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The two TED presentations links that Donna has provided are good. They emphasize the negative aspects of bad speech.
What “y not” stated is true in general. One mostly comes across material that are not good or even harmful sometimes.
So, if one gets material from reliable sources, it is not a bad idea to look at them, if one has time. But most of this information is in Buddha Dhamma, and the “Moral Living and Fundamentals” section has posts on such topics.
Furthermore, it is important to understand that vaci sankhara is not just speech, but also includes conscious thoughts. One can be generating a lot of bad vaci sankhara without saying a single word: “Correct Meaning of Vacī Sankhāra“.
This was discussed under the topic, “Jhana and magga pala“.
More information at the post, “Mundane versus Supramundane Jhāna“.
I think the sutta that is discussed at the end of that post is similar to the MN52 that you mentioned, Johnny.
Key facts to keep in mind:
1. Anariya jhana attained by focusing on a worldly object like breath or kasina. Ariya jhana attained by taking the “seen Nibbana” as the thought object: “etan santan etan paneetan…”.2. Thus one has to have “seen” Nibbana (i.e., one must be at least a Sotapanna) to take Nibbana as the thought object (which means the “cooling down one has seen”).
3. One gets to anariya jhana by SUPPRESSING pancanivarana. A Sotapanna has REMOVED pancanivarana.
4. Of course, one who has anariya jhana can make it an Ariya jhana by comprehending the Tilakkhana and seeing the futility of jhanic pleasures.
5. A Sotapanna who gets to the first anariya jhana has not removed kama raga. But he/she will not come back to the kama loka (will get theAnagami phala moment in the brahma loka and attain Nibbana there). So, he/she is still an Anagami (“na” + “agami” or not coming back). This is what is stated in the last bullet in “Mundane versus Supramundane Jhāna“.
It is true that there is no “unchanging self”, like a “hero” or a “coward”.
However, at a given time, a person has certain “gati” or habits/character. And one’s behavior at that time is influenced by his/her gati.
See: “The Law of Attraction, Habits, Character (Gathi), and Cravings (Asavas)” and “Habits, Goals, and Character (Gathi)“.There are more posts on how to change one’s gati for the better. In fact, this is the key to making progress.
See, “How Habits are Formed and Broken – A Scientific View” and “Patisandhi Citta – How the Next Life is Determined According to Gathi“.This has been discussed at various levels in many posts. You can also use the “Search” box on the top right to find more posts on gati (I have spelled it sometimes as gathi, so use both words).
Don’t hesitate to ask questions if something is not clear. It is a good question and understanding the issue can be quite helpful.
Thanks, Donna.
Please don’t hesitate to ask questions if you have any.
I also would like to make a general comment to everyone. These desanas only provide the framework for discussions. We can simplify or go to deeper levels at the forum.
I have spent a lot of time trying to “walk the middle ground” with these. These may still be either too hard or too simple for some. That is why I specifically started topics on each desana, so that we can discuss each desana at various levels.
They also increase in depth as we go to the next two desanas, and there will be total of five, at least for the time being.
Even though I may not be writing regular posts for a few months, I will be participating in the discussion forum.
Welcome to the discussion forum, José!
Thank you for the introduction too.
Please don’t hesitate to ask questions and also to respond to others’ questions. Everyone’s input is appreciated.
I also realized that I had not welcomed people to the forum in the first two months or so. My apologies for forgetting to do that. I think most of them had corresponded with me via email before, so that was probably the reason that I did not think about it.
Welcome to the forum, Ashok!
Each human life is a different gandhabba.
But in the case of twins, the zygote splits into two and effectively become two.Even if the two split cells are identical, there are no two gandhabbas that would be identical (no two humans are the same). Gandhabbas are “selected for a given zygote” based on how well gandhabba’s gati match the gati of the mother and father. That “matching process” selects the “best matching gandhabba” available at the time. This is why there are instances where a child may grow up to have very different gati compared to either parent.
In the case of two gandhabbas taking possession of the split zygote, while they are likely to have similar gati, they can never have exactly the same gati.
