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@pathfinder
“Also, I haven’t been able to find ‘anatta’ (without long ā) as a standalone word in any sutta, so I don’t think that word exists, …”This may have to do with Pali grammar, where “anatta” changes form depending on the words that appear with it, such as the case or number of the noun it goes with. For example, “Sabbe dhammā (plural) anattā“. This general rule applies to other words like anicca and dukkha as well, as in:
“Sabbe saṅkhārā aniccā” ti, yadā paññāya passati; Atha nibbindati dukkhe, esa maggo visuddhiyā.”
“Sabbe saṅkhārā dukkhā” ti, yadā paññāya passati; Atha nibbindati dukkhe, esa maggo visuddhiyā.”
“Sabbe dhammā anattā” ti, yadā paññāya passati; Atha nibbindati dukkhe, esa maggo visuddhiyā.”
In general, I notice that the “-a” words rarely appear in their original form; it must be a very rarely-used case. Take “dhamma” for example; a Pali textbook describes “dhamma” as the vocative case. Other cases, such as accusative or locative, must be more common, thus we see more of: dhammam, dhammo, dhammesu, etc.
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Here’s a very short one, but I think it captures the essence of the Bhante’s teaching.
In the “6R” method the Bhante taught he often emphasized the “Relax” step. In the video he talked about the “tightening” of the mind at the “craving” step, so relaxing is relaxing of that “tightening”.
Dependent Origination Explained – A Key Buddhist Teaching
If you do a search on Youtube there should be much longer videos of the Bhante about paticca samuppada.
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After Relax, it is “Re-smile” — intentionally putting on a smile before returning to the object of meditation (metta) after a distraction. The Bhante did say that he put the smiling step in there himself since he found it helpful.
A very popular talk from the Bhante is this one:
What is a Jhana? Commentaries vs Suttas – Meaning?
At around 27:35, he said how easy it was to get to the 1st jhana.
At around 22:00 he talked about smiling.
From about 1:00, he talked about how one moves from jhana to jhana and then to nibbana (by seeing “dependent origination”).
Personally, at one point I listened to Bhante a lot although I did not practice this, at least not as the main practice. I must say it did bring a sense of calm fairly quickly, but then I directed that calm mind to contemplating anicca, dukkha, anatta, although near the end of the talk the Bhante said that one cannot see nibbana via seeing anicca, dukkha, anatta.
I have not watched the video posted on this thread, but I happen to know of this method or technique (if we can call it that) of the 6Rs. It is also called TWIM (Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation).
It was the teaching from the late bhikkhu Bhante Vimalaramsi at Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center:
https://www.dhammasukha.org/the-6rs
In this link there is a video instructions of the meditation:
Instructions for Metta or Lovingkindness Meditation and the 6Rs by Bhante Vimalaramsi
There are many talks by Bhante Vimalaramsi on Youtube about metta bhavana that leads to jhana.
My guess is that Delson Armstrong is now the principal teacher at Dhamma Sukha.
Best,
LangIt’s great to hear of personal experiences of others. A couple of questions:
— (1) —
@Christian
“…real jhana shakes up the whole worldview especially materialistic.”Is the “shaking up” due to the fact that one has entered another loka, i.e. the rupavacara brahma loka? So that now one sees first hand that other lokā other than the kama loka exist?
— (2) —
@Lal
P.S. Also, to reach magga phala, two more stages of Anuloma (A) and Gotrabu (G) must be accessed. For example, a Sotapanna Anugami may reach the upacāra samadhi and not go through the other two stages for a while (could be months or years) until attaining the Sotapanna phala.… but in the post
Citta Vīthi – Processing of Sense Inputs
… the last sentence sounds like the sotapanna anugami stage happens at the Gotrabu moment:
“The change to an Ariya happens even before the Sōtapanna phala moment, at the Gotrabu (G) moment. Gotra means “lineage,” and Gotrabu is the change of lineage. Thus, one would become a Sōtapanna Anugāmi with the Gotrabu citta.”
Best,
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First, let’s reiterate something obvious that everyone already knows: When one makes an effort in understanding and living Buddha Dhamma one will get many “Aha!” moments, which lead to real, unshakable saddhā.
pathfinder brought up how historical evidence can also help build faith (saddhā), and there is no question that they do — up to a point. However, they can potentially lead to more time wasting as dosakkhayo pointed out concerning the nature of evidence.
Let’s use as example the first Buddhist Council from pathfinder, and let’s suppose that an Ashoka pillar has just been discovered with some inscription that suggests that there was some kind of a gathering at the location mentioned in the tipitaka. Will that settle it? Not necessarily, as the pillar may spawn more interpretation — just like dosakkhayo pointed out — such as:
The inscription is vague
It may be about a gathering of some other sects
Disagreements among scholars as to the meaning of parts of the inscription
ad infinitumSo, do we then spend more time, potential endlessly, discussing the evidence?
I brought up Ashoka pillars because I personally find them convincing, and that may be the only kind of “evidence” available to us in modern times, along with stupas.
I remember reading about the Ashoka pillar at Lumbini, with the inscription that King Ashoka visited the site to honor the birthplace of the Buddha. And then many, many years back I saw the news about an ancient Buddhist shrine discovered there. With that, I was convinced that the Buddha was born in the area of Lumbini, like the tipitaka said.
Are all of my Buddhist friends convinced of the birthplace of the Buddha as I am? No. Some say that what I call “evidence” is still inconclusive; do I then spend more time to debate with them that it is conclusive, or do I just spend that time studying Dhamma? We all know what the right answer is.
