Hey guys, My SAT test is right around the corner and I am feeling pretty stressed out about it. Do you guys have any dhamma related ways of dealing with this? From a worldly perspective just the cliché of study hard and try your best. In terms of the Dhamma, the unpleasant mental state (domanassa) ...

While this may work for you this is not really a standard or normative path for a lay follower at all. Why "not really... normative"? The Mahāvacchagottasutta (MN73) speaks of both kāmabhogī householders and brahmacarī householders, and states that in both camps ariyasāvakas can be counte...

Unless there is a clear understanding of the danger of sensuality, there is no development of samadhi. There is no arguing AN 9.41, where it is explicitly stated that it takes time to cultivate-the-danger-in-sensuality, and develop-the-benefits-of-renunciation, both of which are required for jhana....

The substance here is kaya. Does it mean that the earth, fire.. are not kaya(aggregates?)? Sorry I don't understand the question? Is fire, cold.. an aggregate? and is the kaya, in that sutta quote, referring to aggregates? i tagged you since you might have a comment. They are aggregates, which have...

auto wrote: ↑Sat Apr 13, 2024 3:44 pm
The substance here is kaya. Does it mean that the earth, fire.. are not kaya(aggregates?)?

Sorry I don't understand the question?

There really isn't fire, true, but it sure exist when conditions are present. There is colour and heat but no fire can be found, to give a simplified reply from a CT POV. There is vipassana nana, where you only see the dissolving. Bhanga ñana - Knowledge of the dissolution of formations, only the &...

I really like Rhys Davids' explanatory footnote to the correct answer to the question asked by Sāriputta: the idea that "All beings are sustained by food". (Especially as it refers to a Dhp verse that I am currently stuying via Zoom with some friends.) Well, yes, as RD makes clear, there ...

Ok, chariot is made of different parts in a certain way. Likewise, when aggregates are in a certain way there is a being. Curious then why some here say they can't find the self? you can find the chariot, sit an ride on it.. The point is that there really isn't a chariot. The same for an atta. Its ...

I'd have to disagree with all of this 28. So in many hundred suttas it is only mentality-materiality that is illustrated, not a being, not a person. Therefore, just as when the component parts such as axles, wheels, frame poles, etc., are arranged in a certain way, there comes to be the mere term o...

I really like Rhys Davids' explanatory footnote to the correct answer to the question asked by Sāriputta: the idea that "All beings are sustained by food". (Especially as it refers to a Dhp verse that I am currently stuying via Zoom with some friends.) Well, yes, as RD makes clear, there ...

confusedlayman wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2024 6:38 pm how do you observe the breath without controlling?

You breathe automatically. Just notice it, and continue to notice it. Around the nostrils helps.

Is it true that in meditation we cannot make any body movements? Why is this detail fundamentally important? When you meditate, do you try to keep your body completely still? Can you do this easily or do you have difficulty? How long is possible to go without any body movement? Keeping the body com...

‘there are no things’ ‘There is no self’ might be declarations from people who want to put a label in their thoughts like for example the label ‘Theravada’. But those concepts don’t help anybody and they have not been teached by the Velnerable One. Instead you can read in the suttas about those ext...

Relevantly, whether they say so or not, anyone who thinks that the Tathāgata ultimately doesn't exist inevitably holds to the position that "After death a Tathāgata does not exist." Note that the view isn't "After death a Tathāgata ceases to exist," and thus the "there neve...

Hello all, I have a pali question. In Satipatthana suttas it says " Idha bhikkhave bhikkhu kāye kāyānupassī [alex: and other 3] viharati ātāpī sampajāno satimā vineyya loke abhijjhādomanassaṃ [/u]" Does " vineyya loke abhijjhādomanassaṃ " refer to what happens prior to kāye kāyā...