notes on the Dhamma

internal 4👑☸  →  EBpedia📚  →  ni-j-jhāna :    external Jhāna = meditation, nij-jhāna also = meditation, not "gazing". Jane Austen and Mr. Darcy agree. dhammawheel: what do these prefixes for jhāna mean? Jhāyanti pajjhāyanti nijjhāyanti apajjhāyanti other translations jhāyati  pa-j-jhāyati  ni-j-jhāyati  a-pa-j-jhāyati; “We are meditators, we are meditators!” and with shoulders drooping, heads down and all limp,  bodhi: they meditate,  premeditate,  out-meditate,  and mismeditate. sujato: And they meditate  and concentrate  and contemplate  and ruminate.  frank: they meditate,  overachieve in meditation,  out-meditate,  underachieve in meditation,  they do jhāna,  overachieve in doing jhāna,  out-jhāna,  underachieve in doing jhāna, 

internal   4👑☸  →  6ab        4♾️🏠   external Been there, done that: Not about past lives, but past memories that lead to nibbida  been there, done that: evaṃ-nāmo evaṃ-gotto, evaṃ-vaṇṇo evam-āhāro... Humorous story of living in van with best friend vipassana teacher, insightful conclusion: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/20/magazine/van-life-dwelling.html?smid=em-share

  4👑☸  →  EBpedia📚  →  ni-j-jhāna   In some contexts, such as these: DN 1 upanijjhāyantā, gazing at each other DN 24 same as DN 1, ‘gazing at each other’ DN 27 upanijjhāyati, men and women gazing at each other AN 7.50 breach of celibacy, “gazing upon” cakkhuṃ upanijjhāyati pekkhati KN Snp 3.12 upanijjhāyitaṁ obsessive focus gazing upon Translators have wrongly translated nij-jhāna there as 'gazing'.  It's much more than "gazing". It's a persistent, obsessive, jhānic and meditative focus with strong intent and complex contemplation.  Just as when a bank robber is "casing a joint", he's walking into a bank he intends to rob, studying the layout and planning out how to execute the robbery. The robber is not just "gazing" at the bank.  He's "meditating" (nij-jhāna)  on how to rob it.  He's meditatively-gazing, he's jhānically observing, he's intensely focused with his gaze. That's how nij-jhāna is used in tho...

 While doing a google search for a different topic, I came across this conversation I had with Sujato in 2016 on jhāna. https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/samadhi-is-both-a-gathering-and-a-fire/3552/16 I save a PDF copy of that thread for posterity here in case the link above fails:  https://archive.org/details/sc-forum-samadhi-is-both-a-gathering-and-a-fire since the SC forum has a history of banning users who are (politely and within forum guidelines) critical of Sujato's interpretations.  Around message #20, he claims AN 3.100 is a 'one off', an unusual situation.  Sujato claims the Buddha was remarkably consistent in equating samādhi and jhāna almost everywhere else. Sujato doesn't cite passages and show how those passages support Sujato's idea of "jhāna". Basically he just uses the argument by (his own) authority fallacy. Usually, he's good about providing evidence when asked, but in cases where his position is unsupportable, and the issue is im...

Sujato also translates 'pema' as 'love, in his AN 4.200.  https://suttacentral.net/an4.200/en/sujato?layout=sidebyside&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin This brings up another fatal flaw with Sujato's 'love'. According to AN 4.200, when one is in the four jhānas, one has abandoned 'love' (pema), and the negative emotions that can be triggered by 'love'. Yet, according to the Buddha, one can do four jhānas simultaneously with metta (Sujato's 'love') and the 4 brahmaviharas. So going by Sujato's translation, you have incoherence and contradiction. One should be able to emanate 'love' in all four directions, yet AN 4.200 says when in the four jhānas, 'love' has been abandoned. So the translation of both 'metta' and 'pema' as 'love' simply does not work. It's wrong.  

  Re: B.sujato translates 'metta' as 'love'. It's objectively and definitely wrong. Post by frank k » Mon Apr 18, 2022 11:19 am Bhikkhu Pesala wrote: ↑ Fri Jul 05, 2019 10:02 am  [frank's blog] reminds me of this passage from the Mahāsi Sayādaw's discourse on the Vammika Sutta. Although it is on the topic of metta, it is lacking in good-will. Translation is not an exact science, but an art. ... frank's response: How is it lacking in good will? There is a clear intention to bring public awareness to a wrong translation. That's good will motivated by a desire for public safety and civic responsibility to self-police each other. You could rightly criticize me for showing anger at Sujato's irresponsible and harmful translation, but that's a separate issue that has nothing to do with the merit of my argument. This is a huge problem most people have, with cognitive dissonance. They see something they don't like, ...

