.com/Laurence-Mills-1536075609963440/


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Feb 28, 2021 11:05 AM
Title: Re: How can Dependant Origination be established?
Content:
Indeed. It seems that in this thread, as in the last one on Nagarjuna, the OP mistakes oracularity for argumentation.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Feb 27, 2021 6:01 PM
Title: Re: sutta reference on dāna
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Feb 25, 2021 1:42 PM
Title: Re: How can Dependant Origination be established?
Content:
Can you define the terms "true arising" and "absolute dependent origination"?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Feb 25, 2021 10:31 AM
Title: Re: Should you practice ten Parmis as a prerequisite of mediation?
Content:
An afterthought...

For whodunnit fans, perhaps the real Mystery of the Missing Paramita is why the Mahayana's progenitors decided to exclude sacca-pāramī / satya-paramitā, the perfection of veracity, from both their sixfold and tenfold lists.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Feb 24, 2021 10:39 PM
Title: Re: Should you practice ten Parmis as a prerequisite of mediation?
Content:
In the Theravādin conception of them, the paramīs are a special kind of merit - differing from other kinds in that they are undertaken and developed for the sake of bodhi rather than samsāric sukha.

In the case of jhāna, it's merit consists in the remoteness of the citta from unwholesome states associated with the kāmaloka. Since this remoteness in all of its forms is already fully comprehended under the standard list of ten paramīs, to add a supposed jhānaparamī would be just painting legs on a snake.

For example...

The citta's remoteness from lobha, kāmacchanda, etc., comes under dāna, nekkhamma, khanti and upekkhā.
Its remoteness from dosa, byāpāda, etc., comes under khanti, mettā and upekkhā.
Its remoteness from moha and vicikicchā comes under paññā and adhitthāna.
Its remoteness from thīnamiddha comes under viriya and adhitthāna.
Its remoteness from uddhacca-kukkucca comes under sīla, khanti and sacca.
Its remoteness from doubt comes under paññā and adhitthāna.
Its remoteness from ahiri and anotappa comes under sīla and sacca.

And so the development of the ten paramīs both supports the two guardians of the world and opposes the three akusala roots and the five hindrances.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Feb 23, 2021 12:00 PM
Title: Re: Esoteric Theravada - Kate Croby
Content:
A recent zoom talk on the Dīgha Nikāya by Pali scholar Sarah Shaw. Like her late teacher Lance Cousins, Dr Shaw treats the "mythical" suttas of the DN as meditation texts.

.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Feb 19, 2021 1:55 PM
Title: Re: Vessantara Jataka
Content:
Funnily enough, when I was answering the OP's question about how the story might be read, I did initially propose a Kierkegaardian reading of it based on K's Fear and Trembling, an extended philosophical meditation on the Abraham and Isaac story. But it was getting a bit too complicated (too many things to explain to those not already familiar with Kierkegaard's thought) so I deleted it.

In a nutshell: Vessantara may be viewed as a knight of infinite resignation...

.


who is transitioning into a knight of faith...

.


and whose wife and children pariccāga exemplifies the teleological suspension of the ethical characteristic of the latter kind of knight...

.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Feb 19, 2021 1:24 PM
Title: Re: Vessantara Jataka
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Feb 18, 2021 7:41 PM
Title: Re: Vessantara Jataka
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Feb 18, 2021 2:42 PM
Title: Re: Acupuncture and Vipassana
Content:
You could try consulting Dr Claudia Pillat. She's an Austrian vipassanā teacher who for two decades was in charge of pain management for cancer patients at a hospital in Vienna. Acupuncture was part of her repertoire of treatments and she's also been known to use it on painstricken meditators during retreats.

https://www.vipassana.at/%C3%BCber-mich/


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Feb 18, 2021 2:15 PM
Title: Re: Source for the Pāli Canon in English
Content:
That may be so, but since they are English translations of Chinese translations of Sanskrit texts from a non-Theravadin canon the appropriate place to post them is the resources thread of the Early Buddhism forum.

https://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=3167

In the present thread, where the OP is enquiring about English translations of Pali texts, your links are off topic.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Feb 18, 2021 2:59 AM
Title: Re: Monasteries around Ubon Ratchathani???
Content:
I took a look at the monastery's Facebook page and saw that the abbot's name is ปุ้ม, which would normally be transliterated Poom or Pum and pronounced /pûm/.

If he likes to spell it Bomb this will probably be an example of the playful romanization of names that Thais often use.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Feb 17, 2021 9:31 PM
Title: Re: What is Ariya Upavada?
Content:
Ariya-upavāda has to do with every type of ariyan disciple.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Feb 17, 2021 3:55 PM
Title: Re: Purify citta with patience
Content:
Do you just want the verb in the infinitive: "to purify..." ?

If not –that is, if you want a proper sentence – then you'll need to specify the person (first, second or third), the number (singular or plural) and the mood (indicative, optative or imperative, i.e., purifies, should purify, purify!).


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Feb 17, 2021 3:40 PM
Title: Re: Dhamma and egalitarianism
Content:
What is "Buddhism matrix" ?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Feb 17, 2021 3:20 PM
Title: Re: What is Ariya Upavada?
Content:
In later texts it's extended to include the denial of so-and-so's ariyan attainment, despite the attainment being genuine.

In Sri Lankan folk Buddhism it's extended farther to include any kind of slight directed against an ariyan. So it's here that it comes to mean something akin to "blasphemy" and its use often takes an accusatory form. 

For example, if I were to say that the wayward monks and cult founders whose videos Sarath is constantly posting to Dhamma Wheel are a bunch of clueless jackasses, then it's likely that those who have faith in these monks will charge me with ariya-upavāda and warn me of the dire kammic consequences of my words. 

The same happens in Thailand with those who voice scepticism about the claims of, say, Ajahn Chah, Ajahn Maha Bua or the late abbot of Wat Paknam. Then, over time there will grow up among the starry-eyed faithful a store of urban legends about the sorry ends that people came to because they spoke critically of these teachers.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Feb 16, 2021 6:52 PM
Title: Re: What would happen with an independant junior monk?
Content:
In Thailand they do have to. 

For example, when I'm on thudong I can show up at any monastery in the country and the Thai sangha regulations will require the resident monks to accommodate me for up to three nights if I'm in good health or as long as necessary if I'm sick. The rule applies to visiting monks of all nikāyas and even to visiting Mahāyāna monks. The only exemptions are if the monastery is completely full or if the head monk of the district has issued an order declaring me persona non grata in all the monasteries under his jurisdiction.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Feb 16, 2021 1:02 PM
Title: Re: Dhamma and egalitarianism
Content:
Obligations of this sort are of a localized character.

For example, if I should ever come to learn that a bhikkhu living in my vicinity had committed a weighty offence, then I'd have an obligation to act on this knowledge by notifying other bhikkhus. The Vinaya prohibits me from just turning a blind eye and staying quiet about it. But this doesn't translate into an obligation to do something about badly-behaving bhikkhus everywhere.

Similarly regarding bhikkhunīs...

The Chinese-ordained Thai bhikkhunīs living in my vicinity are doing their best to follow the Vinaya to the letter, including the eight garudhammas. As far as I know they're not contemplating any modifications to the Vinaya. Nor have they the slightest interest in the project of trying to determine what the original bhikkhunī Vinaya might have been like, based on this or that academic speculator. On the contrary, they take it as given that the Vinaya as we have it now is the Vinaya as the Buddha established it. Armed with this conviction, they make their best effort to live their lives in conformity with it.

As for what the nuns in the USA and Australia might be getting up to, I don't consider it any of my business. The superintending of them is the responsibility of those monks with whom the the nuns live in dependence.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Feb 16, 2021 1:35 AM
Title: Re: Vessantara Jataka
Content:
The Jātaka Commentary doesn't use the Netti method. I suppose you could if you wanted to but there wouldn't be much point to it. For example, you don't need a refined hermeneutic whose aim is to distinguish which of the four noble truths a text is concerned with when you're dealing with a body of texts that never steps outside of dukkha and samudaya.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Feb 16, 2021 12:48 AM
Title: Re: Dhamma and egalitarianism
Content:
As far as I know, nobody is proposing to abolish certain of the Vinaya rules in order to bring the Dhammavinaya to an end.  

What some are proposing is the removal of rules that they believe to have been added later rather than having been established by the Buddha. 

I don't approve of any such changes.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Feb 16, 2021 12:21 AM
Title: Re: Vessantara Jataka
Content:
King Milinda also had some problems with this jātaka. In the link below Nāgasena responds to the king's objections.

https://legacy.suttacentral.net/en/mil6.3.1


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Feb 15, 2021 3:34 PM
Title: Re: Aniccam, Dukkham, Viparinama Dhammam?
Content:
No. Sarath has written it wrong. It's a single word, with dhamma having an adjectival function: vipariṇāmadhammā. "Subject to change"; "of the nature to change"; "transient". Its formation is the same as that of words like jātidhamma, jarādhamma, etc.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Feb 15, 2021 7:47 AM
Title: Re: Anyone know any good books on the 18 schools of Buddhism in early times?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Feb 15, 2021 12:56 AM
Title: Re: Dhamma and egalitarianism
Content:
Though the suttas warn about the drawbacks of going forth in old age, the Vinaya doesn't make old age or frailty an impediment to ordination.

Certain kinds of physical disability are treated in the Vinaya as an impediment to ordaining, but they all fall in the class of non-absolute prohibitions, i.e., the sangha shouldn't ordain such persons and commits a minor offence by doing so, but the ordinations are nevertheless allowed to stand


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Feb 15, 2021 12:41 AM
Title: Re: Dhamma and egalitarianism
Content:
It wouldn't be either. You don't foment a schism by moving out of a monastery. You foment a schism by staying put and proceeding in the way described in the link that I gave earlier.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Feb 14, 2021 1:56 PM
Title: Re: What is Panca Sila?
Content:
Yes and no. 

Yes in the sense that each of these five ways of expounding sīla is exemplified in one sutta or another.

No in the sense that there's no single sutta that exemplifies all five. The collating of different ways of expounding a topic is what commentators do.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Feb 14, 2021 1:47 PM
Title: Re: Dhamma and egalitarianism
Content:
For a full account of sangharaji and sanghabheda
https://tinyurl.com/dus78htd

(Scroll down to: "Should any bhikkhu agitate for a schism in a Community in concord...).

In modern monastic practice it's virtually inconceivable that there could ever arise a schism in the proper Vinaya sense of the term. For example, monks who don't like the sort of reforms being mooted by Aussie neo-Sautrāntikas simply won't go to stay in an Aussie neo-Sautrāntika monastery. And so there's no realistic chance that two factions dwelling within a single Aussie neo-Sautrāntika sīmā (one a sensible traditionalist one, the other up to its eyeballs in newfangled egalitarian ideas) could fall out so badly with each other that they end up holding separate Pātimokkha recitals, etc.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Feb 14, 2021 12:52 PM
Title: Re: What is Panca Sila?
Content:
If that's what the monk is saying then he's talking nonsense. The terms he gives are not the five precepts. They're just stock commentarial glosses on the meaning of the word sīla.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Feb 14, 2021 12:49 PM
Title: Re: What is Panca Sila?
Content:
Pahāna: abandoning.
Avītikkama: non-transgression


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Feb 13, 2021 9:03 PM
Title: Re: Lor Buddha the Mahavir
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Feb 13, 2021 8:27 PM
Title: Re: Fire Sermon: what day?
Content:
AN 8.51 gives no indication one way or the other as to whether Ānanda was the Buddha's attendant at the time.

Given Ananda's cousinship with the Buddha, along with his much-iterated devotion to the Buddha's person, it wouldn't be surprising to find him living in close proximity even before being appointed as attendant.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Feb 13, 2021 2:49 PM
Title: Re: Fire Sermon: what day?
Content:
The canon doesn't say. The commentaries say it was after the fifth vassa after the Buddha's enlightenment. 

Also, with regard to the Brasington thesis in the other thread (i.e., that Ānanda was much younger than the Buddha and only a teenager when the bhikkhunīsangha was established), the commentaries say that they were actually of the same age. Brasington would no doubt retort that he doesn't accept the commentaries. But the problem then is that his own argument depends on the commentarial fixing of the date of the bhikkhunīsangha's founding. Either Brasington doesn't know this, or he does know it but is just cherry-picking those commentarial passages that will support his pet theory.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Feb 13, 2021 5:55 AM
Title: Re: Fire Sermon: what day?
Content:
Yes, the report that it was five days after the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta is from the commentaries and chronicles: J.i.82; iv.180; Dpv.i.34; MA.i.390; AA.i.57, 84).


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Feb 12, 2021 12:16 PM
Title: Re: Where are the Buddha images and statues where he looks human and follows his own vinaya rules?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Feb 11, 2021 5:41 PM
Title: Re: Source for the Pāli Canon in English
Content:
Is your Penguin Classics Dhammapada the old one by Juan Mascaro or the new one by Valerie Roebuck? If it's the old one then I should warn you that it's notoriously bad.

Either way, welcome to Dhamma Wheel.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Feb 8, 2021 6:29 PM
Title: Re: Laws of Brahminism
Content:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitrs


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Feb 4, 2021 12:35 AM
Title: Re: Emphasis on Suttas in Precolonial Times
Content:
This framing of the matter isn't correct. To speak of a 20th century "return to the suttas" on the part of the monks of Burma and Siam implies that there had previously been a neglect of them. But the Suttas had never been neglected; the scholar monks of the 18th and 19th centuries were expected to know them like the backs of their hands. In Burma they still are.

The radical innovation of the colonial period and its aftermath wasn't that monks returned to reading the Suttas, but rather that a small number of monks began to read the Suttas in a different way. Whereas in pre-colonial days the Suttas had always been understood through the medium of the Abhidhamma and Commentaries, in the 20th century some monks set these texts aside and began interpreting the Suttas according to their own lights and /or according to whatever insights might be provided by historical philology. At the outset this development was entirely Western-inspired.

For example, Ajahn Buddhadasa's writings on Buddhist history, Pali textual stratification and advocacy of "Suttas and nothing but the Suttas" are almost entirely derivative. Essentially they're Thai-language paraphrases of what the ajahn had read in E.J. Thomas's Life of the Buddha as Legend and History (1927) and The History of Buddhist Thought (1933), and B.C. Law's History of Pali Literature (1933).


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jan 31, 2021 9:15 AM
Title: Re: Three and half years old Sri Lankan child talk about Dependent origination.
Content:
... then your point would still stand. But why arbitrarily stop at 75%? In commentarial narratives about opapātika beings, some pass away on the very same day that they apparitionally arose; e.g., devas with minimal puñña, hell-beings and ghosts with minimal pāpa.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jan 30, 2021 10:50 PM
Title: Re: Three and half years old Sri Lankan child talk about Dependent origination.
Content:
The figures that you then give don't really support this claim, for they are the devas' maximum lifespan, not the average. But not every deva has enough merit to reach the maximum lifespan, just as not every human has enough to reach "a hundred years or a little over a hundred" - the human maximum for the present aeon.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jan 30, 2021 2:06 AM
Title: Re: Can somebody provide a grammatical analysis for this sentence?
Content:
Word for word:

hetupaccayoti - 1. ROOT CONDITION.
hetū - the roots.
hetusampayuttakānaṃ - which are associated with roots.
dhammānaṃ - to the states.
taṃsamuṭṭhānānañca - and ... produced thereby.
rūpānaṃ - the matter
hetupaccayena - by root condition.
paccayo - not translated by Nārada, presumably because it would make the already rather stilted English even more stilted. If one were to translate it, then it would come just after the title:

What is called "root condition" is the condition [consisting] in roots related to the states... etc.

1. Paccayo at the end is singular because hetupaccayo at the beginning is singular.
2. Taṃ is morphologically accusative here, but not semantically so.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Jan 29, 2021 5:58 PM
Title: Re: Statues
Content:
The statues that are made in situ are most often made by teams of itinerant artisans if it's a village wat or by locally based ones if it's a town wat. They learn the trade by apprenticeship, but I don't know anything about the details of it.

Then there are also a lot of statues that are mass-produced in workshops or factories and then purchased for donation to a wat.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Jan 29, 2021 2:52 PM
Title: Re: Statues
Content:
Off topic posts removed. 

Those who have nothing to say in reply to the OP's query are kindly requested to stay out of the thread. Thank you.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Jan 29, 2021 2:45 PM
Title: Re: Statues
Content:
Donald Swearer, Hypostasizing the Buddha: the ritual of Buddha image consecration in Northern Thailand

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/73340411.pdf


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jan 28, 2021 4:51 PM
Title: Re: Soul plane
Content:
Enough already. Take your "sovereign citizen" claptrap somewhere else.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jan 27, 2021 11:44 AM
Title: Re: Was Alan Watts a hypocrite?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jan 26, 2021 11:30 PM
Title: Re: Judgement
Content:
If – as seems to be the case – you wish to proselytize the politico-legal views of Freemen on the Land, the Sovereign citizens movement, or some other conspiracist outfit, I suggest you take it to Dharma Wheel Engaged.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jan 26, 2021 8:13 PM
Title: Re: Was Alan Watts a hypocrite?
Content:
I don't think so.

Since Watts didn't try to keep his drinking and drug-taking a secret, he wasn't a hypocrite in the old sense of the word – one who pretends to virtues he doesn't have. Like the māyāvī of the suttas.

Nor can he be called a hypocrite in its new sense (one who doesn't practise what he preaches), for he didn't preach the virtue of sobriety.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jan 26, 2021 6:30 PM
Title: Re: A doctrinally comprehensive guide to achieving Nibbana?
Content:
Ñānamoli's translation of the Visuddhimagga.
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nanamoli/index.html

Soma Thera's translation of the Vitakkasanthāna Sutta and its commentary.
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/soma/wheel021.html

Soma Thera's translation of the Satipatthana Sutta and its commentary.
https://tinyurl.com/yygml98n

Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of the Sāmaññaphala Sutta and its commentary.
https://tinyurl.com/y2e5deum


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jan 23, 2021 8:26 PM
Title: Re: Anyone able to help translate?
Content:
I can see that this might be of some use in Sri Lanka, where people need to put their names on waiting lists if they want to offer dāna in certain very popular monasteries, and where fights sometimes break out if dāyakas show up to offer food on somebody else's day.

On the other hand, I doubt there'd be much call for it in the Buddhist countries of SE Asia. Thai laypeople, for example, are normally delighted when they see that others have showed up to offer alms too, for it means that when the monks have finished eating there'll be a bigger feast for everyone. Poor rural folk in particular are especially pleased when they see affluent families from the cities show up, for it means that when the food Is shared they'll get to eat all sorts of dainties they wouldn't ordinarily be able to afford.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Jan 22, 2021 7:46 PM
Title: Re: People you have on your ignore list should not trigger notifications
Content:
If the badgered member sends a message of complaint to a mod or reports the badgering post, and if the mod judges the complaint to be justified, then the badgering member will be instructed to desist. In practice they usually do so. If they don't then they're given warnings or suspensions.

It is necessary to complain though, for moderators don't keep a close watch on who's feuding with whom.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Jan 22, 2021 1:46 AM
Title: Re: People you have on your ignore list should not trigger notifications
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jan 21, 2021 8:39 PM
Title: Re: Simpler life
Content:
And so the ostensibly rebellious and carefree life imagined by romantic idealists, when actually pursued, may end up proving every bit as hollow as a conventional life of domestic conformity. Doomed either way!


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jan 21, 2021 1:34 PM
Title: Maria Heim on love and compassion in the Visuddhimagga
Content:
Full interview:.

https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/article/love-and-compassion-in-the-visuddhimagga/


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jan 20, 2021 10:11 PM
Title: Re: "Gata" translated as "Immersed"
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jan 20, 2021 9:45 PM
Title: Re: "Gata" translated as "Immersed"
Content:
The sāmanera's idiolect is neither English nor mutually intelligible with English.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jan 20, 2021 11:11 AM
Title: Re: Kusala and punna
Content:
In English the word "intention" includes not only the act or fact of intending but also the thing intended. And so it is no solecism to speak of the "intention of the criminal justice system". The "intention" here is either the end, purpose or telos aimed at by the creators of the said system or else it's raison d'être.

(Auf Deutsch: "Ende/Ziel/Daseinszweck der Strafjustiz").


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jan 20, 2021 10:48 AM
Title: Re: Do we need a friend in life?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jan 19, 2021 9:18 PM
Title: Re: "Gata" translated as "Immersed"
Content:
Why would he wish to do that?

The OP is concerned with whether the rendering is a good one or not, not with what the translator's reasons might be for translating as he does.

Judging the quality of a translation merely requires competence in the source language, the target language and the material being translated. It's not necessary to know anything at all about the translator's reasons.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jan 18, 2021 7:39 PM
Title: Re: hi, im Indigo
Content:
Welcome to Dhamma Wheel.

The signs of the Buddha Metteya's coming are said to include the following:

The dispensation of Gotama Buddha will have entirely disappeared.

Billions of years will have then elapsed.

The lifespan of humans will be 80,000 years, with women getting married at the age of five hundred.

There'll be only three kinds of malady afflicting humans: hunger before meals, lethargy after meals and old age.

India's capital will be called Ketumati and will be located on the site of what is now Varanasi.

The whole of India will be covered in 4-inch long soft green grass and all the country's plants will be thornless.

The world will be ruled by a wheel-turning monarch called Sankha and the Bodhisatta Metteyya will be the son of Subrahma, the monarch's chief counsellor, and his wife Brahmavatī. 

You can read more here.

https://archive.org/details/THECOMINGBUDDHAVen.S.Upatissaw

The main point, as Coconut noted, is that the next Buddha's coming is neither now nor any time soon.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:05 AM
Title: Re: Meritorious deeds
Content:
I think the teaching you have in mind may be that on the five qualities of high-minded and low-minded lay disciples. The fifth quality of the high-minded disciples is that they give alms and pay respects to monks and nuns within the Buddhasāsanā before doing so to those outside the Buddhasāsanā. Low-minded disciples do it the other way round. But it's not taught that there's any fault in giving to the outsiders.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jan 17, 2021 11:13 PM
Title: Re: Kusala and punna
Content:
Kusala means 'wholesome' or 'skilful'; puñña means 'merit' or 'meritorious'. In that sense they are different.

All the dhammas that are called 'wholesome' are also called 'meritorious'; all the dhammas that are called 'meritorious' are also called 'wholesome'. In that sense they are the same.

In contexts having to do with the way to liberation, good states are more likely to be termed kusala than puñña; in contexts having to do with obtaining a bright rebirth, good states are more likely to be termed puñña than kusala. In that sense they are different. This isn't an invariable rule, however, and there are plenty of exceptions


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jan 17, 2021 2:59 PM
Title: Re: Ajahn Sumedho moving back to England permanently?
Content:
I don't have any info beyond what's in the video and the text description that accompanies it. The latter states only that the ajahn will be leaving to spend the vassa in England. It doesn't speak of it as a permanent move.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jan 16, 2021 8:57 PM
Title: Re: why bhikkhu say jhana easily accused parajika
Content:
But the rule isn't limited to false claims of arahantship. It also includes false claims about the lower paths and fruits and the jhānas.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jan 16, 2021 7:51 AM
Title: Re: why bhikkhu say jhana easily accused parajika
Content:
I've never heard anybody say this, but if they did then they'd just be revealing their ignorance of Vinaya. The relevant offences are falsely claiming to have attained jhāna, which is a pārājika offence, and truthfully claiming to have attained jhāna when speaking to an unordained person, which is a pācittiya offence.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Jan 15, 2021 8:12 PM
Title: Re: Adolf Hitler
Content:
But I didn't make any such argument. I don't fetishize democracy and the "suspension of democratic liberties" in Paxton's definition of fascism is not among the features that I singled out as adhammic.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Jan 15, 2021 1:34 PM
Title: Re: Adolf Hitler
Content:
The part in bold is the chief problem, the notion of state violence as redemptive, as opposed to its being occasionally a necessary evil; the gratuitous belief in the justice of expanding one's territory (Hitler's obsession with Lebensraum, Mussolini's greed to own North Africa); the "cleansing" of one's nation by exterminating this or that despised ethnic or sexual minority group, along with all one's political opponents; and the abandonment of constitutionality and the rule of law and their replacement by essentially capricious and despotic acts of state, carried out "without ethical or legal restraint".


