notes on the Dhamma

"The thoughts of others   Were light and fleeting,   Of lovers' meeting   Or luck or fame.   Mine were of trouble,   And mine were steady;   So I was ready   When trouble came."  -   A.E. Housman  Of lovers' meeting   Or luck or fame.   Mine were of trouble,   And mine were steady;   So I was ready - When trouble came. 

 Dilemma summarized in 8 seconds kāya-gatā-sati active 24/7 (remembrance + application of Dharma while immersed in body) A lapse of sati eventually will result in horrific death or suffering SN 47.20 the most beautiful lady in the world The Buddha was staying in the land of the Sumbhas,  near the town Sedaka. There the Buddha addressed the monks: “monks, suppose that word spread quickly around town that  ‘Larissa, the most beautiful lady in the world is coming! Her beauty is unparalleled, with a personality and temperament to match. A large crowd would gather. Larissa would dance and sing in a most thrilling way. On hearing that ‘Larissa, the most beautiful lady in the world is singing! She's dancing!’  an even larger crowd would gather. Then Bob, a man who wants to live and doesn’t want to die, comes along. Bob and Larissa were dear friends as young children.  Sadly, Larissa moved away. Fifteen years later Bob is a very eli...

 

Frankk translation of the formless part of sutta “Ākiñcaññaṁ pekkhamāno satimā, “[In the dimension of] nothingness, equanimously-observing, Remembering-and-applying- ☸Dharma  ,” (upasīvāti bhagavā) (replied the Buddha) , Natthīti nissāya tarassu oghaṁ; depending [on the perception] ‘there is nothing’, cross the flood. Kāme pahāya virato kathāhi, Giving up sensual pleasures, refraining from chatter, Taṇhak-khayaṁ nattam-ah-ābhi-passa”. watch day and night for the ending of craving.”   B. Bodhi has 1070. “Contemplating nothingness, mindful, (Upasīva,” said the Blessed One), “supported by ‘there is not,’ cross over the flood. [206] Having abandoned sensual pleasures, refraining from perplexity, night and day see into the destruction of craving. Thanissaro has Mindfully focused on nothingness, relying on ‘There isn’t,’ you should cross over the flood. Abandoning sensuality, abstaining from conversations,...

  Notice that the monkey's 2 arms + 2 legs + mouth = 5,  matching the 5kg cords of sensuality. SN 47.7 A monkey  “monks, in the Himalayas there are regions that are rugged and impassable. In some such regions, neither monkeys nor humans can go, while in others, monkeys can go but not humans. There are also level, pleasant places where both monkeys and humans can go. There hunters lay snares of tar on the monkey trails to catch the monkeys.   The monkeys who are not foolhardy and reckless see the tar and avoid it from afar. But a foolish and reckless monkey goes up to the tar and grabs it with a hand. He gets stuck there. Thinking to free his hand, he grabs it with his other hand. He gets stuck there. Thinking to free both hands, he grabs it with a foot. He gets stuck there. Thinking to free both hands and foot, he grabs it with his other foot. He gets stuck there. Thinking to free both hands and feet, he grabs it with his snout. He gets stuck there. And so the mon...

 This would be a great T-shirt. Sati ("Mindfulness"). Come and get some! This would be a great T-shirt. There's a double meaning here. . 1. Most people don't have nearly enough sati. They need Dhamma, and they need to develop the sati that keeps the Dhamma with them all the time, ready to deploy. To those people, you need more sati. Come and get some. 2. If you do have pretty decent Sati... Then "Sati. Come and get some!" means: You have sati, you wield the Dhamma weapons of the Buddha skillfully, so you invite Māra and the defilements to "come and get some!", a battle cry that your Dhamma is going to destroy them. Just as the Quail says to the Hawk in SN 47.6 SN 47.6 quail simile in 10 sec. video: Sati "Mindfulness" is 24/7. No timeouts!

  In SN 47.6, as in many suttas, the Buddha constantly reminds you that sati ("Mindfulness") is to be done all the time, 24/7, or death and suffering can be expected. When you do sati, you're in your safe ancestral territory. When you don't do sati, you're in Māra's territory, the 5kg cords of sensual desire.  sati ("Mindfulness")  = remembering and applying the Buddha's Dhamma. If no specific Dhamma is given in that context, then default value of Dhamma is the 4 satipaṭṭhāna. "Mindfulness" can not be nonjudgmental choiceless awareness! Notice how the simile doesn't work if you follow the watered down and down right wrong definition of "mindfulness" used by many Buddhist teachers, influenced by the hijacked modern psychotherapy bastardization of sati. If the quail was sitting there being nonjudgmental, nonreactive, "choiceless awareness", the hawk would eat him for lunch. Instead, the quail is discerning (sat...

frankk comment: This is a real interesting take on the dukkha of losing an elite sports world championship. In the 2025 world series (major league baseball championship), The Blue Jays lost to the Dodgers by the barest margins imaginable. 4 or 5 times they were just one hit, or one play away from winning. But 5 times the Dodgers seemed to have some divine intervention that pulled off a miraculous play to keep them alive, and BARELY win in the 7th game, in the most dramatic way possible. from a 4NT and 12ps  point of view, you could say the solution is simple. Don't build an empire of self, possessions, identity out of anything internal (your body, mind), or external (the world outside of your internal). If you don't identify with the city of Toronto, you don't identify and treat their Blue Jays baseball club as you, yours, a possession of yours, don't treat baseball as something important in your life, don't treat a "world championship" as anything meaninf...