Posts Tagged ‘four noble truths’
On Craving
Last time we looked at the Noble Truth of suffering, of dukkha. As we saw, it is not easy to understand precisely what “suffering” amounts to in the Buddha’s dhamma, and part of what we need to do to understand it is to see how it is produced, how it relates to the Second Noble Truth…
Read MoreEarly Roots of the Four Noble Truths?
The triad of gratification, danger, and escape is one of the Buddha’s most incisive contemplations for investigating everyday experience. In his book on the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, Anālayo says that “each of these insights can be considered a particular aspect of [the Buddha’s] comprehensive realization” of the dhamma. (p. 106n57). The Buddha applies the formula quite literally…
Read MoreA Secular Understanding of Dependent Origination: #1 Ignorance
This post is the first in a series of twelve on dependent arising (the translation of paticca samuppada that I prefer over dependent origination, or co-dependent arising, or interdependent origination or any of the other variations). I plan to take each link in the classic chain of twelve and explain — in the plainest language…
Read MoreWeekly Practice (Causes & Conditions)
Last week we began our exploration of the first noble truth, dukkha, or suffering. We have a good idea of what suffering is and that there is more to it than we may have initially thought. But one of the amazing things about Buddha’s teachings was that he didn’t stop there. Instead, he explored deeply into the processes that cause suffering to arise. This week we are going to dig into the second noble truth, the causes and conditions of suffering.
Read MoreAuthenticity, Anxiety, and the Revision of the Pali Canon
In section 56.29 of the Four Noble Truths collection in the Samyutta Nikaya, we read this rather confusing presentation:
Read MoreThe Four Truths (Stephen Batchelor)
This is the fourth of a series of seven talks from the Study Retreat that interweaves reflections on Siddhattha Gotama’s life, with critical interpretations of his teachings as recorded in the Pali Canon. In this fourth (and also in the third) talk we examine the content of his first sermon.
Read MoreFour Truths, Four Vows
This is another in my series of discussions of ideas Stephen Batchelor has been presenting in dharma talks since late 2010. You can hear them at dharmaseed.org. One of the attractive ideas to come out of Stephen Batchelor’s recent teaching is a mapping of the Four Noble Truths onto the Four Bodhisattva Vows of the…
Read MoreA Mala Prayer
*~*~* The first time I am aware that I met another Buddhist, I met several. There was the man who would become my teacher, Dennis, who was quietly organizing a visit from some Tibetan lamas and the monks accompanying them. There may have been more Buddhists among those of us who had arrived to hear…
Read MoreThe Path – Reworded for Modern Practitioners
I was never comfortable with the wording in the Eightfold Path. The word Right xx always felt like it implied following of dogma rather than an action packed plan. Because Buddhism relies so heavily on practice and observation, I felt each part of the path was better reworded for me with verbs, and action statements.…
Read MoreSecular Dharma Semitreat :: Day Two
We’re cursed with yet another absolutely gorgeous day. Clearly bad kamma coming to fruition. Darn you, vipāka! Darn you, previous me! We started the day with instructions from Martine on listening meditation, simply hearing the sound without creating additional commentary around it. In this setting, the sounds are typically birds and chippies, so that was…
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