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“To me this is a very big deal. I don’t know if I’ll ever go into why this so . . . because there’s so many layers to this . . .”
Actually I come to realize that it’s not that of a big deal, which I’ll explain at a later time. But it was something that I wasn’t aware of, but could be used to learn of it. In a way I was surprised and rushed words, spoken too soon.
I was going to say as well . . . “If that’s the case, then we would’ve all have attained Nibbana many times . . . “
The reason’s why I said this was because to indirectly hopefully share an example of where one can use the dhamma where one is learning / understands for discernment. One of the other ways to express what will be mentioned.
I’m sure everyone here knows about the sansara process, how we have been reborn in the hells and heavens without a discernable beginning. I believe in our previous life, we all had attained the 4 jhana’s and been born in the highest of heavens. My understanding is that the 4th jhana is related to upekkha. If we all had attained the 4th jhana some time in our previous lives and that if by achieiving / remaining in upekkha can get rid of or eradicate seeds, thereby leading to no more new fruits. Then wouldn’t we have already attained nibbana and many times over?
One can force mind to be equanimous for only so long. Then again one will start to create merits or demerits.
One can also get attached to equanimity.
“They have good description about end goal, but they don’t share any methodology about how to mold mind to permanently behave in the said equanimous way.”
I can’t say my book learning or understanding of upekkha is much, but from understanding so far, it seems like the permanent way to mold the mind to behave “in the said equanimous way” is by developing and having Lokuttara Samma ditthi leading the way.
I can’t say I know or have understood everything being discussed here, but is this one of the uncertainties / questions / main gist that’s being raised here?“Mano sankhara never get to the abhisankhara stage.”” In context, there is some possibility that mano sankhara could be read as abhisankhara.”Candana Bhikkhu’s new video ‘Goenka Cult’ vs The Dhamma
I just woke up and came across the thread Lal mentioned, but I’m about to head off to work so I haven’t had the time scrutinize everything in the thread or watch the video’s (which I might later on), but I quickly scanned through the comments and something really really caught my eyes.
“I have also been to the Davos WEF summit. And while I have seen Goenka’s UN talk in 2000
I never knew about Goenka’s WEF Davos involvement.But now it all makes perfect sense… especially given how Klaus Schwab’s top man, Yuval Noah Harari, is (or was) a Senior AT.
Here you have one of the highest most influential people in the entire World Economic Forum
Yuval Noah Harari, also acting as one of the highest teachers in the Goenka group (cult)
where Harari is “teaching” people meditation as a Senior Assistant Teacher (AT).”To me this is a very big deal. I don’t know if I’ll ever go into why this so . . . because there’s so many layers to this . . . but thought of sharing the link that relates to this discussion . . .
“Is it really true that by remaining equanimous we can “get rid of or eradicate seeds, thereby leading to no more new fruit?”
I was going to say as well . . . “If that’s the case, then we would’ve all have attained Nibbana many times . . . “
– “Every time you remain equanimous with the sensations, i.e., not react to them, you get rid of them. So by remaining equanimous, these “seeds” get eradicated, leading to no more new fruit.”
Is it really true that by remaining equanimous we can “get rid of or eradicate seeds, thereby leading to no more new fruit?My understanding is that “seeds aren’t necessary get ridden off or eradicated by remaining equanimous . . .”
I hope what is mentioned can be helpful for our learning and understanding.
I read the pdf several years back. At that time, I must’ve had questions about and thoughts of learning more about Buddhist cosmology and came across the book.
I can’t say I have studied or know alot about Theravada orthodox teachings on Buddhist cosmology, but depending on what’s meant by “the accuracy of the book”, I believe it would / should? fall in line mostly with Theravada orthodox teachings. Included in the title of the book, “according to Theravada and Sarvsativada sources”.
Based on my understanding at that time and currently, I can’t say how accurate all the things mentioned in the book are, but I believe it should be accurate enough that it can help one to get the general idea about the topic and the different subjects. I mostly read quickly through the book, but I do believe the book gathers Theravada teachings and sources on the subjects in one book.
If one does read it, my advice is to use one’s discernment and decide on what to take in and discard or use or not use from the book. I believe the materials in the book can possibly be used to cross reference, compared, and additional information about the different realms and beings.
But in my opinion, the material’s in the book are not the most important area / dhamma teachings to focus on.