Back when I was first reading SN (samyutta nikaya) in print edition book form, the Bhikkhu Bodhi translation, it was really difficult. Why? Reading along something like 20-50 pages a day, I could never tell where the heck I was. Because each sutta title had a bunch of different reference numbers, some  in parenthesis, to represent different numbering systems for SN. You couldn't easily tell what level of nesting you were in, and as you went through different chapters and read redundant suttas (or just barely changed from a similar sutta in the same chapter, or even from other chapters hundreds of  pages earlier), you really got lost.  One of my goals in making lucid24.org was to have simple,  intuitive sutta navigation, clear reference numbers in the titles, and always knowing exactly where you are. If you are a power user, someone who looks up suttas frequently using the modern numbering system, then you're going to really appreciate and love the new improvements. I...

internal 4👑☸  →  EBpedia📚  →   nimitta external A primer on how Nimittas (signs) work in samādhi and four jhānas: Lesson 1 - Jack and Jill Assaji's notes:  🔗 Pali terms  ->   nimitta

 Sujato's translation of taṇhā-vicaritani as "currents of craving" isn't wrong exactly, but it loses the connection between how contact between 6 internal senses contacting 6 external objects, leading to sensations, perceptions, craving, thinking, and self identififcation.  There's a precise way in the EBT (early buddhism) suttas of how that selfing process happens, and it's related to the Dhamma vitakka thoughts and evaluation (vicāra) that happens in first jhāna, versus the thoughts and evaluation of non Dhamma wrong thinking that leads to selfing and suffering.  So while  Sujato's translation of taṇhā-vicaritani as "currents of craving" isn't wrong exactly, it obfuscates that first jhāna and satipaṭṭhāna thinking and evaluation process (vitakka and vicāra). AN 4.199: Taṇhāsutta—Bhikkhu Sujato (suttacentral.net) Numbered Discourses 4 Aṅguttara   Nikāya   4 20. The Great Chapter 20.   Mahāvagga 199. Craving, the Weaver 199.   Taṇhāsutta   Va...

In EBT (early buddhism), there's a strange idiom of "following signs", "picking up on a sign", "paying attention to a sign". There are some reasons for this, but it occurred to me today that even in plain English we use the same idea.    Lesson 1 - Jack and Jill Jack and Jill were in high school. They liked each other and wanted to communicate that, but both were shy, and both lacked the life experience to get the message across.  This was a time in history where girls were not permitted to make the first move, so the pressure was on Jack to establish the knowledge of liking. Jack tried, but failed. Why? He didn't follow the right nimittas (signs). He didn't pay attention to the right nimittas, he followed the wrong nimittas. What were the right signs?  When Jack approached Jill to chat, she was smiling, friendly in greeting, and the body language was clearly engaged and interested in the conversation. That's at least 3 good nimittas right ...

New entry added to collection in  4👑☸  →  STED  :  HOL 🍂  : Handful Of Leaves Principle KN Ud 5.5: Ocean has one taste, Dharma has one taste Seyyathāpi, bhikkhave, mahāsamuddo ekaraso loṇaraso; The ocean has just one taste, the taste of salt. evamevaṁ kho, bhikkhave, ayaṁ dhammavinayo ekaraso vimuttiraso. In the same way, this Dharma and training has one taste, the taste of freedom.  

  STED  Right Remembering (Eng.) ( SN 45.8 )  "Monks, what is right remembering [of  ☸Dharma ]?" 1. He meditates continuously seeing the body as a body [as it actually is]. 2. He meditates continuously seeing sensations as sensations [as they actually are]. 3. He meditates continuously seeing the mind as a mind [as it actually is]. 4. He meditates continuously seeing  ☸Dharma  as  ☸Dharma  [as it actually is, the only way to  nirvana ]. [In all four modes of right remembering of  ☸Dharma ], * He is ardent 🏹, he has lucid discerning 👁, he remembers 🐘 [to apply relevant  ☸Dharma ], * vanquishing worldly avarice and distressed mental states. "This, monks, is called right remembering [of  ☸Dharma ]." The anu-passana, literally, 'continuous, repeatedly seeing', is an important point. I don't think I've seen anyone else translate it explicitly,  like I've done above.  The impression you get from reading their translations,...

  Almost every translation I've ever seen for Sati-'paṭṭhāna ("mindfulness meditation"), they render "passa" metaphorically as "contemplation." 'Passati' is literally 'seeing', like one 'sees things with the eye'. There's no reason to treat the reader like a dummy who needs to have the metaphor explained to them.  It's ok to be literal here. That metaphor of literal 'seeing with the eyes' as 'intellectual and direct understanding' or 'contemplating' something which doesn't require literally 'seeing' with the physical eye, is a timeless metaphor well understood in every religion. In fact it's all over the suttas. Right view, knowledge and vision, knowing and seeing, are all metaphorical in the same way as 'passati' (in Sati-'paṭṭhāna).  If you think the reader doesn't get the metaphor for 'seeing', then you'd need to help them out in all of those othe...

https://suttacentral.net/sn47.1/en/bodhi?reference=none&highlight=false “Here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu dwells contemplating the body in the body, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having removed covetousness and displeasure in regard to the world.  He dwells contemplating feelings in feelings, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having removed covetousness and displeasure in regard to the world.  He dwells contemplating mind in mind, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having removed covetousness and displeasure in regard to the world.  He dwells contemplating phenomena in phenomena, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having removed covetousness and displeasure in regard to the world. Is this contemplating mind in the mind, or body in the body, or the mind inside the 'body of mind'? Conclusion The four satipaṭṭhāna formula, commonly known as "mindfulness", is one of the most important, basic, core practices in early Buddhism.  It was ...