Search found 5 matches

by quincy_edgar_despres
Thu Oct 14, 2010 3:03 am
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Dorm Room?
Replies: 8
Views: 2658

Re: Dorm Room?

It is pretty important to do meditation in a relatively undistracting environment. I first started meditation in my dorm at college, but we had individual bedrooms. I can imagine it being v. hard if you have to share. Like the others above offered, try to start a meditation club, and your college wi...
by quincy_edgar_despres
Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:45 am
Forum: Ordination and Monastic Life
Topic: Ordination in Thailand
Replies: 86
Views: 213806

Re: Ordination in Thailand

This relevant to Thailand forest monks... http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/january-15-2010/forest-monks/5472/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Powerful multinational interests are murdering the monastics and often illegally destroying the forests in Thailand...
by quincy_edgar_despres
Tue Jan 26, 2010 12:20 am
Forum: Samatha Bhāvana
Topic: 4 factors in the first jhana or 5?
Replies: 12
Views: 6257

Re: 4 factors in the first jhana or 5?

A couple of more points too... The 1 month - 2 month timetable seems pretty common. Shankman in his Buddhist Geeks interview said that he was able to attain absorption after 5 weeks on retreat. Personal experience here, I didn't achieve stable jhana, but after a bit more than a month of dedicated me...
by quincy_edgar_despres
Sun Jan 24, 2010 2:03 am
Forum: Samatha Bhāvana
Topic: 4 factors in the first jhana or 5?
Replies: 12
Views: 6257

Re: 4 factors in the first jhana or 5?

The jhanas have both 4 and 5 factors actually. In the original suttas they were described as having 4, but in the Abhidamma as 5. Why is this? Leigh Brasington hypothesizes in an interview in the book Samadhi with Richard Shankman. I'll copy the relevant statements under fair use. "The definiti...
by quincy_edgar_despres
Fri Jan 22, 2010 3:20 am
Forum: Samatha Bhāvana
Topic: Thoughts occuring in Jhana?
Replies: 12
Views: 5059

Re: Thoughts occuring in Jhana?

Hi, There are atleast two schools on what the jhana factors mean in practice, one stemming from the suttas and the other from the Visuddhimagga. Ajahn Brahm is coming from a Visuddhimagga perspective which emphasizes single absorption with the object above anything else. The sutta jhanas can be unde...