One part of the book that did drew my interest or I was most interested in (focused) was the part about devolution of humans and the future of humanity, which is the agganna sutta. Puredhamma also has a post and materials on that sutta.
By comparing and relating the two materials mentioned, as well Venerable Waharaka Thero subtitled English desana on anicca. The experiences benefited my learning of “anicca khayatthena”.
Much merits to LDF, DanielSt and others for their meritorious intentions and deeds in disseminating the Pure / true dhamma !!!
May their and others wholesome intentions and deeds help us all living beings to attain the supreme bliss of Nibbana !!!
Saddhu saddhu saddhu !!!
No issues with desktop/laptop and the website does load faster than before the transition.
I got the website working again on my mobile phone. Maybe there was something wrong with my cell phone, browser or myself when I tried earlier to access the website, but now everything is working fine again. Sorry for the false alert.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but this / the puredhamma.net website is not working properly on my mobile phone.
The menu and search button is not working properly. No drop down menu list appears (nothing happens) when I click the menu button from my mobile phone browser.
The only way that I can access the other pages / posts when accessing puredhamma.net on my mobile phone is to scroll down to all the way of the main page and use the sitemap link.
I’ll definitely look into the video and the other animated stories from the YT channel.
Thanks for sharing Saket!
– “If a person were to learn anything about the Dhamma, what would be at the top of the list?“
This is just from my own personal journey and experiences. At the beginning when I first started learning from this website, I was reading and learning whatever seem interesting to me at that time. I could say I was all over the place, but then I thought to myself that I should build a solid foundation understanding of the Buddha dhamma and should put more focus on certain teachings. What that meant to me at that time was focusing on the Tilakkhana, specifically on anicca, then onto dukkha and anatta. The amount of time and effort that I have put into learning and practicing the Tilakkhana is approximately anicca 50%, dukkha 35%, anatta 15%. I believe by learning / understanding the Tilakkaha, it would also help me with understanding of the other dhamma teachings as well, such as the four noble truths.
What helped me with learning and understanding the Tilakkhana besides reading / learning from the Puredhamma website is watching / learning from Venerable Waharaka Thero subtitled desana’s.
Venerable Waharaka Thero know the Tilakkhana series
Even though I don’t understand what’s being said besides from the English subtitled, but listening to Venerable Waharaka Thero teach / speak increased my faith and confidence in I was learning from the right teachers / source (Venerable Waharaka Thero, Lal and others). I have mentioned this many times before, but I have never come across any dhamma teacher in my life that teaches / can teach like Venerable Waharaka Thero.
Another important dhamma teaching one should at least get the general idea is Paticca Samuppada. Initially one doesn’t need to know or understand everything about P.S. but very beneficial to at least get the general idea / understanding of it.
What’s mentioned and emphasized here on Puredhamma is that one should stay away from akusala kamma and initial kusala or moral / wholesome deeds as much as possible. From what I have seen you mentioned before about yourself, I’m sure you’re already doing this.
What I found to be beneficial on the path as well is to be flexible with one’s learning and contemplation. What this mean to me is that there are times when I want to focus on a specific dhamma teachings or subjects during contemplation or meditation. But at times no matter how hard I try or want to, nothing comes to mind or my mind doesn’t want to focus on certain dhamma teachings at that time. So I just keep trying to find a dhamma teaching that my mind is willing to latch onto at that moment and go from there. As well everyone has their own characteristic / traits of learning, there might be certain dhamma subjects / topics that’s more suitable to each individual learning at the time.
– “what are the top subjects that a Sotapanna (not a Sotapanna Magga Anugami) undertands?“
Without going into further details, a Sotapanna would know yoniso manasikara. See’s / understands this world as anicca, dukkha, anatta and nibbana as nicca, sukha, atta. Besides contemplating on the tilakkhana, I can’t stress enough the importance of focusing the mind on nibbana as well.
I haven’t / didn’t share everything that would completely answer your questions, but I’m sure others can mention additional insights / information that can benefit you.
LDF mentioned:
– “To understand how rebirth is full of suffering read this single page document”
– “Even 9 months of pleasure vacation pales in comparison to one day of harsh intense suffering“
It’s kinda interesting that this was brought up because several years back on here, I mentioned and we discussed something similar.
In addition to what has been mentioned by LDF and others, I thought I would share a recent realization / understanding that I have come to that’s related to this discussion and hope it can help others in any way.
