notes on the Dhamma

An interesting topic of discussion from Dhammawheel https://dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=34084&p=510229#p510306 SN 8.7 http://lucid24.org/sn/sn08/sn08-v01/toc-addon/index.html “No ce kira me, bhante, bhagavā kiñci garahati kāyikaṃ vā vācasikaṃ vā. “Since it seems I have done nothing worthy of the Blessed One’s criticism, Imesaṃ pana, bhante, bhagavā pañcannaṃ bhikkhusatānaṃ na kiñci garahati kāyikaṃ vā vācasikaṃ vā”ti. is there anything these five hundred monks have done by way of body or speech that you would criticize?” “Imesampi khvāhaṃ, sāriputta, pañcannaṃ bhikkhusatānaṃ na kiñci garahāmi kāyikaṃ vā vācasikaṃ vā. “There is nothing, Sāriputta, that these five hundred monks have done by way of body or speech that I would criticize. Imesañhi, sāriputta, pañcannaṃ bhikkhusatānaṃ saṭṭhi bhikkhū tevijjā, saṭṭhi bhikkhū chaḷabhiññā , saṭṭhi bhikkhū ubhatobhāgavimuttā, atha itare paññāvimuttā”ti. For of these five hundred monks, sixty have the three kn...

4👑☸  →  ☯🦍  →  ⚔️🛡️  →  🐱🐮 flying cat cow       One of those is cat pose, the other is cow, I'm not sure which is which. video clips of basic cat/cow movement https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PcC6DO3s7do2lfWHrjXYlzHdgOxZR5zK The basic 🐱🐮 cat/cow principles * too much tension: The way I see most people do it, there's too much tension and force getting into the pose. * from my point of view, the basic cat cow, the way most people do it, is they move from one stiff tense posture, into another stiff tense posture, using force. If you watch a cat or tiger do the move, their bodies are much more loose, like a bag of water being stretched and reshaped, rather than a ball of stiff clay that needs great force to put into the posture. * so the first big tip to get the most out of this move, don't try to muscle your way into maximizing the curvature of the spine to match the pictures of what flexible people are doi...

Here is a post with some pictures of good and bad full lotus postures.  ("Bad" leading to back/knee pain if held too long) (warning for monks: pictures of women in skimpy yoga attire in sitting posture) (warning for nuns: pictures of topless male yogis) https://dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=34147&p=509653#p509594 In a good lotus posture: * your legs and knees contact the ground. * your back is straight * everything, your whole body and mind,  is relaxed like soft tofu In a really good lotus posture,  that you can do really long sits for 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours... * your hips, knees, everything is soft and relaxed, as relaxed as you're sitting in a chair or any sitting posture * your spine is loose, soft, relaxed, like it's floating in a sack of ultra soft tofu, or even soy milk. * your knees and legs contact the ground in FL, whether you sit with left leg on top of right leg,  or right leg on top of left. * your hips are loose eno...

In contrast to the zabuton problem (see  sitting posture: better off without zabuton, the p... ) , which decreases the desirable 90deg, if you're lacking in flexibility you want to go the other direction to relieve work and strain on core and lower back, which is to increase the angle from 90. #1 the best, the simplest, cheapest, and most versatile way to accomplish this is sitting on a folded blanket. You can control the height and dimensions easily. #2.: a yoga wedge, a 10$ piece of equipment works really well.  The improvement it offers over #1, is that it smoothes out, reduces and nearly elimnates the pressure points excerted on your legs,  created in the transition point between blanket and floor.  I bought 3 different brand wedges from walmart.com, have tried it out for about a month now. I don't need a wedge if I'm warmed up, spine is loose, legs and hips are soft and loose, but on cold days, or if I'm doing a really long sit and my spine starts to get...

draft: Zafu - Wikipedia: A  zafu  is a seat stuffed with the fluffy, soft, downy fibres of the disintegrating reedmace seed heads. ... In western terms, colloquially speaking,  zafu  refers to a meditation cushion, and zabuton refers to the cushioned mat upon which a  zafu  is placed. zabuton is a bad idea If you sit full lotus, you don't even need a zabuton,  because you almost have all padded muscle and fat pushing the ground. All you need is some insulating material if the ground is cold.  The problem with zabutons is they tend to be too soft and cushy.  Here's an example so you understand the problem. Try to sit your normal cross legged posture on a soft mattress bed. Compared to sitting on the flat ground, it's very uncomfortable after a while. Why? Because the soft cushioning takes away the support that would otherwise maintain a 90 degree angle between your back and legs, compared to ground sitting. The softer the ma...

numerology of 31 * 31 is a centered triangular number,[4] the lowest prime centered pentagonal number[5] and a centered decagonal number.[6] * No integer added up to its base 10 digits results in 31, making 31 a self number.[7] * Pradjapati created the universe by articulating the odd numbers from 1 to 31, according to the Vajasaneya Samhita - white Yajur. * The number of days in the months January, March, May, July, August, October and December * The number of flavors of Baskin-Robbins ice cream; the shops are called 31 Ice Cream in Japan Happy A-subha day! (February 14th) frankk Feb '18 Asubha isn’t just for Feb. 14th though. If you’re serious about your practice, it’s all asubha, all the time. On this directory, you’ll find a nice PDF file of 32 body parts in pali, and 16 languages, with pictures. Also a video of the same file with pali chanting of the 32 body parts, pronunciation sounds correct to me. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1F1jAFUCQtTBagqt1CrnV...