Best,
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Hi,
I’d like to ask a different line of question about jhana samapatti if I may.
Let’s say that a person is in an anariya jhana samapatti, which means that during that time he is in a temporary rupavacara bhava.
Is the upadana paccaya bhava step still operating in this case? And if so is jhana the object of upadana?
Thank you,
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In psychology, there is something called the confirmation bias: people’s tendency to process information in a way that is consistent with their existing beliefs. It is one of many cognitive biases, but it is the central one.
What makes this so hard to correct is because we don’t even know that it is going on, because of another bias: the blind spot bias, ie we cannot see our own biases.
Furthermore, even when we can see things logically, another layer of ego protection comes in: we can’t be wrong. Accepting new view points mean that we were wrong before, and if we have been wrong for decades then the stakes are too high.
To be a bit facetious, those old enough to know the sitcom “Happy Days” may remember the Fonzi character, who cannot get the word “wrong” out of his throat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvdY3HfepOo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPMIdIGj8v0
The confirmation bias, plus a bit of “Fonzi” in us, may prevent people from accepting Dhamma concepts if they conflict with their existing understanding.
AI is free from these emotional conflicts.
That’s my 2 cents.
Best,
LangMany of the points here are also in the following post:
A Google search showed the Pali name Siddhatta Gotama for the Sanskrit Siddhartha Gautama.
I’d like to share an experience from a long time ago that I found interesting, although it is an “off Dhamma topic”.
More than 10 years ago I met someone from Nepal with the last name Shakya. He knew that I was Buddhist, so he shared with me that his parents and grandparents told him that his family descended from the Shakya clan of the Buddha himself (he also quipped that there wasn’t a bone of enlightenment in him).
I was curious to do a search and found this article from way back:
The Shakya Clan in India: A Rediscovered Heritage
I know that in our PD community we have different views about where the Buddha actually lived. I personally believe that the Buddha lived in India — was born in Lumbini, attained buddhahood at Bodh Gaya, turned the wheel of Dhamma at Sarnath, parinibba at Kusinārā — so the geography in the article made sense to me; but that’s a side note. Regardless, it was nice to to read about a group of people rediscovering their heritage and turning to Buddha Dhamma, whether or not they are truly the Shakya people of the Buddha’s clan.
Best,
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nibbana is the object of a pabhassara citta, see below (at the end of the post).
Nirōdha Samāpatti, Phala Samāpatti, Jhāna, and Jhāna Samāpatti
At first, I thought that the pabhassara citta is supramundane (lokuttara), so I took it to mean that it was not quite a manōdvāra citta; I thought a manōdvāra citta took only a dhammmā from this world.
Searching around, I saw that it took nibbana as the object. I guess this is where the two spheres, lokiya and lokuttara, “touch”.
Furthermore, see this thread, where Lal stated that “the “pabhassara citta” does not fall into any of the three “dhatu” or “loka.”
https://puredhamma.net/forums/topic/compilation-of-my-thought/#post-50814
Hi,
I’d like to use this thread to verify my understanding of “distorted saññā”, a topic I’ve been studying on the site — slowly. Besides reading the posts, I used the concept of a citta vithi to understand the topic, and I’d like to share it here to see if it makes sense.
First, a high-level summary of “distorted saññā” according to my understanding, and I’m limiting it to just humans and human arahants.
(1) We all have built-in “distorted saññā” due to the physical bodies. This is true for both a puthujjana and an arahant. For example, all of us likely has saññā about the sweetness of sugar, the beauty of a woman, etc.
(2) For a puthujjana, “distorted saññā” can easily lead to saññā vipallāsa; for an arahant it does not. For example, a puthujjana may want more of sugary drink or to get to know the beautiful woman (or even seduce her).
(3) For an arahant in arahant-phala samapatti, there is no “distorted saññā”.
First, to help me understand “distorted saññā”, I call it “bhavanga saññā” to note that it is saññā embedded in a bhava.
Using my understanding of citta vithi in processing sense inputs, I’m thinking something like this:
(1) In processing a sense object via the five physical senses we have: 1 pañcadvāra citta vīthi + 3 manōdvāra citta vīthī.
Each citta in a citta vīthi has a saññā cetasika since it is a universal cetasika.
(2) The saññā cetasika in a pañcadvāra citta vīthi is the “distorted saññā”.
In the 3 manōdvāra citta vīthī that follow, the saññā cetasika can become saññā vipallāsa for a puthujjana, but not for an arahant.
(3) For an arahant in arahant-phala samapatti, there is only the pabhassara citta flowing, and thus there is no “distorted saññā”. The pabhassara citta is not a pañcadvāra citta nor even a manōdvāra citta.
Best,
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In the post, under #9:
The Pāli words like kamma, Nibbāna, Paṭicca Samuppāda were made “more impressive-sounding” by mostly adding the “r” sound.
Is “Maitreya” Sanskrit? Google says it is, and that “Metteyya” is Pali. Don’t know how reliable Google is on this, but “Metteyya” does “look” Pali.
And in the same light, I suppose that “Siddhartha” is Sanskrit?
Thanks,
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I want to echo everyone’s sentiment here about Lal. If I do attain the sotapanna anugami stage in this life, it will be because of this website.
Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!
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Because the preceding sentence says “…, so the first condition is always satsifed for anyone.”, I read the sentence in question to mean:
Therefore, the second condition — grasping a new existence (bhava) at the cuti-paṭisandhi moment- is the condition that can be removed, which stops the rebirth process.
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