As the twins grow, they will start exhibiting their own “inherent gati”, and in some cases they may be quite different. Of course, their “original gati” will change towards some common gati too, since they will be brought up in the same environment.
The conception process is discussed in the post,”What does Buddha Dhamma (Buddhism) say about Birth Control?“.
1. This world of 31 realms is very complex. While most of us are not exposed to beings in other realms, there are some who can communicate with beings in other realms. See the post:”What Does Buddha Dhamma Say about Creator, Satan, Angels, and Demons?”
In most cases, it is better to avoid communicating with such beings. They may have their own agenda, and may try to steer one in a path they want to. When one firmly gets on the Noble Path, no such being can influence. Usually, when “good beings” want to help, they do that to the best their ability without trying to communicate.
As with people, it is always beings with similar “gati” that are attracted to people. So, when one’s gati change for the better, they automatically move away. But before that, they might try to influence one not to steer away from them.
2. Sometimes people do “no thought meditation” based on even instructions from other humans. I know that some people in Sri Lanka believe that Nibbana means getting rid of thoughts. They try remove all thought objects (arammana) that come to the mind. This is dangerous, because one can become “asanna”, i.e., lose “sanna” or perception.
If one has been doing such meditations, one’s brain could be wired for that. It is possible to re-wire the neurons by staying away from such types of meditations and doing it the right way. See the posts: “Truine Brain: How the Mind Rewires the Brain via Meditation/Habits” and “How Habits are Formed and Broken – A Scientific View“.
All these problems will go away slowly once one is firmly on the Path. Best to keep in mind that no one else (or no other being) can influence you if you know you are on the right Path.
1. First of all, Kamma is one of those things that the Buddha categorized as “acinteyya”, not fully graspable by a human other than a Buddha.
2. There are two key factors to be remembered in evaluating how to assess a kamma vipaka:
–which of the dasa akusala is the intention? That is the “cetana” in “cetana ham bhikkhave kamman vadami”.
– then the strength of the kamma vipaka is based on the “level of consciousness” or “qualities” of the living beings affected by that kamma.
-That is the clearest way to analyze any given situation.
3. For example, in the recent second desana on Tilakkhana, I discussed the case of a person killing a bunch of people with a bomb. His intention (cetana) was to kill. Thus the dasa akusala involved is “panatipata”, that of taking a life.
-Now to the second step. He may not even know who was killed. By some coincidence if a parent of the killer was killed by the bomb, then he would have done an anantariya papa kamma. If an Arahant was killed, the same. If a Sotapanna was killed, then it would not be a anantariya kamma, but still equivalent to killing thousands of normal humans.
-So, it is important to understand that “cetana” is which of dasa sakusala are in one’s mind when a kamma is committed. It could be more than one. In the case of the bomber, there is micca ditthi, and likely greed also, in addition to “panatipata”.
-So, it is good to analyze various situations with the above two steps.
4. In the particular example discussed, it is not necessary that person A had to have killed B in a previous life. It is just that person A had a previous kamma vipaka waiting to bear fruit and he himself made the conditions right by going to a bad neighborhood, possibly at a bad time.
Person B could have been just happened to be there with the appropriate mindset to do the killing. It is also possible that there could have been some connection between the two in the past, but that is not necessary.
We all have done innumerable kamma in the deep past and when suitable conditions appear they are brought to fruition.-But there are some accounts in the Tipitaka, where a person “avenges” a previous death by killing. But in those cases, person A would have killed person B in a previous life by beating him, for example. Then person B would have made a determination, “I will kill you in the future in return”.
-But if person B in the given case kills A by shooting from a distance, A would even not know who killed him. He may die instantly, not even being aware that he was shot by someone. Of course, the “nature” would know (we are all connected), and therefore, that could act as an additional factor.
– This point of “we are all inter-connected” is now proven by quantum mechanics: “Quantum Entanglement – We Are All Connected“.
– This is a key factor in understanding kamma/vipaka, and is my next project. I believe that quantum mechanics can show this at an even deeper level.
