notes on the Dhamma

  from on old forum post of mine in April 2018 I found my “Buddho”, on singular hill I use to think Ajahn Mun and his disciples teaching “Buddho” mantra was a very questionable practice, not in accordance with EBT. It also bore some disturbing similarities to Pure Land Buddhism, if one becomes attached to a mantra without understanding what it’s used for and why. In the EBT at least, it turns out Ajahn Mun is justified. You can use a “Buddho” mantra as an entry into samadhi, following the 7sb formula, if you do it this way. AN 6.10 6 recollections (buddha, dhamma, sangha…) leads to samadhi and Dhamma stream entry AN 6, 1. paṭhamapaṇṇāsakaṃ, 1. āhuneyyavaggo, 10. mahānāmasuttaṃ (AN 6.10), para. 2 ⇒ “yo so, mahānāma, ariyasāvako āgataphalo viññātasāsano, so iminā vihārena bahulaṃ viharati. idha, mahānāma, ariyasāvako tathāgataṃ anussarati — ‘itipi so bhagavā arahaṃ sammāsambuddho vijjācaraṇasampanno sugato lokavidū anuttaro purisadammasārathi satthā devamanussānaṃ buddho bhagavā’ti. ...

  Great new move to help with jhana constipation and people with lower back, middle back pain. I do this move in the morning as part of my 15-20 min. sleeping bag yoga routine (done lying down inside a sleeping back). But I also will do it many times throughout the day in between sitting meditation session. For example, rather than doing a straight 3 hour sit, usually I'll break it up it up into 45 min or 60 min portions with 5-10 of stretching and mobility exercises in between. What this new move replaces, is just vanilla updog and cobra, or updog and cobra with some twisting. Finally the light bulb went off recently and I decided to explore, how much movement can I add into these limited static poses? New variation: 🏃👨‍🍳🦎🐍 shake and bake lizard snake, perfect for sleeping bag yoga New ideas added to 'yogi hacks' section of website to help you save time doing necessary chores Another great yogi hack: Two minute shower, very little soap (or no soap). Living in cold wea...

  Two minute shower, very little soap. My current showering routine: 1.  I get the shower warmed up to a comfortable temperature, not too hot, which dries out the skins also vaporizes impurities in the water which you then breathe in. 2. I just run my hands over every part of the body, rinse everything off, and if I've been out in nature, go a little more slowly and just feel and make sure there are no ticks or any bites.  3. I use a little soap on just armpits, groin area. Soap dries out skin, removes the good bacteria and natural body oils that are part of a healthy biome ecosystem.  4. I dry off with a towel the usual way, wiping. I just read an article that suggested patting down the towel to absorb water instead of wiping, so you don't swipe away the good body oils off your body.  One to two minutes total. So total operation, maybe about 5-6 minutes, since I wear many layers of clothing, taking them on and off takes most the time. Doing some more research o...

 I wish someone taught me this when I was young, I could have saved lots of money, and not suffered from being cold most of the time. If you learn how to dress in layers with the right materials, even if it's freezing temperature outside, with icy wind chill, but the sun is out, you'll be as warm as if you were on the beach in hawaii. I eat a lacto ovo vegetarian diet, more veganish most of the time, so I wear more layers than most people would. Upper body: 1. cotton t-shirt 2. cotton dress shirt (cotton is most breathable material) 3. if really cold, another long sleeve cotton t shirt 4. important part here: wool stretchy sweater snug fitting body. that keeps the heat in. if you have baggy layers, cold air gets inside and you start losing body heat. 5. jacket #1, usually a cotton polyester blend hoodie 6. jacket #2, a thicker jacket, some kind of blend. If I use a down jacket, then it's quite warm and I have to get rid of most of the layers. make sure to use a scarf or ...

  https://www.reddit.com/r/theravada/comments/l51tto/how_was_ancient_woodturning_done_useful_for/ How was ancient wood-turning done? Useful for understanding the simile of the wood-turner in the Maha-satipatthana sutta. In the section on anapana (breathing meditation) in the maha-satipatthana sutta, there is this simile (to represent the way in which one knows the inhale and the exhale in breathing meditation) Just as a clever wood turner, or a wood turner’s apprentice, when he makes a long pull [on the lathe], he knows clearly ‘I make a long pull.’ It's hard to understand this properly without knowing how wood-turning worked in India at that time. And I think it is worth trying to understand well, because the Buddha does not give a simile for no reason. After a little research, I found that woodturning at that time was done in much the same way as it still is, in North Africa and parts of India and Asia, using a hand-powered bow-lathe. Here is a video of one wood-turner in Morocco...

