Saturday, February 29, 2020

It's only as hard as you make it (part 2, for experienced serious meditators only)

It's only as hard as you make it 

A toolkit for destroying lust and passion for sensuality 

(part 2, for experienced serious meditators only)

⚠️☢☣☠ Warning! Most of this material contains graphic images of corpses and anatomical body parts that most people would find disturbing. 

Image result for warning

⚠️Turn away now!





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⚠️Last chance! ⚠️☢☣☠






Image result for warning

















It's only as hard as you make it 

A toolkit for destroying lust and passion for sensuality 

(part 2, for experienced serious meditators only)



  • *Curated collection of downloadable videos: autopsies, organ surgery, etc.
  •  50mb pdf file, contains many pictures of normal people with superimposed 31 body parts onto their regular bodies moving through everyday life. It's written in Thai, so you'll only have an idea of how to practice if you're familiar with Ajahn Mun style of forest Thai Theravada tradition. 
* assorted videos of autopsies, have not viewed in entirety yet

german female, 45min, from VHS tape distorted


36min, obese, HD
26min, pale white corpse, 144p lores
24min, old indian male fresh corpse, HD res
27min, 480p dvd res, male post mortem

* (much more material to be added over time)

It's only as hard as you make it

It's only as hard as you make it

A toolkit for destroying lust and passion for sensuality 

⚠️☢☣☠ Warning! Some of this material contains graphic images of anatomical body parts that may be disturbing or some people. Proceed at your own risk.

🔗audio material
🔗 AN 7.51 so you think working out at the gym is healthy and harmless?
🔗MN 13 helpful images: gratification, drawback, escape from 5kg, rūpa, and vedana

(much more material to be added over time)

Friday, February 28, 2020

Which of the 5 nikayas is your favorite? What order should I read them?


Re: Favourite Nikaya

Post by frank k » Fri Feb 28, 2020 12:38 am
IMO,
You really want to read as many of the suttas in all the nikayas (with some exceptions in KN) and decide for yourself. EBT (early buddhist teaching) can be found in all of them. Development and lateness of ideas (relative to EBT) happens in strata. But in general, here is the sorted order in terms of highest density of EBT of the 4 major nikayas:

1.  SN‍ 
2.  AN‍      
3.  MN‍
4. DN‍

The most EBT among the  KN‍    I have here:  KN‍   

Any serious practitioner, you should keep good notes while reading all the suttas and figure out for yourself which suttas are most important and keep a list of them, summaries, and memorize the key ideas from them. For the short important suttas, best to  memorize the entire sutta and recite them everyday, frequently. It has a similar effect to installing antivirus and anti-malware on your computing devices, and installing a pure clean operating system that works properly.

IMO, these are the most important suttas, in this anthology I've collected called, 'the raft'. (The Raft)🚣‍

Everything else in the sutta collection would extraneous information, or just slight variations of theme from those core suttas in the raft.
(HOL 🍂: Handful Of Leaves Principle.)

Thursday, February 27, 2020

In Pali, is there a general rule for how to translate/interpret negations, e.g. (subha, asubha)


In Pali, is there a general rule for how to translate/interpret negations, e.g. (subha, asubha)

Post by frank k » Thu Feb 27, 2020 11:33 am
In Pali, is there a general rule for how to translate/interpret negations, e.g. (subha, asubha)
After all these years, I still have no idea.

For example:
In English, if we contrast beautiful with non-beautiful,
non-beautiful has a broad spectrum from not beautiful at all, all the way to extreme beauty.

Similary, if we were to translate subha/asubha as not-ugly, and ugly,
then 'ugly' tends to imply, 'more than a little ugly', but not-ugly has a range from not ugly at all, to extremely ugly.

atta, anatta
nicca, anicca
abypada, bypada

How do you translate and interpret those?

For subha and asubha, the passages definitely seem to be on the extreme end in context. If one only had a neutral attitude to contemplating 31 body parts or corpses, you wouldn't expect to see scores of suicide in SN 54.9 for example.
And subha-nimitta, the sign of beauty, is definitely not average beauty, it's something very enticing of lust and passion.

So is there a general rule for negation pairs in pali?

