Dhamma Wheel

http://thebahiyablog.blogspot.ca/2015/06/third-anniversary-issue-challenge.html" I just read his June 6 blog entry and I get the feeling that I'm reading the early beginnings of a cult. Not that I'm sure what Pannobhasa is trying to organize should be called a 'cult,' but I think that word as a pej...

Paññobhāsa is back in the United States after spending a year and a half in Myanmar, and is now looking to organize a group of 'serious' spiritual practitioners (whom he unfortunately calls 'Dharma Samurai--' a term liable to attract inflated egos.) http://thebahiyablog.blogspot.ca/2015/06/third-ann...

That is helpful. So, everyone who claims to be ariya can present their vision of the Buddha's teachings and and it should not be commented upon. Don't like this thread, don't read it. Not that it shouldn't be commented on, just that it really isn't worth the heated exchange that is currently going ...

I hope you all recall that the first schism was (supposedly) caused by disagreement over the fallibility of arahants. We all have an implicit understanding about the nature of arahantship. Some of us inform that understanding through a strict interpretation of suttas, while others will incorporate o...

Thanks tilt. Bought an anklet.

Here's a dialogue I had on another forum with a 'teacher' . The teachers' responses are full of crap. This is what I would say: You can only start from where you are, and quite frankly there is no way you cannot have a goal or an agenda in mind when trying to do the practice. Well said. Though, if ...

It sounds to me like you might be misreading Hakuin's story. First, he is not holding it up as a proper satori - he is extremely self-critical "pride, arrogance, smug." Secondly far from rejecting koans, he was one of the prime systematisers of the koan system. Nevertheless, I'd say that 'no birth ...

This is perhaps off-topic, but I've been thinking about this for the past few days and don't really want to start a new thread (or a blog): I'm reading this translation of Hakuin's ' Four Ways of Knowing.' In the introduction Hakuin's enlightenment experience is described thusly: He said that he “co...

Dogen’s famous passage from the Genjo-koan: "To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by shoho, all dharmas. To be enlightened by all dharmas is to remove the barrier between self and other." [/b] The first thing ...

[...] cutting food and boiling rice as enlightenment [...] In case of an arahat (with both personality-view and the conceit "I am" absent), yes. In any other case, no. So, you are saying that you cannot do these actions fully attentive, without being lost in a sense of self. That is sad. Perhaps th...

Time to build more Western monasteries.

Do we have "ancient seers" that we need to sneak in through the back door? Is it a matter of applying a film of Dhammic authority onto favored external philosophies/persons/utterances? The whole field blossoms with questions, in my case. The paccekabuddha category probably arose in response to a ne...

I wonder how necessary a belief in rebirth is to having a proper sense of samvega.. Dying once is unfortunate. Dying innumerable times in innumerable ways is horrific. The inalterable fact that one is going to suffer in myriad forms, regardless of how comfortable their life is now, is much more cond...

(5) “‘As long as they live the arahants abandon and abstain from liquor, wine, and intoxicants, the basis for heedlessness. Today, for this night and day, I too shall abandon and abstain from liquor, wine, and intoxicants, the basis for heedlessness. I shall imitate the arahants in this respect and...

Religions don't require your respect. If you can provide a good argument for taking action, then do so, confidently. Offend people, if necessary. Reason trumps dogma and shallow superstition.

I don't agree with your equating of jhana with drinking alcohol. The Buddha says that jhanic states are to be cultivated because they are part of the Path (right concentration). And he says worldly sensual pleasures, such as drinking alcohol, are "base, vulgar, common, ignoble, unprofitable" (SN 56...

I'll repost my thoughts from the other thread: A mystical practice, in my opinion, is that which evokes a sense of engagement with some mystery, which, when one is striving for enlightenment, is precisely the goal: as novices we've yet to capture the essence of enlightenment (as we don't know it int...

Drinking alcohol wouldn't disquality Socrates from being enlightened per se .. If everyone around him drank moderately, and he was simply engaged in the culture of the time, then his drinking means little. If he was overindulging in drink because he was craving sensual pleasure, or averse to sobrie...

Drinking alcohol wouldn't disquality Socrates from being enlightened per se .. If everyone around him drank moderately, and he was simply engaged in the culture of the time, then his drinking means little. If he was overindulging in drink because he was craving sensual pleasure, or averse to sobriet...

'What makes one a mystic?' is an interesting question which deserves discussion. I'm a little disappointed that the word is being thrown around as a pejorative, as if mysticism is foolish or childish. A mystical practice, in my opinion, is that which evokes a sense of engagement with some mystery , ...