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Jan 15, 2021 10:05 AM
Title: Re: Adolf Hitler
Content:
Yes


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Jan 15, 2021 6:40 AM
Title: Re: Adolf Hitler
Content:
I think it must be somebody else who wrote this. For the last two decades my view has been that traditionalist/Burkean conservatism is dhammic, revolutionary communism and fascism adhammic, and most other ideologies dhammically neutral (i.e. neither supported by nor in conflict with the Buddha's teaching).


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jan 10, 2021 9:23 AM
Title: Re: Newly Joined
Content:
An "introduction thread" is a thread in which new members introduce themselves to the forum. Like this one.

Any thread that you start will be a "new thread" at the time when you start it. This present thread was new a few weeks ago. But now it's old.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jan 9, 2021 11:56 PM
Title: Re: Revealing counterfeit Dhamma: Poems of Matty Weingast published in "The First Free Women" as a version of the Therig
Content:
As far as Indian Buddhist literature goes, it was certainly a standard practice to compose new texts that included considerable imaginative embellishment of the old texts. But it wasn't a standard practice to claim that these new texts were translations of the old texts.

For example, when Asvaghosa wrote an account of the Bodhisatta's time with Ālāra Kālāma he fabricated the extra detail that Ālāra was a teacher of the Hindu Sāmkhya school and gave what he claimed was a summary of Ālāra's philosophy. There's no evidence for this at all. But what Asvaghosa did not do (but which this rascally Weingast fellow would most likely have done) was to try and peddle his work as a translation of the Ariyapariyesanasutta.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jan 9, 2021 11:12 PM
Title: Re: Thanissaro Bhikkhu's definition of 'compunction' and 'ottappa'
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jan 9, 2021 6:40 PM
Title: Re: Thanissaro Bhikkhu's definition of 'compunction' and 'ottappa'
Content:
This is true in the sense that the suttas don't contain any explicit statement delimiting the occasions when ottappa might arise.

Nevertheless, I think we may reasonably infer that the term refers solely to something that arises before some contemplated unwholesome action and whose arising restrains us from doing it. I would infer this from the fact that:

1. Compunction, regret or remorse arising after the performance of an unwholesome act is consistently denoted either by vippatisāra or kukkucca (defined in the commentaries as synonyms), never by ottappa.

2. Vippatisāra and kukkucca are consistently represented as unwholesome states, while ottappa is consistently represented as a wholesome one. The suttas have nothing positive to say about the first two terms and nothing negative to say about the third.

3. If ottappa referred to the remorse that arises after an unwholesome act, then it would be hard to see how it could be anything but another name for vippatisāra or kukkucca. This, however, would be inconsistent with #2.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jan 9, 2021 5:46 PM
Title: Re: mettā meditation
Content:
May I ask, in your effort to generate mettā are you doing anything else besides mentally reciting formulas like "May all beings be well"? Or do you think that these formulas, along with the mere wish for mettā to arise, are all that's needed?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jan 7, 2021 7:44 PM
Title: Re: Australian story!
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jan 7, 2021 4:33 PM
Title: Re: we are all inter-connected
Content:
In the Ariyan discipline it's about this fathom-long body.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jan 7, 2021 12:47 PM
Title: Re: we are all inter-connected
Content:
I understood the OP's query to be about what view the Theravada takes, or might take, regarding the supposed interconnectedness of all sentient beings. In replying what I had in mind was the general idea, not any particular Mahayana formulation of it. It may well be that my droll example isn't in line with how interconnectedness is conceived in, say, the two Chinese schools mentioned by Coemgenu, nor in TNH's dumbed-down and sentimentalised version of the same. On the other hand, it is pretty much in line with how Tibetan Buddhists are wont to talk. For example, whereas the Buddha merely said that it would be difficult to find someone who had not at some time been one's mother, the Tibetans insist that ALL sentient beings without exception have undoubtedly been one's mother in some past life or other. And to judge from the frequency with which they say this (and the patently fallacious argument for it that they all seem to have memorised) I gather they not only deem it a fact, but a fact of the highest importance.

Regarding the idea that the supposed interconnectedness of all beings helps one to realise anattā, if this were true then we should expect to find some mention of this in the hundreds of anattā-related suttas in the SN's Nidāna, Khandha and Salāyatana vaggas. But we don't find any such thing at all. Perhaps such a notion is present in Mahayana sutras, but the OP is enquiring about the Theravada view


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jan 6, 2021 7:56 PM
Title: Re: we are all inter-connected
Content:
I don't think it's accepted or rejected in the Theravada.

What would be rejected, however, is the notion, entertained in some Mahayana schools (and Engaged Buddhist circles) that the supposed universal interconnectedness of sentient beings is not only a fact but is in some way a dhammically momentous or soteriologically vital fact. If it's a fact at all, then from a Theravada pov it's a purely mundane and dhammically irrelevant fact. Even if universal interconnectedness obtains, in the Buddha's teaching it's only a very tiny proportion of connections that are valued and treated as mattering. For example, those between kalyānamittas, between sangha and laity, parents and children, rulers and citizens, employers and employees, etc. 

By contrast, the fact that there may be some lobster crawling about on the bed of the North Atlantic who happens to have been my Auntie Edna in its former life doesn't amount to a connection that matters.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jan 6, 2021 12:50 PM
Title: Re: covid vaccine: yea or nay?
Content:
The condition being, "...but only if the virus comes too close for comfort."

But couldn't this just as readily be an example of "no with conditions"? -

"I'll not be vaccinated unless the virus comes too close for comfort."

So contrary to what I said in my earlier post, perhaps both of these options are instances of "presently undecided", distinguished only by which conditional conjunction one happens to prefer: "unless..." or "only if..."


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jan 5, 2021 5:20 PM
Title: Re: Pūjeti - offer and honor (Narada Pali Course)
Content:
Well, the ablative would just about make sense, though I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be the sense intended by Nārada. We could take it as being the ablative of cause. For example, a fellow sees a sea of daffodils fluttering and dancing in the breeze, has a Wordsworth-like epiphany and is thereby triggered to offer the Buddha a lighted candle:

"Because of the flowers he makes an offering to the Buddha."


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jan 5, 2021 5:03 PM
Title: Re: Pūjeti - offer and honor (Narada Pali Course)
Content:
The verb means to honour or worship, but in practice the manner of worship denoted by pūjā is one that involves either a literal offering (flowers, candles, incense, verses of praise, etc.) or a figurative one, as in patipatti-pūjā, honouring the Buddha by means of one's practice. I guess it's for this reason that Nārada opted for "offer".


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jan 5, 2021 1:01 PM
Title: Re: covid vaccine: yea or nay?
Content:
The poll has no "presently undecided" option, which is the position I'm in at the moment.

I'm living in Amphoe Li, which is the largest, but least populous, district of Lamphun Province. In the entire province we've had only four cases (all now recovered) and none at all in Amphoe Li. 

At least that was how matters stood until yesterday, when I was informed by our village headman that an Amphoe Li sāmanera had just tested positive. He lives in a monastery about 60 km away. If the virus starts spreading and gets within 20 km then I shall probably get vaccinated; otherwise I'd prefer not to, or at least postpone doing so until a lot more testing has been done.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jan 5, 2021 12:41 PM
Title: Re: Frank Yang is DONE!
Content:
And dhammic norms.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Dec 25, 2020 2:46 PM
Title: Re: Christmas
Content:
For Western monks in Thailand Christmas Day is not much different from any other, except that many Thais very thoughtfully go out of their way to make us feel at home by laying on special Christmas fare. And so on almsround this morning, as well as the usual sticky rice, boiled bamboo shoots, etc., I was given thirty-seven tangerines (on a normal day it would be just two or three) and a funny red hat.
 

The only change to my normal routine will be at 10 pm Indochina time / 3 pm GMT, when I tune in to listen to Queen Elizabeth's Christmas message. Here's the youtube link for anyone who wants to join me:

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalChannel


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Dec 24, 2020 11:45 PM
Title: Re: Direct Knowledge
Content:
Practically speaking, in the present age I don't think that either of these would be likely to serve as a satisfactory yardstick, owing to the lack of consensus on what is meant by a sotāpanna's possession of the "sīla pleasing to Ariyans" and on the correct understanding of dependent origination.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Dec 24, 2020 8:59 PM
Title: Re: Direct Knowledge
Content:
I don't see any such implication, any more than I would see the Buddha's occasional engagement in paccavekkhaṇa regarding his state as implying that his awakening wasn't earth-shattering.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Dec 24, 2020 7:58 PM
Title: Re: Direct Knowledge
Content:
To me it's quite conceivable that someone could have an experience that he mistakenly takes for stream-entry and that this could give rise to a delusion-based certitude that's stable enough to persist for the rest of his life. As a matter of fact, I think it happens quite a lot. Now a genuine stream-entrant may not feel any need to have his attainment confirmed by a checklist (so great is his certitude) but the same might be true of the deeply deluded puthujjana just described. Hence the need for criteria that go beyond mere subjective certitude; not so much because the genuine stream-entrant's certitude needs confirming, but because the deluded puthujjana's certitude needs disconfirming.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Dec 24, 2020 5:14 PM
Title: Re: Direct Knowledge
Content:
Though I don't often agree with Ajahn Thanissaro, on this occasion I don't think the Buddha's checklist would conflict with the ajahn's claim that stream-entry is an earth-shattering experience that imparts a sense of certitude to those who attain it. Why not? Because there are other kinds of religious experience, altered states of consciousness, etc., which are also earth-shattering, which also impart certitude to those who undergo them, but which are not stream-entry. Lectures IX and X of William James's http://gutenberg.org/ebooks/621 have quite a catalogue of these. Yet because of the certitude, sense of assurance, loss of anxiety, etc., that they give, they may easily be mistaken for stream-entry. Hence the need for a check list to distinguish a justified certitude from an unjustified one.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Dec 23, 2020 4:03 PM
Title: Re: Analayo's article on Ingram
Content:
Within the doctrinal scheme to which Ingram is supposedly committed (i.e., the commentarial 16-ñāṇa series), your proposal would be an impossibility. Since at the 16th ñāṇa the yogāvacara discerns which fetters have been abandoned by him and which fetters still remain, it can't happen that an attainer of stream-entry might mistakenly imagine himself to be an arahant. And so either the man's an arahant or he's a deeply misguided puthujjana, but he can't be anything in between.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Dec 21, 2020 9:21 AM
Title: Re: Esoteric Theravada - Kate Croby
Content:
In their Saturday morning zoom sessions the UK-based Samatha Trust has recently hosted a series of talks on yogāvacara meditation / borān kammaṭṭhāna by Dr. Paul Dennison, a student and practitioner of this approach since the 1960s. The talks have now been uploaded to youtube.

Contents

Talk 1: Invocation
Talk 2: The 1st &amp; 2nd Rupa Jhanas
Talk 3: The 3rd &amp; 4th Rūpa Jhānas
Talk 4: 1st and 2nd Arūpa Jhānas
Talk 5: The 4th &amp; 5th Arūpa Jhanas
Talk 6: The Path


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Dec 21, 2020 7:13 AM
Title: Re: Your take on pre-sectarian Buddhism
Content:
An alleged ur-Buddhism with no numerical lists (not even the four noble truths), based only on the Suttanipāta's Aṭṭhakavagga and Parāyanavagga, and essentially similar to the dhamma of the eel-wriggler Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, was the pet theory of the Japanese scholar Hajime Nakamura in the late sixties. I gather it didn't have many takers among Nakamura's fellow Japanese, but when his book, Indian Buddhism - A Survey, was translated into English, the theory enjoyed about five minutes of fame in the Buddhist studies departments of American universities, before being discarded in favour of other conjectures.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Dec 20, 2020 2:21 PM
Title: Re: Your take on pre-sectarian Buddhism
Content:
What you asked for was members' opinions on what original Buddhism was like. One such opinion is that of Classical Theravādins. It seems a silly sort of thread to start if you're only interested in hearing opinions that happen to coincide with your own.

Welcome, anyway, to Dhamma Wheel.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Dec 20, 2020 1:40 AM
Title: Re: Bojjhangaparitta and healing
Content:
"We find..." ?

Who has found these things?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Dec 19, 2020 2:34 PM
Title: Re: Bojjhangaparitta and healing
Content:
Well, maybe, though I would note that this is not what the monk himself believes, for he's committed to the Milindapañha's view and modestly disclaims that his paritta healing feats might have anything to do with the fact that it's he who is doing the chanting. Which leads me to wonder if there might not be a plausible intermediate position here, i.e., that a paritta's efficacy is not dependent on any inherent power in its words, but might be dependent on the chanter believing that there is such a power.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Dec 18, 2020 11:53 PM
Title: Re: Kalāpa in the Four Nikāyas
Content:
Actually Piya fully accepts rebirth, as one might expect of a veteran Brahmavamso acolyte. His article is arguing for an allegorical rather than literal reading of the suttas' descriptions of hell, not a rejection of the doctrine of rebirth.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:28 PM
Title: Re: Balangoda Ananda Maitreya Thero
Content:
Some years ago I posted one of his parables here, Forest and the Way Out, originally entitled Pseudo-Pilgrims.

https://buddhismnow.com/2011/10/28/forest-and-the-way-out-by-ananda-maitreya/


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Dec 18, 2020 1:13 PM
Title: Re: Bojjhangaparitta and healing
Content:
I'm afraid I don't know of any that are specifically for that purpose. Probably better to give them warm clothes, food, first aid materials and cash. I suspect that some random Buddhist chanting parittas at them would be as annoying as those officious Xian evangelists who make a practice of sitting down and praying with them.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:31 AM
Title: Re: Bojjhangaparitta and healing
Content:
https://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?p=332862#p332862


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:15 AM
Title: Re: Gay and Buddhism
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Dec 17, 2020 12:27 AM
Title: Re: Under the table
Content:
No. For example, if you replace Rishi Sunak with Sir Thomas Cromwell and Henry Hill with Reggie Kray, then I would probably find the gangster more likeable than the chancellor of the exchequer. But this wouldn't alter my judgment that the one is carrying out a lawful office and the other is engaged in crime.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Dec 17, 2020 12:04 AM
Title: Re: Under the table
Content:
In Buddhaghosa's Vinaya Atthakathā the general Vinaya obligation to conform to the wishes of rājās is qualified with a statement to the effect that this doesn't apply when those wishes are unrighteous/unjust/ (adhammika).


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Dec 16, 2020 11:51 PM
Title: Re: Under the table
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Dec 15, 2020 10:16 PM
Title: Re: Under the table
Content:
Maybe. It did cross my mind, but then I figured the poster was probably smart enough to see the difference between, say, Rishi Sunak delivering his annual budget speech in the House of Commons and Henry Hill saying, "F*** you, pay me!" in Goodfellas.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Dec 15, 2020 12:06 AM
Title: Re: Under the table
Content:
See, for example, the Vinaya's account of the run-up to the Second Council. The good monk, Yasa, son of Kākaṇḍakā, has authority, but the corrupt monks of Vesālī have power.

https://legacy.suttacentral.net/en/pi-tv-kd22


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Dec 14, 2020 2:22 PM
Title: Re: Under the table
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Dec 13, 2020 11:14 PM
Title: Re: Poll on homogeneity in a monastery
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Dec 13, 2020 6:29 PM
Title: Re: Kamma and its Ripening in the Abhidhamma
Content:
The conclusion does happens to be factually correct, but the premise on which it's based isn't Theravada teaching but rather a modern scholar's conjecture as to how the Pali commentators might have grappled with the question of a kamma's ontological status in the interval between its performance and its ripening, if the question had interested them (which apparently it didn't).


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Dec 12, 2020 11:04 PM
Title: Re: Under the table
Content:
Though never systematically worked out, the Buddha's conception of the basis for political legitimacy seems to me to have been a combination of the two: a Hobbes-like social contractualism in the Aggaññasutta and a Burke-like prescriptivism in the Vajjisutta.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Dec 12, 2020 10:28 PM
Title: Re: What sutta was the concept of "krya citta" based on?
Content:
and also the contrary error of some modernists who draw antinomian conclusions from passages like Dhammapada 39, claiming that an arahant is amoral and no longer observant of any moral restraint.

From the Kathāvatthu Atthakathā:

.


./download/file.php?id=6219&mode=view


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Dec 12, 2020 8:41 PM
Title: Re: Under the table
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Dec 12, 2020 2:49 PM
Title: Re: Kamma and its Ripening in the Abhidhamma
Content:
Differences of opinion over what should be attributed to kamma and what shouldn't first seem to have cropped up at the Third Council. And so the principal Pali sources would be the Kathāvatthu and its commentary, where half a dozen or so of the Council's debates are on the subject: "Is X caused by kamma?" and with the Theravādin debater always arguing for a negative answer.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Dec 10, 2020 10:44 PM
Title: Re: thina-middhaṃ : sloth and torpor: mental, physical, both?
Content:
So, it seems to me that arati is wholly mental; tandī is both bodily and mental (the Dispeller of Delusion later defines it as "bodily idleness due to defilement"); likewise vijambhitā, which is later defined as "bodily shifting due to defilement"; bhattasammada is wholly bodily; and cetaso līnattaṃ wholly mental.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Dec 10, 2020 10:24 AM
Title: Re: thina-middhaṃ : sloth and torpor: mental, physical, both?
Content:
It's not that they were once two different words that are now taken to be the same, but that they've always been variant forms of the past participle of the same verb, just as 'dreamed' and 'dreamt' have always been variant past participles of 'dream'.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Nov 30, 2020 10:26 PM
Title: Re: Those rejecting Abhidhamma Pitaka itself (regardless of commentaries) are not actual Theravadins (nor Vibhajjavadins
Content:
Until people decided that it had. Then 'rose' would simply have come to denote a different referent.

Adhammasammataṃ kho pana, vāseṭṭha, tena samayena hoti, tadetarahi dhammasammataṃ.

“What at that time, Vāseṭṭha, was agreed to be adhamma, is now agreed to be dhamma.”
(Aggañña Sutta)


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Nov 30, 2020 10:08 PM
Title: Re: "Is it possible to accept Nagarjuna's argument and remain a Theravadan?"
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Nov 30, 2020 9:40 PM
Title: Re: Is there a Scientific explanation to "Colored light rays that came out of the Buddha's body"
Content:
The display of the six-coloured aura in the fourth week is from the Atthasālinī (Expositor I p. 16-17).

https://archive.org/details/dli.csl.3696

That of the seventh week is in the Vinaya's account of the Buddha's taming of the nāga at Uruvelā.

https://legacy.suttacentral.net/en/pi-tv-kd1

A fairly comprehensive list of sources relating to the Buddha's physical appearance, both ordinary and supernormal, can be found in chapter 3 of Toshiichi Endo's "https://archive.org/details/thervadabuddhaintheravadabuddhismastudyoftheconceptofbuddhainpaliliteraturetoshiichiendo_122_N - a Study of the Concept of Buddha in the Pali Commentaries".


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Nov 30, 2020 8:10 PM
Title: Re: Ajahn Brahmavamso's Dark Jhana
Content:
Which according to the Visuddhimagga would require the sayadaw to have a following that outnumbered the present population of the world. Unless you mean that 999 out of those 1000 are devas.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Nov 30, 2020 12:59 PM
Title: Re: "Is it possible to accept Nagarjuna's argument and remain a Theravadan?"
Content:
Chamo is Channa, the bodhisatta's charioteer. He was called Khemaka in a former life, recounted in the Golden Goose Jātaka.

https://suttacentral.net/ja534/en/francis

As far as I know the simile of the chariot never occurs in connection with Channa in Pali sources.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Nov 30, 2020 10:33 AM
Title: Re: DN1 question
Content:
No, it's a downward movement. Ābhassara is a second-jhāna heaven, but the empty palace is in the Mahābrahmā heaven which is only first jhāna. You'll find a lot of your questions addressed in Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of the Brahmajālasutta, its commentary and extracts from its two subcommentaries.

https://archive.org/details/PaliCommentariesCollection/01%20DN%2001%20Brahmajala%20Sutta%2C%20The%20Discourse%20All%20Embracing%20Net%20of%20Views%20-%20Bhikkhu%20Bodhi%28OCRed%29%20%28372p%29

The question in your opening post, however, is not addressed at all.

On those occasions when the commentators leave something unexplained it seems to be for one of four reasons:

1. Avoidance of superfluity: the explicandum has already been explained elsewhere.
2. Avoidance of moronsplaining: the meaning of the word, phrase, fact or thing is too obvious to need explaining.
3. Avoidance of category mistake: the fact is not an explicandum but rather a brute fact and as such cannot be explained.
4. Mystery: there's no obvious explanation for why the word, phrase, fact or thing are not treated as explicanda.

(This isn't an official Theravāda taxonomy, by the way, but just something I cobbled together myself).

In the present case, we know from elsewhere that it is due to greater or lesser accumulations of merit that there is variety in the longevity, beauty etc. of devas and brahmās. So this would be an example of #1. But there is no explanation anywhere as to why the brahmā with the most merit gets to arise first. It's possible, of course, that this is also due to merit, but nowhere is this actually stated. And so I wouldn't rule out the possibility that the absence of explanation is an example of #3.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Nov 28, 2020 9:53 PM
Title: Re: Ajahn Brahmavamso's Dark Jhana
Content:
There was no need to quote the entire post that you were replying to. In future please trim any unnecessary content.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Nov 28, 2020 7:54 PM
Title: Re: Ajahn Brahmavamso's Dark Jhana
Content:
If we go with the more optimistic figure (one in a hundred), then it means that one in a million can become a Visuddhimagga-style jhānalābhī. If we go with the more pessimistic figure, then it will be one in a thousand million. And so for Ajahn Brahmavamso to produce, say, ten jhānalābhīs, he would need to have at least ten million meditating disciples according to the optimistic figure, or a thousand million meditating disciples according to the pessimistic figure.

Though I've been told that Ajahn Brahmavamso has even more followers on Facebook than the Dalai Lama, I'm pretty sure that they don't number in the tens of millions. Certainly not the thousands of millions. And so the fact that he replies: "Not many," would not serve to cast any doubt at all on whether his teaching was an efficacious one by Visuddhimagga criteria. For even when Visuddhimagga standards are maintained to the last dot and comma, at best only one meditator in a million can expect to enjoy success.

I'd like to end this post by asking you, bhante, have you ever put to Pa-Auk Sayadaw the question that you put to Ajahn Brahmavamso? If you have, what was the sayadaw's answer?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Nov 28, 2020 3:15 PM
Title: Re: What are the history and significance of the Talipot fan?
Content:
Your second picture is of Phra Malai (= Sri Lankan arahant Maliyadeva), not the Buddha.

Here's a similar one, but with the Buddha seated behind him.

.


