This course involves lessons which lead students through a stepwise, progressive enumeration of groups of Dhammas similar to that found in the Aṅguttara Nikāya. The Course is broken up into Eight Units with each unit providing enough material for a suggested two weeks of in-depth study. The course discussion forum hosted through Discord can be reached through the link to the right.
The whole of the Buddha’s prescription for how to live can be encapsulated in what are called the “three trainings” (tisso sikkhā) of sīla (virtue), samādhi (concentration), and paññā (discernment). His teachings on sīla focus on harmlessness and propriety of bodily and verbal action and are manifested in the factors Right Speach, Right Action, and Right Livelihood of the Noble Eightfold Path. In this rubric of the three trainings, samādhi includes the Path factors of Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration and is elsewhere called “development of mind.” Paññā involves Right View and Right Intention and can be translated both as discernment and wisdom. This lesson will explore these essential aspects of Buddhist pragmatics through primary texts and engaging commentary focused on lived practice.
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”The Three Aggregates are included in the Noble Eightfold Path … right speech, right action, and right livelihood are included in the virtue (sīla) aggregate. Right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration are included in the concentration (samādhi) aggregate. Right perspective and right attitude are included in the wisdom (paññā) aggregate.”
”What do you think, Rāhula? What is the purpose of a mirror?”
“It’s for checking your reflection, sir.”
“In the same way, deeds of body, speech, and mind should be done only after repeated checking.”…
“So Rāhula, you should train yourself like this: ‘I will purify my physical, verbal, and mental actions after repeatedly checking.’”
“A noble disciple:
A) gives up four corrupt deeds,
B) doesn’t do bad deeds on four grounds,
C) and avoids six drains on wealth. When they’ve left these fourteen bad things behind they
D) have the six quarters covered. They’re practicing to win in both worlds, and they succeed in this world and the next. When their body breaks up, after death, they’re reborn in a good place, a heavenly realm.”
“Householders, there are three kinds of bodily conduct in accordance with the Dhamma, righteous conduct. There are four kinds of verbal conduct in accordance with the Dhamma, righteous conduct. There are three kinds of mental conduct in accordance with the Dhamma, righteous conduct.
A) Three kinds of bodily conduct in accordance with the Dhamma:
1) Here someone, abandoning the killing of living beings, abstains from killing living beings; with rod and weapon laid aside, gentle and kindly, he abides compassionate to all living beings.
2) Abandoning the taking of what is not given, he abstains from taking what is not given; he does not take by way of theft the wealth and property of others in the village or in the forest.
3) Abandoning misconduct in sensual pleasures, he abstains from misconduct in sensual pleasures; he does not have intercourse with women who are protected by their mother, father, mother and father, brother, sister, or relatives, who have a husband, who are protected by law, or with those who are garlanded in token of betrothal.
B) Four kinds of verbal conduct in accordance with the Dhamma:
1) Here someone, abandoning false speech, abstains from false speech; when summoned to a court, or to a meeting, or to his relatives’ presence, or to his guild, or to the royal family’s presence, and questioned as a witness thus: ‘So, good man, tell what you know,’ not knowing, he says, ‘I do not know,’ or knowing, he says, ‘I know’; not seeing, he says, ‘I do not see,’ or seeing, he says, ‘I see’; he does not in full awareness speak falsehood for his own ends, or for another’s ends, or for some trifling worldly end.
2) Abandoning malicious speech, he abstains from malicious speech; he does not repeat elsewhere what he has heard here in order to divide those people from these, nor does he repeat to these people what he has heard elsewhere in order to divide these people from those; thus he is one who reunites those who are divided, a promoter of friendships, who enjoys concord, rejoices in concord, delights in concord, a speaker of words that promote concord.
3) Abandoning harsh speech, he abstains from harsh speech; he speaks such words as are gentle, pleasing to the ear, and loveable, as go to the heart, are courteous, desired by many, and agreeable to many.
4) Abandoning gossip, he abstains from gossip; he speaks at the right time, speaks what is fact, speaks on what is good, speaks on the Dhamma and the Discipline; at the right time he speaks such words as are worth recording, reasonable, moderate, and beneficial. That is how there are four kinds of verbal conduct in accordance with the Dhamma, righteous conduct.
C) Three kinds of mental conduct in accordance with the Dhamma:
1) Here someone is not covetous; he does not covet the wealth and property of others thus: ‘Oh, may what belongs to another be mine!’
