Search found 5837 matches

by SDC
Wed Mar 06, 2024 11:58 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: How to deal with cowardice and anxiety?
Replies: 7
Views: 191

Re: How to deal with cowardice and anxiety?

Virtue.
Diligence.
Kindness.
Self-honesty.

Not for the praise/acknowledgement of others, but for the benefit for all, including yourself - because YOU value the lifestyle they can help shape.
by SDC
Wed Mar 06, 2024 12:43 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The relationship between kamma and sankharas
Replies: 12
Views: 260

Re: The relationship between kamma and sankharas

But note that it says that speaking or acting with ill intent has negative consequences. Does the Pali Canon also say as much of thinking? I mean, I know that it does in at least a sort of indirect way, but I'm wondering if having come to a negative conclusion about reality is understood as having ...
by SDC
Tue Mar 05, 2024 8:56 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The relationship between kamma and sankharas
Replies: 12
Views: 260

Re: The relationship between kamma and sankharas

For example, if I have an intensely negative experience and then conclude "I always fail" while in an intense negative state of mind, is there a textual basis in the Pali Canon for the idea that this can almost have a kind of psychokinesis-type effect that will bring negative circumstance...
by SDC
Wed Feb 28, 2024 2:32 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Practices around Dependant Origination
Replies: 56
Views: 1951

Re: Practices around Dependant Origination

But I do think it's quite clear that the development of virtue, tranquillity, and wisdom reinforce each other and develop differently for different people. For example, there are very explicit statements about different orderings of the development of samatha and vipassana in AN3.31, AN4.194, AN4.1...
by SDC
Tue Feb 27, 2024 11:59 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Practices around Dependant Origination
Replies: 56
Views: 1951

Re: Practices around Dependant Origination

I'm currently working in an ancient tradition which uses mindfulness of breathing for lay people, with an emphasis on jhanas. Everything seems to be fine... Well, I’m not sure you should be considering your lifestyle ordinary, because if you’re making effort to not be devoted to sensuality the aspi...
by SDC
Tue Feb 27, 2024 9:45 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Practices around Dependant Origination
Replies: 56
Views: 1951

Re: Practices around Dependant Origination

Can’t speak for Joe, but the virtue and sense restraint, but more to the point, the lifestyle, cannot be overstated. Too many contemporary notions of meditation point to available benefits on account of mental striving alone, and that is really misleading. A person developed in virtue and restraint...
by SDC
Tue Feb 27, 2024 9:44 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Practices around Dependant Origination
Replies: 56
Views: 1951

Re: Practices around Dependant Origination

And experienced teachers have advised enough people to know that different people develop in different ways. That there are different development trajectories is quite clear in the suttas. Going to have to politely disagree with you here. There are certainly some notable exceptions in the suttas, b...
by SDC
Tue Feb 27, 2024 8:27 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Practices around Dependant Origination
Replies: 56
Views: 1951

Re: Practices around Dependant Origination

Can’t speak for Joe, but the virtue and sense restraint, but more to the point, the lifestyle, cannot be overstated. Too many contemporary notions of meditation point to available benefits on account of mental striving alone, and that is really misleading. Yes, there are all kinds of feel-good idea...
by SDC
Tue Feb 27, 2024 4:35 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Practices around Dependant Origination
Replies: 56
Views: 1951

Re: Practices around Dependant Origination

To Joe’s overly dramatic point, a person with mind that is not inclined towards wholesome, familiar with wholesome, appreciative of wholesome (wholesome in the sense that it is not inclined away from sensuality and cruelty), meditation can end up being nothing more than the next practice employed t...
by SDC
Tue Feb 27, 2024 3:05 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Practices around Dependant Origination
Replies: 56
Views: 1951

Re: Practices around Dependant Origination

We don't even know how this person life in his real environment. Without someone to fall to, it is a suicidal act and only harming his life to ask meditate right away. Meditating on the meaning of the aggregates, dependent origination etc is a suicidal act? I take you don't meditate? To Joe’s overl...
by SDC
Mon Feb 26, 2024 1:34 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Identity View
Replies: 5
Views: 362

Re: Identity View

It seems to me that identity view arises right when craving takes place. Why/How is it that with the arising of craving, identity view arises? Are you asking about attavādupādāna ? Clinging to self-view? It isn’t so much that craving “takes place” as much as there is a perpetual liability to every ...
by SDC
Thu Feb 22, 2024 2:37 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Sheaves of reeds
Replies: 115
Views: 3146

Re: Sheaves of reeds

Consciousness may be a lost in translation Since it persists forever Yet it alters… Why is it consciousness that leans against name and form, not name and form that leans against each other? I think it is important to note that the simile applies to any level of the PS description, not just name-an...
by SDC
Sat Feb 17, 2024 1:52 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Which disagreements on practice and doctrine are actually aDhammic?
Replies: 41
Views: 1682

Re: Which disagreements on practice and doctrine are actually aDhammic?

Again, I'm not sure how this is implied from what I said. In other places I have described how (in small ways in my case..) virtue can become the obvious choice, due to being aware of the downside ("danger") of the actions and the advantages of not avoiding them. That’s the early part of ...
by SDC
Fri Feb 16, 2024 6:48 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Which disagreements on practice and doctrine are actually aDhammic?
Replies: 41
Views: 1682

Re: Which disagreements on practice and doctrine are actually aDhammic?

Coincidentally, I just made a post in the topic from which this one spun, which I believe is related to this, and may help bridge the gaps between "comportment" and "modes of viewing" (anupassī). It tries to show how a practice detailed in the Suttas consistutes a "mode of ...
by SDC
Fri Feb 16, 2024 1:11 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Which disagreements on practice and doctrine are actually aDhammic?
Replies: 41
Views: 1682

Re: Which disagreements on practice and doctrine are actually aDhammic?

If I'm understanding you correctly, you are saying that one needs to look deeply into the motivation and the interpretation of Dhamma rather than the surface appearance of the practice. When it comes to discernment, the only intention that matters is the one behind one’s own action of body, speech ...