Search found 3899 matches

by Alex123
Fri Nov 19, 2010 12:46 am
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta
Replies: 298
Views: 50056

Re: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta

Hi Retro, Tittha sutta rejects chalking everything just to past causes indiscriminately. But there are not just any kind of past causes. There are specific conditions that are happening now, and recently that can condition wholesome or unwholesome action. Good actions are due to wholesome causes, ba...
by Alex123
Fri Nov 19, 2010 12:25 am
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta
Replies: 298
Views: 50056

Re: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta

Hi Retro, Greetings, What happens now is not 100% due to past life, but also is due to what was happening in this life, what kind of teaching one has heard, the kind of friends one has, whether there is faith in Dhamma or faith in wrong teachings, etc. As predicted, you attempt to disassociate yours...
by Alex123
Thu Nov 18, 2010 11:51 pm
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta
Replies: 298
Views: 50056

Re: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta

And within that process, there is choice, and there is thinking, no chooser, no thinker, but each are part of the process, which means we are not dealing with a strict determinism, which means we are responsible for our actions, as the Buddha clearly said. What we are is what we made ourselves . So...
by Alex123
Thu Nov 18, 2010 11:38 pm
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta
Replies: 298
Views: 50056

Re: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta

Hi Retro, Tilt, all, Greetings Alex, AN 3.61 - Tittha Sutta http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an03/an03.061.than.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; " Having approached the priests & contemplatives who hold that... whatever a person experiences... is all c...
by Alex123
Thu Nov 18, 2010 3:48 pm
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta
Replies: 298
Views: 50056

Re: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta

Hello Tinhtan, (Tilt please read the bottom of this post where another question of yours is addressed) Thank you for joining in. Welcome to the Board. Hello Alex, IMO, choice, in practice is called manasikara (direct attention to, turn towards ,..) good (or skilfull) choice = yoniso manasikara bad (...
by Alex123
Thu Nov 18, 2010 3:40 pm
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta
Replies: 298
Views: 50056

Re: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta

”Conditions” does not mean there is not choice. As there is suffering but no sufferer, there is choice but no chooser. Choice is part of the process, not some thing a part from the process. If choice is part of the process, rather than something apart from the process, then the process decides the ...
by Alex123
Thu Nov 18, 2010 2:39 am
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta
Replies: 298
Views: 50056

Re: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta

Hi Induvidial, Alex, would you agree that omniscience and omnipotence are logically incompatible? Because: if you knew everything, you would not have the power of free-will, because you would already see all origins and results, and would have no foundation upon which to act freely. There may unacco...
by Alex123
Thu Nov 18, 2010 12:22 am
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta
Replies: 298
Views: 50056

Re: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta

Hi Bodom, There are these roots of trees, these rooms that are void: meditate, bhikkhus, do not delay lest you regret it later. This is our instruction to you." - MN 152 Why did the Buddha say this and what did he mean? :anjali: The line in MN152 Over there are the roots of trees; over there, e...
by Alex123
Thu Nov 18, 2010 12:04 am
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta
Replies: 298
Views: 50056

Re: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta

Hi Tilt, all, . The text is telling us, as Ven Nyanaponika makes clear, that actions, good and bad, not driven by the Dhamma will lead to suffering, but what you are totally missing is the opening of the sutta in question, which sets the basis for what follows. And this sutta does not stand alone in...
by Alex123
Wed Nov 17, 2010 11:50 pm
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta
Replies: 298
Views: 50056

Re: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta

And you were trying to do something the Buddha said you cannot do, or at least cannot do without altering significantly your conditioning and understanding the limitations. When a person does meditation as it is conventionally taught, typically what one does is trying to direct attention toward som...
by Alex123
Wed Nov 17, 2010 11:35 pm
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta
Replies: 298
Views: 50056

Re: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta

Hi Tilt, all, We can try Ven Nyanaponika, who was a bit more knowledgeable than you by factors of thousands: I didn't know that you can read other people's minds. 3. Volitional Thought Volitional thought here means chiefly kamma — i.e., rebirth-producing and life-affirming action — and the Buddha ha...
by Alex123
Wed Nov 17, 2010 11:24 pm
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta
Replies: 298
Views: 50056

Re: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta

So, in other words because you failed in your meditation, drew seriously faulty assumptions from that failure, you are now telling what the Buddha's teaching based upon that? The failure was in achieving very peaceful states and in controlling my intention toward the present moment. The good part i...
by Alex123
Wed Nov 17, 2010 11:21 pm
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta
Replies: 298
Views: 50056

Re: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta

Hello Tilt, isle21self, all, "And how is the nutriment of intellectual intention (manosañcetana) to be regarded? Suppose there were a pit of glowing embers, deeper than a man's height, full of embers that were neither flaming nor smoking, and a man were to come along — loving life, hating death...
by Alex123
Wed Nov 17, 2010 11:08 pm
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta
Replies: 298
Views: 50056

Re: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta

Aren't you wielding power over your fingers as you type to reply me? with metta It happened due to causes and conditions, and not through free will, or Self wielding power over anything. "I" had no choice. What will you type next? If you don't know, then how can you be certain that it was...
by Alex123
Wed Nov 17, 2010 4:03 pm
Forum: General Theravāda Meditation
Topic: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta
Replies: 298
Views: 50056

Re: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta

"And how is the nutriment of intellectual intention (manosañcetana) to be regarded? Suppose there were a pit of glowing embers, deeper than a man's height, full of embers that were neither flaming nor smoking, and a man were to come along — loving life, hating death, loving pleasure, abhorring...