What about byapada and abyapada in right resolve?
B. Bodhi and Thanissaro translate it literally, so I've always interpreted abyapada as 'non-ill will', a spectrum from neutrality to very kind. Whereas B. Sujato translates (and presumably interprets it) as 'good will', making it nearly synonymous with 4 brahmaviharas. (the word 'abyapajjena pharitva viharati' appears in the formula for all four). In the context of right resolve, it makes more sense to have the spectrum of meaning, than to have an injunction for followers to always force a positive attitude and be nice to everyone.

So is there a general rule, or we have to check case by case for each pali word?

What meditation practice exactly is asubha?

This is what I have in my notes so far, but I really want to find some concrete evidence, besides AN 10.60, that it ONLY means 31 body parts. Or might it include corpse contemplation as well? Assuming MN 119 represents EBT, then kayagatasati includes 31asb, among several other practices.
So kayagata is a broader class of meditation subjects, but what is 'asubha bhavana' meditation? Is it only 31asb? 

So the two big questions relevant: 

1. What is the EBT position on exactly what meditation practices are included under 'asubha'? Is it only 31 body parts? Or does it also include corpse contemplation?
2. What is the official Theravada position, before Vimt. and Vism.? (they classify asubha as corpse contemplation, and 31 body parts under kayagata). B. Bodhi's footnote for SN 8.4 suggests official Theravada position is 31 body parts + 5 stages of corpse, but he doesn't cite source for that conclusion.

The reason the question is important

In passages such as SN 8.4 and AN 9.1, when it says, develop asubha, what exact practice is that?


a-subha 🧟‍ = un-attractive

✅in EBT meditation, it refers to 31asb🧟‍ body parts contemplation. See AN 10.60AN 6.29.
⚠️300+ years after EBT, in Vimt. and Vism., Theravada re-defines asubha meditation to refer to 10 stages of corpse decay, and they reclassify 31asb🧟‍ under kāya-gatā-sati 🏃‍. It's important to know this, because in EBT suttas, an instruction to "develop asubha" is frequently mentioned, but without detail (examples: SN 8.4SN 54.9). 31asb is immediately accessible, corpse contemplation considerably more complex.
• What's the purpose of asubha meditation? To counter perversions of our inverted perception AN 4.49SN 8.4.
• But be careful, this is an advanced practice. Best to first have foundation in breath meditation SN 54.9.
• SN 12.61 and SN 12.62 is the more general case of seeing 4 elements via dependent origination 12ps as not being worth clinging to.


 SN 8.4,
(ānanda replies)
♦ “saññāya vipariyesā,
(your) perceptions (are) inverted,
cittaṃ te pari-ḍayhati.
[so the] mind (of) yours completely-burns,
♦ nimittaṃ pari-vajjehi,
(the) sign (to) completely-avoid:
subhaṃ rāg-ūpasaṃhitaṃ.
beauty connected-with-lust
♦ “saṅkhāre parato passa,
Co-doings; alien (they should be) seen (as),
dukkhato mā ca attato.
pain-&-suffering, not the self.
♦ nibbāpehi mahā-rāgaṃ,
Nirvanify [extinguish] (the) massive-lust,
mā ḍayhittho punap-punaṃ.
don’t burn again-(and)-again.
“a-subhāya cittaṃ bhāvehi,
Non-beautiful [perceptions] (the) mind develops,
ek’-aggaṃ su-samāhitaṃ.
Singular-preoccupation, well-(developed)-undistractible-lucidity.
♦ sati kāya-gatā ty-atthu,
remembrance (of) body-condition,
nibbidā-bahulo bha.
disenchantment-(in)-abundance ***.
♦ “a-nimittañca bhāvehi,
Sign-less [meditation] (you) develop,
mān-ānusaya-mujjaha.
conceit’s-tendency,-discard.
♦ tato mān-ābhisamayā,
thereupon (with) conceit-penetrated,
upasanto carissasī”ti.
(in) peace (you) abide.

commentary says:
Saṃyutta Nikāya, sagāthāvagga-aṭṭhakathā, 8. vaṅgīsasaṃyuttaṃ, 4. ānandasuttavaṇṇanā