./download/file.php?id=6191&mode=view


.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phra_Malai

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maliyadeva


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Nov 28, 2020 1:37 PM
Title: Re: What are the history and significance of the Talipot fan?
Content:
No apology is called for. I replied tersely to your last post because I was about to go out, not because I was annoyed by it.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Nov 28, 2020 4:52 AM
Title: Re: What are the history and significance of the Talipot fan?
Content:
To keep cool. There's also a Vinaya allowance to accept and use a whisk for scaring away flies.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Nov 27, 2020 11:07 PM
Title: Re: "Is it possible to accept Nagarjuna's argument and remain a Theravadan?"
Content:
Echoing Lewis, I wonder, are we not entitled to say of Nāgārjuna:

“Either the man was a very bad writer, or else Madhyamakas are very bad readers. In deference to their number and their reputation, we choose the first alternative; though, as you will observe, it will work out to the same result if we chose the second.” ?

.


 ./download/file.php?id=6188
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Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Nov 27, 2020 5:52 PM
Title: Re: What are the history and significance of the Talipot fan?
Content:
Presumably at some point in history some bhikkhus applied the four mahāpadesas and reasoned that since the Blessed One allowed the leaves of Borassus flabellifer for fan-making, the leaves of Corypha umbraculifera ought to be allowable too, on account of their resemblance.

.


./download/file.php?id=6185&mode=view


.


./download/file.php?id=6186&mode=view


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Nov 27, 2020 2:44 PM
Title: Re: It is wrong to say: "Samsara has no beginning" or "Samsara is beginningless"
Content:
I'm not familiar with this.

There is of course the deva Rohitassa, who went further and further spatially seeking the end of the world but failing to find it.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Nov 26, 2020 7:30 PM
Title: Re: What are the history and significance of the Talipot fan?
Content:
Talipot leaves are one of the five things that bhikkhus are allowed to use for stuffing their mattresses.

If the Buddha had a fan it would most likely have been of palmyra, since this is what he allowed bhikkhus to use.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Nov 26, 2020 2:57 PM
Title: Re: I believe that by logically accepting the premises of madhyamika and yogachara one would become a Tirthika
Content:
Your post isn't in any way concerned with connections to the Theravada and deals with a topic that would be more appropriately discussed on Dharma Wheel Mahayana.



https://www.dharmawheel.net/


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Nov 26, 2020 2:27 PM
Title: Re: How long to attain first jhana?
Content:
Even if we grant that Thanissaro is right to favour the Royal Siamese reading, there’s still the question of whether he has translated it properly. Frankly I don’t think he has. The Pali word eka, outside of compounds, is much much more often used as a limiting adjective than as a numeral. For example, eko piḷhako would more probably mean “a certain dungbeetle” than “one dungbeetle”. Most translators would opt for the second rendering only if the context clearly indicated that eko was being used as a numeral (e.g., if the passage was a description of somebody counting dung-beetles).

Even the Thai translators, who like Thanissaro use the Royal Siamese edition, don’t render the passage in the way that he does. They translate ekā saññā as “a certain kind of perception” (สัญญาอย่างหนึ่ง), not as “one perception” (สัญญาหนึ่ง).


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Nov 26, 2020 1:56 PM
Title: Re: Is anatta based off of manifestation from nothing?
Content:
I don't think the matter has been correctly explained to you.

Suppose that in a single mental continuum there are two successive consciousnesses, A and B. According to abhidhammic momentarism (khaṇikavāda) the arising of consciousness B is dependent on the passing away of consciousness A. (In the parlance of the Paṭṭhāna's conditional relations theory, A and B are causally related by way of absence condition, disappearance condition, contiguity condition and proximity condition).

You seem to be misunderstanding this to mean that the disappearance of A is all that's needed for the arising of B — it's the sole and sufficient cause for it. But khaṇikavāda doesn't claim anything of the sort. No consciousness could arise merely because the consciousness that preceded it had passed away. All kinds of other factors are needed (both past and present), depending on what kind of consciousness it is. For example, if B is an instance of eye-consciousness, then its arising would be due in part to past kamma, for eye-consciousnesses are classed as kamma-resultant consciousnesses (vipāka citta).


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Nov 26, 2020 6:58 AM
Title: Re: How does Buddhism explain Hindu moksha and Shaktih
Content:
I wouldn't feel obliged to explain anything unless the guru had first convinced me that he was indeed omniscient and omnipotent, or at least vastly more knowing and powerful than is ordinarily considered possible. It would take a lot more to convince me than the cheap hocus-pocus in your videos. I mean I could just go to Khaosan Road in Bangkok and meet Indian street conjurors who make an easy dollar performing the same kind of tricks for the entertainment of tourists.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Nov 26, 2020 3:20 AM
Title: Re: How Buddha taught
Content:
In samatha-bhāvanā there are elements of both. The recommendation of asubha for lust types and mettabhāvanā for hate types would be an example of the former. The recommendation of buddhānussati, dhammānussati, etc. for faith types would be an example of the latter.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Nov 25, 2020 4:42 PM
Title: Re: How does Buddhism explain Hindu moksha and Shaktih
Content:
Oh, I hadn't heard about it.

But never mind - India has quite a few Randi types of her own.

.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Nov 25, 2020 3:43 PM
Title: Re: Zoroastrian influence in Buddhism?
Content:
See Charles Goodman's reply ("Neither Scythian nor Greek: A Response to Beckwith's Greek Buddha and Kuzminski's Early Buddhism Reconsidered") in the attached file. Or any of the online reviews in quality Indological or Hellenic studies journals.

.


 ./download/file.php?id=6177
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Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Nov 25, 2020 1:03 PM
Title: Re: How does Buddhism explain Hindu moksha and Shaktih
Content:
I should hope that it would be a rather sceptical one and informed by the Kevaddhasutta. 

https://legacy.suttacentral.net/en/dn11

Perhaps some day there'll be an encounter between this guru and James Randi, but should it ever happen I don't fancy the guru's chances. The stunts in the videos are no more remarkable than what any second-rate stage conjuror can do, and indeed are much less impressive than what the bushy-haired Sathya Sai Baba could do; yet even his tricks were shown to be fraudulent.

If, however, they turned out to be genuine paṭihāriya, from a Buddhist point of view it wouldn't necessarily mean that the guru was any good. The psychic feats of the Buddha's errant disciple Devadatta were also genuine.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Nov 25, 2020 11:44 AM
Title: Re: Ajahn Brahmavamso's Dark Jhana
Content:
There's no need for that at the moment. Discussion of right and wrong notions about jhāna is quite within Dhamma Wheel's terms of service.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Nov 24, 2020 2:52 PM
Title: Re: the great rebirth debate
Content:
The sutta says "sentient being", not "human being". So, when read your way the Buddha's statement would simply be false. It would be as easy as pie to find a sentient being whose ancestors had never interbred with one's own ancestors, e.g., any animal that reproduces asexually.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Nov 23, 2020 11:34 PM
Title: Re: It is wrong to say: "Samsara has no beginning" or "Samsara is beginningless"
Content:
I think it's quite correct to say that "saṃsāra is beginningless".

The beginninglessness of saṃsāra may be inferred simply from the fact that saṃsāra depends on avijjā, avijjā depends on nutriment, and part of that nutriment is prior instances of avijjā.

Moreoever, in the commentaries "without a discoverable beginning" (anamatagga) and "with no beginning" (anādimati) are used interchangeably, while expressions like "is not manifest" (na paññāyati), "is not to be seen" (na dissati), "is not to be found" (na vijjati) and "does not obtain" (na upalabbhati) are all common Indic idioms for "does not exist".


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Nov 23, 2020 7:12 AM
Title: Re: Ajahn Brahmavamso's Dark Jhana
Content:
According to the OP:

PS maintains that the mind's object when in jhāna is the counterpart sign (paṭibhāga nimitta).

AB maintains that it's pīti and sukha.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Nov 21, 2020 2:54 AM
Title: Re: Ajahn Brahmavamso's Dark Jhana
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Nov 20, 2020 5:14 PM
Title: Re: why westerners dont beleive in after life world
Content:
NT scholars have proposed at least five views as to what the disciples may have been thinking when they raised the possibility that the man was born blind as a punishment for sins committed before he was born. The reincarnationist hypothesis is one of them, but it's the least favoured one by both believers and secular scholars. It seems only New Age loons give it any credence.

Last time I checked the consensus was that the disciples probably had in mind the rabbinical idea that a baby may commit sins while in the womb. One text, for example, has Esau making threats against his twin brother Jacob if Jacob didn't allow Esau to be born first. 

The oddest of the theories is that the man was born blind in order to punish him proactively for some grave sin that God foresaw he was going to commit later.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Nov 20, 2020 4:57 PM
Title: Re: why westerners dont beleive in after life world
Content:
I don't know the reason for their reticence, but the difference isn't hard to describe.

Reincarnation

vāsānsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya
navāni gṛihṇāti naro ’parāṇi
tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇānya
nyāni sanyāti navāni dehī
"As a person sheds worn-out garments and wears new ones, likewise, at the time of death, the soul casts off its worn-out body and enters a new one."
(Bhagavad Gītā 2:22)

The body dies &gt; the soul gets a new body &gt; the body dies &gt; the soul gets a new body &gt; the body dies &gt; etc., etc.

Resurrection

"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment..."
(Hebrews 9:28)

The body dies &gt; the soul goes into a dormant state &gt; at the end of the world the Angel Gabriel blows his trumpet &gt; the souls of all the dead come out of hibernation, the elements of their bodies come back together again and the souls reanimate them &gt; each body-and-soul is judged and consigned to eternal heaven or hell.

(At least this is one common version of the story, though the Christians do have quite a few others).


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Nov 20, 2020 3:54 PM
Title: Re: Ajahn Brahmavamso's Dark Jhana
Content:
This and the rest of your post appears to be intended for JamestheGiant, so I'll leave it to him to respond if he wishes.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Nov 20, 2020 3:33 PM
Title: Re: Ajahn Brahmavamso's Dark Jhana
Content:
I think you're confusing me with JamestheGiant. I've neither met Ajahn Brahm nor stayed at his monastery.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Nov 20, 2020 1:47 AM
Title: Re: Ajahn Brahmavamso's Dark Jhana
Content:
I wonder, bhante, how did you come to know that: "Most people complain that staying at his monastery is quite useless"?

I mean it's hard to credit that even a third or a half, let alone a majority, of those who stay at Bodhinyana feel it imperative to contact Ven. Subhūti or his Czech friend to let them know what a rotten time they had. And I assume that neither you nor your Czech friend are in the habit of sending Bodhinyana guests a customer satisfaction questionnaire to be filled in after their departure. Whence then comes your information? Aussie devas perhaps?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Nov 19, 2020 9:27 PM
Title: Re: Ajahn Brahmavamso's Dark Jhana
Content:
But in your article I don't see two quotes from his books, or even one quote, about the alleged uselessness of staying in the ajahn's monastery. And I don't see two quotes, or even one quote, about the ajahn "rarely talking about darkness as essential."


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Nov 19, 2020 6:42 PM
Title: Re: Ajahn Brahmavamso's Dark Jhana
Content:
Two quotes backing up what, bhante? That the ajahn rarely talks about darkness as essential? Or that most people complain that staying at his monastery is quite useless?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:58 PM
Title: Re: What is vilātaṃ?
Content:
It's a sedan or palanquin, but in this context a funeral bier. The crowd is decorating it with pieces of coloured cloth.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Nov 17, 2020 4:32 PM
Title: Re: Why Theravada if you are suttanta?
Content:
Well, that's not surprising, for 'suttanta' just means 'sutta'. It isn't the name of a Buddhist sect, a Vinaya lineage or a school of interpretation. 

In Sanskritic Buddhism the name 'Sautrāntika' is given to a school whose hermeneutic prioritised the sūtras over the (Sarvāstivāda) abhidharma. But the Pali equivalent, suttantika, isn't used for this purpose. In the Vinaya a suttantika is a monk who memorises suttas; it's not the name of a school.

The Sinhalese chronicles and Kathāvatthu Commentary mention a school called the Suttavādins and some have suggested that these may be identical with the Sautrāntikas. They may be right but there's no certainty about it because Pali sources tell us only that the Suttavādins were an offshoot of an offshoot of the Sarvāstivādins, but don't tell us anything about their views.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Nov 16, 2020 3:25 PM
Title: Re: How to translate "vimocayaṃ" ???
Content:
It differs in that it's a verb and these are nouns, but they are formed from the same root and prefix and their meanings are closely related.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Nov 14, 2020 11:30 PM
Title: Re: Buddhist practice as a monastic in another religion?
Content:
I think the "firm conclusion" is so trivially true that it deserves no serious place in one's planning for the future.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Nov 13, 2020 12:56 PM
Title: Re: Advice on dealing with Christian friends who want to convert you?
Content:
And if you're a married woman, your Christian friends may conclude: "Oh dear, her husband's obviously had her killed and replaced with a malfunctioning Stepford Wife. Our Lord wasn't crucified to save robots ... let's find some other victim."

 

.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:38 AM
Title: Re: Attacks by non-humans?
Content:
I guess these two fellows in Pieter Bruegel's "Triumph of Death" must be quarter zombies; they've got the two-wheeled cart and the bell, but are lacking a sword.

.


./download/file.php?id=6144&mode=view


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Nov 11, 2020 5:24 PM
Title: Re: Words about "nibbana" & "parinibbana" ????
Content:
It should be analysed as paccattaṃ + eva. The first word is formed from paṭi + attaṃ. It's the same word as in the last of the special qualities of the Dhamma: paccattaṃ veditabbo viññūhi - "to be personally known by the wise".

Eva here probably means "only".


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Nov 11, 2020 4:56 PM
Title: Re: The Questions of Metteyya
Content:
Be more expansive, please. What doesn't fit what?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Nov 11, 2020 4:52 PM
Title: Re: is it true at ariyas have max 7 life?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:25 PM
Title: Re: Attacks by non-humans?
Content:
And also in the sutta accounts of the axe-wielding Vajirapāṇi hovering over the head of the Buddha's interlocutor when he's not playing fair in debate.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Nov 8, 2020 1:54 AM
Title: Re: DW Chat
Content:
I think the only way it can be done is by opening a word processor, clicking on "Show emoji and symbols" and then copying and pasting whichever you want to use.

.


./download/file.php?id=6127&mode=view


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Nov 7, 2020 5:46 AM
Title: Re: Udana Parallels
Content:
There are three English and one German translation of the Udānavarga, whose chapter on Nirvāṇa parallels much of Ud 8.1-8.4. The only one that I know to be available online is the 1883 English translation from the Tibetan by Rockhill:

https://archive.org/details/udanavargatibetandhammapada_202003_991_y/page/n151/mode/2up

The others are the 1911 German translation from the Tibetan by Hermann Beckh:
Udanavarga: Eine Sammlung buddhistischer Sprüche in tibetischer Sprache

The 1974 translation from the Chinese by Charles Willemen:
The Chinese Udanavarga. A Collection of Important Odes of the Law (Fa Chi Yao Sung Ching).

And the translation by Dhammajoti, also from the Chinese. I've never seen a copy, so I don't know what its title is.

Also, Ven. Ānandajoti has produced a critical edition of the Sanskrit text of the Udānavarga, but I don't think he has translated it yet. The Nirvāṇa chapter:

https://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/Buddhist-Texts/S1-Udanavarga/26-Nirvana.htm


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Nov 6, 2020 10:54 PM
Title: Re: The meaning of envy in the context of the sutta
Content:
When the words are being used in their traditional sense, envy doesn't have "a jealousy component". It's a completely different thing.

Wanting to be like another person would never be an example of what the Buddha calls 'envy' (issā, ussuyā). Whether it would be a good or a bad thing would obviously depend on what sort of person you wanted to be like and in what respect you wanted to be like him.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Nov 6, 2020 9:37 PM
Title: Re: The meaning of envy in the context of the sutta
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Nov 6, 2020 8:37 PM
Title: Re: The meaning of envy in the context of the sutta
Content:
Yes, always so. Although there are some innocuous senses of 'envy' in colloquial English, all the Pali nouns and verbs that get translated as 'envy' exclusively have to do with unwholesome states of mind.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Nov 5, 2020 11:43 AM
Title: Re: The irredeemable nature of this world
Content:
On similar lines to the passage cited by Samvara, but more expansive, are the eighty-nine reflections that prompt a Buddha to teach, as given in the Mahākaruṇā-samāpatti chapter of the Paṭisambhidāmagga.

1. Āditto lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is burning.

2. Uyyutto lokasannivāso.
Worldly life drives on.

3. Payāto lokasannivāso.
Worldly life moves on.

4. Kummaggappaṭipanno lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is on the wrong road.

5. Upanīyati loko addhuvo.
The world has no lastingness and is led on.

6. Atāṇo loko anabhissaro.
The world has no shelter and no protector.

7. Assako loko, sabbaṃ pahāya gamanīyaṃ.
The world has nothing of its own, it has to leave all and pass on.

8. Ūno loko atīto taṇhādāso.
The world is incomplete, insatiate, and the slave of craving.

9. Atāyano lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is without shelter.

10. Aleṇo lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is without shield.

11. Asaraṇo lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is without refuge.

12. Asaraṇībhūto lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is no refuge.

13. Uddhato loko avūpasanto.
The world is agitated and uncalm.

14. Sasallo lokasannivāso, viddho puthusallehi; tassa natthañño koci sallānaṃ uddhatā, aññatra mayā.
Worldly life is wounded by darts, pierced by many darts; there is none other than myself to draw out the darts.

15. Avijjandhakārāvaraṇo lokasannivāso aṇḍabhūto kilesapañjarapakkhitto; tassa natthañño koci ālokaṃ dassetā, aññatra mayā.
Worldly life is darkened by a shadow of unknowing, with a locked dungeon of defilement; there is none other but myself to show the light.

16. Avijjāgato lokasannivāso aṇḍabhūto pariyonaddho tantākulakajāto gulāguṇḍikajāto muñjapabbajabhūto apāyaṃ duggatiṃ vinipātaṃ saṃsāraṃ nātivattati.
Worldly life goes in ignorance, it is blind, it is enclosed in an egg of ignorance, is a tangled skein, a knotted ball of thread, a matted web of tares, is not exempt from the round of rebirth in states of deprivation, unhappy destinations and perdition.

17. Avijjāvisadosasaṃlitto lokasannivāso kilesakalalībhūto.
Worldly life is infected by the corruption of the poison of ignorance, is a mire of defilement.

18. Rāgadosamohajaṭājaṭito lokasannivāso; tassa natthañño koci jaṭaṃ vijaṭetā, aññatra mayā.
Worldly life is a maze of greed, hate and delusion; there is none other than myself to unmake the maze.

19. Taṇhāsaṅghāṭapaṭimukko lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is involved in a web of craving.

20. Taṇhājālena otthaṭo lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is enveloped in the net of craving.

21. Taṇhāsotena vuyhati lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is carried away by the stream of craving.

22. Taṇhāsaññojanena saññutto lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is fettered by the fetter of craving.

23. Taṇhānusayena anusaṭo lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is underlain by the underlying tendency to craving.

24. Taṇhāsantāpena santappati lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is tormented by the torment of craving.

25. Taṇhāpariḷāhena pariḍayhati lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is anguished with the anguish of craving.

26. Diṭṭhisaṅghāṭapaṭimukko lokasannivāso.
Wordly life is involved in the web of views.

27. Diṭṭhijālena otthaṭo lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is enveloped in the net of views.

28. Diṭṭhisotena vuyhati lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is carried away by the stream of views.

29. Diṭṭhisaññojanena saññutto lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is fettered by the fetter of views.

30. Diṭṭhānusayena anusaṭo lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is underlain by the underlying tendency to views.

31. Diṭṭhisantāpena santappati lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is tormented by the torment of views.

32. Diṭṭhipariḷāhena pariḍayhati lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is anguished with the anguish of views.

33. Jātiyā anugato lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is committed by birth.

34. Jarāya anusaṭo lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is underlain by ageing.

35. Byādhinā abhibhūto lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is haunted by affliction.

36. Maraṇena abbhāhato lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is struck down by death.

37. Dukkhe patiṭṭhito lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is based on suffering.

38. Taṇhāya uḍḍito lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is caught up by craving.

39. Jarāpākāraparikkhitto lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is hemmed in by the wall of ageing.

40. Maccupāsena parikkhitto lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is hemmed in by the snare of death.

41. Mahābandhanabandho lokasannivāso: rāgabandhanena dosabandhanena mohabandhanena mānabandhanena diṭṭhibandhanena kilesabandhanena duccaritabandhanena; tassa natthañño koci bandhanaṃ mocetā, aññatra mayā.
Worldly life is bound by great bonds: by the bond of greed, by the bond of hate, by the bond of delusion, by the bond of conceit, by the bond of views, by the bond of defilement, by the bond of misconduct. There is none other than myself to free it from the bonds.

42. Mahāsambādhappaṭipanno lokasannivāso; tassa natthañño koci okāsaṃ dassetā, aññatra mayā.
Worldly life has entered a great crowded tunnel; there is none other than myself to show the wide open space.

43. Mahāpalibodhena palibuddho lokasannivāso; tassa natthañño koci palibodhaṃ chetā, aññatra mayā.
Worldly life is impeded by a great impediment; there is none other than myself to sever its impediment.

44. Mahāpapāte patito lokasannivāso; tassa natthañño koci papātā uddhatā, aññatra mayā.
Worldly life has fallen into a great chasm; there is none other than myself to lift it out of the chasm.

45. Mahākantārappaṭipanno lokasannivāso; tassa natthañño koci kantāraṃ tāretā, aññatra mayā.
Worldly life has entered a great wilderness, there is none other than myself to get it across the wilderness.

46. Mahāsaṃsārappaṭipanno lokasannivāso; tassa natthañño koci saṃsārā mocetā, aññatra mayā.
Worldly life has entered upon a great roundabout; there is none other than myself to free it from the roundabout.

47. Mahāvidugge samparivattati lokasannivāso; tassa natthañño koci viduggā uddhatā, aññatra mayā.
Worldly life is blocked up in a great ravine; there is none other than myself to lift it out of the ravine.

48. Mahāpalipe palipanno lokasannivāso; tassa natthañño koci palipā uddhatā, aññatra mayā.
Worldly life founders in a great slough, there is none other than myself to lift it out of the slough.

49. Abbhāhato lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is vulnerable.

50. Āditto lokasannivāso: rāgagginā dosagginā mohagginā jātiyā jarāya maraṇena sokehi paridevehi dukkhehi domanassehi upāyāsehi; tassa natthañño koci nibbāpetā, aññatra mayā.
Worldly life is burning with the fire of greed, the fire of hate, the fire of delusion, the fires of birth, ageing and death, sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair; there is none other than myself to extinguish the fires.

51. Unnītako lokasannivāso haññati niccamatāṇo pattadaṇḍo takkaro.
Worldly life, like one led off to execution is punished with never any shelter, like a malefactor whose sentence is carried out upon him.

52. Vajjabandhanabaddho lokasannivāso āghātanapaccupaṭṭhito; tassa natthañño koci bandhanaṃ mocetā, aññatra mayā.
Worldly life is bound together by vile things and is founded upon hurtfulness; there is none other than myself to free it.

53. Anātho lokasannivāso paramakāruññappatto; tassa natthañño koci tāyetā, aññatra mayā.
Worldly life has no helper and has reached a state of utter wretchedness; there is none other than myself to shield it.

54. Dukkhābhitunno lokasannivāso cirarattaṃ pīḷito.
Worldly life is overwhelmed by suffering, and has long been oppressed by it.