2) His mind is without ill will and he has intentions free from hate thus: ‘May these beings be free from enmity, affliction and anxiety! May they live happily!’
3) He has right view, undistorted vision, thus: ‘There is what is given and what is offered and what is sacrificed; there is fruit and result of good and bad actions; there is this world and the other world; there is mother and father; there are beings who are reborn spontaneously; there are good and virtuous recluses and brahmins in the world who have themselves realised by direct knowledge and declare this world and the other world.’”
“When these five hindrances (1. sensual desire, 2. ill-will, 3. sloth and torpor, 4. restlessness and worry, 5) doubt) are abandoned in himself, he regards it as unindebtedness, good health, release from prison, freedom, a place of security. Seeing that they have been abandoned within him, he becomes glad. Glad, he becomes enraptured. Enraptured, his body grows tranquil. His body tranquil, he is sensitive to pleasure. Feeling pleasure, his mind becomes concentrated.”
““And what, bhikkhus, is right concentration?
1) Here, bhikkhus, secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, a bhikkhu enters and dwells in the first jhāna, which is accompanied by thought and examination, with rapture and happiness born of seclusion.
2) With the subsiding of thought and examination, he enters and dwells in the second jhāna, which has internal confidence and unification of mind, is without thought and examination, and has rapture and happiness born of concentration.
3) With the fading away as well of rapture, he dwells equanimous and, mindful and clearly comprehending, he experiences happiness with the body; he enters and dwells in the third jhāna of which the noble ones declare: ‘He is equanimous, mindful, one who dwells happily.’
4) With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous passing away of joy and displeasure, he enters and dwells in the fourth jhāna, which is neither painful nor pleasant and includes the purification of mindfulness by equanimity. This is called right concentration.”
“1) The first jhāna: Quite withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful mental qualities, he enters and remains in the first jhāna: rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought and evaluation. He permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal. Just as if a skilled bathman or bathman’s apprentice would pour bath powder into a brass basin and knead it together, sprinkling it again and again with water, so that his ball of bath powder — saturated, moisture-laden, permeated within and without — would nevertheless not drip.
2) The second jhāna: Furthermore, with the stilling of directed thoughts & evaluations, he enters and remains in the second jhāna: rapture and pleasure born of composure, unification of awareness free from directed thought and evaluation — internal assurance. He permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the rapture and pleasure born of composure. Just like a lake with spring-water welling up from within, having no inflow from the east, west, north, or south, and with the skies supplying abundant showers time and again, so that the cool fount of water welling up from within the lake would permeate and pervade, suffuse and fill it with cool waters, there being no part of the lake unpervaded by the cool waters.
3) The third jhāna: And furthermore, with the fading of rapture, he remains equanimous, mindful, & alert, and senses pleasure with the body. He enters & remains in the jhāna jhana, of which the Noble Ones declare, ‘Equanimous & mindful, he has a pleasant abiding.’ He permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the pleasure divested of rapture. Just as in a lotus pond, some of the lotuses, born and growing in the water, stay immersed in the water and flourish without standing up out of the water, so that they are permeated and pervaded, suffused and filled with cool water from their roots to their tips, and nothing of those lotuses would be unpervaded with cool water.
4) The fourth jhāna: And furthermore, with the abandoning of pleasure and stress — as with the earlier disappearance of elation and distress — he enters and remains in the fourth jhāna: purity of equanimity and mindfulness, neither-pleasure nor stress. He sits, permeating the body with a pure, bright awareness. Just as if a man were sitting covered from head to foot with a white cloth so that there would be no part of his body to which the white cloth did not extend.”
”There are these eight causes and conditions that lead to obtaining the wisdom fundamental to the spiritual life when it has not been obtained and to its increase, maturation, and fulfillment by development after it has been obtained. What eight?
