Breathe! You Are Alive - good interpretation?

General discussion of issues related to Theravada Meditation, e.g. meditation postures, developing a regular sitting practice, skillfully relating to difficulties and hindrances, etc.
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Lazy_eye
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Re: Breathe! You Are Alive - good interpretation?

Post by Lazy_eye »

Paribbajaka wrote:
I've read Anger. I don't dispute that Thich Nhat Hanh can get a little fluffy at times, but he is teaching the Dhamma and it is reaching people who may other wise never reach. I perosnally know many Buddhists who began to practice due to TNH and have since become sincere and dedicated practitioners (I also know many who still hold him as there primary source and are still sincere and dedicated practitioners). Different tastes for different palletes.
Sure, he is not to everyone's taste. But is he "sentimental"? I'm not sure this label is accurate.

When we say that a writer is sentimental, we mean that he or she is trying to drum up a kind of gluey emotional state, as in a corny pop song or bad Victorian poetry.

But I don't see TNH doing this. It seems to me, rather, that he is using the example of motherhood as a teaching tool designed to convey the notion of heedfulness to a secular audience that may include many non-Buddhists.

The intent isn't to summon up dreamy, romantic visions of motherhood but to give a practical analogy that his readers will easily understand. Taking care of an infant or small child requires a great deal of patience and care. And an angry adult is often like an infant or small child.

"Flowery" usually connotes a writing style that is ornate or overloaded with adjectives, but TNH's style is quite plain and uses a simple vocabulary -- again, probably in keeping with the desire to reach a mass audience. And possibly also as a result of translation from Vietnamese.
Last edited by Lazy_eye on Sat May 11, 2013 3:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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purple planet
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Re: Breathe! You Are Alive - good interpretation?

Post by purple planet »

In hebrew we say : "on taste and smell there is nothing to argue about"
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mikenz66
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Re: Breathe! You Are Alive - good interpretation?

Post by mikenz66 »

It seems to me that a number of teachers who make an effort to reach out to the general public, such as the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Ajahn Brahm, can very easily be read as "fluffy" when one only looks at particular areas of their teaching.
Thich Nhat Hanh wrote: I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate,
and I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving.
http://www.quietspaces.com/poemHanh.html
:anjali:
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mal4mac
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Re: Breathe! You Are Alive - good interpretation?

Post by mal4mac »

LonesomeYogurt wrote: Generally, Rosenberg is a little less structured in his practice; whereas Buddhadasa instructs one to go through all sixteen steps, one by one, during each session, Rosenberg is more free-form. This might be better for an introduction, but I think Buddhadasa is one who really captures the essence of "capital-A" Anapanasati practice instead of just general breath meditation...
Rosenberg explains exactly why he is "more free form" in the introduction to "Breath by Breath". He suggests you may *automatically* go through all sixteen stages. This still seems "capital A" to me, just in a different font! :)

P.S. Is Rosenberg really more free form and unstructured? You have to watch the breath, not watch anything else, keep on watching that breath! That seems just as strict as watching a sequence of different things.
- Mal
Javi
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Re: Breathe! You Are Alive - good interpretation?

Post by Javi »

I have not read Breathe! You are alive, but I have read his "Transformation and Healing" which is on the Satipatthana sutta. My sangha uses this text (I was pleasantly surprised because we are a zen sangha, but then again it is Vietnamese and they tend to have more contact with Theravadin influence due to geography). Anyways it's not bad per se, but I cannot say I came away impressed, especially since I had just finished reading Venerable Analayo's book. Some things from the book are just kind of jarring, for example when talking about the first satipatthana he says:

"he [the Buddha] rejected them [jhanas] as not leading to liberation from suffering. These states of concentration probably found their way back into the sutras around two hundred years after the Buddha passed into mahaparanirvana" (p44 on the 1990 version)

Then there is the fact that he really doesn't cover all of the material. The section on the five hindrances only talks about a few of the hindrances, the section on the seven factors of awakening only mentions joy. I guess it's meant as an intro book, but I just didn't find much there to be helpful. :shrug:

Still have a lot of respect for the man though, he's probably done more to spread the dhamma than most people alive today.
Vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā — All things decay and disappoint, it is through vigilance that you succeed — Mahāparinibbāna Sutta

Self-taught poverty is a help toward philosophy, for the things which philosophy attempts to teach by reasoning, poverty forces us to practice. — Diogenes of Sinope

I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a chase after wind — Ecclesiastes 1.14
mal4mac
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Re: Breathe! You Are Alive - good translation?

Post by mal4mac »

I'm reading "Breath by Breath" by Larry Rosenberg at the moment. He has a detailed line by line analysis of the Anapanasati Sutta in an appendix, and bases the whole book on this sutta. It's not a difficult book to read, no more difficult than Hanh's popular books.
- Mal
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