55. Gadhito lokasannivāso niccaṃ pipāsito.
Worldly life is ever hungry, ever thirsty.

56. Andho lokasannivāso acakkhuko.
Worldly life is blind and sightless.

57. Hatanetto lokasannivāso apariṇāyako.
Worldly life has lost its leader and has no guide.

58. Vipathapakkhando lokasannivāso añjasāparaddho; tassa natthañño koci ariyapathaṃ ānetā, aññatra mayā.
Worldly life has got lost on the wrong way and missed the straight road; there is none other than myself to lead it to the noble way.

59. Mahoghapakkhando lokasannivāso; tassa natthañño koci oghā uddhatā, aññatra mayā.
Worldly life has gone adrift on the great flood; there is none other than myself to rescue it from the flood.

60. Dvīhi diṭṭhigatehi pariyuṭṭhito lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is obsessed by two kinds of views.

61. Tīhi duccaritehi vippaṭipanno lokasannivāso.
Worldly life goes wrong with three kinds of misconduct.

62. Catūhi yogehi yutto lokasannivāso catuyogayojito.
Worldly life is yoked by four yokes.

63. Catūhi ganthehi ganthito lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is knotted with four knots.

64. Catūhi upādānehi upādiyati lokasannivāso.
Worldly life clings with four kinds of clinging.

65. Pañcagatisamāruḷho lokasannivāso.
Worldly life has embarked upon five destinations.

66. Pañcahi kāmaguṇehi rajjati lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is dyed with greed for the five dimensions of sensual desire.

67. Pañcahi nīvaraṇehi otthaṭo lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is blocked by five hindrances.

68. Chahi vivādamūlehi vivadati lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is disputed with six roots of dispute.

69. Chahi taṇhākāyehi rajjati lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is dyed with greed by six classes of craving.

70. Chahi diṭṭhigatehi pariyuṭṭhito lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is obsessed by six kinds of view.

71. Sattahi anusayehi anusaṭo lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is underlain by seven underlying tendencies.

72. Sattahi saññojanehi saññutto lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is fettered by seven fetters.

73. Sattahi mānehi unnato lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is proud with seven conceits.

74. Aṭṭhahi lokadhammehi samparivattati lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is attended by eight worldly ideas.

75. Aṭṭhahi micchattehi niyyāto lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is fixed by eight wrongnesses.

76. Aṭṭhahi purisadosehi dussati lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is corrupted by eight corruptions of man.

77. Navahi āghātavatthūhi āghātito lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is annoyed by the nine grounds for annoyance.

78. Navavidhamānehi unnato lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is haughty by means of the ninefold conceit.

79. Navahi taṇhāmūlakehi dhammehi rajjati lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is dyed with greed by means of the nine ideas rooted in craving.

80. Dasahi kilesavatthūhi kilissati lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is defiled by the ten grounds for defilement.

81. Dasahi āghātavatthūhi āghātito lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is annoyed by the ten grounds for annoyance.

82. Dasahi akusalakammapathehi samannāgato lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is possessed of the ten wrong courses of action.

83. Dasahi saññojanehi saññutto lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is fettered by ten fetters.

84. Dasahi micchattehi niyyāto lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is fixed in ten wrongnesses.

85. Dasavatthukāya micchādiṭṭhiyā samannāgato lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is possessed of the ten-based wrong view.

86. Dasavatthukāya antaggāhikāya diṭṭhiyā samannāgato lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is possessed of the ten-based view assuming finiteness.

87. Aṭṭhasatataṇhāpapañcasatehi papañcito lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is diversified by the one hundred and eight varieties of diversification by craving.

88. Dvāsaṭṭhiyā diṭṭhigatehi pariyuṭṭhito lokasannivāso.
Worldly life is obsessed by sixty-two classes of view.

89. Ahañcamhi tiṇṇo, loko ca atiṇṇo ahaṃ camhi mutto, loko ca amutto; ahañcamhi danto, loko ca adanto; ahaṃ camhi santo, loko ca asanto; ahaṃ camhi assattho, loko ca anassattho; ahaṃ camhi parinibbuto, loko ca aparinibbuto; pahomi khvāhaṃ tiṇṇo tāretuṃ, mutto mocetuṃ, danto dametuṃ, santo sametuṃ, assattho assāsetuṃ, parinibbuto pare ca parinibbāpetuṃ.
I have crossed over and the world has not crossed over, I am liberated and the world is not liberated; I am controlled and the world is uncontrolled; I am at peace and the world is not at peace; I am comforted and the world is comfortless; I am extinguished and the world is unextinguished; I, having crossed over, can bring across; I, being liberated, can liberate; I, being controlled, can teach control; I, being at peace, can pacify; I, being comforted, can comfort; I, being extinguished, can teach extinguishment.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Nov 5, 2020 10:10 AM
Title: Re: If Theravada is true how do you explain anecdotal experiences with Buddhas?
Content:
Well, we have tertöns of a sort in Thailand too. They're mostly itinerant forest monks who report meditative visions of buried Buddha statues, relics, amulets, etc. and when people dig in the spot indicated by the monk, sure enough the monk's prediction proves correct.

How can this happen if Theravada isn't true?

 

Actually the way it happens is that a rascally monk, ambitious to acquire a name for supposed thaumaturgical skills, is just unearthing stuff that he buried himself. It was a popular con trick from the 60s to the 80s, but now the Thais have sussed it out and so the practice has greatly waned.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Nov 4, 2020 2:21 PM
Title: Re: Newly Joined
Content:
You speak of "the Buddha's teachings", but the Pāsādikasutta speaks of the brahmacariyā. In sutta usage brahmacariyā may refer either to celibacy (as in the Cūḷahatthipadopamasutta MN i. 179), to the samaṇa life in general (as in the Rathavinītasutta MN i. 147), or to the noble eightfold path (as in Paṭhama-aññatarabhikkhusutta SN v. 7). But in none of these three senses is its meaning co-extensive with the Buddha's teachings as a whole. The Buddha taught on countless subjects that have nothing at all to do with the brahmacariyā in any sense of the word.

Then you speak of a person having "wrong view", but the Pāsādikasutta speaks of a person "not seeing". To not see is not the same as to see wrongly; that is, it pertains to avijjā rather than to micchādiṭṭhi.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Nov 4, 2020 1:26 AM
Title: Re: Newly Joined
Content:
Where does the Buddha say this?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Nov 3, 2020 6:52 PM
Title: Re: Goenka: a bodhisatta?
Content:
Ben doesn't post here now, but he can be contacted via his Facebook page.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Nov 3, 2020 6:42 PM
Title: Re: khanti (patience) and khama (patient) are coming from the same root right?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Nov 2, 2020 11:40 AM
Title: Re: attato
Content:
More literally: "...what is false should be unravelled by you as false."


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Nov 1, 2020 9:48 PM
Title: Re: attato
Content:
It's called an apañcamy'atthepi to: "A -to whose meaning isn't ablative."

If you take a noun of any gender in its pre-inflected form and add the inflection -to it's more likely to convey an ablative meaning than anything else. But if it doesn't, then it's called an apañcamyatthepi to.

An apañcamyatthepi to can indicate any oblique case, though instrumental is the commonest.

As an instrumental it will quite often have the effect of turning the noun into an adverb.

Sometimes there are several meanings possible. For example, ādito can be ablative ("from the beginning"), locative ("in the beginning") or an instrumental adverbial ("initially"). Likewise piṭṭhito: "from the back", "at the back" or "behind".

Attato is another ambiguous one. But I see Assaji has already got it covered.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Nov 1, 2020 8:32 PM
Title: Re: Translation help needed
Content:
This is the H.G. Quaritch Wales article from the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.281674/page/n17/mode/2up

And a more legible photo in Xavier Thaninayagam's Tamil Culture.

https://archive.org/details/tamil-culture-by-xavier-thaninayagam-adigalar-volume-1-12_202008/page/n3563/mode/2up


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Nov 1, 2020 8:17 PM
Title: Re: Translation help needed
Content:
See the discussion in Michel Jacq-Hergoualc'h's book, The Malay Peninsula: Crossroads of the Maritime Silk Road (100 BC - 1300 AD).

He gives the diacritics and quotes a much better translation by J. Allen:

.


./download/file.php?id=6098&mode=view


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Nov 1, 2020 6:41 PM
Title: Re: All about Paccekasambuddhā
Content:
If you haven't already done so, I recommend you get Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of the Suttanipāta and its commentary and read the commentary to the Khaggavisāṇa ('Rhinoceros Horn') Sutta, which is traditionally understood to be a collection of sayings of paccekabuddhas.

Then get Bhikkhu Anālayo's paper, Paccekabuddhas in the Isigili-sutta and its Ekottarika-āgama parallel. Its bibliography gives just about everything relevant that's been published in English or German up to 2010.

One work of particular interest is Martin Wiltshire's book, Ascetic Figures before and in Early Buddhism.

Another is K.R. Norman's Pratyekabuddhas in Buddhism and Jainism.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Nov 1, 2020 4:01 PM
Title: Re: Reference for Nagita story about Kathina
Content:
As I said, it's in the Nāgita Apadāna - an apocryphal text, but one that happens to be popular in Sri Lanka and Burma.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Oct 31, 2020 5:29 PM
Title: Re: Reference for Nagita story about Kathina
Content:
It's the Nāgita Apadāna, an apocryphal former life story of Ven. Nāgita that's not included in the Pali canon or commentaries, nor available in English translation afaik.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Oct 31, 2020 1:32 PM
Title: Re: Good thief vs Bad thief
Content:
I think Theravada Buddhist ethics would be a species of absolutism even if it didn't have a belief in vipāka, simply because of its unqualifiedly intentionalist understanding of what makes an action akusala. Whatever the situation or the motive or the eventual outcome of an action, if it's generated by a defiled state of mind then it's akusala. Period.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Oct 31, 2020 1:22 PM
Title: Re: Good thief vs Bad thief
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Oct 30, 2020 9:56 PM
Title: Re: Good thief vs Bad thief
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Oct 30, 2020 12:22 PM
Title: Re: Good thief vs Bad thief
Content:
But the recognition that a vicious act can be mitigated is not only compatible with moral absolutism, in fact it's normal for it. That is, in almost every absolutist system (with the possible exception of Stoicism) it is readily admitted that goodness and badness come in degrees, and that the vice in a vicious act can be mitigated or aggravated by the agent's motive.

What absolutists will not admit is that such mitigation could ever alter the character of the vicious act by changing it into a virtuous or neutral act, for absolutists are committed to the view that certain types of act are intrinsically virtuous or vicious.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Oct 29, 2020 11:57 AM
Title: Re: Theravadan Shikantaza?
Content:
Thanks.

I know from old preceptor, Ajahn Khemadhammo, that Ajahn Chah liked to read Ajahn Buddhadāsa's Thai translations of the English translations of certain classical Ch'an teachers (e.g., Wong Mou-lam's Sutra of Hui Neng and John Blofeld's Teachings of Huang Po). And I gather from Paul Breiter's memoirs that those of the ajahn's western disciples who had a background in Zen would sometimes read out passages from the Zen books they were reading, translate them into Thai and ask for his comment. But this is the first I've ever heard of him commissioning a translation of Zen Mind Beginners' Mind. As far as I know, there's only one Thai translation of this book, that of Nara Suphakrote, whose first edition was published only in 2014.

จิตใหม่ หัวใจเซน ("New Mind, Heart of Zen")
.


./download/file.php?id=6077&mode=view


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Oct 29, 2020 10:17 AM
Title: Re: Theravadan Shikantaza?
Content:
I hadn't heard that before. Do you have a source for it?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Oct 28, 2020 1:56 PM
Title: Re: Wonderful re-birth story from Sri Lanka!
Content:
I don't think it's due to merit. Just as the devas in the Vimānavatthu can recall the meritorious deeds as humans that got them to heaven, even so the petas in the Petavatthu can recall the stingy and avaricious behaviour as humans that led to their becoming petas.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Oct 27, 2020 6:31 PM
Title: Re: Seeking rebirth in Tushita heaven
Content:
It depends what you mean by "teaching the Dhamma." If you merely mean delivering moral exhortations to his companions, along the lines of: "Gifts are to be given, the sīlas are to be kept, the uposatha is to be observed, etc." then there's no disagreement between us, for in the Jātakas the Bodhisatta is often represented doing just this. 

But if you mean teaching an ariya-making Dhamma, then it would imply that bodhisattas in Tusita have already discovered the middle way and eightfold path. In the case of Gotama it would further imply that he was a wiser being in his penultimate life than he was in his final life. That is, he knew all about the middle way as a deva in Tusita, but did not know about it as a human in Magadha, and so had to first spend twenty-nine years doing kāmasukhallikānuyoga and then six years doing attakilamatthānuyoga before he he was able to discover something that in his former life he'd known all along. To me that's a quite ridiculous notion.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Oct 26, 2020 7:45 PM
Title: Re: Seeking rebirth in Tushita heaven
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Oct 26, 2020 12:58 PM
Title: Re: origin and meaning of this symbol
Content:
You could try asking the chairman of the Samatha Trust, Dr. Paul Dennison, who's a great enthusiast for Khmer and Thai yantras, mantras, tattoos, etc.

napaul(at)tiscali(dot)co(dot)uk


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Oct 26, 2020 5:29 AM
Title: Re: Seeking rebirth in Tushita heaven
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Oct 26, 2020 2:53 AM
Title: Re: Dhammadhatu
Content:
The dhammadhātu comprises either twenty dhammas or sixty-nine, depending on whether saṅkhārakkhandha gets counted as one dhamma or fifty (i.e. the fifty cetasikas). The list of thirty is:

Feeling aggregate, perception aggregate, formations aggregate, water element, masculinity, femininity, heart-base, life-faculty, nutriment, space, bodily intimation, vocal intimation, lightness, malleability, wieldiness, production, continuity, decay, impermanence, nibbāna.

(vedanā, saññā, saṅkhārā, āpodhātu, purisattaṃ, itthattaṃ, hadayavatthu, jīvitindriya, āhāra, ākāsadhātu, kāyaviññatti, vacīviññatti, lahutā, mudutā, kammaññatā, upacaya, santati, jaratā, aniccatā, nibbāna)

Or in brief...

1. Three mental aggregates: feeling, perception, formations (= fifty-two cetasikas);

2. Sixteen subtle rūpas: setting aside the twelve gross rūpas (the five sensory pāsādas and the objects of the fivefold sensory consciousness), the remaining sixteen are subtle rūpas;

3. Nibbāna.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Oct 26, 2020 12:14 AM
Title: Re: What is considered to be a Thai Buddhist "Temple"
Content:
It could be a samnak song — a place where monks live but which hasn't been officially recognised as a wat by the state; though in practice it's common that even a samnak song will have 'wat' in its name, especially if it's been established for a long time and the local villagers think of it as as wat.

Or if it's in some remote mountain location it could be an asom thammajarik — one of the hundred or so rudimentary monasteries established by the Thai state in the 60's and 70's for missionary monks to go and teach Dhamma to hill tribe villagers and try to wean them off communism and opium-growing.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Oct 25, 2020 9:02 PM
Title: Re: The Nirvana of the Arhat and the Nirvana of the Buddha, and also the difference between an Arhat and a Buddha.
Content:
One, as mentioned by SDC, is that the Buddha is the "is the originator of the path unarisen before", while arahant disciples are followers of that path.

A second is that there are certain special cognitive abilities – supernormal powers and the like – that are possessed by a Buddha but not by any of his arahant disciples.

A third is that with regard to the special cognitive abilities that are possessed by both the Buddha and certain of his more accomplished arahant disciples, the Buddha possesses them in a superior degree.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Oct 24, 2020 3:59 PM
Title: Re: khanti (patience) and khama (patient) are coming from the same root right?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Oct 24, 2020 12:30 PM
Title: Re: What are those things in Thai monasteries called?
Content:
I don't think so. When Thai royalty do kruat nam they use the same utensils as anyone else. The only difference is that the act and the utensils get called by longer and fancier names. In Royal Court Thai kruat nam is song lang thaksinothok (ทรงหลั่งทักษิโณทก) and the thii kruat nam is a phra tao thaksinothok (พระเต้าทักษิโณทก). 

The ceremony you describe sounds more like พิธีสรงน้ำพระ / phithee song nam phra — the Songkran ceremony of bathing Buddha statues and the stūpa-shaped brass reliquaries containing your deceased relatives' ashes.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Oct 23, 2020 2:03 PM
Title: Re: What are those things in Thai monasteries called?
Content:
I don't know of any standard way of referring to it in English. It's rather too small to be called a "jug", "pitcher", "ewer" or "amphora". "Carafe", "flagon" and "decanter" all have unwelcome associations with booze. A flask is usually of glass, not brass. So what does that leave us with? Just "vessel" and "container", afaik. Perhaps: "a pattidāna pouring vessel".


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Oct 23, 2020 1:43 PM
Title: Re: The Buddhas birth
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Oct 23, 2020 12:39 PM
Title: Re: What are those things in Thai monasteries called?
Content:
I've never seen laypeople offering water to monks "in a ritualized way". Are you referring to the ritualized pouring of water (i.e., for merit dedication) after they've presented their food to the monks? If so...

For the act of pouring water to dedicate merit Thais don't use the common verb "to pour water" (i.e., เทน้ำ / thei nam) but a special verb, กรวดน้ำ / kruat nam, that's only ever used in this context.

The water container is just called a ที่กรวดน้ำ / thii kruat nam ("thing that you use to kruat nam").

The little bowl that you pour the water into is called a ฐาน / thaan ("base").

The two items together are called a ชุดกรวดน้ำ / chut kruat nam ("a kruat nam set").

.



kruat nam.jpg (16.1 KiB) Viewed 1440 times


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Oct 23, 2020 6:59 AM
Title: Re: Faith and Reliability
Content:
Not in the case of the third link, which includes, for example, the multiple leaps to faith of St Augustine.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Oct 23, 2020 5:02 AM
Title: Re: Four Noble Truths
Content:
They are actually Ajahn Sumedho's words, not floatsy's.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Oct 23, 2020 4:47 AM
Title: Re: The Buddhas birth
Content:
The most elaborate commentarial account is given in the introductory section of the Jātaka Atthakathā:

https://archive.org/details/PaliCommentariesCollection/05.10%20Jataka%20Commentary%20Jatakatthakatha%2C%20only%20Nidanakatha%2C%20The%20Story%20of%20Gotama%20Buddha%2C%20vol.1%20-%20N.A.%20Jayawickrama%20%28294p%29/page/128/mode/2up


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Oct 23, 2020 12:55 AM
Title: Re: Faith and Reliability
Content:
Try telling that to https://aerolites.blogspot.com/2006/12/seven-spiritual-ages-of-mrs-marmaduke.html. Or the https://web.archive.org/web/20040706010039/http://history.wisc.edu/sommerville/367/Vicar%20of%20Bray.htm. Or any of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_made_multiple_religious_conversions.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Oct 22, 2020 11:48 PM
Title: Re: Looking for a Sutta... Knowledge of Evil
Content:
That's true, but Milinda didn't bring up those factors. He was solely concerned with the question of the agent's knowledge or non-knowledge.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Oct 22, 2020 8:49 PM
Title: Re: help with a mother's request
Content:
Yes.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Oct 22, 2020 8:40 PM
Title: Re: The Atoms
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Oct 22, 2020 7:55 PM
Title: Re: help with a mother's request
Content:
It should look like this:

.


./download/file.php?id=6060&mode=view


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Oct 22, 2020 3:10 PM
Title: Re: Looking for a Sutta... Knowledge of Evil
Content:
I don't know of a teaching about kamma like that, but in Vinaya the distinction between an offence and a non-offence often hinges on what the bhikkhu knew or didn't know before he performed the action.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Oct 22, 2020 2:13 PM
Title: Re: help with a mother's request
Content:
If I'm not too late, I would suggest...

1. A Buddha image in the "benefitting his mother" posture.
In Thai: ปางโปรดพระพุทธมารดา

2. A Buddha image in the "forbidding his relatives to fight" posture.
ปางห้ามญาติ

3. An unalome inside a lotus flower.
อุณาโลมในกลีบบัว

For some examples, search google images for the Thai phrases.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Oct 19, 2020 2:35 PM
Title: Re: translate this line from MN 69 cmy, on āruppa
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Oct 19, 2020 1:12 AM
Title: Re: Ciggarettes
Content:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Allen-Carrs-Easy-Stop-Smoking/dp/1405923318


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Oct 18, 2020 2:31 PM
Title: Re: Questions about stream entry
Content:
Kapila, the founder of the Hindu Sāṃkhya school, is not regarded by ANY Buddhists – even Mahayanists – as a "past avatar" of the Buddha. Nor do the Vedas identify him as an avatar of the Buddha, for the simple reason that the Vedas know nothing about the Buddha. The very notion of an "avatar", though arguably comparable to the Mahayana's "nirmāṇakāya" conception, is completely foreign to Theravāda Buddhism.

But all of this is really beside the point, for this is not the Connections to Other Paths forum, and so discussion of Kapila's views is completely out of place here.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Oct 17, 2020 11:23 AM
Title: Re: Ingram, et al - "Hard Core Dharma" & claims of attainment
Content:
I don't think so. But if you don't wish to read all of it, page 2 alone should suffice to show how radical a breach there is between Ingram Dhamma and Buddha Dhamma.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Oct 17, 2020 10:53 AM
Title: Re: Swami Sarvapriyanand?
Content:
I don't think you do. You don't understand because you don't listen. You are so intent on spamming Dhamma Wheel with half-baked infantile notions picked up from Vaishnavism, Nichirenism and New Age perennialism that you fail miserably to understand anything that anybody here is saying. In effect you are just talking to yourself, learning nothing and contributing nothing of even the slightest interest or value. For someone who's set himself the Bodhisattvic task of enlightening all beings I'm afraid your performance to date has been most disappointing. Your posts thus far have been about as enlightening as the Viz comic's "Man in the Pub - Britain's most ill-informed columnist".

.


./download/file.php?id=6038&mode=view


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Oct 16, 2020 5:57 PM
Title: Re: Swami Sarvapriyanand?
Content:
In Buddhist texts the renunciation of the household life is never referred to as saṃnyāsa, nor Buddhist monks or nuns as saṃnyāsins. The avoidance of the term is almost certainly deliberate and aimed at distinguishing the Buddhist model of renunciation (which ideally is undertaken when one is still young) from the Brahminical "four stages of life" (āśrama) model, in which saṃnyāsa is the fourth and final stage and normally undertaken in old age.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Oct 15, 2020 2:40 PM
Title: Re: Loving kindness (metta) and compassion
Content:
I should have thought that this (or some other course aimed at insight development) would be the main plan for a serious practitioner, not the backup.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Oct 15, 2020 2:36 PM
Title: Re: Loving kindness (metta) and compassion
Content:
What has led you to think that?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Oct 14, 2020 6:28 PM
Title: Re: all buddhist sects the same?
Content:
"Ekaṃsena" in the suttas is the word the Buddha uses on those occasions when he wants to make as strong and uncompromising a declaration as possible.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Oct 14, 2020 5:43 PM
Title: Re: Buddhist birthdays
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Oct 13, 2020 12:59 PM
Title: Re: what made buddha enlightened?
Content:
Sammāsambuddhas extinguish the āsavas by their own unguided efforts, establish a sāsanā and found a saṅgha to preserve it.

Paccekabuddhas extinguish the āsavas by their own unguided efforts but don't establish a sāsanā or found a saṅgha.