1) Here, a bhikkhu lives in dependence on the Teacher or on a certain fellow monk in the position of a teacher, toward whom he has set up a keen sense of moral shame and moral dread, affection and reverence …
2) He approaches them [the Teacher] from time to time and inquires: ‘How is this, Bhante? What is the meaning of this?’ Those venerable ones then disclose to him what has not been disclosed, clear up what is obscure, and dispel his perplexity about numerous perplexing points …
3) Having heard that Dhamma, he resorts to two kinds of withdrawal: withdrawal in body and withdrawal in mind …
4) He is virtuous; he dwells restrained by the Pātimokkha, possessed of good conduct and resort, seeing danger in minute faults. Having undertaken the training rules, he trains in them …
5) He has learned much, remembers what he has learned, and accumulates what he has learned. Those teachings that are good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end, with the right meaning and phrasing, which proclaim the perfectly complete and pure spiritual life—such teachings as these he has learned much of, retained in mind, recited verbally, mentally investigated, and penetrated well by view …
6) He has aroused energy for abandoning unwholesome qualities and acquiring wholesome qualities; he is strong, firm in exertion, not casting off the duty of cultivating wholesome qualities …
7) In the midst of the Saṅgha, he does not engage in rambling and pointless talk. Either he himself speaks on the Dhamma, or he requests someone else to do so, or he adopts noble silence …
8) He dwells contemplating arising and vanishing in the five aggregates subject to clinging: ‘Such is form, such its origin, such its passing away; such is feeling … such is perception … such are volitional activities … such is consciousness, such its origin, such its passing away.’”
“When the mind is concentrated in this way – completely pure, completely clean, flawless, without defilement, malleable, workable, stable, and imperturbable – one directs the mind to the knowledge of the elimination of mental taints. One understands suffering as it is; one understands the cause of suffering as it is; one understands the cessation of suffering as it is; one understands the practice which leads to the end of suffering as it is … One who knows and sees in this way liberates the mind from the taint of sensuality, the taint of existence, and the taint of ignorance. When it is liberated, there is the knowledge that it is liberated. One understands, ‘Birth is eliminated, the spiritual life has been completed, what was to be done has been done, there will not be another life here.’ It is like a lake in a mountain range – transparent, clear, and undisturbed. Standing on the shore, a person with eyes could see oysters, shells, stones, pebbles, and fish moving about and holding still. That person would think, ‘This is a transparent, clear, and undisturbed lake. Here there are oysters, shells, stones, pebbles, and fish moving about and holding still.’ Monks, in the same way, a monk understands suffering as it is… ‘Birth is eliminated, the spiritual life has been completed, what was to be done has been done, there will not be another life here.’”
Review (Click text for answer)
”The Three Aggregates are included in the Noble Eightfold Path … right speech, right action, and right livelihood are included in the virtue (sīla) aggregate. Right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration are included in the concentration (samādhi) aggregate. Right perspective and right attitude are included in the wisdom (paññā) aggregate.”
Just as a mirror is used “for checking your reflection … In the same way, deeds of body, speech, and mind should be done only after repeated checking (before, during, and after doing it) … So Rāhula, you should train yourself like this: ‘I will purify my physical, verbal, and mental actions after repeatedly checking.’”
“1) Killing living creatures,
2) stealing,
3) sexual misconduct, and
4) lying: these are corrupt deeds.These are the four corrupt deeds they’ve given up.”
“When a noble disciple is not prejudiced by:
1) favoritism,
2) hostility,
3) stupidity, and
4) cowardice, they don’t do bad deeds on these four grounds.”
“Habitually engaging in the following things is a drain on wealth:
1) drinking alcohol;
2) roaming the streets at night;
3) frequenting festivals;
4) gambling;
5) bad friends;
6) laziness.”
“1) parents as the east,
2) teachers as the south,
3) partner and children as the west,
4) friends and colleagues as the north,
5) bondservants and workers as beneath, and
6) ascetics and brahmins as above”
“1) Here someone, abandoning the killing of living beings, abstains from killing living beings; with rod and weapon laid aside, gentle and kindly, he abides compassionate to all living beings.
2) Abandoning the taking of what is not given, he abstains from taking what is not given; he does not take by way of theft the wealth and property of others in the village or in the forest.
3) Abandoning misconduct in sensual pleasures, he abstains from misconduct in sensual pleasures; he does not have intercourse with women who are protected by their mother, father, mother and father, brother, sister, or relatives, who have a husband, who are protected by law, or with those who are garlanded in token of betrothal.”
“1) Here someone, abandoning false speech, abstains from false speech; when summoned to a court, or to a meeting, or to his relatives’ presence, or to his guild, or to the royal family’s presence, and questioned as a witness thus: ‘So, good man, tell what you know,’ not knowing, he says, ‘I do not know,’ or knowing, he says, ‘I know’; not seeing, he says, ‘I do not see,’ or seeing, he says, ‘I see’; he does not in full awareness speak falsehood for his own ends, or for another’s ends, or for some trifling worldly end.
