Frankk response:

The gophers are just a simile I made up.

Let me spell it out in detail.

The Buddha planted a delicious, nutritious vegetable garden, meant for all humans.

The syndicate of rogue gophers, dug deep holes all over the Buddha's garden.

They stole all of the vegetables, dragged them down into their dark holes, ate and processed the vegetables and baked 'brownies'.

Then the syndicate of rogue gophers peddled the brownies and sold them to humans, and advertised those brownies as 'the Buddha's vegetables' to the humans.

True, the brownies they baked are derived from and contain the Buddha's original vegetables, but they have additives, a very different flavor, and not the same nutritional profile and benefit as the vegetables from the Buddha's garden.

Most gardeners in modern times just trust the gophers and believe what they say.

A few gardeners who studied the gophers carefully realized what was going on.

So they set up some humane traps to catch and release all the gophers on the island of Alcatraz, after smoking them out.

The meaning of 'smoking them out', is exposing the gophers' activity with detailed audits, and educating the other humans that they too can restore their own vegetable gardens.

Whether those humans prefer vegetables or brownies, is up to them.

moral of the story

1. Gophers who peddle their brownies as the Buddha's vegetables lack honesty and integrity.

If you sell your brownies and advertise them as brownies inspired and derived from the Buddha's vegetables, then no problem.

Unfortunately history of religions has shown this hardly ever happens.

Whoever is popular and holds majority sway, their views, however distorted and corrupt, becomes "the authentic and true interpretation of the religion".

2. Humans should develop their critical thinking (and smelling) skills so they can differentiate brownies from vegetables.

Comments

Lucid24.org: What's new?

Link to lucid24.org home page : 4👑☸ Remember, you may have to click the refresh button on your web browser navigation bar at to get updated website. 2024 9-17 Lots of new stuff in the last 2 and a half years. Too many to list. Main one justifying new blog entry, is redesign of home page. Before, it was designed to please me, super dense with everything in one master control panel. I've redesigned it to be friendly to newbies and everyone really. Clear structure, more use of space. At someone's request, I added a lucid24.org google site search at top of home page. 2022 4-14 Major update to lucid24.org, easy navigation of suttas, quicklink: the ramifications 4-2 new feature lucid24.org sutta quick link 3-28 A new translation of SN 38.16, and first jhāna is a lot easier than you think 🔗📝notes related to Jhāna force and J.A.S.I. effect AN 9.36, MN 64, MN 111: How does Ajahn Brahm and Sujato's "Jhāna" work here? 3-13 Added to EBPedia J.A.S.I. ('Jazzy...

AN 9.36, MN 64, MN 111: How does Ajahn Brahm and Sujato's "Jhāna" work here?

What these 3 suttas have in common, AN 9.36, MN 64, MN 111, is the very interesting feature of explicitly describing doing vipassana, while one is in the jhāna and the first 3 formless attainments. LBT (late buddhist text) apologists, as well as Sujato, Brahm, claim that the suttas describe a jhāna where one enters a disembodied, frozen state, where vipassana is impossible until one emerges from that 'jhāna'. Since Sujato translated all the suttas, let's take a look at what he translated, and how it supports his interpretation of 'jhāna'. AN 9.36: Jhānasutta—Bhikkhu Sujato (suttacentral.net) ‘The first absorption is a basis for ending the defilements.’ ‘Paṭhamampāhaṁ, bhikkhave, jhānaṁ nissāya āsavānaṁ khayaṁ vadāmī’ti, iti kho panetaṁ vuttaṁ. That’s what I said, but why did I say it? Kiñcetaṁ paṭicca vuttaṁ? Take a mendicant who, q uite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskill...

Pāḷi and Sanskrit definition of Viveka

'Viveka', Sanskrit dictionary Primary meaning is ‘discrimination’. Other meanings: (1) true knowledge, (2) discretion, (3) right judgement, (4) the faculty of distinguishing and classifying things according to their real properties’. Wikipedia (sanskrit dictionary entry 'viveka') Viveka (Sanskrit: विवेक, romanized: viveka) is a Sanskrit and Pali term translated into English as discernment or discrimination.[1] According to Rao and Paranjpe, viveka can be explained more fully as: Sense of discrimination; wisdom; discrimination between the real and the unreal, between the self and the non-self, between the permanent and the impermanent; discriminative inquiry; right intuitive discrimination; ever present discrimination between the transient and the permanent.[2]: 348 The Vivekachudamani is an eighth-century Sanskrit poem in dialogue form that addresses the development of viveka. Within the Vedanta tradition, there is also a concept of vichara which is one t...

notes on the Dhamma

Search This Blog

Where are the gophers (cmy on DN 21, AN 10.72, etc.)? Simile explained.

DN 21, MA 134, DA 14: Smoking out the chinese gophers, hearing sound in 4 jhānas, two agama parallels to DN 21

AN 10.72 and KN Ud 3.3 smoking out the gophers, you can hear sounds in the four jhānas