notes on the Dhamma

Kāma usually means sensuality or lust. But occasionally in the suttas, it's used in a neutral or positive context, such as an extreme desire/determination to do some skillful activity. In this sutta, SN 12.63, it's a neutral or ordinary context of everyone's 'love' of life and fear of death. But because B. Sujato translates 'metta' as 'love', and he actually overuses 'love' in translating many other pali words besides 'metta', for some reason in this sutta, where 'love' is actually the perfect word to translate 'kāma', he decides to under translate it as 'want'. Similar to how 'dislike' is not really the appropriate way to describe 'hate'. B. Sujato's  🤦 translation of 'kāma' as 'want'  https://suttacentral.net/sn12.63/en/sujato Kathañca, bhikkhave, manosañcetanāhāro daṭṭhabbo? And how should you regard mental intention as fuel? Seyyathāpi, bhikkhave, aṅgāra...

(from a thread on Dhammawheel) Re: What is Pajanati? Edit Delete post Report this post Quote Post   by  frank k  »  Tue Apr 28, 2020 4:13 am Ven. Dhammanando, (and anyone else), Can you think of any EBT suttas that support the Vism. interpretation below on the difference between vinnana/consciousness and sanna/perception? I can't. What the EBT says, is that 6 consciousness is the rawest form of sensory data. Perception adds labels and ideas from memory built on top of the raw sensory data of conciousness. So in the Vism. analogy differentiating the child (perception), villager (concsiouness), in EBT terms, they would both be perceptions. The child has a less sophisticated model, and the villager a more complex one, but they are still just perceptions. consciousness would be raw sensory of the data through 6 sense doors (color, shape, sound it makes, what it smells like). Dhammanando  wrote:  ↑ Wed Apr 15, 2020 11:05 pm Sam Vara  wrote:...

https://dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=36930 (Ven. Dhamma nando responds):  Some of the ten Tathāgata powers are exclusive to Buddhas, while others can be attained (albeit to a lesser degree) by the more adept disciples. (Ven. Dhamma nando responds): The Paṭisambhidāmagga is the go-to text for the systematic treatment of this subject. Its mātikā lists a total of seventy-three kinds of understanding (including the Tathāgata powers) and states that the first sixty-seven are held in common with disciples and the last six are not: Knowledge Shared by Disciples (ñāṇāni sāvakasādhāraṇāni) 1. sotāvadhāne paññā sutamaye ñāṇaṃ Understanding of applying the ear is knowledge of what consists in the heard (learnt). 2. sutvāna saṃvare paññā sīlamaye ñāṇaṃ Understanding of restraint after hearing (learning) is knowledge of what consists in virtue. 3. saṃvaritvā samādahane paññā samādhibhāvanāmaye ñāṇaṃ Understanding of concentrating after restraining is knowledg...

Not everyone is going to experience obvious outward involuntary body shaking in their meditation when they do jhāna properly. But you should be feeling forces inside the body, causing vibrations where energy channels are not fully open. If you're not feeling strong forces, and flow of energy such as heat, electricity, water flow, or air expansion, or gooey magnetic forces, then it's because you're jhana battery is not charged. (See other jhana constipation articles for more detail). For lay people who aren't celibate and don't keep 8 precepts, your batteries are never going to get charged. You're going to be like the Seinfeld gang here having their normal shower heads replaced with low flow, low water pressure shower heads. Watch the first 60 seconds of this video, note their hair before the low flow heads are installed, and after. For yogis who maintain brahmacariya (celibacy) purely, not even having lustful thoughts, and staying in noble silence (2nd...

Pranic movements or kriyas http://www.thekundaliniyoga.org/kundalini/Symptoms_of_Awakening.aspx Pranic movements or kriyas Prana is Sanskrit word for vital energy - life-sustaining force of living beings. Pranic movements are intense energy movements of prana throughout the body that helps clear our physiological blocks.     Throbbing of mooladhar Chakra begins (at the base of spine)     Energy rushes or immense electricity circulating the body     Seeker may experience intense involuntary, jerking movements of the body, including shaking, vibrations, spasm and contraction.     The whole body shakes, involuntary kumbhak (filling in of the lungs with air) starts beyond control, breath is forcibly exhaled out.     Deep inhaling and exhaling of breath starts and the body gets uncontrollable.     Intense heat or cold.     Involuntary bodily movements (occur more often during meditation or resting periods):...

Well, not exactly analogies. Since wave interference patterns happen with physical particles, electromagnetic waves, and bio electric qi flowing through energy meridians in a jhāna meditator, it's more than an analogy. Here are some examples: 1. Water bottle necked With the bottle on the left, the volume of the water trying to exit the bottle neck, is greater than the volume of the small bottle neck. The excess water volume bounces back, and thus the water drains slowly. With the the bottle on the right, he shakes it so it forms a tornado of spiraling water flow, so the volume of the water trying to exit matches the volume of the bottleneck a lot more closely, so you don't get much water bouncing back and it makes a much quicker exit. Now imagine the two bottles are jhana meditators. The one on the left, would experience bodily shaking or trembling. The one on the right, would feel vibrations in his body, but not shaking. Now if continues to practice meditation correctly,...

In the EBT suttas, this is the only place I can recall involuntary body shaking being mentioned. SN 54.7  Kappina: no shaking or trembling in body (or mind). shift to APSS terminology from just APS. Showing that 16 steps of APSS (breath meditation) can not be limited to satipatthana category, but is also samadhi. What was the solution to the problem? Doing lots of breath meditation cured it eventually.  Note that breath meditation can be done in any posture, especially while walking and sitting, and in this frequently occurring stock passage, you can see the monk from SN 54.7 was probably meditating 10 hours a day, and obviously celibate. Just my guess, the ordained monastic reasonably young and in reasonably good health, probably cured most of the grosser involuntary body shaking within 3 years. But remember it's a continuum, not an off/on switch. Where the movements may be attenuated where it's not visibly shaking on the outside, you can always feel the force of jhana c...

(article is work in progress) Why would yogis who prefer solitude and isolation need social media? What appears at first to be a paradoxical question has a very straightforward motivation. It's a rare person in the world who is willing to devote their life to spiritual practice. They don't need or have any desire for social media to engage in the mundane and inane, spiritually useless discourse. Just as fire can destroy or be extraordinarily useful, social media for a yogi can actually be a very useful tool, if one has the discipline and spiritual maturity to use it wisely.  Technology allows us to reach rare individuals who are normally unreachable. To access, share great ideas on practice, and get hints and tips without having to traverse the world looking for  awakened yogis dwelling in isolated mountain caves. Yogis who are experienced and have something of value to share, we should keep a journal of our best ideas. Lessons that came through the school of hard knoc...

Which Sutta(s) talk about this, hopefully in more detail than I can remember? The subject is karmic consequence, and the law is surprisingly not intuitive. In comparing two types of actions: 1) Not knowing that an action is evil, one commits an evil action. 2) Knowing that an action is evil, one commits an evil action. What is not intuitive about that law, is you would think if one had wholesome and skillful intentions, before committing an action which is actually evil, that one is less culpable for the negative karmic consequence, in comparison to someone who knowingly commits and evil action even knowing fully well that the action is evil. Which sutta(s) talk about this? I don't remember if I'm stating the general form of the law quite correctly, what concrete examples were given in the sutta(s). Answer in nutshell:  KN Miln III,7,8 [84], simile of hot iron ball burning. AN 6.63: Intention, monks, is what I call action. KN Dhammapada 5.69: So long as ...