Sāvakabuddhas extinguish the āsavas by efforts made under the guidance of a sammāsambuddha or one of his contemporary or later ariyan disciples.

"Perfectly" or "rightly" are the commonest translations of the sammā part of sammāsambuddha. For the meaning see the account of buddhānussati in the Visuddhimagga.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Oct 13, 2020 12:41 PM
Title: Re: Where to buy "Clearing the Path"?
Content:
[my emphasis]

Given the ostensible commitment to dhammadāna I wonder, how do venerables Ñāṇamoli, Hiriko and the rest justify SELLING works that in the past (before these monks got their hands on the publishing rights) were always given away free?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Oct 13, 2020 9:50 AM
Title: Re: what made buddha enlightened?
Content:
In the commentaries arahants are sometimes called sāvaka-buddhas.

__Buddhā_ti catusaccasambodhena buddhā; te ca pana sāvakabuddhā, paccekabuddhā, sammāsambuddhāti tividhā.

"Awakened Ones" means those awakened by awakening to the four truths. And they are threefold: awakened disciples, privately awakened ones, perfectly awakened ones.
(Ud-a 58)


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Oct 12, 2020 2:12 PM
Title: Re: translate this line from MN 69 cmy, on āruppa
Content:
Cūḷa Dhammapāla isn't correcting Buddhaghosa. The gist of his first sentence is that Buddhaghosa says what he does because there's no divorcing the attainment of the arūpasamāpattis from that of the rūpasamāpattis. The rest is just saying at length what Buddhaghosa said in brief.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Oct 11, 2020 7:36 PM
Title: Re: Vitamin D
Content:
Don't worry. None of the removed posts were yours or Samseva's.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Oct 11, 2020 7:33 PM
Title: Re: Kotikanna -looking for more information
Content:
Not very much. Besides the Udāna's Soṇasutta and the Aṅguttara's declaration by the Buddha of his special quality, there is just:

1. His Theragāthā verses.
https://suttacentral.net/thag5.11/en/sujato

2. The Vinaya's account of his going forth.
https://suttacentral.net/pli-tv-kd5/en/horner-brahmali

3. Potted biographies in the commentaries to the Aṅguttara Nikāya and the Theragāthā. Only the latter has been translated.
https://archive.org/details/psalmsofearlybud02davi/mode/2up
(pp. 202-204)

But his name never made it into the Jātakas or the Apadānas, so I guess he was a relatively minor major disciple.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Oct 11, 2020 6:52 PM
Title: Re: Vitamin D
Content:
Personal attacks (and replies to the same) removed. Do try to keep it civil, gentlemen.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Oct 11, 2020 3:26 PM
Title: Re: Kotikanna -looking for more information
Content:
The only known disciple of that name was Soṇa Kuṭikaṇṇa (or Koṭikaṇṇa). But his special quality was being "foremost of bhikkhu disciples who are excellent speakers", not that of attaining quickly. 

The disciple who was foremost in attaining higher knowledge quickly was Bāhiya Dāruciriya.

http://aimwell.org/DPPN/sona.html

http://aimwell.org/DPPN/bahiya.html


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Oct 11, 2020 2:50 PM
Title: Re: what made buddha enlightened?
Content:
Though even it hadn't been explicitly stated it could have been derived inferentially from general sutta teachings about the understanding of dependent arising being a prerequisite for any kind of awakening.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Oct 11, 2020 1:39 AM
Title: Re: heartwood is same sāra as in saṃsāra?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Oct 10, 2020 6:07 PM
Title: Re: all buddhist sects the same?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Oct 9, 2020 11:50 PM
Title: Re: "Killing" the unworthy aspirants
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Oct 9, 2020 9:20 PM
Title: Re: What is this debate thing in Mahayana?
Content:
There is this from your own country...

Buddhism and Christianity - Being an oral debate held at Panadura between the Rev. Migettuwatte Gunananda, a Buddhist Priest, and the Rev. David de Silva, a Wesleyan Clergyman

https://archive.org/details/THEGREATDEBATEBUDDHISMAndChristianityFACEToFACEPeeblesJ.M.MohattiwatteGunandaDeSilva/page/n1/mode/2up


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Oct 9, 2020 4:14 PM
Title: Re: Disrobing - Thai term
Content:
The colloquial verb is สึก [sɯ̀k] if it’s voluntary or จับสึก [tɕàp sɯ̀k] if it’s enforced. 

The formal verb is ลาสิกขา [laː sìk-kʰǎː].


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Oct 9, 2020 11:29 AM
Title: Re: Pali Translation: 'This will also change'
Content:
It has one: an overdot placed to the right of its consonant:

.


./download/file.php?id=6021&mode=view


= dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Oct 9, 2020 2:17 AM
Title: Re: "Killing" the unworthy aspirants
Content:
The sutta is a description, not a prescription. It's not giving directions as to what Buddhist communities should do, but rather describing what the Buddha and "wise fellow brahmacarīs" (viññū sabrahmacarī) do do. And since viññū sabrahmacarī refers to a monk's fellow monks, the sutta has to do with a monastic community's in-house treatment of monastics who prove unteachable. It has nothing to do with their treatment of lay visitors to their monastery.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Oct 8, 2020 9:29 PM
Title: Re: Can the path of Theravada be entered at will?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Oct 8, 2020 4:44 PM
Title: Re: What is the meaning of Ṭhānissaro ?
Content:
Anybody born on a Wednesday in the daytime who ordains as a bhikkhu in Thailand, Laos or Cambodia will be given a Pali name beginning with a retroflex consonant. If he's born on a Wednesday night then he'll get a name beginning with one of the first four vagga consonants. If he's born on a Sunday it will begin with a vowel, etc., etc. In short, each day of the week has a set of letters associated with it and so if you know a Thai-ordained bhikkhu's name you can always tell which day of the week he was born on:

Sunday: a, ā, i, u, o
Monday: k, kh, g, gh
Tuesday: c, ch, j, jh, ñ
Wednesday daytime: ṭh
Wednesday nighttime: y, r, l, v
Thursday: p, ph, b, bh, m
Friday: s, h
Saturday: t, th, d, dh, n

As for the meaning of "Ṭhānissaro", this is a bit uncertain. The word doesn't occur even as a common noun, let alone a person's name, in any canonical or commentarial Pali texts. In Sanskrit it occurs as Sthāneśvara, a genitive tappurisa compound which can mean either a regional governor (lit. "Lord of the Place") or a place name ("God's Place") - a region of the Punjab that was once a stronghold of the largest Pudgalavādin school.

In Pali, however, its meaning is uncertain because (1) the Thai publishers of dictionaries of monastic names differ in how they analyse and translate the compound and (2) none of them translate the ṭhāna part - they just import it; unfortunately ฐานะ / ṭhāna has much the same range of meanings in Thai as it does in Pali, so one can't know for sure which is the intended one.

A couple of examples:

One online dictionary treats it as an instrumental dependent-determinative (tatiyā-tappurisa) compound:

ผู้เป็นใหญ่ด้วยฐานะ
"Chief/lord by way of ṭhāna".

And another as a locative dependent-determinative (sattamī-tappurisa):

ผู้เป็นใหญ่ในฐานะ
"Chief/lord in/in ṭhāna (or with regard to ṭhāna)".

And yet another as:

ผู้มีฐานะอันยิ่งใหญ่
"One who has a truly great ṭhāna."


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Oct 8, 2020 3:44 PM
Title: Re: Did the Buddha Ever Visit Sri Lanka?
Content:
Sorry, but I don't understand what you mean by: "while Atanatiya Sutta speaks of Yakkas, Naga, kumbanda and Nagas with a social history only of Sri Lanka."

And I don't understand your question. Discarded by whom?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Oct 8, 2020 2:42 PM
Title: Re: Pali Translation: 'This will also change'
Content:
I've just checked and it seems there's no way of telling how the consonant cluster -bb- would have been written because it doesn't occur in any examples of Ashokan Magadhi. For example, the Pali sabba becomes sarva, as in Sanskrit.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Oct 7, 2020 5:57 PM
Title: Re: Pali sources on the time after the mahāparinibbāna to First Council (including)
Content:
In canonical sources it's only in the Pañcasatikakkhandhaka of the Vinaya Piṭaka's Cūḷavagga.

https://www.tipitaka.org/romn/cscd/vin02m3.mul10.xml


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Oct 7, 2020 5:34 PM
Title: Re: Did the Buddha Ever Visit Sri Lanka?
Content:
Not the commentary to the Mahāvaṃsa (which was composed five centuries after Buddhaghosa, so could hardly have been one of his sources), but rather a commentary called the Mahāvaṃsa, i.e., the now-lost Sinhala work of this name, which Oldenberg believes to have been just another name for the Mahā-atthakathā.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Oct 6, 2020 12:10 PM
Title: Re: Did the Buddha Ever Visit Sri Lanka?
Content:
My impression, bhante, is that the three visits of Gotama Buddha to Sri Lanka, along with those by the past Buddhas Kassapa, Koṇāgamana and Kakusandha, are universally accepted by traditionally-minded Asian scholar monks. The source of these visits is not limited to the Sinhalese vaṃsa texts but also includes the atthakathās. 

The most detailed account outside of the Mahāvaṃsa can be found in Jayawickrama's https://archive.org/stream/PaliCommentariesCollection/00%20Samantapasadika%20Bahiranidana%2C%20Inception%20of%20Discipline%20and%20Vinaya%20Nidana%20-%20N.A.%20Jayawickrama%20%28Sacred%20Books%20of%20the%20Buddhists%20Vol.21%29%20London-1962%20%28272p%29#page/n5/mode/2up, a translation of the introductory section of Buddhaghosa's Vinaya Atthakathā.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Oct 4, 2020 12:29 PM
Title: Re: Pali Translation: 'This will also change'
Content:
The latter. It's called a virāma and tells the reader not to add an A to the consonant.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virama


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Oct 4, 2020 11:40 AM
Title: Re: Milindapañha's incorporation into the canon
Content:
The differences are much greater than that. For a start the Milinda is about twice as long as the NBS. The first three of its seven sections more or less correspond to the whole of the NBS. See Thích Minh Châu's comparative study:

https://www.budsas.org/ebud/milinda/ml-00.htm


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Oct 4, 2020 11:22 AM
Title: Re: evametaṃ
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Oct 3, 2020 2:58 PM
Title: Re: Memorization and the Oral Tradition
Content:
It's not in the Pali Canon. I do recall Ven. Sujāto writing about this somewhere and I think he said it was in the instructions for reciting monks (bhāṇakā) in a Vinaya text of the Mahīśāsaka school. It included the advice that if you've forgotten where the Buddha was staying when he taught a particular sutra, just say that it was at Sāvatthī in Jeta's Grove.

In Pali sources the instructions for bhāṇakā don't contain anything like this. In fact they consist almost entirely of directives concerned with good pronunciation (i.e., which kinds of mispronunciation can be tolerated in a bhāṇaka and which can't) and grammatical correctness.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Oct 3, 2020 12:40 PM
Title: Re: Pali Translation: 'This will also change'
Content:
Here's the syllabification:

.


./download/file.php?id=6008&mode=view


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Oct 3, 2020 12:10 PM
Title: Re: Pali Translation: 'This will also change'
Content:
It should be saṅkhārā.

At Vinodh Rajan's Aksharamukha website you can convert text between different Pali or Sanskrit scripts, with more than 80 to choose from.

https://aksharamukha.appspot.com/converter

The romanised Pali "sabbe sabbe saṅkhārā aniccā" becomes "𑀲𑀩𑁆𑀩𑁂 𑀲𑀗𑁆𑀔𑀸𑀭𑀸 𑀅𑀦𑀺𑀘𑁆𑀘𑀸" in Brahmi.

.


./download/file.php?id=6007&mode=view


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Oct 1, 2020 6:08 PM
Title: Re: Why Buddha did not include his teaching as a view in the Brahmajala Sutta?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Jul 3, 2020 11:58 PM
Title: Re: difference between mudita (virtuous joy) pīti (rapture), and late Theravada mudita as brahmavihara
Content:
As noted above, the difference is that one has to do with brahmavihāras and the other with sambojjhaṅgas. One will take you to the Brahmā world, the other will end suffering.

I'm afraid I haven't time to cover the rest of your post as I'm logging out now and won't be online again till the end of vassa.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Jul 3, 2020 12:14 AM
Title: Re: Is it a schism making action?
Content:
The sīmā. In practice it will most often mean the boundary of a single monastery.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Jul 3, 2020 12:08 AM
Title: Re: difference between mudita (virtuous joy) pīti (rapture), and late Theravada mudita as brahmavihara
Content:
But it's not similar at all:

1. The formation of samāhita and samādhi consists in two different grammatical forms – a participle and a noun – being derived from a single verb, samādahati.

By contrast ... the formation of pāmojjaṃ and muditā consists in two identical grammatical forms - two nouns - being derived from two different verbs, pamodati and modati.

2. The semantic connection between samāhita and samādhi is completely uncontroversial, both from the point of view of traditional and modern scholarship.

By contrast ... the alleged semantic connection between pāmojjaṃ and muditā is controversial; it's not traditional and you're the first (and only) modern interpreter I've come across who proposes it.

3. In the suttas the semantic connection between samāhita and samādhi is contextually supported by an abundance of evidence.

By contrast ... there is no context in the suttas that would oblige us to take pāmojjaṃ as referring to or implying muditā, or muditā as referring to or implying pāmojjaṃ.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jul 2, 2020 7:45 PM
Title: Re: Advice regarding donning robes
Content:
In that case, when you're inside the monastery wear the upper robe in the hom dong (ห่มดอง) style until you can get hold of a robe that fits you properly.

.


See demonstration starting at 2:40.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jul 2, 2020 8:23 AM
Title: Re: Pleasure to meet you
Content:
Ókei, ég skil.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jul 2, 2020 7:44 AM
Title: Re: Is it a schism making action?
Content:
Is the Buddha reliable enough for you?

"Upāli, a bhikkhunī cannot split the saṅgha even if she attempts to provoke a schism.

"A sikkhamānā cannot split the saṅgha even if she attempts to provoke a schism.

"A sāmaṇera cannot split the saṅgha even if he attempts to provoke a schism.

"A sāmaṇerī cannot split the saṅgha even if she attempts to provoke a schism.

"An upāsaka cannot split the saṅgha even if he attempts to provoke a schism.

"An upāsikā cannot split the saṅgha even if she attempts to provoke a schism.

"Upāli, only a regular bhikkhu, belonging to the same communion and living within the same monastic boundary can split the saṅgha."
(Vin. ii. 204)


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jul 1, 2020 9:31 PM
Title: Re: Is it a schism making action?
Content:
Let's.

The logical thing would be to learn the meanings of saṅgharāji and saṅghabheda by looking at what Buddhist texts have to say about them, rather than naively assuming that their meanings will be simply whatever notions happen to pop up in our heads when we see their English translations ("conflict in the sangha" and "schism in the sangha"). But I sense from your last two posts that the logical approach doesn't really interest you at all, so I'll leave you to wallow in your opinions.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jul 1, 2020 8:17 PM
Title: Re: Is it a schism making action?
Content:
If you'd read the Thanissaro article that Grigoris linked to when you posted a similar question on DWM then you would know already that it's impossible for a layman to cause a schism. Only monks can do that. Here's the link again:

https://info-buddhism.com/sangha_schism.html


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jul 1, 2020 9:11 AM
Title: Re: Pleasure to meet you
Content:
Hi Sóley,

Welcome to Dhamma Wheel.

By the way, are you from Iceland?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jul 1, 2020 9:04 AM
Title: Re: Killing a yakkha not parajika offence
Content:
You don't kill them. If bad yakkhas bother you, you call on good yakkhas to come to your aid. Like it says in the Atanatiya Sutta.

https://legacy.suttacentral.net/en/dn32


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jun 30, 2020 9:31 PM
Title: Re: difference between mudita (virtuous joy) pīti (rapture), and late Theravada mudita as brahmavihara
Content:
Certainly there's an etymological link between muditā and pāmojjaṃ. 

From the root √mud we get the verb modati and its more complex derivatives: anumodati, abbhanumodati, abhippamodati, pamodati, samanumodati, sampamodati, sammodati, etc. Then from modati we get the nouns mudā and muditā, and from pamodati the nouns pamodo, pāmujjaṃ, pāmojjaṃ and pamodanā.

But derivation from a common root is nowhere near sufficient to establish synonymity. In English, for example, 'piety' and 'pity', both come from the Latin pietās, yet the two things have scarcely anything to do with each other. Likewise, the fact that muditā and pāmojjaṃ both come from √mud shows only a morphological relationship, not a semantic one.

Now when it happens that two Pali words share a common root, there are four or five semantic possibilities, namely, that the words will be:

1. Completely different in meaning:
vinayo ('discipline'), nāyako ('leader') and nayo ('method'), from the root √nī;
ñātako ('relative') and viññāṇaṃ ('consciousness') from √ñā.

2. Different in meaning but having some degree of underlying family resemblance:
ñāṇaṃ, viññāṇaṃ, saññā and paññā, from √ñā.

3. Synonymous to the point of being fungible:
nāyako and netti ('guide', 'leader') from √nī;
ñātako and ñāti ('relative') from √ñā;
pajānanā and paññā, also from √ñā.

4.a. Synonymous but not fungible because of unstated conventions that one word will be used in certain contexts and the other in other contexts:
cittaṃ and ceto, from √cint.

4.b. Synonymous but not fungible because even though their referent involves essentially the same idea, it is being realized in grammatically different parts of speech:
soko ('sorrow'), socanā ('sorrowing') and socitattaṃ ('sorrowfulness'), from √suc.

Of these possibilities, #2 and #4.b are the most commonly encountered, closely followed by #1, and with #3 and #4.a coming a very poor third. In fact #1, #2 and #4.b so hugely outnumber all other possibilities in their frequency that a prudent policy would be always to make one of them our default assumption unless or until we encounter textual evidence showing that something else is to be preferred.

Now in the case of muditā and pāmojjaṃ, I think we both agree in rejecting #1. We can also rule out #4.b on the grounds of non-applicability, since the formation of pāmojjaṃ has entailed having a prefix added to the root.

Of the remaining possibilities, on purely statistical grounds the order of likelihood is #2, followed at a considerable distance by #3, and then at an enormous distance by #4.a. 

And so my preference would be for #2, on the grounds that: (1) I'm presently unaware of any textual evidence that would override statistical probability, and (2) there seems to be an absence of overlap in what the suttas predicate of the two qualities. For example, MN 62 speaks of muditā as something to be developed for the sake of abandoning discontent; this is never said of pāmojjaṃ; AN 10.2 and 11.2 speak of pāmojjaṃ as something that arises spontaneously from non-remorse due to virtuous conduct; this is never said of muditā; MN 15 and 151 speak of pāmojjaṃ as something that arises from attention to the absence of various faults in oneself; no sutta says this of muditā. Etc., etc.

Assuming that you wish to champion #3 or #4.a, your task would be to adduce textual passages that would convincingly override the above-mentioned statistical likelihood, not to mention the negative textual evidence. If the remainder of your post was meant to be an attempt to do this, then it's not a very successful one, inasmuch as it contains no argument at all but just question-begging translations of pāmojjaṃ and pamudita – two of the very terms whose meaning is being contested.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jun 29, 2020 2:45 AM
Title: Re: Source of The Lost Son story
Content:
I suspect either some Vietnamese pseudepigrapha or (more likely) a fable that Thich Nhat Hanh just made up himself. Certainly it's not any Indian source, not even a Mahayana one, as should be obvious from the last two sentences, which belong to a literary form that just wasn't used in ancient India:

"Sometime, somewhere, you take something to be the truth. If you cling to it so much, even when the truth comes in person and knocks on your door, you will not open it.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jun 29, 2020 2:28 AM
Title: Re: difference between mudita (virtuous joy) pīti (rapture), and late Theravada mudita as brahmavihara
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 28, 2020 10:15 PM
Title: Re: difference between mudita (virtuous joy) pīti (rapture), and late Theravada mudita as brahmavihara
Content:
Unless I happened to be using muditā as my main preparatory object, I would see this as an occasion when karuṇā would be the more fitting attitude, for the success here is an anticipated one rather than a present one.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 28, 2020 8:04 PM
Title: Re: why dorje shugden is hated?
Content:
If I were an adherent of the Tibetan religion I would avoid joining a sect that requires one to worship this creature because his name always makes me think of Mollie Sugden. And so I'd probably have a hard time keeping a straight face during Dorje Shugden pujas. Notice that it's not just their names that might lead one to confuse the two, but they even wear similar headgear:

.


./download/file.php?id=5759&mode=view


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:56 PM
Title: Re: Discuss about Jhanas means it is show off?
Content:
The Buddha, like his arahant disciples, naturally refrains from any action that would be loka-vajja, for he is free of akusala states of mind. But as for those rules whose transgression would be merely paṇṇati-vajja, the Buddha may (and does) keep them or break them as he sees fit.

For a bhikkhu to inform a householder about some attainment he has would not necessarily be done with an akusala state of mind and so the offence would be only paṇṇati-vajja. But the Buddha, as mentioned above, is not bound by paṇṇati-vajja rules.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 28, 2020 6:58 PM
Title: Re: Discuss about Jhanas means it is show off?
Content:
There are two relevant rules for monks and nuns.

The fourth pārājika rule, prohibiting false claims:
https://suttacentral.net/pli-tv-bu-vb-pj4/en/brahmali

The eighth pācittiya rule, prohibiting even true claims when talking to unordained people:
https://suttacentral.net/pli-tv-bu-vb-pc8/en/brahmali

There's also a good commentary on all the ramifications of these two rules in Ajahn Thanissaro's Buddhist Monastic Code.

https://www.dhammatalks.org/vinaya/bmc/Section0010.html#Pr4

https://www.dhammatalks.org/vinaya/bmc/Section0016.html#Pc8


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 28, 2020 2:54 PM
Title: Re: Why no metta for opposite gender?
Content:
You may become less so if you attend more to Buddhist texts and less to what Buddhists disagree about.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jun 27, 2020 9:59 PM
Title: "Advice about Advice"
Content:
https://archive.org/details/AdviceAboutAdvice/mode/2up


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jun 27, 2020 3:21 AM
Title: Re: Why no metta for opposite gender?
Content:
It doesn't to me. 

