Skip to main content

pali primer for people with skin in the game: lesson 1

The main problem with most pali primers is they're boring, complicated, and they make you (short term) memorize a bunch of spiritually useless pali vocabulary that you have no interest in learning at the moment, in order to complete the boring pali grammar exercises in the lesson.

So here's my primer, which takes a totally different and pragmatic approach. This is for people with skin in the game.  You are fully invested in the Buddha, have total conviction in the Dharma, and this is a way of life and not an academic exercise or merely an interesting hobby. 

That being the case, there are important vocabulary words you'll need to learn and commit to memory.

You'll learn like kids learning languages naturally. By listening, memorizing what you hear, repeating it many times, thinking about it, and intuiting the grammar rules and conjugations from actively using it.

You won't regret memorizing any words in my pali primer.

Lesson #1. Memorize these short suttas and recite them every day at least once. As you recite each pali word, use V&V (vitakka and vicara, thinking and evaluation). 

Vitakka thinks about the quick superficial meaning of the pali word you're reciting, and knows (sampajano, lucid discerning)  to the extent you've accurately recalled from your memory (sati) that word you're reciting is accurate, not uncertain. 

Vicara thinks about the meaning of that word (or phrase) a little more deeply (cara, vi-cara means to explore, wander).

The Dhamma is to be learned and applied. People with skin in the game need to prioritize. You might die tomorrow. So getting the teaching, the meaning, and applying it, and committing it to memory (so if you die you can remember it in your next life) is of primary importance. The nitpicky grammar rules you'll be able to intuit and learn as needed. The vocabulary and meaning is the important part to get first.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Advice to younger meditators on jhāna, sex, porn, masturbation

Someone asked: Is porn considered harmful sexual.activity? I don't have a sex life because I don't have a partner and I don't wish to engage in casual sex so I use porn to quench the biological urge to orgasm. I can't see that's it's harmful because nobody is being forced into it. The actors are all paid well and claim to enjoy it etc. The only harm I can see is that it's so accessible these days on smart devices and so children may access it but I believe that this is the parents responsibility to not allow unsupervised use of devices etc. Views? Frankk response: In another thread, you asked about pleasant sensations and jhāna.  I'm guessing you're young, so here's some important advice you won't get from suttas   if you're serious about jhāna.  (since monastics are already celibate by rule)   If you want to attain stable and higher jhānas,   celibacy and noble silence to the best of your ability are the feedstock and prerequiste to tha
Post a Comment
Read more

SN 48.40 Ven. Thanissaro comments on Ven. Sunyo's analysis

This was Ven. Sunyo's analysis of SN 48.40: https://notesonthedhamma.blogspot.com/2024/05/exciting-news-honest-ebt-scholars-like.html And here is Ven. Thanissaro's response to that analysis: I think there’s a better way to tackle the issue of SN 48:40 than by appealing to the oldest layers of commentarial literature. That way is to point out that SN 48:40, as we have it, doesn’t pass the test in DN 16 for determining what’s genuine Dhamma and what’s not. There the standard is, not the authority of the person who’s claiming to report the Buddha’s teachings, but whether the teachings he’s reporting are actually in accordance with the principles of the Dhamma that you know. So the simple fact that those who have passed the Buddha’s teachings down to us say that a particular passage is what the Buddha actually taught is not sufficient grounds for accepting it. In the case of the jhānas—the point at issue here— we have to take as our guide the standard formula for the jhānas, a
Post a Comment
Read more

1min. video: Dalai Lama kissing boy and asking him to suck his tongue

To give more context, this is a public event,  * everyone knows cameras are rolling  *  it's a room full of children * the boy's mom is standing off camera a few feet away watching all of this * the boy initiated contact, he had already had a hug with Dalai Lama earlier and then asked Dalai Lama for another hug which triggered this segment  17 min. video showing what happened before that 1 min. clip and after, with some explanation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT0qey5Ts78 16min talk from Ajahn Acalo with his thoughts on Dalai Lama kissing boy, relevance to Bhikkhu monastic code, sexual predators in religion in general, and how celibate monastics deal with sexual energy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK2m0TcUib0 The child's comments about the incident in a filmed interview later https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/world-news/2023/04/18/643eba5d46163ffc078b457c.html The child: It's a great experience It was amazing to meet His Holiness and I think it's a great ex
Post a Comment
Read more