B. Sujato writes in the essay: https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/the-counterfeit-of-the-true-teaching/18622 excerpt: The revelation of how Matty Weingast’s original poetry has been published and marketed by Shambhala as a translation of the Therigatha 17 begs the question: well, what’s the problem? Is this actually an issue? After all, lots of people publish lots of things all the time and no-one really cares. Let’s hear what the Buddha had to say on the matter. In SN 16.13, Mahākassapa asks why there are now more training rules but fewer enlightened beings.  ... Also worth reading (regarding same book scandal) https://lokanta.github.io/2021/01/21/curious-case/

  2021 justice 30 yrs later, nun murdered who witnessed priest and nun sex She was murdered for catching an Indian priest and nun in a sex act. Three decades later, justice is served https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/23/asia/sister-abhaya-murder-intl-dst-hnk/index.html   excerpt (ending): "I just wish my parents could have been here to see it happen," (see justice) said Thomas, Sister Abhaya's brother. "That's all they ever wanted." Thomas said he "can rest in peace" and move on with his life, now that the case is finally over. However, he said he still struggles to reconcile his sister's love for the church with the horror of what happened that night -- and the fact that those who purported to share her faith were the ones who "took her away." notes of interest (frankk comments) Especially inspiring is the activist hero Jomon Puthenpurackal who took up the case and stu...

  Dealing with chi belly Hi all. During the TMI sitting and walking meditation or contrast showers, my belly lives it’s own life – expanding as I am pregnant, compressing and pulsing, etc. It happens only during meditation and does not feel like physical bloating, gases, or visceral fat. Mantak Chia and few other schools teach it Any tips on how to pass this stage? So far I have tried doing more horse stance, focusing on the soles or do the entire body breathing, circular rubbing and imagining chi ball in lower dantien shrinking, however, it is still massive but fades slowly after a few hours P.S. Meditation sessions range from level 3 to 7 with plenty of twitches, purification, and occasional jhana glimpses lucid24-frankk just now You don't have to do anything special about it, it's natural for that to happen. Whenever you're deeply relaxed and the mind is calm, very little thoughts, forces and heat will accumulate in the body and try to pervade everywhere, every cell. All...

 In a private email to me, the volunteer who did this proof reading job wrote: A good dictionary and a pristine Pali is what should have been done by all of us a long time ago! It's like: Now we can begin. Took me six months almost to the day working from about 3:00 AM to about 4:00 PM every day. (with breaks, of course). Sadhu, sadhu. Many thanks for this meritorious contribution! Using a rough estimate of 8 hrs a day proofreading for 6 months, that about 1500 hours of labor! Reprinting his announcement from his blog: Oblog: [O.1.12.21] Tuesday, January 12, 2021 4:50 AM Digital Pali Text Society's Pali English Dictionary upgrade update. The .html version is now available. The Upgrade version of the .htm edition of the PTS PED: ped.htm almost 6MB! ped.zip 2.2MB The Upgrade version of the .txt edition of the PTS PED: ped.utf8.txt 5.5MB! ped.utf8.zip 2.2MB Zipped text file in unicode utf-8 with PC line endings. This wor...

Ajahn Mun Bio, account of conversation with Buddhas excerpt from p.172 Venerable Ãcariya Mun Bhýridatta Thera: A Spiritual Biography by Ãcariya Mahã Boowa Ñãõasampanno.   http://www.forestdhamma.org/ebooks/english/pdf/Acariya_Mun__A_Spiritual_Biography.pdf On the nights subsequent to Ãcariya Mun’s attainment of vimutti, a number of Buddhas, accompanied by their Arahant disciples, came to congratulate him on his vimuttidhamma. One night, a certain Buddha, accompanied by tens of thousands of Arahant disciples, came to visit; the next night, he was visited by another Buddha who was accompanied by hundreds of thousands of Arahant disciples. Each night a different Buddha came to express his appreciation, accompanied by a different number of Arahant disciples. Ãcariya Mun stated that the number of accompanying Arahant disciples varied according to each Buddha’s relative accumulation of merit – a factor that differed from one Buddha to the next. Many critics cite that passa...