Beholding the personal qualities that make a person endearing to others is a different thing from beholding the successes or good fortune (sampatti) that have come to that person. The latter is the proximate cause of muditā.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jun 27, 2020 1:45 AM
Title: Re: Sati(mindfulness) as a point of branching out, Sutta
Content:
It's nothing like that. The verse is just a summary of the titles of the ten suttas in the preceding vagga. Dasāti = dasa + iti, which means "thus are the ten [suttas]". It has nothing to do with sati.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Jun 26, 2020 11:42 PM
Title: Re: Why no metta for opposite gender?
Content:
The revered person needn't be a Buddhist teacher or even a Buddhist. The proximate cause of mettā is sattānaṃ manāpabhāvadassanaṃ the "beholding of what is endearing in beings", meaning whatever kusala qualities are noticeable in them. The point of beginning with a person one reveres is simply that their possession of such qualities will be more conspicuous than in others and so the arousing of mettā will be easier.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Jun 26, 2020 11:22 PM
Title: Re: Why no metta for opposite gender?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jun 25, 2020 6:59 PM
Title: Re: Why no metta for opposite gender?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jun 25, 2020 6:50 PM
Title: Re: Why no metta for opposite gender?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 24, 2020 3:24 PM
Title: Re: Realms, metaphor vs reality
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 24, 2020 2:14 PM
Title: Re: Can I be happy without an external object?
Content:
The observation that the adjective "unconscious" can be used in a manner whose factual basis nobody would contest is just an irrelevant distraction when it is precisely the contested sense of the term that is the subject of discussion.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 21, 2020 6:48 AM
Title: Re: Functional types of mind (kiriyacitta) dissociated from wisdom (paññā)
Content:
The sekha disciples haven't yet abandoned the fuel that leads to relinking. All three still have the fetter of ignorance; the sotāpanna and sakadāgāmī have the fetter of desire for sense-sphere existence; the anāgāmī has the fetters of desire for refined form and formless existence.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:56 AM
Title: Re: Venerable Ananda discourse needed
Content:
See Hellmuth Hecker's biography of him. The author gives citations for all of the many sutta passages he quotes, so you can then go to Sutta Central if you want to read any of them in full.


https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/hecker/wheel273.html


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:43 AM
Title: Re: Away for more than 10 years.
Content:
Hi, nice to see you again.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:35 AM
Title: Re: Functional types of mind (kiriyacitta) dissociated from wisdom (paññā)
Content:
There's no relinking (or rebirth-linking, as some translate it) consciousness for an arahant.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jun 20, 2020 9:08 PM
Title: Re: Functional types of mind (kiriyacitta) dissociated from wisdom (paññā)
Content:
In a non-arahant the cutting-off consciousness (cuti-citta) ends the santati (the mental continuum of a single lifetime) but not the santāna (the mental continuum that endures throughout saṃsāric time). It is followed by a rebirth-linking consciousness.

In an arahant the cuti-citta is not followed by a relinking consciousness and so is the final event in both the santati and the santāna.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jun 20, 2020 5:56 PM
Title: Re: What is the sutta spoken about in this video?
Content:
He means the Venāgapura Sutta.

https://legacy.suttacentral.net/en/an3.63


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jun 20, 2020 3:30 PM
Title: Re: Arahants and penile erection
Content:
No, it doesn't. The evil deeds one does before ordaining that would make one incurable don't include all acts of murder, but only matricide, patricide and arahanticide. It is the act of murdering a human (any human) after ordaining that would be an incurable offence.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jun 20, 2020 2:55 PM
Title: Re: Heretic
Content:
A Buddhist belonging to an heretical school is called a paravādī (lit. "other-doctrinist"), as opposed to sakavādī ("own-doctrinist"). Both terms are indexical, i.e., their referent will change according to who is using it. And so in the Kathāvatthu and its commentary the sakavādīs are those holding to the Theravāda understanding, while the paravādīs are those holding to the understanding of the Sabbatthivāda, Andhaka, Kassapiya, etc. But in a Sabbatthivāda text the Theravādīs would be among those classed as paravādīs.

As for non-Buddhists, there's no end of terms for these: bāhirakas, titthiyas, aññatitthiyas, paṇḍaraṅgas, micchādiṭṭhikas, vitaṇḍavādīs, natthikas, diṭṭhigatikas, lokāyatikas, aceḷakas, nigaṇṭhas, jaṭilas, jaṭādharas, pāsaṇḍikas, hetukas, etc.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jun 20, 2020 11:35 AM
Title: Re: Arahants and penile erection
Content:
If I understand you correctly, you think that the monk's action ought to have been made a pārājika offence rather than a saṅghādisesa offence because an action so heinous needs to be guarded against with a much stronger deterrent than it presently is.

If that is what you're saying, then I think your claim is based on the mistaken assumption that the desirability of stronger or weaker deterrence was the criterion for making one kind of action a saṅghādisesa and another a pārājika. But that wasn't the criterion at all. The criterion was whether after performing a particular unskilful action the bhikkhu would thereafter be curable or incurable (i.e., capable or incapable of making progress in the brahmacariyā in the present life after he has repented and undergone penance). The attainment of the ten Tathāgata powers puts one into a strong position to make such a judgment. A two-month retreat in Burma probably doesn't.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jun 20, 2020 10:36 AM
Title: Re: Hello
Content:
Hi Sadi, welcome to Dhamma Wheel.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jun 18, 2020 9:50 AM
Title: Re: Arahants and penile erection
Content:
In Vinaya, as in most secular legal systems, if a single action happens to be a transgression of more than one class of offence, a penalty will be imposed on the offender according to whichever is the most serious class of offence committed. And so if your conjecture that the girl was injured is correct, since injuring her would be a less serious offence than touching her with lustful intent, it is the latter that the monk would be required to confess and undergo mānatta penance for. As such it's not surprising that it doesn't come up for discussion in a section of the Vinaya concerned only with saṅghādisesas.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 17, 2020 8:50 PM
Title: Re: Arahants and penile erection
Content:
The story is from the Suvaṇṇasāma Jātaka, with the procreation scene being discussed at length in the Milindapañha's question on descent into the womb (gabbhā­vakkan­ti­). It isn't from any Vinaya ruling and the act that led to the conception of the Bodhisatta as Suvaṇṇasāma isn't sexual intercourse as the Vinaya describes it (i.e., the penis penetrating the vagina, anus or mouth of a woman or a female animal or the anus or mouth of a man or a male animal). Indeed both the Jātaka and the Milindapañha explicitly state that the couple conceived in this manner precisely because they were brahmacaris and wanted to avoid intercourse.

Here's the Jātaka:
https://legacy.suttacentral.net/en/ja540

And a German translation of the Milindapañha's discussion (Thomas Rhys Davids of the Pali Text Society apparently thought it too naughty to be translated into English):

https://suttacentral.net/mil5.1.6/de/nyanatiloka-nyanaponika


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 17, 2020 8:14 PM
Title: Re: Arahants and penile erection
Content:
Perhaps. Or perhaps he gave her some kind of infection. The precise means by which she met her death isn't specified.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 17, 2020 7:47 PM
Title: Re: Upasakajanalankara
Content:
https://www.academia.edu/4084857/Sunaya%C5%9Br%C4%AB_s_Up%C4%81sakasa%E1%B9%81var%C4%81%E1%B9%A3%E1%B9%ADaka_and_Up%C4%81sakasa%E1%B9%81var%C4%81%E1%B9%A3%E1%B9%ADakavivara%E1%B9%87a_An_Edition_and_Translation – An Edition and Translation.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 17, 2020 6:51 PM
Title: Re: Help to translate....
Content:
In Sāriputta's Vinaya-ṭīkā the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta is given as an example of a sutta with a single sequence of meaning and the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta as an example of one with several sequences of meaning.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 17, 2020 5:51 PM
Title: Re: Help to translate....
Content:
I've never seen it interpreted that way.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 17, 2020 1:37 PM
Title: Re: Help to translate....
Content:
The suttas never explain the meaning of this phrase, but the section on dhammānussati in the Visuddhimagga gives nine explanations.

Tattha pariyattidhammo tāva svākkhāto ādimajjhapariyosānakalyāṇattā sātthasabyañjanakevalaparipuṇṇaparisuddhabrahmacariyappakāsanattā ca.

Herein, the Dhamma of the scriptures is well proclaimed because it is good in the beginning, the middle, and the end, and because it announces the life of purity that is utterly perfect and pure with meaning and with detail.

Yañhi bhagavā ekagāthampi deseti, sā samantabhaddakattā dhammassa paṭhamapādena ādikalyāṇā, dutiyatatiyapādehi majjhekalyāṇā, pacchimapādena pariyosānakalyāṇā.

1. Even a single stanza of the Blessed One’s teaching is good in the beginning with the first word, good in the middle with the second, third, etc., and good in the end with the last word, because the Dhamma is altogether admirable.

Ekānusandhikaṃ suttaṃ nidānena ādikalyāṇaṃ, nigamanena pariyosānakalyāṇaṃ, sesena majjhekalyāṇaṃ.

2. A sutta with a single sequence of meaning is good in the beginning with the introduction, good in the end with the conclusion, and good in the middle with what is in between.

Nānānusandhikaṃ suttaṃ paṭhamānusandhinā ādikalyāṇaṃ, pacchimena pariyosānakalyāṇaṃ, sesehi majjhekalyāṇaṃ.

3. A sutta with several sequences of meaning is good in the beginning with the first sequence of meaning, good in the end with the last sequence of meaning, and good in the middle with the sequences of meaning in between.

Apica sanidānasauppattikattā ādikalyāṇaṃ, veneyyānaṃ anurūpato atthassa aviparītatāya ca hetudāharaṇayuttato ca majjhekalyāṇaṃ, sotūnaṃ saddhāpaṭilābhajananena nigamanena ca pariyosānakalyāṇaṃ.

4. Furthermore, it is good in the beginning with the introduction giving the place of and the origin giving the reason for its utterance. It is good in the middle because it suits those susceptible of being taught since it is unequivocal in meaning and reasoned with cause and example. It is good in the end with its conclusion that inspires faith in the hearers.

Sakalopi sāsanadhammo attano atthabhūtena sīlena ādikalyāṇo, samathavipassanāmaggaphalehi majjhekalyāṇo, nibbānena pariyosānakalyāṇo.

5. Also the entire Dhamma of the Dispensation is good in the beginning with virtue as one’s own well-being. It is good in the middle with serenity and insight and with path and fruition. It is good in the end with Nibbāna.

Sīlasamādhīhi vā ādikalyāṇo, vipassanāmaggehi majjhekalyāṇo, phalanibbānehi pariyosānakalyāṇo.

6. Or alternatively, it is good in the beginning with virtue and concentration. It is good in the middle with insight and the path. It is good in the end with fruition and Nibbāna.

Buddhasubodhitāya vā ādikalyāṇo, dhammasudhammatāya majjhekalyāṇo, saṅghasuppaṭippattiyā pariyosānakalyāṇo

7. Or alternatively, it is good in the beginning because it is the good discovery made by the Buddha. It is good in the middle because it is the well-regulatedness of the Dhamma. It is good in the end because it is the good way entered upon by the Saṅgha.

Taṃ sutvā tathatthāya paṭipannena adhigantabbāya abhisambodhiyā vā ādikalyāṇo, paccekabodhiyā majjhekalyāṇo, sāvakabodhiyā pariyosānakalyāṇo.

8. Or alternatively, it is good in the beginning as the discovery of what can be attained by one who enters upon the way of practice in conformity after hearing about it. It is good in the middle as the unproclaimed enlightenment of Paccekabuddhas. It is good in the end as the enlightenment of disciples.

Suyyamāno cesa nīvaraṇavikkhambhanato savanenapi kalyāṇameva āvahatīti ādikalyāṇo. Paṭipajjiyamāno samathavipassanāsukhāvahanato paṭipattiyāpi kalyāṇaṃ āvahatīti majjhekalyāṇo. Tathāpaṭipanno ca paṭipattiphale niṭṭhite tādibhāvāvahanato paṭipattiphalenapi kalyāṇaṃ āvahatīti pariyosānakalyāṇoti.

9. And when listened to, it does good through hearing it because it suppresses the hindrances, thus it is good in the beginning. And when made the way of practice it does good through the way being entered upon because it brings the bliss of serenity and insight, thus it is good in the middle. And when it has thus been made the way of practice and the fruit of the way is ready, it does good through the fruit of the way because it brings unshakable equipoise, thus it is good in the end.

Evaṃ ādimajjhapariyosānakalyāṇattā svākkhāto.

So it is “well proclaimed” because of being good in the beginning, the middle and the end.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 17, 2020 12:49 PM
Title: Re: What Dhamma Book are you reading right now?
Content:
There isn't any book by Sāriputta like this. Perhaps you are thinking of either the Sāriputtasaṃyutta in the Khandhavagga of the Saṃyutta Nikāya or the Anupāda Sutta of the Majjhima Nikāya.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 17, 2020 12:38 PM
Title: Re: Arahants and penile erection
Content:
It doesn't mean that. If the girl wasn't considered to be a human being then the monk's action would not have been ruled an offence entailing suspension. (The allusion here is to the second saṅghādisesa rule which prohibits a monk's touching a human female with lustful intent).

The question in this scenario is whether the monk's action, deplorable as it was, amounted to a violation of the first pārājika rule (prohibiting sexual intercourse) or the third pārājika rule (prohibiting the deliberate killing of a human being). In both cases the answer is no, since the monk didn't have intercourse with her and didn't intend to kill her.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 17, 2020 12:19 PM
Title: Re: Ven. Thanissaro's The Buddhist Monastic Code ???
Content:
On the other hand, in Vinaya definitions of the types of pregnant woman, such knowledge is expressed using saññā, as in the expressions:

gabbhiniyā gabbhinisaññā - when a pregnant woman thinks she's pregnant.
gabbhiniyā vematikā - when a pregnant woman is in doubt about whether she's pregnant.
gabbhiniyā agabbhinisaññā - when a pregnant woman thinks she's non-pregnant.
agabbhiniyā gabbhinisaññā - when a non-pregnant woman thinks she's pregnant.
agabbhiniyā vematikā - when a non-pregnant woman is in doubt about whether she's pregnant.
agabbhiniyā agabbhinisaññā - when a non-pregnant woman thinks she's non-pregnant.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jun 16, 2020 9:49 PM
Title: Re: What Dhamma Book are you reading right now?
Content:
https://archive.org/stream/9TheBuddhaPeerlessBenefactorOfHumanityUShweAung/Tipitaka/PatisambhidamaggaThePathOfDiscriminationtr_ByVen_NanamoliCompleteOcred#mode/1up


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jun 16, 2020 8:18 PM
Title: Re: Arahants and penile erection
Content:
The link I gave was to all of the translations of the passage maintained at Sutta Central. This is to the English one:

https://suttacentral.net/pli-tv-bu-vb-pj1/en/brahmali


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jun 16, 2020 9:59 AM
Title: Re: Arahants and penile erection
Content:
Welcome to Dhamma Wheel.

How would you like me to be "more specific"?

In the case of the two stories about the arahant bhikkhus who were assaulted while sleeping I already provided a link to a translation of the relevant section of the Vinaya Piṭaka. Here it is again:

https://suttacentral.net/pli-tv-bu-vb-pj1


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jun 16, 2020 8:51 AM
Title: Re: The Pali word "Mahecca"
Content:
Those two are the Sanskrit forms.

Sanskrit
alpa + iccha &gt; alpeccha
mahā + iccha &gt; maheccha

Pali
appa + iccha &gt; appiccha
mahā + iccha &gt; mahiccha

Appiccha is having few or moderate wishes. Mahiccha is wanting a lot or being ambitious.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jun 15, 2020 10:35 PM
Title: Re: Arahants and penile erection
Content:
I think it's more likely the larvae of one of the species of Himalayan ghost moth. The larvae themselves don't have any aphrodisiac properties, but a parasitic fungus called Ophiocordyceps sinensis that grows on the larvae is much prized for this purpose.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jun 15, 2020 9:56 PM
Title: Re: Arahants and penile erection
Content:
The account states that they were lying down.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jun 15, 2020 9:24 PM
Title: Re: Arahants and penile erection
Content:
They are part of the Vinaya Piṭaka.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jun 15, 2020 9:04 AM
Title: Re: Arahants and penile erection
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 14, 2020 11:50 PM
Title: Re: Vibhaṅga and Conception
Content:
You may be right. I think perhaps I'd better let Rob field these questions. It's a long time since I last studied the rebirth process and I'm very rusty on it.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 14, 2020 9:53 PM
Title: Re: Vibhaṅga and Conception
Content:
Yes. The description is of what is cognizable about an embryo, not what an embryo cognizes.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 14, 2020 9:15 PM
Title: Re: Ven. Thanissaro's The Buddhist Monastic Code ???
Content:
I'm completely in agreement with your conclusion that a monk should have no truck with assisting or condoning abortions at any stage of a pregnancy. But I don't agree with the reasoning that leads you to it.

1. For the conception or birth of a human, or the arising of a deva, the participles upapanna, uppanna, jāta, sañjāta, nibbatta, abhinibbatta and pātubhūta are all instantiated in the texts and virtually interchangeable. The most that can be said is that upapanna is used more frequently in this sense than uppanna, while uppanna is used more frequently for the arising of phenomena.

2. The standard expressions for a woman's coming to know of her pregnancy speak of the awareness arising in her heart (hadaye) or mind (mane/manamhi), or of it occurring to her or within her. Nowhere is it spoken of as arising in her belly (kucchismiṃ). Nor is the knowledge referred to as citta or viññāṇa.

3. Besides the improbability of your interpretation, there's also a logical flaw in what you infer from it. If we define human life as starting from the time when a woman is aware that she's pregnant, it won't follow that there'll be zero scope for a monk assisting or condoning an abortion. It will actually make such assisting or condoning permissible in some circumstances. 

For example, a woman might inform a monk that she's recently had a one-night stand and doesn't know if she's pregnant but is worried that she might be. The monk could then provide her with an abortifacient or recommend one to her. If it turned out that she was pregnant and an abortion resulted, the monk could then claim to have done nothing wrong: "She told me that she wasn't aware that she was pregnant, but human life only begins when the mother is aware."


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 14, 2020 7:53 PM
Title: Re: Monastics protesting social injustice
Content:
Welcome back. Haven't seen you for years.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 14, 2020 3:35 PM
Title: Re: Question on energy
Content:
Yes, they're two names for the same thing.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 14, 2020 3:10 PM
Title: Re: Ven. Thanissaro's The Buddhist Monastic Code ???
Content:
https://suttacentral.net/pli-tv-kd1/en/horner-brahmali


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 14, 2020 2:52 PM
Title: Re: Ven. Thanissaro's The Buddhist Monastic Code ???
Content:
He is quoting from the Vinaya Piṭaka.

Note that when Ven. Thanissaro refers to the "Vibhaṅga", he doesn't mean the Abhidhamma's Vibhaṅga but rather the Vibhaṅga (sometimes called the Suttavibhaṅga) of the Vinaya Piṭaka. 

The Vinaya Piṭaka is divided into the Vibhaṅga (covering the rules of the bhikkhu and bhikkhuni pātimokkhas), the Khandhakas (comprising the Mahāvagga and Cūḷavagga and covering all the rules and procedures that fall outside of the pāṭimokkhas), and the Parivāra (a systematized presentation of all the Vinaya rules according to their shared and distinct features).

Pali text of the Vibhaṅga's third pārājika rule
https://suttacentral.net/pli-tv-bu-vb-pj3/pli/ms

Translation by I.B. Horner, amended by Bh. Brahmali
https://suttacentral.net/pli-tv-bu-vb-pj3/en/brahmali


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 14, 2020 2:26 PM
Title: Re: People are ...?
Content:
But even an uninstructed puthujjana can have his heroic moments. If it were otherwise there'd be no chance of liberation for anyone.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jun 13, 2020 9:33 AM
Title: Re: 16 insight knowledges in the Visuddhimagga?
Content:
The main canonical source is the Paṭisambhidāmagga in which fourteen of the ñāṇas are described, i.e. all except nāmarūpapariccheda and anuloma).


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jun 13, 2020 7:58 AM
Title: Re: Sick Relatives
Content:
Splendid.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jun 13, 2020 12:04 AM
Title: Re: about 3rd precept
Content:
The different sets of sīla are concerned only with bodily and verbal actions. The effort to refrain from such thoughts comes under the training in samādhi.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Jun 12, 2020 3:25 PM
Title: Re: lifespan of other beings
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Jun 12, 2020 2:06 PM
Title: Re: about 3rd precept
Content:
They don't. Nor do they call sex inside marriage 'wholesome'. In the suttas no sexual acts of any sort are ever called wholesome. In relation to sex 'wholesome' is applied only to certain acts of sexual abstention —with inappropriate partners in the case of 5-precept-observers; with anyone at all in the case of 8-precept-observers— not to any act of sexual indulgence.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jun 11, 2020 11:34 PM
Title: Re: lifespan of other beings
Content:
The Abhidhamma Piṭaka's Vibhanga gives the lifespan in each of the realms of devas and brahmās.

https://legacy.suttacentral.net/en/vb18

Scroll down to: Age Limit


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jun 11, 2020 8:08 PM
Title: Re: People are ...?
Content:
If the suttas are true, then my assumption is in line with reality. As to what kind of spiral one sets up, surely this will depend on one's words and deeds towards others, not one's assumptions about their probable character.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jun 11, 2020 3:40 PM
Title: Re: Did Thanissaro Bhikkhu really make such a comment on the attainments of Pa-auk and Mahasi??
Content:
This is a bit odd. If Dr. Chu thinks that making such judgments is "very arrogant", then why quote the words of anybody on the matter?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jun 11, 2020 11:40 AM
Title: Re: People are ...?
Content:
No and yes. No in the sense that social Darwinism shouldn't be advocated by Buddhists as a desirable state of affairs, but yes in the sense that the "war of all against all" should be acknowledged, firstly, as having been the state of nature before the social contract (the account of this in the King Mahāsammata episode of the Aggañña Sutta matches point for point that in Hobbes's Leviathan) and secondly, as being the state to which humanity is ever-liable to revert.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jun 11, 2020 9:28 AM
Title: Re: Fourth precept question
Content:
What if he was? Following his boss's orders still wouldn't make him into a trader.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 10, 2020 6:01 PM
Title: Re: Can the devas who saw the Buddha teach the exact Dhamma?
Content:
Sorry, I misread it.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 10, 2020 5:09 PM
Title: Re: Keeping muscles strong?
Content:
Nobody would object if a monk practised yoga in the privacy of his own room, but in some monasteries it wouldn't be acceptable to do it in public view. 

Even jogging is allowed in certain monasteries. I don't know if they still do, but in the 1980s some of the Chithurst monks used to go jogging in the nearby woods, including the then abbot, Ajahn Sumedho.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 10, 2020 5:04 PM
Title: Re: Fourth precept question
Content:
It can be inferred from the commentarial definitions already quoted: the person who is reckoned to be engaged in such and such trade is the one whose income comes from the sale of the goods or service in question. His employees get their income from their service to him and as such are not themselves traders.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 10, 2020 4:45 PM
Title: Re: Mahāyāna Ideas in the Visuddhimagga
Content:
Even a non-bodhisatta yogi, if he had successfully developed mettā- and karuṇā-bhāvanā as illimitables, would be capable of generating an aspiration to do some meritorious deed "for the sake of all beings" even though only a finite number of beings would concretely benefit from deed.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 10, 2020 4:37 PM
Title: Re: Keeping muscles strong?
Content:
Jogging down the high street wouldn't be in line with the restrained behaviour in public places enjoined by the sekhiya rules. On the other hand, since it wouldn't be any offence to do so on monastery grounds, presumably the monk means that it's not a customary thing for monks to do and would likely attract criticism.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 10, 2020 4:13 PM
Title: Re: Mahāyāna Ideas in the Visuddhimagga
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 10, 2020 10:56 AM
Title: Re: Can the devas who saw the Buddha teach the exact Dhamma?
Content:
Many examples of what? The Bhaddekaratta Sutta has nothing to do with devas who were taught by past Buddhas.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 10, 2020 10:08 AM
Title: Re: Loving kindness (metta) and compassion
Content:
Kāmāvacara cittas are those belonging to the sense-sphere, as opposed to those belonging to the refined form (rūpāvacara), formless (arūpāvacara) and supramundane (lokuttara) spheres.

Examples would include the cittas belong to the five sense-doors, the unwholesome cittas (greed-rooted, hate-rooted, delusion-rooted) and the great wholesome cittas (the consciousnesses responsible for the generation of non-jhānic merit, including the preliminary development of any meditation subject).