2) Abandoning malicious speech, he abstains from malicious speech; he does not repeat elsewhere what he has heard here in order to divide those people from these, nor does he repeat to these people what he has heard elsewhere in order to divide these people from those; thus he is one who reunites those who are divided, a promoter of friendships, who enjoys concord, rejoices in concord, delights in concord, a speaker of words that promote concord.
3) Abandoning harsh speech, he abstains from harsh speech; he speaks such words as are gentle, pleasing to the ear, and loveable, as go to the heart, are courteous, desired by many, and agreeable to many.
4) Abandoning gossip, he abstains from gossip; he speaks at the right time, speaks what is fact, speaks on what is good, speaks on the Dhamma and the Discipline; at the right time he speaks such words as are worth recording, reasonable, moderate, and beneficial. That is how there are four kinds of verbal conduct in accordance with the Dhamma, righteous conduct.”
“1) Here someone is not covetous; he does not covet the wealth and property of others thus: ‘Oh, may what belongs to another be mine!’
2) His mind is without ill will and he has intentions free from hate thus: ‘May these beings be free from enmity, affliction and anxiety! May they live happily!’
3) He has right view, undistorted vision, thus: ‘There is what is given and what is offered and what is sacrificed; there is fruit and result of good and bad actions; there is this world and the other world; there is mother and father; there are beings who are reborn spontaneously; there are good and virtuous recluses and brahmins in the world who have themselves realised by direct knowledge and declare this world and the other world.’”
“When these five hindrances (1. sensual desire, 2. ill-will, 3. sloth and torpor, 4. restlessness and worry, 5) doubt) are abandoned in himself, he regards it as:
1) unindebtedness,
2) good health,
3) release from prison,
4) freedom,
5) a place of security.”
”Seeing that [the five hindrances] have been abandoned within him,
1) he becomes glad.
2) Glad, he becomes enraptured.
3) Enraptured, his body grows tranquil.
4) His body tranquil, he is sensitive to pleasure.
5) Feeling pleasure, his mind becomes concentrated.””
“Here, bhikkhus, secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, a bhikkhu enters and dwells in the first jhāna, which is accompanied by thought and examination, with rapture and happiness born of seclusion. He permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal. Just as if a skilled bathman or bathman’s apprentice would pour bath powder into a brass basin and knead it together, sprinkling it again and again with water, so that his ball of bath powder — saturated, moisture-laden, permeated within and without — would nevertheless not drip.”
“With the subsiding of thought and examination, he enters and dwells in the second jhāna, which has internal confidence and unification of mind, is without thought and examination, and has rapture and happiness born of concentration. He permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the rapture and pleasure born of composure. Just like a lake with spring-water welling up from within, having no inflow from the east, west, north, or south, and with the skies supplying abundant showers time and again, so that the cool fount of water welling up from within the lake would permeate and pervade, suffuse and fill it with cool waters, there being no part of the lake unpervaded by the cool waters.”
“With the fading away as well of rapture, he dwells equanimous and, mindful and clearly comprehending, he experiences happiness with the body; he enters and dwells in the third jhāna of which the noble ones declare: ‘He is equanimous, mindful, one who dwells happily.’ He permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the pleasure divested of rapture. Just as in a lotus pond, some of the lotuses, born and growing in the water, stay immersed in the water and flourish without standing up out of the water, so that they are permeated and pervaded, suffused and filled with cool water from their roots to their tips, and nothing of those lotuses would be unpervaded with cool water.”
“With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous passing away of joy and displeasure, he enters and dwells in the fourth jhāna, which is neither painful nor pleasant and includes the purification of mindfulness by equanimity. He sits, permeating the body with a pure, bright awareness. Just as if a man were sitting covered from head to foot with a white cloth so that there would be no part of his body to which the white cloth did not extend.”
“There are these eight causes and conditions that lead to obtaining the wisdom fundamental to the spiritual life when it has not been obtained and to its increase, maturation, and fulfillment by development after it has been obtained. What eight?