♦ 212. catutthe rāgoti āyasmā ānando mahāpuñño sambhāvito, taṃ rājarājamahāmattādayo nimantetvā antonivesane nisīdāpenti. sabbālaṅkārapaṭimaṇḍitāpi itthiyo theraṃ upasaṅkamitvā vanditvā tālavaṇṭena bījenti, upanisīditvā pañhaṃ pucchanti dhammaṃ suṇanti. tattha āyasmato vaṅgīsassa navapabbajitassa ārammaṇaṃ pariggahetuṃ asakkontassa itthirūpārammaṇe rāgo cittaṃ anuddhaṃseti. so saddhāpabbajitattā ujujātiko kulaputto “ayaṃ me rāgo vaḍḍhitvā diṭṭhadhammikasamparāyikaṃ atthaṃ nāseyyā”ti cintetvā anantaraṃ nisinnova therassa attānaṃ āvikaronto kāmarāgenātiādimāha.
♦ tattha nibbāpananti rāganibbānakāraṇaṃ. vipariyesāti vipallāsena. subhaṃ rāgūpasañhitanti rāgaṭṭhāniyaṃ iṭṭhārammaṇaṃ. parato passāti aniccato passa. ca attatoti attato passa. kāyagatā tyatthūti kāyagatā te atthu. animittañca bhāvehīti niccādīnaṃ nimittānaṃ ugghāṭitattā vipassanā animittā nāma, taṃ bhāvehīti vadati. mānābhisamayāti mānassa dassanābhisamayā ceva pahānābhisamayā ca. upasantoti rāgādisantatāya upasanto. catutthaṃ.


subcommentary says:
Saṃyutta Nikāya, Sagāthāvaggaṭīkā, 8. Vaṅgīsasaṃyuttaṃ, 4. Ānandasuttavaṇṇanā

♦ 212.Rāgoti ettha āyasmato vaṅgīsassa rāgassa uppattiyā kāraṇaṃ vibhāvetuṃ ‘‘āyasmā ānando’ ’tiādi vuttaṃ. Tanti ānandattheraṃ. Ārammaṇaṃ pariggahetunti kāyavedanādibhedaṃ ārammaṇaṃ satigocaraṃ. Asubhadukkhādito, rūpādiekekameva chaḷārammaṇaṃ aniccadukkhādito pariggaṇhituṃ paricchijja jānituṃ. Itthirūpārammaṇeti itthisantāne rūpasabhāve ārammaṇe.
♦ Nibbāpananti nibbāpayati etenāti nibbāpanaṃ. Vipallāsenāti asubhe ‘‘subhan’ti vipallāsabhāvahetu. Rāgaṭṭhāniyanti rāguppattihetu. Iṭṭhārammaṇanti subhārammaṇaṃ. Ettha ca iṭṭhārammaṇasīsena tattha iṭṭhākāraggahaṇaṃ vadati. Tañhi vajjanīyaṃ. Paratoti avasavattanatthena aññato. Saṅkhārā hi ‘‘mā bhijjantū’ti icchitāpi bhijjanteva, tasmā te avasavattittā paro nāma, ca nesaṃ paratā aniccadassanena pākaṭā hotīti vuttaṃ ‘‘parato passāti aniccato passā’ ’ti. Kāmaṃ vipassanā saṅkhāranimittaṃ na pariccajati saṅkhāre ārabbha vattanato, yesaṃ pana nimittānaṃ aggahaṇena animittāti gahituṃ arahati, taṃ dassetuṃ ‘‘niccādīnaṃ nimittānan’ ’tiādi vuttaṃ. Salakkhaṇa-sāmaññalakkhaṇa-dassanavasena mānassa dassanābhisamayo, vipassanāya pahānābhisamayo. ‘‘Maggenā’ti vadanti, maggeneva pana asammohato pariññāpaṭivedhavasena dassanābhisamayo, pahānapaṭivedhavasena pahānābhisamayo. Rāgādisantatāyāti rāgādīnaṃ samucchedavasena paṭippassaddhivasena vūpasametabbato santabhāvena.


B. Bodhi footnotes to SN 8.4 says

* The meditation on foulness (asubha) is the contemplation of the parts of the body, as at SN 51.20 (V 278,6-14), 
* or the cemetery meditations, as at SN 46:57-61


Is B. Bodhi getting that information from the commentary or subcommentary?