– “Suffering due to unsatisfactory experiences“
– “sense objects nor senses themselves are satisfactory or can be satisfied“
I’m currently on vacation traveling aboard. On a long distance flight, I was able to fly business class due to my wife work benefits. For the last few days, I have been living in luxury, doing luxurious things. I’m sure many others would like to be in the position that I’m currently in on this trip and in my lay life.
I would rate my lay life a 9 / 10, with 10 being the best life one could possibly live. It’s somewhat difficult for me to express everything that I would like to in words on how I exactly feel about all of this. What I can say is that I still carry out kama raga due to my anusaya’s, asava’s and gati. Even experiencing all the assada’s and sukha vipaka’s on my current trip and in my lay life, a part of me finds it all stressful, vexing, unfulfilling and meaningless.
– “All pleasures in saṁsāra are filled with dukkha“
Based on “part of me or in back of my mind” I really don’t see the point of hoping or wanting to continue seeking pleasant / pleasurable experiences or sukha vipaka’s in this world, even from the heavenly realms. If I could spend 99.99% of my “all” my bhava’s / jati’s in the sugati’s (rupa and arupa loka’s) instead of attaining nibbana, I would not want to make such deal / trade. But that’s only possible when I have broken all the 10 fetters.
Why I would say something like this is because my current understanding / view is that any assada or sukha vedana / vipaka’s experienced doesn’t really relieve one of dukkha. It only temporary relieves or covers up the hidden or not evident dukkha that one goes through. It’s like taking a pain killer for chronic pain.
I believe it’s evident, easy to see and understand dukkha and sukha based on vedana, but more difficult with wisdom. To me, seeing and understanding dukkha with wisdom means to see dukkha as a process or mechanism rather than just based on (vedana) feelings. Based on this scrutiny, to me it doesn’t really make sense that I would want to continue the samsara journey even if I could spend 99.99% of my bhava’s / jati’s in the sugati’s.
I believe the only time when one is really free from dukkha is when one’s thoughts are of kusala (with lokuttara samma ditthi) or on nibbana. So even if one is vacationing or existing in the sugati’s without thoughts of kusala or nibbana, are they really free from dukkha during those times / moments? Thinking or seeing based on vedana would seem so but if it’s based on wisdom, I would not believe so.
Thank you both Sengkiat and Lal for your insights and assistance! If both of you don’t mind, I’ll be requesting more of it in the future and thank you both in advance.
I ended up deciding to and just finished watching the Forbidden Archeology with Michael Cremo. All I got to say is “wow”.
For anyone that come across this post, rather one is interested in the topic or not, I highly recommend that one check out the video. Definitely not a waste of one’s 43 minutes of time.
Lal mentioned:
“More evidence will hopefully emerge. The main problem is that metals, when submerged in the Earth, decay and do not last even a million years. So, if a human civilization built rockets many millions ago, there will be no trace of that left. “
16:45 – 18:20 of the video.
If what he says is true, there’s some evidence.
I just did a quick search and found a lecture by Michael Cremo that exhibits visuals as well.
Michael Cremo: Evidence for Extreme Human Antiquity FULL LECTURE
I don’t think I’ll be watching this one though since it’s not really necessary for me to see any further evidence. My mind was already opened to such possibilities before even coming across the Buddha dhamma. The first video was already enough for me.
Before coming across the Buddha dhamma, these kinds of subjects are things that I have looked into. For me, I don’t really need or be given much evidence to believe or be open to the idea that there are past technologically advance and ancient civilizations.
I hope the following videos which I just looked up today will help on your endeavor Venerable Sir.
MYSTERIOUS UNDERWATER CITIES DISCOVERED ALL AROUND THE WORLD: ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS
Forbidden Archeology with Michael Cremo
The second link to the video is a must watch. I only watched 10 minutes of it but it was enough for me. Even for me, it was an eye opener and mentioned things that I didn’t know about and this was only from watching 10 minutes of the video.
DEBATING A BUDDHIST BUDDHIST MONK ABOUT ADVANCED ANCIENT GLOBAL CIVILIZATIONS
Once again I only watched about 10 minutes of the video, but it was kinda interesting that the scientist was actually trying more to validate some of the teachings in the sutta’s on past civilizations than the Buddhist monk. Or that’s what I believe anyways from the 10 minutes that I watched.
