notes on the Dhamma

  (sutta text link) ●  MN 23  -  🔗🔊  16m,  Vammika : Ant hill summary of the sutta: A deva gives a riddle to a monk: “Sir, what is the ant-hill? What is the fuming by night and flaming by day? Who is the brahmin, and who the sage? What are the sword, the digging, the bar, the bullfrog, the forked path, the box, the tortoise, the axe and block, and the piece of flesh? And what is the dragon (nāga)?” The Buddha answers the question for the monk later, and two major items of interest are the sword of noble wisdom/discernment (pañña), and  the dragon (nāga). ‘Satthan’ti kho, bhikkhu, ariyāyetaṃ paññāya adhivacanaṃ. ‘Sword’ is a term for noble wisdom. About the dragon, the Buddha said: ‘Nāgo’ti kho, bhikkhu, khīṇāsavassetaṃ bhikkhuno adhivacanaṃ. ‘Dragon’ is a term for a monk who has ended the defilements. Tiṭṭhatu nāgo, mā nāgaṃ ghaṭṭesi; namo karohi nāgassāti ayametassa attho”ti. (15) This is the meaning of: ‘Leave the dragon! Do not disturb the dragon!...

  This article is part of a series: 🔗📝 notes on passadhi (pacification) and force http://notesonthedhamma.blogspot.com/2021/10/notes-on-passadhi-pacification-and-force.html Wouldn't it be nice if jhana was so easy to ascertain as the health bar meters on a video game?  Do you have enough piti, enough sukha, enough ekaggata to qualify as jhana?  Is it too much piti, too much vitakka and vicara to disqualify you from first jhana?  Piti drops in in 3rd jhana, sukha drops out in 4th, so how do you really know if you're in 2nd, 3rd, 4th when there's a subtle sensation of pleasant comfort but it pervades every cell in your body? I'm going to let you in on a secret.  Use the force.  I'm playing with words referring to a popular modern mythical epic story, but what I'm referring to is as  tangible as a mosquito biting you, the difference in force sensation in your body between holding a 5lb weight, 4lb weight, etc. The force difference between wearing a wint...

Internal 4👑☸  →  EBpedia📚  →  nibbāna  🚫🔥 : nirvāṇa (sanskrit) Nirvana (english): see ☸4nt → §3. Dukkha-nirodhaṃ for detailed treatment.     1. awakening, enlightenment, realization of arahant, defilements destroyed, no longer subject to rebirth.     2. ordinary daily life usage: extinguishment of a fire, quenching of thirst, cooling. External notes B. Thanissaro gives nice concise definition of nibbāna Now, the Buddha says that nibbāna is something indescribable, but he will talk about it to some extent so that we’ll desire to go there. To begin with, he says that it exists. This is unlike the case of the arahant, where he refuses to answer the question as to whether the arahant exists as a being. In fact, his refusal there is so thorough that he rules out all the possible answers to the question: that the arahant exists, doesn’t exist, both exists and doesn’t exist, or neither exists nor doesn’t exist. That’s because beings are defined...

Internal notes External notes 🔗unleashing the hidden dragon Use the force to unleash the Dragon IMO, the key to the success of unleashing the hidden dragon, the naga of SN 46.1 and MN 23, is understanding the role of jhanic force and passaddhi in the 7sb formula, and feeding it constantly. http://notesonthedhamma.blogspot.com/2021/10/notes-on-passadhi-pacification-and-force.html MN 23 unleash the hidden dragon - there's a lot more to this sutta than the Buddha says 7 breaths to nourish the baby 👶dragon 🐉 Dhp 40, 42: warrior builds fortress, attacks Māra with sword of wisdom and gives no quarter Related Dhp: Warrior noble in shining armor ablaze with jhāna

https://lucid24.org/sted/4sp/4sp-suttas ... l#flink-15 Link there to EA 12.1 in Chinese + English, based on Analayo translation, the 4 jhanas section gone through with Dr. William Chu to correct some of Analayo's errors. Eventually, people will start catching on to the idea that 4 Jhānas ≈ 4 Satipaṭṭhāna https://lucid24.org/sted/8aam/8samadhi/ ... index.html It's not just in the other EBT schools. Within Theravada, you'll see the same idea play out in kayagata sutta MN 119, SN 47.4 most prominently, and MN 125 is explicit in equating the 4satipatthana with first jhana. Meaning you can do first jhana, and satipatthana in all 4 postures. http://notesonthedhamma.blogspot.com/20 ... uated.html One other big issue that people don't understand, due to LBT propaganda in redefining the 4 jhanas as a disembodied frozen stupor done as a pure samatha exercise with "5 jhana factors" that intentionally murder the vipassana factors of upekkha and sampajano, and redefine vit...

 internal notes •  You can 👂 hear sounds in the 4 jhānas. : Which samādhis are silent? external notes AN 10.72 real example of loudest thunder I've ever heard AN 2.58- AN 2.59 “These two, mendicants, are not startled by a crack of thunder. What two? A mendicant who has ended defilements; and a thoroughbred elephant. These are the two who are not startled by a crack of thunder.” https://suttacentral.net/an2.52-63/en/s ... ript=latin

  On what it means for sound to be thorn WHILE IN the 4 jhanas: https://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=41782&p=653417#p653417 BrokenBones  wrote:  ↑ Tue Nov 09, 2021 5:01 pm ... If I'm wearing a simple coat and someone prods me with a stick it's a 'thorn'. If I'm wearing a super thick coat and they prod me then I'm still aware of it going on but it no longer bothers me. Entering first jhana and the early stages of settling into it is the simple coat... becoming established in first jhana is the super thick coat. That's exactly how it is. If people were serious meditators and had personal experience, they would come to a fascinating discovery that the suttas mean what they say, in plain simple terms. I once was in Asia meditating in a group in the large meditation hall. A loud thunderstorm snuck up on us, where you never knew it came, no sound of rain, no visual of lightning, the first moment we knew of the storm, was the loudest thunder I...