SN 51.20 has: (part of 4ip iddhipada formula, not called 'asubha', but code phrase 'as below, so above')

yathā adho tathā uddhaṃ,

“kathañca, bhikkhave, bhikkhu
"what (is) {dwelling}, *********, *******
yathā adho tathā uddhaṃ,
as below, so above,
yathā uddhaṃ tathā adho
as above, so below
viharati?
{********}?
idha, bhikkhave, bhikkhu
here, monks, (a) monk [practices the following:]
STED (31asb) a-subha
STED (31asb) un-attractive [body parts]
imameva kāyaṃ
In-this-same body,
uddhaṃ pāda-talā
up (from the) feet-base,
adho kesa-matthakā
below head-hair-(on)-top,
Taca-pariyantaṃ
Skin-enclosed,
pūraṃ nāna-p-pakārassa A-sucino
Full-of many-*-things Im-pure.
paccavekkhati:
(he) reflects:
‘atthi imasmiṃ kāye
There-are in-this body:
kesā lomā nakhā dantā taco,
Head-hairs, body-hairs, nails, teeth, skin,
maṃsaṃ nhāru aṭṭhi aṭṭhi-miñjaṃ vakkaṃ,
flesh, tendons, bones, bone-marrow, kidneys,
hadayaṃ yakanaṃ kilomakaṃ pihakaṃ papphāsaṃ,
heart, liver, pleura, spleen, lungs,
antaṃ antaguṇaṃ udariyaṃ karīsaṃ,
Large-intestines, small-intestines, stomach, feces,
pittaṃ semhaṃ pubbo lohitaṃ sedo medo,
bile, phelgm, pus, blood, sweat, fat,
assu vasā kheḷo siṅghāṇikā lasikā muttan’ti.
tears, skin-oil, saliva, mucous, fluid-in-the-joints, (and) urine.
evaṃ kho, bhikkhave, bhikkhu
such indeed, {he dwells} **********, *******
yathā adho tathā uddhaṃ,
as below, so above,
yathā uddhaṃ tathā adho
as above, so below,
viharati.
{********}.


AN 9.1 commentary says:

(commenting on phrase 'asubha bhavetabba'). It seems to talk about eating and going somewhere to do practice, but I'm not sure if it ever explains what the asubhakammaṭṭhānena  (meditation topics for asubha) are.

Aṅguttara Nikāya, navakanipāta-aṭṭhakathā, 1. paṭhamapaṇṇāsakaṃ, 1. sambodhivaggo n, 1. sambodhisuttavaṇṇanā

♦ 1. navakanipātassa paṭhame sambodhipakkhikānanti catumaggasaṅkhātassa sambodhissa pakkhe bhavānaṃ, upakārakānanti attho. pāḷiyaṃ āgate nava dhamme sandhāyevaṃ pucchati. upanisāti ko upanissayapaccayo. abhisallekhantīti abhisallekhikā. samathavipassanācittassa vivaraṇe sappāyā upakārakāti cetovivaraṇasappāyā. appicchataṃ ārabbha pavattā kathā appicchakathā. sesesupi eseva nayo.
♦ asubhā bhāvetabbā rāgassa pahānāyāti ayamattho sālilāyakopamāya vibhāvetabbo eko hi puriso asitaṃ gahetvā koṭito paṭṭhāya sālikkhette sāliyo lāyati. athassa vatiṃ bhinditvā gāvo pavisiṃsu. so asitaṃ ṭhapetvā yaṭṭhiṃ ādāya teneva maggena gāvo nīharitvā vatiṃ pākatikaṃ katvā punapi asitaṃ ādāya sāliyo lāyi. ettha sālikkhettaṃ viya buddhasāsanaṃ daṭṭhabbaṃ, sālilāyako viya yogāvacaro, asitaṃ viya paññā, lāyanakālo viya vipassanāya kammakaraṇakālo, yaṭṭhi viya asubhakammaṭṭhānaṃ, vati viya saṃvaro, vatiṃ bhinditvā gāvīnaṃ pavisanaṃ viya sahasā appaṭisaṅkhāya pamādaṃ ārabbha rāgassa uppajjanaṃ, asitaṃ ṭhapetvā yaṭṭhiṃ ādāya paviṭṭhamaggeneva gāvo nīharitvā vatiṃ paṭipākatikaṃ katvā puna koṭito paṭṭhāya sālilāyanaṃ viya asubhakammaṭṭhānena rāgaṃ vikkhambhetvā puna vipassanāya kammaṃ ārabhanakālo. imamatthaṃ sandhāya vuttaṃ “asubhā bhāvetabbā rāgassa pahānāyā”ti.
♦ tattha rāgassāti pañcakāmaguṇikarāgassa. mettāti mettākammaṭṭhānaṃ. byāpādassa pahānāyāti vuttanayeneva uppannassa kopassa pajahanatthāya. ānāpānassatīti soḷasavatthukā ānāpānassati. vitakkupacchedāyāti vuttanayeneva uppannānaṃ vitakkānaṃ upacchedanatthāya. asmimānasamugghātāyāti asmīti uppajjanakassa mānassa samugghātatthāya. anattasaññā saṇṭhātīti aniccalakkhaṇe diṭṭhe anattalakkhaṇaṃ diṭṭhameva hoti. etesu hi tīsu lakkhaṇesu ekasmiṃ diṭṭhe itaradvayaṃ diṭṭhameva hoti. tena vuttaṃ “aniccasaññino, bhikkhave, anattasaññā saṇṭhātī”ti. diṭṭheva dhamme nibbānanti diṭṭheyeva dhamme apaccayaparinibbānañca pāpuṇātīti imasmiṃ sutte vaṭṭavivaṭṭaṃ kathitaṃ.