1) Here, a bhikkhu lives in dependence on the Teacher or on a certain fellow monk in the position of a teacher, toward whom he has set up a keen sense of moral shame and moral dread, affection and reverence …
2) He approaches them [the Teacher] from time to time and inquires: ‘How is this, Bhante? What is the meaning of this?’ Those venerable ones then disclose to him what has not been disclosed, clear up what is obscure, and dispel his perplexity about numerous perplexing points …
3) Having heard that Dhamma, he resorts to two kinds of withdrawal: withdrawal in body and withdrawal in mind …
4) He is virtuous; he dwells restrained by the Pātimokkha, possessed of good conduct and resort, seeing danger in minute faults. Having undertaken the training rules, he trains in them …
5) He has learned much, remembers what he has learned, and accumulates what he has learned. Those teachings that are good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end, with the right meaning and phrasing, which proclaim the perfectly complete and pure spiritual life—such teachings as these he has learned much of, retained in mind, recited verbally, mentally investigated, and penetrated well by view …
6) He has aroused energy for abandoning unwholesome qualities and acquiring wholesome qualities; he is strong, firm in exertion, not casting off the duty of cultivating wholesome qualities …
7) In the midst of the Saṅgha, he does not engage in rambling and pointless talk. Either he himself speaks on the Dhamma, or he requests someone else to do so, or he adopts noble silence …
8) He dwells contemplating arising and vanishing in the five aggregates subject to clinging: ‘Such is form, such its origin, such its passing away; such is feeling … such is perception … such are volitional activities … such is consciousness, such its origin, such its passing away.’””
“One who knows and sees in this way [the four Noble Truths], liberates the mind from:
1) the taint of sensuality,
2) the taint of existence, and
3) the taint of ignorance.”
”It is like a lake in a mountain range – transparent, clear, and undisturbed. Standing on the shore, a person with eyes could see oysters, shells, stones, pebbles, and fish moving about and holding still. That person would think, ‘This is a transparent, clear, and undisturbed lake. Here there are oysters, shells, stones, pebbles, and fish moving about and holding still.’”
“… Questions dealing in the first place with virtue:
1) What is virtue? 2) In what sense is it virtue? 3) What are its characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate cause? 4) What are the benefits of virtue? 5) How many kinds of virtue are there? 6) What is the defiling of it? 7) What is the cleansing of it? …
1) WHAT IS VIRTUE? It is the states beginning with volition present in one who abstains from killing living things, etc., or in one who fulfils the practice of the duties. For this is said in the Paṭisambhidā: “What is virtue? There is virtue as volition, virtue as consciousness-concomitant, virtue as restraint, virtue as nontransgression”
“… The act of killing has five components: 1) a living being, 2) the perception of the living being as such, 3) the thought of killing, 4) the act, 5) and the death of the being by means of the act.
There are six means of killing: 1) one’s own person, 2) commanding (another to kill), 3) mobile weapons (such as spears or arrows), 4) stationary devices (traps), 5) magical formulas, and psychic powers.”
“There is therefore the following set of questions, the purpose of which is to show the method of [concentration’s] development in detail: 1) What is concentration? 2) In what sense is it concentration? 3) What are its characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate cause? 4) How many kinds of concentration are there? 5) What is its defilement? 6) What is its cleansing? 7) How should it be developed? 8) What are the benefits of the development of concentration? …
1) WHAT IS CONCENTRATION? Concentration is of many sorts and has various aspects. An answer that attempted to cover it all would accomplish neither its intention nor its purpose and would, besides, lead to distraction; so we shall confine ourselves to the kind intended here, calling concentration profitable unification of mind.”
“There is the sign of quietude, and the sign of non-confusion, and an abundance of right reflection on these is the reason conducive to the arising of the non-arisen enlightenment factor of concentration and for the increase, expansion and completion by culture of the enlightenment factor of concentration when it has arisen. The first stage of tranquillity which arises when an object is being grasped by way of bearing it in mind, the composed manner, is the characteristic sign of quietude. There the sign of quietude is just the quietude by way of the composed manner. And in the sense of non-distraction is the sign of non-confusion to be taken. Confusion is the state of mind which, because of the whirling in a multiplicity of objects, is jumping from thing to thing, diverse of aim, and not one-pointed. Distraction is the same in character. Unsteadiness is its salient feature, and deviation is its manifestation. By one-pointedness of mind confusion is thrown out.”
“Eleven things lead to the arising of concentration. 1) Purification of the basis; 2) the imparting of evenness to the spiritual controlling faculties; 3) skill in taking up the sign of the object of meditation; 4) the inciting of the mind on occasion; 5) the restraining of the mind on occasion; 6) the gladdening of the mind on occasion and; 7) the regarding of the mind without interfering on occasion; 8) the avoiding of people who are not collected in mind; 9) association with people who are collected in mind; 10) reflection on the absorptions and the emancipations and; 11) the inclination towards the development of the enlightenment factor of concentration.”
