… Do this all the way down the spine. Focus your attention at your tailbone. Then visualize the breath going down the spine—again, both during the in-breath and during the out—and then flowing through your tailbone into the air.
If the pressure is in the middle of the chest, visualize opening the energy channels going out your arms through the palms of …
… The first one doesn’t see, the middle one doesn’t see, the last one doesn’t see. In the same way, the statement of the brahmans turns out to be a row of blind men, as it were: The first one doesn’t see, the middle one doesn’t see, the last one doesn’t see. So what do you think, Bhāradvāja? This …
… Then King Pasenadi of Kosala approached the Blessed One in the middle of the day and, on arrival, having bowed down, sat down to one side. As he was sitting there, the Blessed One said to him: “Well now, great king, where are you coming from in the middle of the day?”
“Just now, lord, I was engaged in the sort of royal affairs …
… These assumptions require an extensive knowledge of Middle Indic dialects. A scholar will assume a particular dialect to have been the original language of the text, and will further make assumptions about the types of translation mistakes that might have been common when translating from that dialect into the languages of the texts we now have. The textual trigonometry based on these assumptions often …
The Greater Craving-Destruction Discourse
Mahā Taṇhāsaṅkhaya Sutta (MN 38)
Introduction
This sutta teaches how to understand the relationship of consciousness to rebirth in a way that helps put an end to rebirth.
Although the Buddha never used any word corresponding to “rebirth” in his teachings, he did describe birth as a process following on death again and again as long as the appropriate …
… Ye keci pāṇa-bhūtatthi
tasā vā thāvarā vā anavasesā,
Whatever beings there may be, weak or strong, without exception,
Dīghā vā ye mahantā vā
majjhimā rassakā aṇuka-thūlā,
long, large, middling, short, subtle, blatant,
Diṭṭhā vā ye ca adiṭṭhā
ye ca dūre vasanti avidūre,
seen & unseen, living near & far,
Bhūtā vā sambhavesī vā
sabbe sattā bhavantu sukhitattā.
born & seeking birth: May all beings be …
… Attend to things in this way, don’t attend to them in that. Let go of this, enter and remain in that.’ This, Kevaṭṭa, is called the miracle of instruction.
“Then there is the case where a Tathāgata appears in the world, worthy and rightly self-awakened. He teaches the Dhamma admirable in its beginning, admirable in its middle, admirable in its end. He …
… But nowadays, we don’t do things that way. We can meditate in all our activities, in every posture. That’s the way it is.
I want you to understand our practice of virtue. We gain happiness and prosperity because of virtue. Virtue means normalcy in body, normalcy in mind. It’s a matter of abandoning harm, refraining from harm, great and small, through …
… This is in line with the principles of the middle way discussed in Chapter 1, and with the instructions in DN 21 (§263), that only those feelings should be pursued that help skillful dhammas to increase and unskillful dhammas to decline.
• As for mind-states, MN 10 starts with a list of the three basic unskillful roots and their opposites (§130), followed by pairs …
… in any of these ways, he may be given full Acceptance. None of the texts discuss the case where he does fail and yet is given the full Acceptance. Apparently, the Acceptance would still be valid, and yet the bhikkhus giving it would each incur a dukkaṭa.
The validity of the assembly
The quorum for full Acceptance in the middle Ganges valley is ten …
… The consciousness of living beings hindered by ignorance & fettered by craving is established in/tuned to a middling property. Thus there is the production of renewed becoming in the future.
“If there were no kamma ripening in the formless-property, would formless-becoming be discerned?”
Ven. Ānanda: “No, lord.”
The Buddha: “Thus kamma is the field, consciousness the seed, and craving the moisture. The …
… One of the instructive ironies of the sutta is the way in which its two main concerns come into conflict toward the end: Kings and brahmans become so intent on gaining possession of the Buddha’s relics that they forget his teachings and almost come to war. We know from Buddhist history that devotional Buddhism has threatened the practice in other ways as well …
… The opinion of the majority, if in accord with the Dhamma and Vinaya, is then considered decisive. (As 5)
If a bhikkhu admits to an offense only after being interrogated in a formal meeting, the Community should carry out a further-punishment transaction against him, rescinding it only when he has mended his ways. (As 6)
If, in the course of a dispute, both …
… But in the past I was also chewed up by form in the same way I am now being chewed up by present form. And if I delight in future form, then in the future I will be chewed up by form in the same way I am now being chewed up by present form.’ Having reflected in this way, he becomes indifferent to …
… This image
would have special resonances with the Buddha’s teaching on the
middle way. It also adds meaning to the term
samaṇa—monk or contemplative—which the texts
frequently mention as being derived from sama. The
word sāmañña—“evenness,” the quality of being in
tune—also means the quality of being a contemplative: The true
contemplative is always in tune with what is …
… So tonight, I’d like to look into the different ways in which discernment, or right view, and right mindfulness work to develop the perfection of persistence.
Persistence is directed by discernment in four ways:
• The first way is seeing the distinction between what is skillful and what’s unskillful.
• The second way is giving you the motivation to want to put forth effort …
… For example, the gratification that comes from being generous is moving in one way, the gratification that comes from maintaining the precepts is moving in another way, the feelings of gratification that come from the different forms of goodness are moving in their own separate ways. This is called finding gratification in skillfulness.
But all of these feelings of gratification converge in the practice …
… Resembling a ball of sealing wax,
set in a hollow,
with a bubble in the middle
and bathed with tears,
eye secretions are born there too:
The parts of the eye
are rolled all together
in various ways.’
Plucking out her lovely eye,
with mind unattached
she felt no regret.
‘Here, take this eye. It’s yours.’
Straightaway she gave it to him.
Straightaway …
… I have yet to hear anyone extol drinking as a way to health, wealth, and happiness. If people who drink really thought it were good, they probably wouldn’t come back to drinking plain old water or eating plain old food again. Once people get drunk, they start acting rowdy and ugly in ways that people in general don’t admire. Even their own …
… For what reason? (Thinking,) “May it not become creased in the middle.” If (the corners) were made even, then when folded up it would have a crease in the middle. Being creased constantly, it would become weak. That is said to be the purpose of the prohibition. So in whatever way it is not creased tomorrow in the place it is creased today, in …
Common Problems | With Each & Every Breath
… Do this all the way down the spine. Focus your attention at your tailbone. Then visualize the breath going down the spine—again, both during the in-breath and during the out—and then flowing through your tailbone into the air. If the pressure is in the middle of the chest, visualize opening the energy channels going out your arms through the palms of …
Historical Notes to the Dhammapada
… These assumptions require an extensive knowledge of Middle Indic dialects. A scholar will assume a particular dialect to have been the original language of the text, and will further make assumptions about the types of translation mistakes that might have been common when translating from that dialect into the languages of the texts we now have. The textual trigonometry based on these assumptions often …
MvI: mahākhandhako
… For what reason? (Thinking,) “May it not become creased in the middle.” If (the corners) were made even, then when folded up it would have a crease in the middle. Being creased constantly, it would become weak. That is said to be the purpose of the prohibition. So in whatever way it is not creased tomorrow in the place it is creased today, in …