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 10, 2020 1:05 AM
Title: Re: Strange experience with a theravada monk. Please help to understand this monk.
Content:
I expect you'll find out when you go to them, but I'm afraid I've no acquaintance with these sort of matters.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jun 9, 2020 10:54 PM
Title: Re: Strange experience with a theravada monk. Please help to understand this monk.
Content:
I don't think it would be applicable, for it seems he is now a lay teacher, not a monk. The photos showing him in robes date from five years ago, while all the recent ones show him dressed in white.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jun 9, 2020 10:27 PM
Title: Re: Loving kindness (metta) and compassion
Content:
Can you quote the paragraphs from each text that you are interpreting in this way?

I don't see in either account any description of mental recitation of the body parts going on while one is in jhāna. As far as I can tell, in both texts the recitation is part of the description of the pre-jhāna preparatory work.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jun 9, 2020 6:55 PM
Title: Re: Planes of humans and animals
Content:
A late 16th century spelling of 'smooth'.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jun 9, 2020 5:36 PM
Title: Re: Can the devas who saw the Buddha teach the exact Dhamma?
Content:
Please keep the posts "classical". Off topic and non-compliant ones will be removed.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jun 9, 2020 5:35 PM
Title: Re: Can the devas who saw the Buddha teach the exact Dhamma?
Content:
Just going from memory, I don't recall any narratives about the Suddhāvāsa anāgāmins and arahants interacting with any humans other than the Buddha.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jun 9, 2020 2:51 AM
Title: Re: Does Buddhism recommend that kind of Poojas on behalf of Davas other than offering merits?
Content:
See the commentary here:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ftnADQAAQBAJ&pg=PA682#v=onepage&q&f=false


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jun 9, 2020 1:57 AM
Title: Re: Loving kindness (metta) and compassion
Content:
I'm not sure what you would have me conclude from the links on your page. The first two are to passages in the Vibhaṅga that don't even mention the brahmavihāras. The next two are to the entire texts of the Vimuttimagga and Visuddhimagga.

 

Let me remark for now that according to the Dhammasaṅgaṇī the attributes of a citta while in mettā jhāna include stasis (ṭhiti), full stasis (saṇṭhiti), absorbed stasis (avaṭṭhiti), absence of divergence (avisāhāra), non-distraction (avikkhepa), and absence of thought being diverted (avisāhaṭamānasatā). 

This doesn't sound like a state in which the sort of discursive mentation posited by Buddhists of the neo-Pubbaseliya persuasion would be likely to be taking place.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jun 8, 2020 11:34 PM
Title: Re: Loving kindness (metta) and compassion
Content:
Not while in the jhāna, but one could do it after emerging from it. Indeed that would be a particularly good time to do it, since it's normal for the mind to be "pure and bright, unblemished, free from defects, malleable, wieldy and steady" for some duration after emergence.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jun 8, 2020 8:09 PM
Title: Re: Loving kindness (metta) and compassion
Content:
Mettā jhāna is absorption attained through the practice of mettabhāvanā. It isn't possible to enter jhāna with some other nimitta and then switch to developing mettā while in that jhāna.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jun 8, 2020 7:56 PM
Title: Re: Loving kindness (metta) and compassion
Content:
From a long-term point of view (i.e., the next life and the life after it) developing mettā jhāna wouldn't be much of a "backup plan", for non-Ariyan Brahmā deities are mostly reborn in the lower realms after their jhānic merit is exhausted. 

In the event that you don't attain stream-entry in this life, you will need to ensure that you will continue to be reborn in states of existence where edifying encounters with the Dhamma can take place. For that, kāmāvacara rather than rūpāvacara merit is what's needed.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jun 8, 2020 4:47 PM
Title: Re: Moderation in food, 6th precept and weight loss
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jun 8, 2020 4:15 PM
Title: Re: Moderation in food, 6th precept and weight loss
Content:
cattāro pañca ālope, abhutvā udakaṃ pive |
alaṃ phāsuvihārāya, pahitattassa bhikkhuno ||

With four or five lumps still to eat
Let him then end by drinking water;
For energetic bhikkhus’ needs
This should suffice to live in comfort.
(Theragāthā 983)


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jun 8, 2020 2:07 PM
Title: Re: People are ...?
Content:
Just to be contrary...

It seems most prudent to me to assume that every new person you meet is evil (and perhaps incorrigibly so) unless or until they prove themselves otherwise. In so doing:

1. One will never suffer from disappointed expectations.

2. One will occasionally be in for a pleasant surprise when the assumption turns out to be mistaken.

3. Since it's stated in numerous suttas that the great majority of humans are headed for rebirth in the lower realms (which obviously doesn't come about as a reward for being virtuous) one's assumption will more often than not be in line with the Dhamma.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jun 8, 2020 7:02 AM
Title: Re: I’m done with laylife.
Content:
When you're senior enough to live independently then anything's possible, but in your formative training the kind of set-up they have in Dhammayutt forest wats will come closest to what you describe, except the bit about only coming to the monastery at night; that wouldn't be permitted.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jun 8, 2020 6:16 AM
Title: Re: Cittas not resultant from kamma? Wrong!
Content:
But Ajahn Maha Bua wasn't an ābhidhammika. I doubt there's any monk in the Ajahn Mun tradition who would be a reliable source for understanding the Abhidhamma.

Abhidhamma is best learned the classical Abhidhamma texts and from those modern teachers who've devoted their lives to the study of these.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 7, 2020 8:01 PM
Title: Re: I’m done with laylife.
Content:
I don't know of any monastery in the West that would be likely to take you. Probably best to wait till international travel becomes possible again and then go to Asia.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 7, 2020 6:29 PM
Title: Re: I’m done with laylife.
Content:
I can't say unless you clarify what you aim to do once ordained.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 7, 2020 5:41 PM
Title: Re: I’m done with laylife.
Content:
Where to go would depend in large part on what you're proposing to do when you've been ordained.

For example, if your plan is to spend most of your time doing Goenka-style meditation, then that would effectively rule out all the monasteries where some other meditation system is taught and insisted upon. As there aren't (afaik) any monasteries where Goenka meditation is the main practice, you'd need to find one where monks are free to practice whatever system they like. That would be possible in the Dhammayutt forest tradition, for example, or the Ajahn Chah tradition.

But there may be a further limitation if you're the sort of Goenka practitioner who will only meditate either with other Goenkaites or alone. In virtually all Ajahn Chah monasteries, and in quite a lot of Dhammayutt forest monasteries, monks will be required to attend morning and evening chanting and group meditation, which means you'll have to sit with people engaged in non-Goenkaite practices. To avoid this you'd need to find a monastery where even a newly-ordained monk would be allowed to keep to himself and get on with his own practice. I don't know of any monastery in the West that would be prepared to accept you on those sort of terms, though there are quite a few in Asia that would.

On the other hand, if you're more flexible than the average Goenkaite, or if your plan is to devote your time chiefly to study, then the opportunities will be broader.

Then there's the matter of your wife and children. If your mind is really made up that the marriage is finished, then it would be desirable for you to make some kind of solid legal settlement before embarking on monastic life. You'll need to ensure that you fulfil the Vinaya requirement of being free from debt, which in the West means that your family will need to be left properly provided for. To just hand over all your property to your wife and then leave, trusting in nothing more than an oral agreement, wouldn't be a very satisfactory way of doing this. It could backfire later if your wife changed her mind and decided she wanted more.

One last thing ... I think you need to cool down and slow down a little. If you go to a monastery expressing yourself in the frenetic and feverish manner that you've been doing on DW this last few days, they'll think you're unstable and will be unlikely to even let you stay, let alone treat you as a serious candidate for the monkhood.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 7, 2020 4:13 PM
Title: Re: drinks after noon
Content:
Yes, but "sickness" includes fatigue in the case of the five tonics and thirst in the case of fruit juice.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 7, 2020 3:31 PM
Title: Re: Our personal experience
Content:
I'm not sure what you mean. I delete each PM as soon as I've answered it and I don't see any PM from you in my inbox. Perhaps I deleted it in error.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 7, 2020 1:35 PM
Title: Re: Loving kindness (metta) and compassion
Content:
Not in the very same moment, but during a single meditation session one might do both.

For example, when developing karuṇā-bhāvanā with an enemy as the object, if resentment should arise toward that person then it's recommended that one resort to the resentment-overcoming practices used in mettā-bhāvanā.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 7, 2020 12:33 PM
Title: Re: drinks after noon
Content:
Yes.

For monks molasses are allowable as a tonic after midday. On the basis of the four great references (the Vinaya ones, not those in the Parinibbānasutta) this is universally agreed to extend to refined sugars like glucose, fructose, sucrose, etc.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 7, 2020 12:29 PM
Title: Re: Why is there no hatred associated with wrong view?
Content:
In future when posting to the Abhidhamma sub-forum please try to ground your posts in the Abhidhamma, not in your personal https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/folkpsych-theory/ (i.e., "a psychological theory constituted by the platitudes about the mind ordinary people are inclined to endorse").


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 7, 2020 12:21 PM
Title: Re: Cittas not resultant from kamma? Wrong!
Content:
In the Abhidhamma cittas and cetasikas are not the same thing. The former is a momentary consciousness, the latter are the various mental factors that arise simultaneously with each citta.

Some cittas are kamma-resultants (vipākacittas), some are not. If a citta is a kamma-resultant then its accompanying cetasikas will also be kamma-resultant. If a citta is not, then its cetasikas won't be either.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun Jun 7, 2020 11:44 AM
Title: Re: Our personal experience
Content:
Thrice already you've flounced out of the forum (departing with some choice Parthian shots) when your non-dualist antinomian ideas didn't get any traction. And thrice you've slunk back in again, barely able to stay away for even a week. And now you threaten a fourth departure. 

I wonder, Peter, can all who attain the PeterC86 version of liberation expect to become similarly petulant, irresolute and unstable in their conduct? And if so, why would they ever wish to aspire to such a state?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat Jun 6, 2020 12:26 PM
Title: Re: itivādappamokkhānisaṃsatthaṃ
Content:
... this is also repeated in the Critical Pali Dictionary, but it doesn't fit naturally in any of the contexts where it occurs and appears to be just a wild guess based on an imagined connection with itivutta.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Jun 5, 2020 3:26 PM
Title: Re: Abhidhamma Resources
Content:
Only one, as far as I know: U Kyaw Khine's 1996 translation of the Dhammasaṅgaṇī.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri Jun 5, 2020 12:38 AM
Title: Re: On your own authority
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jun 4, 2020 9:47 PM
Title: Re: Why Theravada?
Content:
Off-topic posts removed. The thread is about why members chose the Theravada. If you wish to talk about why you didn't choose it or what you believe to be deficient about it, please start a new thread.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jun 4, 2020 6:04 PM
Title: Re: Which to purchase, Vibhanga or Commentary?
Content:
I would.

But if you want the Book of Analysis with its intro and notes (these have been removed from the Sutta Central edition), a scanned copy is legally available at archive.org

https://archive.org/details/Vibhanga/mode/2up


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jun 4, 2020 2:57 PM
Title: Re: Commentary and the Commentarial Tradition
Content:
Right. Hence the need for saddhā.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jun 4, 2020 12:36 PM
Title: Re: Commentary and the Commentarial Tradition
Content:
Some have been translated; most haven't. There've already been plenty of DW threads about what's available.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu Jun 4, 2020 3:52 AM
Title: Re: Commentary and the Commentarial Tradition
Content:
It's based on Nibbāna as it was taught by the Buddha and as his teachings were preserved in the Pali Canon. And so when –as often happens– someone joins a Theravada forum and immediately announces that he's attained Nibbāna and would like to set Theravadins straight about all the things the Canon gets wrong, it's unlikely that his doctrinal emendations will meet with a ready reception. "For us all dhammas are rooted in the Blessed One" ... and not in every Tom, Dick or Harry who believes himself to be an arahant.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed Jun 3, 2020 2:15 PM
Title: Re: Rāhula
Content:
You're confusing the Buddha with Saṅgāmaji. There's no such story about Rāhula.

https://suttacentral.net/ud1.8/en/anandajoti


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jun 2, 2020 10:43 PM
Title: Re: Why is there no hatred associated with wrong view?
Content:
Some cittas arise with one or another of the three unwholesome roots or three wholesome roots. Those that do are rightly called lobhamūla, dosamūla, mohamūla, alobhamūla, adosamūla or amohamūla cittas. Those in which these roots are absent (e.g. eye-consciousness) are called rootless.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jun 2, 2020 10:09 PM
Title: Re: Rāhula
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jun 2, 2020 1:31 PM
Title: Re: Why is there no hatred associated with wrong view?
Content:
Not just "can be..." but "always is...." in the sense that the aversion and the wrong view always arise in separate moments.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue Jun 2, 2020 12:13 AM
Title: Re: Why is there no hatred associated with wrong view?
Content:
No. Though the one kind of citta conditions the other, both the attachment-rooted citta and its accompanying wrong view, would have ceased before the aversion-rooted citta arose. Take the case where the view is sakkāyadiṭṭhi:

A series of sense-doors processes whose vedanā is painful bodily feeling is followed by a series of attachment-rooted (lobhamūla) javanas accompanied by the wrong view 'I am this feeling' or 'this feeling is mine' or 'this feeling' is in me', which in turn is followed by aversion-rooted javanas in which the diṭṭhi-appropriated painful bodily feeling becomes the ārammaṇa of aversion.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jun 1, 2020 11:25 PM
Title: Re: Why is there no hatred associated with wrong view?
Content:
I don't know. I'm afraid I can't make any sense of what you're trying to say.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jun 1, 2020 10:52 PM
Title: Re: Why is there no hatred associated with wrong view?
Content:
You seem to be using "associated" in its common sense, but the OP (or rather the text that he alludes to) is using it in its technical abhidhammic sense.

In the Abhidhamma's theory of conditional relations, "association condition" (sampayutta-paccaya) doesn't mean any old kind of causal relationship. For nāmadhamma A to be classed as "associated with" (sampayutta) nāmadhamma B...

1. A and B must arise simultaneously.
2. A must be the conditioning factor of B, the conditioned factor.
3. They must take the same ārammaṇa.
4. They must have the same physical base.
5. They must cease simultaneously.

The Abhidhamma holds that wrong view can only be conascent and associated with an attachment-rooted consciousness, not an aversion-rooted or a delusion-rooted one. The fact that wrong view might be present in an earlier or a later javana process from one involving aversion-rooted cittas would not amount to an "association with..."


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon Jun 1, 2020 7:22 PM
Title: Re: Jhana
Content:
Where in the Vinaya is this stated?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun May 31, 2020 12:52 PM
Title: Re: Why is there no hatred associated with wrong view?
Content:
That might well happen if the person doesn't like snakes. But it would happen in a later javana process than the one in which the hose was first misapprehended as a snake.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 30, 2020 4:05 PM
Title: Re: nāma-rūpa in the Visuddhimagga
Content:
The detailed accounts of dependent arising that I'm familiar with (i.e., those of the Visuddhimgga, Vibhaṅga Atthakathā and Nidānasutta Atthakathā) don't stipulate in detail the roles played by each of the cetasikas that comprise nāma. Having briefly stated what the cetasikas are, from then on they just treat of nāma as a whole. I assume that this is because nothing needs to be added to what is stated about each of these cetasikas elsewhere.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 30, 2020 3:38 PM
Title: Re: shocked to see sariputta is a reincarnation of Hindu god Krishna
Content:
I've never contributed to Wiki, but I understand that they have a ban on original research by the contributors. And so in the case of the Jātakas, both emic and etic accounts of these texts would need to be based upon and to cite published works.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 30, 2020 3:02 PM
Title: Re: shocked to see sariputta is a reincarnation of Hindu god Krishna
Content:
That's certainly how Jātaka stories are viewed and represented in all Buddhist traditions. But academic scholars and contributors to Wikipedia don't take it as a given that a religious tradition's emic view of its own texts is necessarily the truth.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 30, 2020 2:46 PM
Title: Re: Is there a hidden message in Buddha's teaching?
Content:
He doesn't say that they are later additions, but that they are not "safe bet" arguments and no one knows if they date from the Buddha or are later additions.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 30, 2020 1:43 PM
Title: Re: nāma-rūpa in the Visuddhimagga
Content:
Where the suttas define nāma as vedanā, saññā, cetanā, phasso, and manasikāro the commentators view this as a summary treatment in which the first two items refer to their eponymous khandhas, while the next three have been selected to represent all the fifty cetasikas that are included in saṅkhārakkhandha. The Vibhaṅgasutta's commentary states that the basis for selecting these particular three is their presence in even the weakest kinds of citta.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 30, 2020 1:15 PM
Title: Re: Rebirth is ended
Content:
In your talent for inaptness you and Roger are birds of a feather, differing from each other only with regard to the particular sense of the word you've decided to fixate upon.

.



Roger Irrelevant.jpg (38.89 KiB) Viewed 1188 times


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 30, 2020 12:22 PM
Title: Re: shocked to see sariputta is a reincarnation of Hindu god Krishna
Content:
Rouse, one of the 19th century translators of the Jātakas, proposed that the story of Kaṇha in the Ghata Jātaka borrowed from the history of Kṛṣṇa in the Harivaṃśa Purāṇa. I've never read the latter, but Dutt's translation is online if you want to check it out:

https://archive.org/details/AProseEnglishTranslationOfHarivamsh


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 30, 2020 11:49 AM
Title: Re: I am offering a full day Mudita Meditation retreat this saturday on line
Content:
You may need to contact Cedric via his homepage as he hasn't logged in since the day he joined and posted his ad.

https://www.cedricreeves.com/


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 30, 2020 11:00 AM
Title: Re: Rebirth is ended
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri May 29, 2020 8:25 PM
Title: Re: bahusaccena
Content:
The one posted by Volo seems good on noun declensions and verb conjugations, but it doesn't have the endings used to form primary and secondary derivatives. For these chapter 13 of Duroiselle's grammar is the best I can think of.

http://www.pratyeka.org/duroiselle/


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri May 29, 2020 7:29 PM
Title: Re: The Raft Simile
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri May 29, 2020 6:35 PM
Title: Re: bahusaccena
Content:
Bāhus(s)acca is formed from bahus(s)uta with the addition of the -ya suffix (used to denote "the state of..."), followed by consonant assimilation. Analogous formations are:

paṇḍiccaṃ from paṇḍita
vepullaṃ from vepula
kāruññaṃ from kāruṇā
kosallaṃ from kusala
sāmaññaṃ from samaṇa
gelaññaṃ from gilāna
ādhipaccaṃ from adhipati
muṭṭhassaccaṃ from muṭṭhassati
sohajjaṃ from suhadaya
pārisajjaṃ from parisā
maddavaṃ from mudu
āsabhaṃ from usabha

Etc., etc.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri May 29, 2020 6:18 PM
Title: Re: Do western philosophies have anything similar to precepts or Vinaya?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri May 29, 2020 6:37 AM
Title: Re: Was the Buddha attached to rites & rituals (silabbatupadana) ?
Content:
I wouldn't translate it any differently, except to replace "transgression" with something like "blunder", "gaffe", "faux pas", etc. The point is, the whole exchange is a boilerplate formula that's invariably used in the suttas when someone is asking the Buddha's pardon for something or other. It's extremely unlikely that they all used identical phrases to do so or that the Buddha always used identical phrases in his response. But in an orally preserved text it would be a needless burden to have to record precisely how things were worded on each occasion.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri May 29, 2020 6:11 AM
Title: Re: Nibbāna & Asaṅkhata
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu May 28, 2020 7:59 PM
Title: Re: Avijja and moha
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu May 28, 2020 1:35 AM
Title: Re: Was the Buddha attached to rites & rituals (silabbatupadana) ?
Content:
Yes. In different contexts the term is glossed by the commentators as either aparādha or atikkama, according to whether the act or speech was closer to a mistake in etiquette or to a failing in sīla.

This distinction is also reflected in the work of Pali-to-Thai translators who use "transgression" (kwaam luang-lamoed / ความล่วงละเมิด) or "offence" (aabat / อาบัติ) in Vinaya contexts, but "fault" or "flaw" (thot / โทษ) in contexts where it's merely an accidental blunder.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 27, 2020 11:35 PM
Title: Re: Was the Buddha attached to rites & rituals (silabbatupadana) ?
Content:
Well, that was my point. Your and beanyan's objection to this part of the story is based on a translation of accayo that overstates things.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 27, 2020 7:48 PM
Title: Re: Te atthe anusāsati
Content:
Yes. "Those [te] matters [atthe]." Third person accusative plural.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 27, 2020 7:39 PM
Title: Re: Te atthe anusāsati
Content:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_present


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 27, 2020 7:15 PM
Title: Re: Avijja and moha
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 27, 2020 6:11 PM
Title: Re: Was the Buddha attached to rites & rituals (silabbatupadana) ?
Content:
I do wish people would get out of the habit of using the archaic translation "attachment to rites and rituals" for sīlabbataparāmāsa. The fact that a 'rite' is the same thing as a 'ritual' should alone be enough to alert readers to the unlikelihood of this being the correct rendering of sīla and vata.

To answer your question, there is no outward behaviour whatsoever that would allow us to reliably infer: "This person has sīlabbataparāmāsa; he misapprehends/is attached to precepts and vowed observances."

A sotāpanna might spend all day long undertaking precepts and vowed observances (or performing rites and rituals, if you will) without his actions involving either misapprehension or adhesion to sīla or vata.

Conversely, a puthujjana may be up to his eyeballs in sīlabbataparāmāsa even though the sīla and/or vata he observes are very minimal.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 27, 2020 5:39 PM
Title: Re: Nagarjuna wants Mahayanists to fear śrāvakas as one who loves life fears beheading
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 27, 2020 5:19 PM
Title: Re: Living with intact sila is making me more confident man in soceity and many more
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 27, 2020 5:14 PM
Title: Re: Was the Buddha attached to rites & rituals (silabbatupadana) ?
Content:
In general use accayo maṃ accagamā means something like, "I blundered," "I screwed up," or "I committed a faux pas."

It's only in Vinaya contexts that the meaning of accaya needs to be conveyed by the word "transgression", as in the class of offences called thullaccaya, "weighty offence".


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 27, 2020 7:03 AM
Title: Re: Abhidhamma Resources
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue May 26, 2020 6:06 PM
Title: Re: Passing of the abbot of Wat Pa Ban Tad
Content:
How would I know?


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue May 26, 2020 5:50 PM
Title: Re: When sotapanna dark kamma ripen...
Content:
The traditional understanding is that if someone has committed one of those five, then it's a certainty that the ripening of this kamma will be what determines their next birth.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue May 26, 2020 1:32 PM
Title: Re: When sotapanna dark kamma ripen...
Content:
We are not using the expression in the same way. I'm referring to the kamma whose vipāka determines one's next birth, not the kamma whose vipāka causes one's death. 

Owing to an unripened dark kamma, a sekha disciple may meet his death by violence, but the kamma that determines his next birth will not be a dark one, for the possibility of a dark kamma ripening at that moment will be over-ridden by his accumulation of those qualities stated in the Mahānāmasutta.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue May 26, 2020 1:07 AM
Title: Re: When sotapanna dark kamma ripen...
Content:
Since the ripening of a dark kamma at the moment before death would bring about rebirth in one of the four lower realms, and since the sotāpanna is unqualifiedly stated to be freed from being reborn in those realms, it follows that there must be something in the nature of a sotāpanna that makes it impossible for a dark kamma to ripen at that moment.