“In order … to deal with the detailed method of [wisdom’s] development there is the following set of questions: 1) What is understanding? 2) In what sense is it understanding? 3) What are its characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate cause? 4) How many kinds of understanding are there? 5) How is it developed? 6) What are the benefits of developing understanding?
1) WHAT IS UNDERSTANDING? Understanding (paññā) is of many sorts and has various aspects. An answer that attempted to explain it all would accomplish neither its intention nor its purpose, and would, besides, lead to distraction; so we shall confine ourselves to the kind intended here, which is understanding consisting in insight knowledge associated with profitable consciousness.”
“Right view, as explained in the commentary to the Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta, has a variety of aspects, but it might best be considered as twofold:
1) conceptual right view, which is the intellectual grasp of the principles enunciated in the Buddha’s teaching, and 2) experiential right view, which is the wisdom that arises by direct penetration of the teaching.”
“Conceptual right view, also called the right view in conformity with the truths (saccānulomika-sammādiṭṭhi), is a correct conceptual understanding of the Dhamma arrived at by study of the Buddha’s teachings and deep examination of their meaning. Such understanding, though conceptual rather than experiential, is not dry and sterile. When rooted in faith in the Triple Gem and driven by a keen aspiration to realize the truth embedded in the formulated principles of the Dhamma, it serves as a critical phase in the development of wisdom (paññā), for it provides the germ out of which experiential right view gradually evolves.”
“Experiential right view is the penetration of the truth of the teaching in one’s own immediate experience. Thus it is also called right view that penetrates the truths (saccāpatṭvedha-sammāditṭṭhi). This type of right view is aroused by the practice of insight meditation guided by a correct conceptual understanding of the Dhamma. To arrive at direct penetration, one must begin with a correct conceptual grasp of the teaching and transform that grasp from intellectual comprehension to direct perception by cultivating the threefold training in morality, concentration and wisdom. If conceptual right view can be compared to a hand, a hand that grasps the truth by way of concepts, then experiential right view can be compared to an eye — the eye of wisdom that sees directly into the true nature of existence ordinarily hidden from us by our greed, aversion and delusion.”
Review (Click text for answer)
“It is the states beginning with volition present in one who abstains from killing living things, etc., or in one who fulfills the practice of the duties. For this is said in the Paṭisambhidā: ‘What is virtue? There is virtue as volition, virtue as consciousness-concomitant, virtue as restraint, virtue as nontransgression.'”
”… The act of killing has five components:
1) a living being,
2) the perception of the living being as such,
3) the thought of killing,
4) the act,
5) and the death of the being by means of the act.”
”Concentration is of many sorts and has various aspects. An answer that attempted to cover it all would accomplish neither its intention nor its purpose and would, besides, lead to distraction; so we shall confine ourselves to the kind intended here, calling concentration profitable unification of mind.”
”By one-pointedness of mind confusion is thrown out.”
“Eleven things lead to the arising of concentration.
1) Purification of the basis;
2) the imparting of evenness to the spiritual controlling faculties;
3) skill in taking up the sign of the object of meditation;
4) the inciting of the mind on occasion;
5) the restraining of the mind on occasion;
6) the gladdening of the mind on occasion and;
7) the regarding of the mind without interfering on occasion;
8) the avoiding of people who are not collected in mind;
9) association with people who are collected in mind;
10) reflection on the absorptions and the emancipations and;
11) the inclination towards the development of the enlightenment factor of concentration.”
”Understanding (paññā) is of many sorts and has various aspects. An answer that attempted to explain it all would accomplish neither its intention nor its purpose, and would, besides, lead to distraction; so we shall confine ourselves to the kind intended here, which is understanding consisting in insight knowledge associated with profitable consciousness.”
”Right view, as explained in the commentary to the Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta … might best be considered as twofold:
1) conceptual right view, which is the intellectual grasp of the principles enunciated in the Buddha’s teaching, and
2) experiential right view, which is the wisdom that arises by direct penetration of the teaching.”
“There are three sets of precepts for laypeople: the five precepts, the eight precepts, and the ten guidelines. Here we will discuss the five and the eight precepts first, saving the ten guidelines for later.