  I've never seen what my Deva friends look like, but from time to time I will get very brief terse message that sound like a voice in my head, or a thought in my head that I know didn't come from me.  But most of the time, the communication comes in my dreams, in a form of a riddle (similar to  MN 23 )  or a vague hint. Over the years I've had too many to keep count of, and I didn't write any of them down.  Some I figure out quickly, some take weeks and months, and others I never reach a solution, or write off as possibly a random dream.  Much like the Vammika sutta (MN 23), my deva friends probably are spiritual companions from previous lives and avid meditators. In the beginning when I thought, "I wish you guys would just be explicit and clear in your messages instead of giving me vague hints and riddles to solve." But after awhile I realized what they're doing is brilliant, and really the best way to teach. It also gives them plausible deniability in c...

  (16aps gloss step 4 – 🌊🏃pacify bodily co-activities & breath (san khara) (long and short inhales and exhales are bodily-co-activities (kaya-sankhara)) Kathaṃ ‘‘passambhayaṃ kāya-saṅkhāraṃ assasissāmī’’ti sikkhati, How does he train as, “I will breathe in pacifying the bodily-co-activity”. ‘‘passambhayaṃ kāya-saṅkhāraṃ passasissāmī’’ti sikkhati? How does he train as, “I will breathe out pacifying the bodily-co-activity”. Katamo kāya-saṅkhāro? What is bodily-co-activity? Dīghaṃ assāsā kāyikā. The long in-breaths are bodily. Ete dhammā kāya-paṭibaddhā kāya-saṅkhārā. These dharma [phenomena] that are bound to the body are bodily-co-activity. Te kāya-saṅkhāre passambhento nirodhento vūpasamento sikkhati. He trains, (by) pacifying, ceasing, tranquillizing those bodily-co-activities. Dīghaṃ passāsā kāyikā. The long in-breaths are bodily. Ete dhammā kāya-paṭibaddhā kāya-saṅkhārā. These dharma [phenomena] that are bound to the body are bodily-co-activities. Te kāya-saṅkhāre passambh...

  Vimt. Corrections sound is a thorn in first jhana, relation to arupa and alara kalama 500 carts 2021-January. Correction by Dr. William Chu comment: The translator (Soma Thera) fails to take into account that literary Chinese is often highly abbreviated, and contextual lacuna have to be filled. On a related note, I believe that the classical jhanic scheme (including the one found in Vimuttimagga) is still slightly distinct from the very early suttas, which really defines jhanas broadly. An example would be that, there are archaic traces in the early suttas that maintain that even speech is possible while in jhanas. Whereas in the classical (mature and stabilized) scheme, speech is ceased in first jhana. Also, in the oldest materials, the cessation of bodily sankharas in fourth jhana doesn't seem to denote the cessation of breath (the latter interpretation is found in the MN). vimt. 8th chapter, after 4th jhana where it starts talking about base of infinite space 以斷故。 "As for...

  Re: "Gata" translated as "Immersed" Edit Delete Report Quote Post   by  frank k  »  Wed Jan 20, 2021 9:44 am Kumara  wrote:  ↑ Tue Jan 19, 2021 12:14 am In  http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/study/bodymind.html I see Aj Thanissaro translating Kayagata-sati as "Mindfulness Immersed in the Body" Seems like a stretch to me to translate "gata" as "immersed". What do you think? What alternatives do you propose Bhante? I'm using AT's 'immersed' for now, but I'll change to something else if we think it's problematic. I'm ok with Assaji's proposed 'body-related' sati, but I'm not seeing what's so bad about 'immersed'. What exactly is the problem, what misunderstanding are people going to have that negatively impacts their understanding of kayagatasati? I think kayagatasati, like marana-sati, anapana-sati, and just sati, are all already commonly misunderstood. And the reason is because t...