Hi Akvan, Johnny,
Actually, anicca nature is INHERENT in the things in our world. It is rooted in the udaya (arising), vaya (destruction) of a sankata, and also the viparinama nature of a sankata in between udaya and vaya.
This is why Udayavaya Nana is of importance for the Sotapanna stage; see, “Udayavaya Nana“. Those can be called characteristics of nature or marks of existence or Tilakkhana.
Understanding those characteristics of all sankata are helpful in cultivating the anicca sanna. Reading about the anicca nature may help remove the ditthi vipallasa about anicca. But cultivating the anicca sanna needs a bit more work. This is what I will be discussing in the next desana.
Pancakkhandha are mainly mental; see “The Five Aggregates (Pañcakkhandha)“.
But those mental impressions arise from our interaction with those material things (sankata) out there in the world. Those material things (or each person’s pancakkhandha) do not have dukha in them. It is only when we make cravings (or upadana) those things (panca upadanakkhandha) that we become subjected to dukha (suffering). It is helpful to comprehend the udaya, vaya, and viparinama nature of sankata, in order to see the root causes of anicca nature.
Pancakkhandha is like a bottle of poison sitting on a table. One gets into trouble only if one takes it and drinks from it (panca upadanakkhandha). An Arahant has pancakkhandha, but no panca upadanakkhandha.
This is a deeper aspect of anicca that I will discussing in a future desana.
Now, I do not want to scare people by saying that all these are requirements for the Sotapanna stage. These are just different ways of looking at the anicca nature. One may “see” anicca nature in many different ways, and understanding more ways is better to remove the sanna vipallasa of a nicca nature. it is also true that one can become a Sotapanna without even having read about Udayavaya Nana. But it depends on whether one has done those investigations in past lives. It is similar to the case where jhanas come easily to those who had cultivated them in previous lives.
Thanks, Johnny.
Your second reference is good, and I have just revised the post again to include that with another bullet added.
I normally do not give references to English translations of a sutta, but this one good. So, here is the second reference from Johnny: “Pañcakanga Sutta“.
Nibbanic bliss (and the bliss in saññāvedayita nirōdha samāpatti) is not a cetasika vedana, which would belong to this world. I have compared it to the relief one feels when a long-experienced migraine headache finally goes away (in the “Nibbana” subsetion). The above sutta explains too that it is not a cetasika vedana.
However, the first reference does not give a Tipitaka reference. It just makes a statement, which seems to be incorrect based on the Mahāvedalla Sutta (MN 43) as I described in the revised post.
Hi Johnny. You said: “I came across 2 Pali words: Vedayita-sukha (happiness based on feeling); Avedayita-sukha (happiness without feeling)”
I just revised the post to include two Tipitaka references.
Under new #12, “This also clarifies that saññāvedayita means without any saññā or vedana.” Also, #13 is revised.So, it is possible that avedayita sukha means with saññā or vedana.
Can you provide a reference where those two words are described/mentioned?
I just published a new post “Nirōdha Samāpatti, Phala Samāpatti, Jhāna, and Jhāna Samāpatti“, that would hopefully address more remaining questions.
This post should cover the questions raised in the discussion forum under the topics:” Nirōdha Samāpatti”, “Difference between “Arahant phala samāpatti” and “Nirōdha samāpatti” ?”, and “Nirōdha Samāpatti and Amoha”.
If there are more questions on this and related issues, please ask them here. I am going to close the other two topics, in order to not have too many parallel and related discussions.
I just published a new post “Nirōdha Samāpatti, Phala Samāpatti, Jhāna, and Jhāna Samāpatti“, that would hopefully address some of the questions one may still have.
This post should cover the questions raised in the discussion forum under the topics:” Nirōdha Samāpatti”, “Difference between “Arahant phala samāpatti” and “Nirōdha samāpatti” ?”, and “Nirōdha Samāpatti and Amoha”.
If there are more questions on this and related issues, please ask them under the topic “Difference between “Arahant phala samāpatti” and “Nirōdha samāpatti” ?”. I am going to close the other two topics, in order to not have too many parallel and related discussions.