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

body mind dichotomy, kaya/citta, kaya/mano, simile of Buddha's ruler


Re: Vism. doing 31 body parts using vitakka simultaneous with first jhana

Post by frank k » Wed Feb 26, 2020 4:56 am
mikenz66 wrote: 
Tue Feb 25, 2020 10:13 am
...

Since many words have multiple layers of meaning (kaya - body - being an obvious example which has multiple meanings in both Pali and English), this is not necessarily a contradiction.

:heart:
Mike
Dhamma, sankhara, kaya: Yes, they can have multiple layers and meaning
But there are contexts where it's completely clear that kaya (or rupa)/citta kaya/mano are being used as a dichotomy to distinguish between physical body and mind in a meditation context.

Even Abhidhamma uses the same kaya/citta kaya/mano dichotomy when they want to make that distinction (between body and mind)!
So it's totally insane when Abhidhamma tries to override a sutta body/mind dichotomy passage with one of their own, when they're using the same means to do so. It's basically saying, don't trust the Buddha's ruler, it's the wrong length. You have to trust our ruler, which is the correct length even though it came 1000 years later and it contradicts the Buddha claiming his ruler is the correct length.

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

new reddit forum focused on meditation and scripture study based on EBT (early buddhist text)


Originally it was intended to be named 'Early Buddhism Meditation', but they have a character length limit so it got truncated.

'Meditati' sounds kind of cool. Like Illuminati.

sidebar summary of group:

Meditation and scripture studies on early Buddhist teachings. Comparison with later Buddhist teachings and non Buddhist meditation techniques, only to clarify and understand meditation from an early Buddhist teaching perspective.

In addition to the sidebar information "about community":

Purpose of the group:

  • A list and explanation of Abbreviations commonly used: STED
  • This space is meant to be a resource center for meditators to ask questions relevant to EBT meditation and get answers from experienced practitioners. In a bigger forum like r/buddhism, you would be inundated by a confusing array of (often contradictory) answers from multiple traditions within Buddhism. Here we are focused on authentic EBT (early Buddhist teaching).
  • Help sort out and determine what 'authentic' EBT (early Buddhist teaching) is. Believe it or not, there are famous and popular teachers within EBT with erroneous interpretations of key doctrinal points, which has enormous ramifications on EBT meditation and Dharma practice. Obviously 'erroneous' can be relative and/or subjective. If you prefer 'erroneous' interpretations of EBT, this forum is not for you. But if you value truth, integrity, and are willing to abandon even cherished ideas and views when they contradict EBT and objective unbiased personal experience, then you're in the right place. Trusted sources of genuine EBT:
    • http://lucid24.org/index.html: complete collection of pali+english suttas mostly derived from suttacentral and B. Sujato's translations (but fixing his erroneous interpretation of jhāna related terms).
    • https://www.dhammatalks.org/: Sutta translations from B. Thanissaro, and all his essays, books on Dhamma, and his audio Dhamma talks.
  • Discussion of physical exercises that augment and complement practice of EBT meditation, even if the exercise is not of EBT origin. Such as: ☸🦍☯ Qigong Gorilla