New Book from Thanissaro Bhikkhu

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bodom
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New Book from Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Post by bodom »

On the Path: An Anthology on the Noble Eightfold Path drawn from the Pāli Canon, by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. This book aims to provide a well-rounded picture of the noble eightfold path for people who are interested in taking guidance from the earliest extant records of the Buddha’s teachings on how to reach the end of suffering and stress. The format is that of a discussion and analysis of each element of the path followed by pertinent sutta excerpts, similar to Wings to Awakening. The cross-references to the suttas are also hyperlinked to the new sutta pages on this site.
Can be read for free here:
http://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writ ... n0001.html

:namaste:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
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CedarTree
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Re: New Book from Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Post by CedarTree »

Great Bhikkhu can't wait for more from him!


Practice, Practice, Practice

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bodom
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Re: New Book from Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Post by bodom »

Yes I'm very excited to be receiving my copy in the mail in a few weeks. Having a look through the epub online version and the table of contents looks to be a very in depth study.
Table of contents
Title page 2
Quotation 3
Copyright 4
Acknowledgements 5
Introduction : The Fire Escape 6
How to read this book 12
I. A Framework for the Frame 14
Readings 31
The First Teaching 31
The Last Teaching 31
On the Word, “Path” 32
On the Word, “Noble” 41
On the Word, “Right” 42
On the Middle Way 45
II. The Arising of the Path 51
Readings 66
The Discovery of the Path 66
Supplementary Factors 75
The Path-factors & their Relationships 84
III. Right View 92
Mundane Right View 94
Transcendent Right View 102
Final Right View 113
This/That Conditionality 118
Readings 123
Mundane Right View 124
The Complexity of Kamma 130
From Mundane to Transcendent Right View 137
Giving
Virtue 141
Heaven 142
Drawbacks 144
Renunciation 153
Transcendent Right View 156
Perceptions for Inducing Dispassion for the Aggregates 161
Craving for Becoming & Non-becoming 176
Dependent Co-arising 180
Final Right View 188
On Not Confusing Levels of Right View 193
IV. Right Resolve 196
Readings 202
Mundane Right Resolve 202
From Mundane to Transcendent Right Resolve 219
Transcendent Right Resolve & Beyond 223
V. Right Speech & Right Action 225
Readings 234
Right Speech 234
Right Action 244
VI. Right Livelihood 251
Readings 255
Beyond Skillful Habits 272
VII. Right Effort 274
Readings 283
Desire Focused on Causes 283
Generating Desire 285
The Types of Effort 304
The Amount of Effort 309
Beyond Right Effort 317
VIII. Right Mindfulness 319
Readings 334
Ardency
Alertness 336
Mindfulness as a Focused Quality 336
Stages in the Practice 338
Body 345
Feelings 348
Mind 349
Dhammas 349
Conclusion 352
Guidance from Discernment 352
IX. Right Concentration 376
Readings 390
What is singleness? 392
What is sensuality? 393
Concentration & Insight 396
X. The Stream to Unbinding 417
Readings 424
The Stream 424
Right Knowledge, Right Release 429
Fruit 442
Glossary 454
Abbreviations 457
Further Readings
:namaste:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
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Pseudobabble
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Re: New Book from Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Post by Pseudobabble »

Interesting.

Is this a reply to Bhikkhu Bodhi in some way?
"Does Master Gotama have any position at all?"

"A 'position,' Vaccha, is something that a Tathagata has done away with. What a Tathagata sees is this: 'Such is form, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is perception...such are fabrications...such is consciousness, such its origination, such its disappearance.'" - Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta


'Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.' - Genesis 3:19

'Some fart freely, some try to hide and silence it. Which one is correct?' - Saegnapha
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bodom
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Re: New Book from Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Post by bodom »

Pseudobabble wrote:Interesting.

Is this a reply to Bhikkhu Bodhi in some way?
What would give you that idea?

:namaste:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
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Pseudobabble
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Re: New Book from Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Post by Pseudobabble »

bodom wrote:
Pseudobabble wrote:Interesting.

Is this a reply to Bhikkhu Bodhi in some way?
What would give you that idea?

:namaste:
I've seen an article by Bodhi and reply by Thanissaro disagreeing over whether wars/fighting is ever justified. Bhikkhu Bodhi has his 'In the Buddha's Words' and Eight Fold Path books - I was wondering if Thanissaro might be putting out his interpretation of the same this way.
"Does Master Gotama have any position at all?"

"A 'position,' Vaccha, is something that a Tathagata has done away with. What a Tathagata sees is this: 'Such is form, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is perception...such are fabrications...such is consciousness, such its origination, such its disappearance.'" - Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta


'Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.' - Genesis 3:19

'Some fart freely, some try to hide and silence it. Which one is correct?' - Saegnapha
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bodom
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Re: New Book from Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Post by bodom »

Pseudobabble wrote:
bodom wrote:
Pseudobabble wrote:Interesting.