The Mahānāmasutta, quoted earlier by Rob, tells us what that something is: the sotāpanna's saddhā, sīla, suta, cāga and paññā.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue May 26, 2020 12:48 AM
Title: Re: What is Nāga world and Supanna world? where are they loacted?
Content:
As you can see from the Vinaya narrative above, at least some nāgas are animals, but I'm not sure if it's the case that all of them are.

For example, are the nāga followers of Virūpakkha in the Cātummahārājika heaven animals? Or are they devas of serpentine form? I've never seen any explicit statement either way, but I think the Theravāda position ought to be that they are devas, for at the Third Council the Theravādins rejected the claim of the Andhakas that there might be animals living in the heavenly realms.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon May 25, 2020 10:14 AM
Title: Re: Passing of the abbot of Wat Pa Ban Tad
Content:
I've read three different (though not necessarily incompatible) explanations offered in the Thai language press: that Ajahn Sudjai had expressed a wish for a quick and unfussy funeral; that cremating the body without delay would serve to minimize the size of the crowds attending the funeral (i.e. only the locals would be able to make it) and thus reduce the risk of Covid infection; and that the condition of the ajahn's body would have been a health hazard if it wasn't cremated quickly.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon May 25, 2020 6:51 AM
Title: Re: What is Nāga world and Supanna world? where are they loacted?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun May 24, 2020 8:15 PM
Title: Re: 3 things + 3 more
Content:
The Dīgha and Majjhima Nikāyas, and the Dhammapada.

Or, if you want it narrowed down...

DN 15, MN 22, and the Dhammapada's Brāhmaṇavagga.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun May 24, 2020 4:06 PM
Title: Re: What is Nāga world and Supanna world? where are they loacted?
Content:
Start with chapters 5 and 6 of G.P. Malalasekera's https://archive.org/details/paliliteratureofceylonmalalasekeranum_713_i, (1928)

Then for more depth, chapter 5 of Oskar von Hinüber's https://drive.google.com/open?id=1euzIiOveckiDY2QGnXOeQ4MSHPEK62X_

Then:
Toshiichi Endo, https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vBdM0lu4qPRDQz0t6_TZr0VgM64tDB5i, (1997)

And if you can manage to find a copy:
Toshiichi Endo, Studies in Pali Commentarial Literature: sources, controversies and insights, (2013)


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun May 24, 2020 1:52 PM
Title: Re: Subtle body
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun May 24, 2020 11:38 AM
Title: Re: Passing of the abbot of Wat Pa Ban Tad
Content:
.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun May 24, 2020 9:20 AM
Title: Re: Passing of the abbot of Wat Pa Ban Tad
Content:
No. As with his late teacher's charitable enterprises, the money would be from personal donations to Ajahn Sudjai himself. Monastery funds can't be diverted to such ends and can only be spent on the needs of the sangha.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 23, 2020 9:33 PM
Title: Re: Right View and anicca
Content:
Your question seems to be based on the assumption that bhāvanā-maya paññā is the only kind of paññā. But this isn't the case. Understanding via hearing/learning (suta-maya paññā) and understanding via thinking (cintā-maya paññā) both precede understanding via development.

Not only can there be paññā before one starts to practise, there MUST be or it will be wrong practice.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 23, 2020 6:58 PM
Title: Re: Right View and anicca
Content:
In those suttas that actually say something about anicca-saññā (as opposed to those that merely mention it by name) it appears to be associated with an advanced level of insight. The commonest context is that of the practice by which a non-returner abandons the "I am conceit" (by developing anicca-saññā) and advances to arahatta. The next most common is in connection with the attainment of stream-entry.

In the Abhidhamma anicca-saññā is taken to be the saññā that arises conascently with either sammā-diṭṭhi of the eightfold or sammā-ñāṇa of the tenfold path.

According to this understanding, the saññā in anicca-saññā isn't being used in any special sense; it's just the plain old third aggregate. If it didn't arise conascently at moments of insight, then the experience wouldn't be "marked"; not being marked it wouldn't be remembered; with no remembrance there would be no development - just moments of insight that occur and are immediately lost.

And so to answer your question, since the saññā in anicca-saññā is just the plain old third aggregate, it can't be the same as sammā-diṭṭhi, which is a mode of paññā, not saññā.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 23, 2020 4:29 PM
Title: Passing of the abbot of Wat Pa Ban Tad
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 23, 2020 3:14 PM
Title: Re: What is Nāga world and Supanna world? where are they loacted?
Content:
But that doesn't mean you wouldn't like it if it became your body architecture.

I'm reminded of a story from the commentaries where an evil queen gets reborn as some kind of blood-sucking insect, but with the ability to recall her former life. While sitting at a roadside with another beetle of the same species she sees a royal chariot going by. She tells her fellow beetle that the king riding in the chariot is her former husband. The other beetle asks her if she still feels any wifely affection for him. The evil-queen-turned-beetle scoffs at the idea and replies that if she got the chance she'd happily suck every drop of blood from the king's body to feed her present beetle husband.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 23, 2020 2:54 PM
Title: Re: What is Nāga world and Supanna world? where are they loacted?
Content:
If you were reborn as a nāga you wouldn't be scared of snakes. You'd be their boss.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu May 21, 2020 8:07 AM
Title: Re: Is there such a kind of rule ....
Content:
It's not an ancient fan. It's a modern ceremonial fan that indicates that its owner bears the rank of "chao khun".


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 20, 2020 5:46 PM
Title: Re: What exactly the status of the Sotapanna?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 20, 2020 1:35 AM
Title: Re: Buddha and Statecraft
Content:
The kshatriya states of the Vajjis, Licchavīs and Mallas seem to have been birds of a feather in their political arrangements, so although we're told only a little about each, by putting all the material together we get quite a rich picture of how they carried on. These are their entries in the DPPN...

http://aimwell.org/DPPN/vajji.html
http://aimwell.org/DPPN/licchavi.html
http://aimwell.org/DPPN/malla.html


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue May 19, 2020 9:52 PM
Title: Re: Buddha and Statecraft
Content:
But I think it could be improved still further by replacing "decree" with "establish", to show that it isn't just laws that are referred to here, but longstanding traditions, institutions and practices of every sort.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue May 19, 2020 9:29 PM
Title: Re: Is there such a kind of rule ....
Content:
Not in any Indian Vinaya. They sound more like the absurdly ritualistic regulations that you find in the Rule of Baizhang, as used in Chinese Ch'an monasteries. There's an English translation of it https://web.archive.org/web/20130210114955/http://www.bdkamerica.org/digital/dBET_T2025_Baizhang_2006.pdf if you want to check.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue May 19, 2020 11:40 AM
Title: Re: 16 insight knowledges in the Visuddhimagga?
Content:
Everything that's classified as a paramattha dhamma in the Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha is also classified as such in the Atthakathās. So with regard to content there's no innovation here on the part of Anuruddha. Then the order in which the four are arranged by Anuruddha seems to be loosely modelled on that of the Dhammasaṅgaṇī, where cittas and cetasikas are covered in the first book, the Cittuppādakaṇḍa, matter in the second, the Rūpakaṇḍa, while nibbāna is first mentioned in the third book, Nikkhepakaṇḍa, and treated in detail in the fourth, the Aṭṭhakathākaṇḍa.

So as far as I can tell Anuruddha's only innovation in this connection is his giving the scheme a name: catuparamatthadhamma – a term that doesn't seem to appear in any text before the Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue May 19, 2020 11:05 AM
Title: Re: 16 insight knowledges in the Visuddhimagga?
Content:
I would guess that Bhikkhu Bodhi probably has in mind the Kathāvatthu and its commentary, in particular the very first debate, "On the Person" (Puggalakathā) and perhaps the debate with the Sarvāstivādins on whether a dhamma persists through the three periods of time. If you don't have a copy already, B.C. Law's translation of the Kathāvatthu Atthakathā is available online:

https://archive.org/details/debatescommentaryatthakathabclaw_178_p/mode/2up

Points of Controversy, Shwe Zan Aung's translation of the Kathāvatthu itself, is available from Sutta Central, though it's better to get a scanned copy from archive.org as the Sutta Central version lacks the footnotes.

Other than that I don't get the impression that the Abhidhamma Piṭaka itself had much influence on the general commentarial conception of the nature of a dhamma. To the extent that their claims about the nature of a dhamma are inferential ones, the commentators more often cite passages from the Suttanta Piṭaka, in particular the Khandha and Saḷāyatana-vaggas of the SN, and the Paṭisambhidāmagga, Nettippakaraṇa, Niddesa and Milindapañha of the KN.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon May 18, 2020 5:03 PM
Title: Re: head splitting
Content:
But the Ani Sutta that you rejected earlier in this thread isn't about how emptiness is conceived in the Mahayana.

The "discourses connected with emptiness" that it refers to are defined elsewhere as those discourses that deal with things that the Buddha declared to be empty (i.e. of self or what pertains to self), namely, khandhas, dhātus and āyatanas.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon May 18, 2020 2:27 PM
Title: Re: 16 insight knowledges in the Visuddhimagga?
Content:
If we're approaching this issue emically, i.e., from the classical Theravada's own presuppositions, then anything stated about paramatthadhammas that is to be found in the commentaries but not to be found in the Tipiṭaka would be viewed as a commentarial detail, not a commentarial invention. Remember the old commentaries (i.e. the ones that Buddhaghosa and Dhammapāla were translating from) are also held to date from the First Council.

The short answer to your question is that there are some features of the paramatthadhamma conception that are found in the Tipiṭaka (e.g., the notion of a dhamma's function, rasa, appears in the Paṭisambhidāmagga, while its characteristic, lakkhaṇa, appears in the Nettippakaraṇa), some that are derived inferentially from the Tipiṭaka, and some that have come down to us on the authority of the commentaries alone. In short, three out of the classical Theravada's four sources of authority are represented – all of them except "personal opinion".

To say more than that I would need to know which aspects of the paramatthadhamma conception you have in mind.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon May 18, 2020 10:51 AM
Title: Re: cannot become arhant while having buddha becoming view?
Content:
I don't know. But the Indians have always been pretty good at maths and I suppose the data might come from recollection of former lives.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon May 18, 2020 9:36 AM
Title: Re: 16 insight knowledges in the Visuddhimagga?
Content:
They are not mentioned by name in the Abhidhamma Piṭaka. Rather, the catuparamatthadhamma scheme is how the commentaries construe the material in the Abhidhamma Piṭaka as being organised.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon May 18, 2020 6:49 AM
Title: Re: cannot become arhant while having buddha becoming view?
Content:
We can make an effort *as if* we already have sufficient paramī for stream-entry or higher in the present life. If we do in fact have sufficient paramī then our efforts may yield success; if we don't, then our efforts will contribute to our paramī development for the future.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Mon May 18, 2020 1:11 AM
Title: Re: 16 insight knowledges in the Visuddhimagga?
Content:
Chapter XVIII - nāmarūpapariccheda
Chapter XIX - paccayapariggaha
Chapter XX - sammasana
Chapters XX - XXI - udayabbaya
Chapter XXI - bhaṅga, bhayatupaṭṭhāna, ādīnava, nibbidā, muñcitukamyatā, paṭisaṅkhā, saṅkhārupekkhā, anuloma
Chapter XXII - gotrabhū, magga, phala, paccavekkhaṇa


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun May 17, 2020 10:52 PM
Title: Re: cannot become arhant while having buddha becoming view?
Content:
Commentarial Theravāda doctrine is the potential for arahantship, like that for paccekabodhi or anuttara sammāsambodhi, comes about through multi-life development of the ten paramīs, with differing lengths of time needed for each attainment. Thus:

Wisdom-predominant Buddhas: four incalculables and 100,000 aeons
Faith-predominant Buddhas: eight incalculables and 100,000 aeons
Energy-predominant Buddhas: sixteen incalculables and 100,000 aeons
Paccekabuddhas: two incalculables and 100,000 aeons
Chief disciples: one incalculable period and 100,000 aeons
Great disciples &amp; mother, father, son and attendant of a Buddha: 100,000 aeons
Ordinary arahant disciples: 100-1,000 aeons

And so those who start as worldlings and advance through all four ariyan paths and fruits in a single life will not have started as complete beginners.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun May 17, 2020 3:16 PM
Title: Re: vinaya related to cotton ( silkworm)
Content:
The allowability of silk was a subject of debate among Chinese Buddhists, but not among Theravādins as far as I know. See Stuart Young's papers:

https://www.academia.edu/34907686/_Bald-headed_Destroyers_of_Living_Things_Buddhist_Identity_in_the_Silk_Cultures_of_Medieval_China

https://www.academia.edu/32671197/An_Indian_Silkworm_God_in_China

https://www.academia.edu/32671274/FOR_A_COMPASSIONATE_KILLING_CHINESE_BUDDHISM_SERICULTURE_AND_THE_SILKWORM_GOD_A_SVAGHOS_A


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sun May 17, 2020 11:51 AM
Title: Re: vinaya related to cotton ( silkworm)
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 16, 2020 9:41 PM
Title: Re: cannot become arhant while having buddha becoming view?
Content:
But these are specifications of the maximum number of lives remaining, not the number of lives that each type of sekha disciple must undergo. If it were the case, for example, that a sattakkhattuparama sotāpanna had no choice but to undergo the full seven lives, then there would have been no point in all the teachings on the factors that hasten or impede a sekha's subsequent progress to the final goal. The Buddha could have saved his breath and just said: "Wait it out!"


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 16, 2020 9:04 PM
Title: Re: Jhana in the Mahabharata ?
Content:
As the Samatha forum is concerned only with samatha-bhāvanā as it's understood and practised in the Theravāda tradition, I've moved your post (and the replies to it) to the Connections to Other Paths forum.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 16, 2020 8:51 PM
Title: Re: Is there a list with the name and information for each monastery in Thailand?
Content:
The list is hosted on the website of the National Office of Buddhism. But as you say, it's only in Thai and the info is limited to each monastery's name, address and nikāya.

http://www3.onab.go.th/2019/02/12/wattotalsummaryreport31012562/


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 16, 2020 8:08 PM
Title: Re: paccattaññeva parinibbāyati
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Sat May 16, 2020 6:45 PM
Title: Re: Killing a yakkha not parajika offence
Content:
But it does nothing of the sort. The most Ñāṇananda might claim is that if his conjectural reading were the correct one, then *one* of the possible arguments for the antarābhava would fail. But this wouldn't affect the other arguments made by the antarābhavavādin schools.

(btw. I'm not myself a believer in the intermediate state and this post shouldn't be taken as a defence of it. It's merely a criticism of a poor refutation of it.).


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Fri May 15, 2020 5:48 PM
Title: Re: Nagarjuna wants Mahayanists to fear śrāvakas as one who loves life fears beheading
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu May 14, 2020 7:57 AM
Title: Re: Jain asceticism is way too hardcore
Content:
It would be a very uncompromising observance of "seeing danger in the slightest fault" and "not transgressing a rule even for life's sake".

In practice I'm sure that most bhikkhus would in fact compromise, by digging themselves out and then confessing a pācittiya offence.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu May 14, 2020 1:12 AM
Title: Re: Sick Relatives
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu May 14, 2020 12:44 AM
Title: Re: Jain asceticism is way too hardcore
Content:
I expect that would be a good start. Just don't say, "Bhante, shall I dig you out?" for he won't be able to answer yes.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Thu May 14, 2020 12:30 AM
Title: Re: Sick Relatives
Content:
Yes.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 13, 2020 11:34 PM
Title: Re: Eighty Minor Marks in Pāli literature
Content:
The authorship of this work and its ṭīkā seems to be something of a mystery. Malalasekera has a two-page discussion of it in his Pali Literature of Ceylon.

https://archive.org/details/ThePaliLiteratureOfCeylon/page/n115/mode/2up


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 13, 2020 10:51 PM
Title: Re: Eighty Minor Marks in Pāli literature
Content:
If the terms meant that a Buddha proceeded in exactly the manner of these four animals, the gait wouldn't be strange; it would be impossible, for the locomotion of two bipeds – a Buddha and a goose – can hardly be expected to bear much resemblance to that of three quadrupeds. Presumably what it means, however, is that his manner of proceeding was in certain respects like that of each of these animals.

For example, he may have raised his leg high in the manner of a goose, presented an unstoppable mien like that of an elephant, flexed his shoulders with the confidence of a lion, and stamped his foot down firmly like a bull.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 13, 2020 9:04 PM
Title: Re: Eighty Minor Marks in Pāli literature
Content:
Here's the Milinda-ṭīkā's list, which seems to be in a different order from the sayadaw's.

https://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/Texts-and-Translations/Dhammatthavinicchaya/35-Secondary-Characteristics.htm


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 13, 2020 7:23 PM
Title: Re: Jhana
Content:
Here are links to a few of the threads. I'm afraid some are rather lengthy, but you can save time by skipping all the ill-informed posts from the Vimalaramsi and Brasington followers and just attending to the posts of Sylvester, Sujāto and Brahmali (in effect representing the Theravada position as it was at the time of the Third Council), and those of Frank and Silence (in effect representing the position taken at the same council by the Pubbaseliya school). 

As at the Third Council, both sides believe their position to be the correct reading of the suttas and neither side is basing its case on later works like the Visuddhimagga. Unfortunately one of the two Pubbaseliya posters (yes, I mean you, Frank!) insists on begging the question by calling his own view "the straight EBT interpretation", and poisoning the well (and begging the question) by dubbing his opponents' view "the revised Visuddhimagga interpretation".

https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/hearing-sounds-in-samadhi-jhana/7784

https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/vitakka-vicara-jhana-factors/2589

https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/piti-sukha-kaya-in-jhana-mental-physical-or-both/4096

https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/can-you-hear-sound-and-feel-body-in-jhana/3819

https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/ebts-which-indicate-the-experience-of-the-body-disappears-while-meditating/11438

https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/parisuddhena-cetasa-pariyodatena-and-citte-parisuddhe-pariyodate/8540

And if your enthusiasm hasn't waned after the above, you'll probably find a few more with google:

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Adiscourse.suttacentral.net+frankk+sylvester


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 13, 2020 3:47 PM
Title: Re: Sick Relatives
Content:
In the Vinaya the minimum age to become a bhikkhu is 20. There isn't any maximum age.

Certain monasteries, however, have set a maximum age in their own in-house rules.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 13, 2020 1:59 PM
Title: Re: Sick Relatives
Content:
When a monk disrobes, for whatever reason, he always loses his seniority and starts at zero vassas when he re-ordains.

Most Theravadin sub-traditions would allow him to re-ordain as a bhikkhu immediately. One exception would be the Ajahn Chah tradition, where things are more varied. For example, if the ex-monk had been away for a long time, then some ajahns might require him to start from square one: doing time as an anagarika and a samanera before being granted bhikkhu ordination again.

As for age limits, in those monasteries that have them (btw most don't) this would be the sort of case where they might make an exception for a particular individual, especially if he'd been a good monk the first time round and they thought his presence would benefit the community.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 13, 2020 12:29 PM
Title: Re: Poll: What do you consider authoritative?
Content:
I think if this poll was on a Thai language Buddhist forum, nearly all lay followers of the forest tradition would tick this box.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 13, 2020 11:53 AM
Title: Re: Jain asceticism is way too hardcore
Content:
The Bodhisatta wasn't a bhikkhu at the time. Buddhist householders can dig the earth to their heart's content.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 13, 2020 9:38 AM
Title: Re: Peripheral nonsense?
Content:
Yes, but with the very important caveat that which particular activities will tend to assist in this, and which will tend to impede, is not self-evident. It's something that needs to be learned, not assumed.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 13, 2020 8:31 AM
Title: Re: Jain asceticism is way too hardcore
Content:
The commentary to #10 says that it's no transgression for a monk to dig someone out of a pit they've fallen into, or give orders for the person to be dug out, but if the monk himself falls into a pit, neither action is permitted. He should wait for someone to come and rescue him. And if nobody comes? Tough luck. Pulchrum est pro fide mori. Even if somebody does come, the monk just has to hope that they'll dig the earth on their own initiative; he can't order them to do so.

Likewise, in the commentary to #11 analogous principles apply in cases where (1) someone gets trapped under a fallen tree, and (2) the monk himself gets trapped.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Wed May 13, 2020 7:55 AM
Title: Re: Jhana
Content:
Sure, it's fair to ask. And it's my prerogative to answer with silence if I see no good likely to issue from a discussion.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue May 12, 2020 10:46 PM
Title: Re: Do we have an idealised image of Nibbana and the Buddha?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue May 12, 2020 10:26 PM
Title: Re: Do we have an idealised image of Nibbana and the Buddha?
Content:
In the commentarial view, the behaviour of Buddhas can't be explained in the way that the Buddha explains Pilindavaccha's quirks, for Buddhas – unlike arahant disciples – are said to have completely eliminated all past saṃsāric conditioning. 

But it's not in the commentaries but in the Milindapañha that we first see discussions of certain aspects of the Buddha's behaviour that some might consider (and King Milinda did consider) at odds with what one might expect of someone free from greed, hate and delusion. I'll post some examples tomorrow, if no one else does in the meantime.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue May 12, 2020 10:03 PM
Title: Re: mâ sadda.m akattha
Content:
There are several ways to form a prohibitive.

Mā + imperative

Mā kassaci ārocehi.

Mā + aorist

Mā bhagavantaṃ abbhācikkhi.
Mā tumhe nānā viharittha.
Evaṃ me rūpaṃ mā ahosi.

Mā + imperfect

Khaṇo ve mā upaccagā.

Mā with no verb at all, but with an assumed copula

Mā bhagavantaṃ sītaṃ.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue May 12, 2020 4:42 PM
Title: Re: Do we have an idealised image of Nibbana and the Buddha?
Content:
Okay, but just in case you hadn't noticed, the link I gave is actually to a pdf file of the whole book.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue May 12, 2020 12:03 PM
Title: Re: Jhana
Content:
Sorry, but I seldom reply to private messages unless they're concerned with moderatorial matters. As for public threads about jhāna (especially debates on what counts as "true jhāna"), I almost never post to them unless it's merely to offer some minor note of clarification that won't get me embroiled in a never-ending debate.


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue May 12, 2020 10:29 AM
Title: Re: Tathāgata and self case
Content:
Not eel-wriggling, but wholly in line with the tracklessness and tracelessness of the arahant, as taught in the one and only text that you acknowledge to be buddhavacana:

yesaṃ sannicayo natthi, ye pariññātabhojanā |
suññato animitto ca, vimokkho yesaṃ gocaro |
ākāse va sakuntānaṃ, gati tesaṃ durannayā ||

yassāsavā parikkhīṇā, āhāre ca anissito |
suññato animitto ca, vimokkho yassa gocaro |
ākāse va sakuntānaṃ, padaṃ tassa durannayaṃ ||

Those for whom there is no accumulation,
who have fully comprehended nutriment,
whose domain is empty and signless release,
their destination is untraceable, like that of birds in the sky.

He whose āsavas are destroyed,
who is not dependent on nutriment,
whose domain is empty and signless release,
his track is untraceable, like that of birds in the sky.

(Dhammapada 92-3; cf. Patna Dharmapada 87, 270; Udānavarga 29:26, 29:29)


Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue May 12, 2020 10:22 AM
Title: Re: Do we have an idealised image of Nibbana and the Buddha?
Content:



Author: Dhammanando
Date: Tue May 12, 2020 9:30 AM
Title: Re: Do we have an idealised image of Nibbana and the Buddha?
Content:
Another in a similar vein – though by a psychologist rather than a literatus – is Rune Johansson's The Psychology of Nirvana, esp. chapter 17.

https://archive.org/details/ThePsychologyOfNirvana/mode/2up


