notes on the Dhamma

Not going to get into boring and complicated declension tables yet, but here's a nice example where you can see a close relationship in the root between the noun and the verb version of that noun, from Vism. breath meditation chapter: ♦ yathā pana kassako  kasiṃ kasitvā   balībadde muñcitvā gocaramukhe katvā chāyāya nisinno vissameyya, A typical english translation of those 3 highlighted words, would be something like,  "The farmer ploughed his field." But looking at the pali words, you see they seem very similar, as if they have a very close relationship.  They do! Here's a more literal translation. 213.Suppose a ploughman,  some-ploughing  having-been-ploughed     sent his oxen free to graze and sat down to rest in the shade,  Kasati [ kṛṣ or kar ṣ ] to till, to plough Kassaka [ fr. kasati ] a husbandman, cultivator, peasant, farmer, ploughman kasi : ploughed; tilled. (aor. of kasati ) kasitvā : having ploughed. (abs. of kasati ) The po...

This is one small example of the long compound words that you run into reading in romanized pali: (from Vism. breath meditation chapter) ānāpānassatikammaṭṭhānaṃ garukaṃ garukabhāvanaṃ  buddhapaccekabuddhabuddhaputtānaṃ mahāpurisānaṃyeva manasikārabhūmibhūtaṃ Looks like random letter nonsense doesn't it? Fortunately for you, in much of my translations I go through hyphenating and de-compounding those monstrosities. idaṃ pana ānā-pāna-s-sati-kamma-ṭ-ṭhānaṃ garukaṃ garuka-bhāvanaṃ              but this inhale-exhale-remembrance-meditation-subject (is) difficult, difficult-(to)-develop       buddha-pacc-eka-buddha-buddha-puttānaṃ mahā-purisānaṃ-yeva manasi-kāra-bhūmi-bhūtaṃ,                (in which only) {the minds of} buddhas, pacc-eka buddhas, Buddha's sons, and great-people are at home. Some tips for pali students: eka = one: pacc-eka-buddha is a solitary (one) buddha  put...

This is an extremely important lesson.  Hardly anyone teaches this thoroughly and completely correctly, so pay very close attention. When you see the word 'sati' in the suttas, it means 'remembering' (or the more common translation of 'mindfulness'). In the famous Nike sneaker commercial, they had a popular slogan "just do it." You should be asking "what" is "it" I should do? The motif of their commercial campaign, is that one should stop making excuses, procrastinating, and 'just do' that important thing you've always wanted to do or need to do, like exercise or fight injustice. It's a great mantra, and really resonated for people. (Nike corporation's real message though, was to use the catchy idealistic mantra to make you,  "just buy our overpriced 200$ sneakers that were produced in China for 1$ by child slave laborers working 14 hours a day without pay so we can gorge ourselves on the multimillion dollar...

The important role of 'slurp' in memory retention and oral tradition Here are many 🔗 detailed examples  from the  EBT

difference between mudita (virtuous joy) pīti (rapture), and late Theravada mudita as brahmavihara Edit Delete Report Quote Post   by  frank k  »  Sun Jun 28, 2020 4:51 am (split from another topic) Dhammanando  wrote:  ↑ Fri Jun 26, 2020 11:21 am binocular  wrote:  ↑ Fri Jun 26, 2020 7:59 am Dhammanando  wrote:  ↑ Fri Jun 26, 2020 7:42 am The revered person needn't be a Buddhist teacher or even a Buddhist. The proximate cause of mettā is  sattānaṃ manāpabhāvadassanaṃ  the "beholding of what is endearing in beings", meaning whatever kusala qualities are noticeable in them. The point of beginning with a person one reveres is simply that their possession of such qualities will be more conspicuous than in others and so the arousing of mettā will be easier. To me, this seems more like sympathetic joy. It doesn't to me. Beholding the personal qualities that make a person endearing to others is a different thing from beholding the su...

KN Ps 1.3 Ānā-pāna-s-sati-kathā In KN Patisambhida magga, their gloss of 'pari mukha' , from the prelude to standard 16 step formula of 16aps breath meditation, is somewhat suggestive of focusing on a physical spatial location, but not absolutely clear (unlike Te Ab Vb 12). It's in the simile of the saw elsewhere in this chapter of KN Ps 1.3 that absolutely states that breath meditation is to be done watching the breath at the mouth & nose tip area, and the terms they use are "nimitta" and "mukha", but not 'pari mukha'.  Parimukhaṃ satiṃ upaṭṭhapetvāti. “Parimukhaṃ satiṃ upaṭṭhapetvā” – Parīti pariggahaṭṭho. “Parī” in the sense of taking up (holding or grasping). Mukhanti niyyānaṭṭho. Satīti upaṭṭhānaṭṭho. Tena vuccati – ‘‘parimukhaṃ satiṃ upaṭṭhapetvā’’ti. “Mukha” in the sense of ‘the way out’ (entrance). “Sati” in the sense of establishing. Therefore it is said, “parimukhaṃ satiṃ upaṭṭhapetvā”. Te Ab Vb 12 Jhāna What's strange about Abh...

' dhamm a' is a really important word, and how you treat it has many important implications to how you understand EBT, Buddhism, and Dharma. First part of this lesson, I'll just present a few passages using the word dhamm a, and let you read and think about it for a while, and chew over your own opinion on whether ' dhamm a' should be translated according to each passage context into "teaching of buddha", "phenomena", "qualities", "things", "mental qualities", 'natural law', 'principle'. AN 4.34 I had based my translation off of B. Thanissaro's, and had not gone back to un-translate 'dhamma' everywhere there.  KN Dhp 1: ♦ 1. ♦ mano-pubbaṅgamā dhamm ā, Mind-precedes (all) dharmas. mano-seṭṭhā mano-mayā. Mind-(is their)-chief; (they are all) mind-made. ♦ manasā ce pa-duṭṭhena, (the) mind, if, with-impurity, bhāsati vā karoti vā. speaks or acts **, ♦ tato naṃ dukkham-anveti, then *** sufferin...