Search found 10623 matches

by Sam Vara
Thu Oct 07, 2021 8:21 am
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Theravada sleep practices
Replies: 11
Views: 1054

Re: Theravada sleep practices

It's not easy to sleep only 4 hours per day. Listening to Ajahn Brahm's meditation retreat advice, it's better to make sure you don't have sleep debt first, sleep off your sleep debt. As your meditation improves, you'll find that gradually, you don't need as much sleep, and can gradually replace sl...
by Sam Vara
Thu Oct 07, 2021 8:15 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Is anatta the highest attainment?
Replies: 94
Views: 3712

Re: Is anatta the highest attainment?

The Buddha's response to Vacchagotta is not, so far as I know, used to "justify that there is no self to begin with". The converse is commonly held, though, which is that the Buddha's teaching on there being no self is used to explain his reply to the confused Vacchagotta. The Buddha's po...
by Sam Vara
Wed Oct 06, 2021 9:24 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Is anatta the highest attainment?
Replies: 94
Views: 3712

Re: Is anatta the highest attainment?

You might be equating coherence of ideas with proliferation of ideas. In causality, things are.... Thanks for cutting down on the papañca, it's appreciated. But unfortunately this first bit counts as such, so will be ignored. If the above is true, then how do you explain this The Buddha's response ...
by Sam Vara
Wed Oct 06, 2021 6:26 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Is anatta the highest attainment?
Replies: 94
Views: 3712

Re: Is anatta the highest attainment?

[It makes no difference to what I said previously. Whatever it means, there is nothing for us to identify with the self in whatever we might encounter. If everything a person experiences can never be a self then for that person there is no self, and to talk of something that they can never ever eve...
by Sam Vara
Wed Oct 06, 2021 6:20 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Is anatta the highest attainment?
Replies: 94
Views: 3712

Re: Is anatta the highest attainment?

Your mistake might be overlooking context and overlooking how role playing turns into emphasis. No, my mistake was, as I said, addressing the proliferation you offered, rather than the question in the OP. We've been through teachers and disciples, schools, role-playing, a "negating tool of the...
by Sam Vara
Wed Oct 06, 2021 2:17 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Is anatta the highest attainment?
Replies: 94
Views: 3712

Re: Is anatta the highest attainment?

I'm not sure I understand what you mean here. Self and not-self are (however either term is conceived) two different things. Self and No-self are both extremes…..based on ignorance. There are drawbacks as one thinks and bounds oneself around that wrong view, wrongly grasping…..not knowing of the es...
by Sam Vara
Wed Oct 06, 2021 2:15 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Is anatta the highest attainment?
Replies: 94
Views: 3712

Re: Is anatta the highest attainment?

This sounds like a portentous parody of meaningless academic writing. This is what "role-playing" is in plain English: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/role-play I do not think so. The definition in the link you provided proves my point. You seem to have judgmental vie...
by Sam Vara
Wed Oct 06, 2021 12:52 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Is anatta the highest attainment?
Replies: 94
Views: 3712

Re: Is anatta the highest attainment?

Nearly everything in the Nikayas is "in the context of teacher and disciples", and I don't know of a single instance of role-playing. Role-playing is pretending to be something we are not, and although this referred to in the case of a few impostor monks like Susīma, it has nothing to do ...
by Sam Vara
Wed Oct 06, 2021 6:15 am
Forum: Sīla
Topic: I have lain with harlots
Replies: 29
Views: 1847

Re: I have lain with harlots

I agree with SarathW, and would also add that you might find it helpful to mentally rephrase the first part of your question. If you are not being ironic, that is. If you genuinely regret your past actions, then try to think of those who participated in them as similar to you. People who made mistak...
by Sam Vara
Tue Oct 05, 2021 11:49 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Is anatta the highest attainment?
Replies: 94
Views: 3712

Re: Is anatta the highest attainment?

The frequent depiction is in the context of teacher and disciples (role playing), which affects emphasis. Nearly everything in the Nikayas is "in the context of teacher and disciples", and I don't know of a single instance of role-playing. Role-playing is pretending to be something we are...
by Sam Vara
Tue Oct 05, 2021 10:22 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Is anatta the highest attainment?
Replies: 94
Views: 3712

Re: Is anatta the highest attainment?

I think the point Ven was trying to make by referring in his note to DO is that not-self is accidental rather than central If he was trying to make that point, it is at odds with what the Buddha taught, in that the Buddha frequently is depicted requesting that followers deliberately address not-sel...
by Sam Vara
Tue Oct 05, 2021 9:28 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Is anatta the highest attainment?
Replies: 94
Views: 3712

Re: Is anatta the highest attainment?

…..but knowing that there has never been a self to begin with. The suttas support the above view: When one perceives not-self one reaches the removal of the conceit 'I am,' which is called Nibbana here and now. 2 different things. Self : an extreme. Not-self : middle way between extremes. Solution ...
by Sam Vara
Tue Oct 05, 2021 9:25 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Is anatta the highest attainment?
Replies: 94
Views: 3712

Re: Is anatta the highest attainment?

The suttas support the above view: When one perceives not-self one reaches the removal of the conceit 'I am,' which is called Nibbana here and now. https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/ud/ud.4.01.irel.html Blissful is passionlessness in the world, The overcoming of sensual desires; But the a...
by Sam Vara
Tue Oct 05, 2021 9:05 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Monastries with right training?
Replies: 14
Views: 831

Re: Monastries with right training?

I want help in understanding my meditation practice and guidance that how to deal with obstacles, am I doing the correct method? I am not sure what I am doing is correct. I simply focus on the place where the breath meets the nose, that's it. but I dont know if this is the 'correct place' or how to...
by Sam Vara
Tue Oct 05, 2021 8:44 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: Is anatta the highest attainment?
Replies: 94
Views: 3712

Re: Is anatta the highest attainment?

Friends, It is common, not uncommon that anatta is believed to be the highest attainment in the Buddha's teachings. It gets the most amount of emphasis in discussions and usually equated with awakening, or at least the beginning of radical change. On the other hand, delusion is equated with self vi...