Is this a reply to Bhikkhu Bodhi in some way?
What would give you that idea?

:namaste:
I've seen an article by Bodhi and reply by Thanissaro disagreeing over whether wars/fighting is ever justified. Bhikkhu Bodhi has his 'In the Buddha's Words' and Eight Fold Path books - I was wondering if Thanissaro might be putting out his interpretation of the same this way.
Ṭhānissaro is a prolific author on Buddhist studies and translations. I highly doubt this is his motivation for writing the book.

:namaste:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
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SDC
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Re: New Book from Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Post by SDC »

Pseudobabble wrote:Interesting.

Is this a reply to Bhikkhu Bodhi in some way?
I agree with bodom, but I would not doubt he is interested in having - dare I say - an alternative to the standard Ven. BB set with his "In the Buddha's Words". But to call it a "reply" is too strong. It has been too many years since Ven. B's anthology was published for that to make very much sense.
“Life is swept along, short is the life span; no shelters exist for one who has reached old age. Seeing clearly this danger in death, a seeker of peace should drop the world’s bait.” SN 1.3
JohnK
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Re: New Book from Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Post by JohnK »

I was just given a copy of this book at Wat Metta and liked the first page enough to copy from it here from the link provided in the OP (I did add some boldface).
The Buddha’s teachings are like the instructions posted on a hotel room door, telling you what to do when the hotel’s on fire:


Heed the fire alarm. This corresponds to the Buddha’s teachings on saṁvega, the sense that you’re enmeshed in a dangerous situation and want to find a way out.

Realize that your conduct will mean the difference between life and death. This corresponds to heedfulness, the attitude underlying all skillful behavior.

Read the map, posted on the door, for finding the closest fire escape. This corresponds to right view.

Make up your mind to follow the map. This corresponds to right resolve.

Don’t abuse any of the other people in the hotel as you try to make your escape. Don’t lie to them about the escape route, don’t claw your way over them, and don’t cheat them out of their belongings. This corresponds to right speech, right action, and right livelihood.

Do your best to follow the instructions on the map, and resist the temptation to stay in the comfort of your room or to wander down the wrong corridors. This corresponds to right effort.

Keep the map in mind at all times, and check your efforts to make sure that they’re in line with it. This corresponds to right mindfulness.

Keep calm and focused, so that your emotions don’t prevent you from being clearly aware of what you’re doing and what needs to be done. This corresponds to right concentration.

This analogy, of course, is far from perfect. After all, in the actual practice of the Buddha’s teachings, the fire is already constantly burning inside your own mind—in the form of the fires of passion, aversion, delusion, and suffering—and the escape from these fires lies, not in leaving your mind, but in going deeper into the mind to a dimension, nibbāna, where fire can’t reach...
Those who grasp at perceptions & views wander the internet creating friction. [based on Sn4:9,v.847]
JohnK
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Re: New Book from Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Post by JohnK »

Just read the chapter on Right View -(the inroductory parts not the suttas) -- it's a "tour de force."
Really too much to even say anything about except "read it."

Okay excerpts:
Final Right View
...the duties with regard to the path fall into two stages: First it must be developed—through passion—so as to provoke dispassion for other processes of becoming and then, when it has done its work, it must be abandoned through dispassion along with all other fabrications. The final level of right view represents the stage when the path has done its work and the duties of the four noble truths collapse into one: Everything is to be regarded with dispassion and let go.
The main advantage of a system containing many feedback loops such as those found in dependent co-arising is that it’s neither strictly deterministic nor totally chaotic. The forces governing the system can be pushed in many different directions to lead to many different outcomes. If the “push” is done with knowledge of the principles underlying the system, it can lead the system to produce the desired results. This is why right view plays such an important role in the path, for it constitutes the knowledge that allows you to push the system of dependent co-arising in the right direction, away from causing suffering and toward suffering’s end.
The behavior of complex non-linear systems, in addition to showing how the fabrications that lead to suffering can be changed to fabrications that lead to the end of suffering, also helps to explain a central feature of the Buddha’s teachings on suffering and its end: the fact that he provides so many different explanations of how suffering is originated, and so many different lists of the factors leading to its cessation.
Just as the causes of suffering act in a mutually reinforcing way, so do the factors leading to its end. For people caught at different points in the various feedback loops of dependent co-arising, it’s good to have a variety of entry points and lines of attack for dealing strategically with the causes of suffering and turning the processes of fabrication to a good end. And in showing how suffering comes from causes that are reciprocal and mutually reinforcing, the complexity of this/that conditionality drives home the point that the path to the end of suffering will require factors that are reciprocal and mutually reinforcing as well.
Those who grasp at perceptions & views wander the internet creating friction. [based on Sn4:9,v.847]
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