  Re: Suppressing pain techniques Edit Delete Report Quote Post   by  frank k  »  Mon Nov 08, 2021 3:58 am Alīno  wrote:  ↑ Sun Jan 28, 2018 9:25 am ... Do you have any other techniques about dealing with the pain ? Or teachings about it ? Metta  compendium of the best exercises and stretches for sitting meditators for full lotus and any sitting posture https://lucid24.org/misc/qigor/eight-pi ... index.html Learn to meditate in all postures, switch between standing, chair sitting, and walking as needed to relieve pain. Sitting through pain in small doses (a few minutes) can be good for training mental toughness, but understand that you're doing damage to the body. I've seen the results of hundreds and thousands of burmese meditation mentality sitting meditators who push through pain and ignore it for long periods, and as a result sustain long term back, knee, leg damage. I've even experienced some of this myself. You push through sitting leg pain ...

  excerpt: https://lucid24.org/an/an09/an09-0037/t ... index.html AN 9.37 parallels, SA 557-559 SA 557 is listed on Suttacentral as a partial parallel to AN 9.37. When one compares the Pali AN 9.37 to SA 559, there seems to be a contradiction. Dr. Chu’s commentary clears up the seeming contradiction in detail, but the quick answer is, the Agama sutra is talking about a very specific Animitta Samādhi, while the Pali AN 9.37 is talking about a samādhi where the mind is divorced from 5 sense faculties. Commentary by Dr. Chu SA557-SA559 should be treated as a cluster of suttas on the same theme, i.e., that of animitta samadhi. This is not a controversial observation. It has been pointed out by a few Agama specialists, including Yinshun (see, for example, Kong zhi tanjiu (1985), p. 36). Also, in the Chinese Agamas, Ananda is most often the main interlocutor or expounder of animitta samadhi. And here, in all three suttas, Ananda was the protagonist. Animitta samadhi is a tricky matter, b...

Internal notes on lucid24.org Ariya‍  = noble. Can be referring to any of the 4 attainments of stream entry, once returner, or non-returner, or arahant.  🔗📝 . Ariya-savaka‍  = noble one's disciple. One who hears/learns the teachings of a noble one, but is not necessarily a noble one themself. a-sekha = see  Ariya‍  3 . an arahant who no longer needs training of a trainee (sekha), since they are not being liable to rebirth ( SN 48.53 ), and they have direct experience with  5ind🖐️  resulting in the culminat ion of that. External notes Iti 82 shows a newly ordained monk would already be a stream enterer 'ariya savaka', which is clearly wrong. 🔗📝 collection of notes on KN Iti 82 why isn't Sammā-sam-buddha-sāvako "a disciple who also happens to be a Buddha"? wouldn't you expect ariya-sāvaka by default, to be a disciple OF The Noble One(s) [The Buddha(s)] SN 55.40, SN 55.39 proof that ariya-savaka is a disciple of noble ones, not a 'noble disciple'...

Since first jhana is a subset of developed faculties,  and a trainee (sekha) with developed faculties is at least a stream enterer,  and most importantly, since we can see that developed faculties (and developed 'body' kaya see MN 36) have nothing to do with attaining a formless samadhi,  we could infer a conversation between the Buddha, Ajahn Brahm, and Buddhghosa (editor in chief of Visuddhimagga) might go something like this. (I modify MN 152 excerpt with a few name changes)   MN 152 (links to sutta)  MN 152 Indriya-bhāvanā (brahman Parasiri teaching of indriya ridiculed ) 1st type: unexcelled development of faculties 2nd type: trainee 3rd type: noble one with developed faculties conclusion MN 152 Indriya-bhāvanā MN 152 Indriya-bhāvanā-sutta MN 152 Indriyabhāvanā Sutta: The Development of the Faculties Evaṃ me sutaṃ— ekaṃ samayaṃ bhagavā gajaṅgalāyaṃ viharati suveḷuvane. I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying among the Kajjangalas in th...

Someone from Dhammawheel forum asked that question, I can't find the thread, and I doubt anyone answered it. This kind of question, the person who asked is a long time Theravadin AFAIK, just goes to show how much pernicious influence LBT Theravada and Abhidhamma has had in confusing the most basic and fundamental terms and concepts in core EBT Buddhism.  To summarize the answer in brief: 1. Yes, body is the physical anatomical body in the 1st satipatthana. 2. citta (the 3rd satipatthana) is mind. 3. Dhamma, is the ☸Dhamma-[teachings] that lead to nirvana as the primary meaning. The process of seeing Dhamma as Dhamma [as it truly is], would necessarily involve working with mental input data (dhamma), but that is not the primary intent of the 4th satipatthana. Remember that sati the simile of the gate keeper of the fortress, is a general skilled in battle and wise in knowing who is friend or foe, who to allow into the fortress. ☸Dhamma-[teachings] is like the general, 'dhamma...