The five precepts can be divided into two sorts: those dealing with bodily action and those dealing with speech. Normalcy in bodily action is expressed by three precepts: refraining from taking life, from stealing, and from engaging in illicit sex. Normalcy in speech is expressed by the precept against lying, which involves refraining not only from lying, but also from divisive tale-bearing, from coarse or abusive speech, and from aimless or idle talk. As for the precept against taking intoxicants, it fits in with the third precept—against illicit sex—in that both deal with forms of intoxication.
The eight precepts are derived from the five—and, like the five, can be divided into two sorts. Seven deal with bodily action: refraining from taking life; from stealing the possessions of others; from any and all sexual intercourse; from taking intoxicants; from eating food during the period from noon until the following dawn; from watching dancing, singing, instrumental music, and other shows, and from using garlands, perfumes, cosmetics, and jewelry; and from using high and luxurious beds and seats.”
“Buddhist discipline involves gradual practice and gradual attainment. It does not burst into completeness at a stroke, but like a tree or any other living organism, it unfolds organically, as a sequence of stages in which each stage rests upon its predecessor as its indispensable foundation and gives rise to its successor as its natural consequent. The principal stages of this gradual training are three: the training in sīla or virtue, the training in samādhi or concentration, and the training in pañña or wisdom. If we follow through the comparison of the Buddhist discipline to a tree, faith (saddhā) would be the seed, for it is faith that provides the initial impulse through which the training is taken up, and faith again that nourishes the training through every phase of its development. Virtue would be the roots, for it is virtue that gives grounding to our spiritual endeavors just as the roots give grounding to a tree. Concentration would be the trunk, the symbol of strength, non-vacillation, and stability. And wisdom would be the branches, which yield the flowers of enlightenment and the fruits of deliverance.”
“The Buddha’s path consisted not only of mindfulness, concentration, and insight practices, but also of virtue, beginning with the five precepts. In fact, the precepts constitute the first step in the path. There is a tendency in the West to dismiss the five precepts as Sunday-school rules bound to old cultural norms that no longer apply to our modern society, but this misses the role that the Buddha intended for them: They are part of a course of therapy for wounded minds. In particular, they are aimed at curing two ailments that underlie low self-esteem: regret and denial.”
”The eighth factor of the path is right concentration, in Pali samma samadhi. Concentration represents an intensification of a mental factor present in every state of consciousness. This factor, one-pointedness of mind (citt’ekaggata), has the function of unifying the other mental factors in the task of cognition. It is the factor responsible for the individuating aspect of consciousness, ensuring that every citta or act of mind remains centered on its object. At any given moment the mind must be cognizant of something — a sight, a sound, a smell, a taste, a touch, or a mental object. The factor of one-pointedness unifies the mind and its other concomitants in the task of cognizing the object, while it simultaneously exercises the function of centering all the constituents of the cognitive act on the object. One-pointedness of mind explains the fact that in any act of consciousness there is a central point of focus, towards which the entire objective datum points from its outer peripheries to its inner nucleus.”
Many of us have heard that jhāna is a very intense trance-like state that requires intense staring and shutting out the rest of the world. It sounds nothing like mindfulness at all. But if you look in the Canon where the Buddha describes jhāna, that’s not the kind of state he’s talking about. To be in jhāna is to be absorbed, very pleasurably, in the sense of the whole body altogether. A very broad sense of awareness fills the entire body. One of the images the Buddha used to describe this state is that of a person kneading water into dough so that the water permeates throughout the flour. Another is a lake in which a cool spring comes welling up and suffuses the entire lake.”
“Let’s look at the idea of concentration, or samādhi. When you hear those four little syllables con-cen-tra-tion, what do they imply to you? It may take a few moments to articulate it, but you might immediately feel a particular set of energies starting to take over … But what if samādhi was a relief, even accompanied by the enjoyment of feeling ‘at home’? What if samādhi was a matter of settling into a unified state? After all, in the suttas it’s defined as ‘unification.’ And in the way the Buddha presented it, samādhi is food for the heart, and its immediate cause is happiness – the happiness born of unplugging stress.”
”The Pāli word paññā is derived from the verbal root ñā (Skt: jñā), meaning “to know,” preceded by the prefix pa (Skt: pra), which merely gives the root meaning a more dynamic nuance. So paññā/prajñā means knowing or understanding, not as a possession, but as an action: the act of knowing, the act of understanding, the act of discerning. In Pāli, the verb pajānāti, “one understands,” conveys this sense more effectively than the correlative noun paññā. What is meant by paññā, however, is a type of understanding superior to that which occurs when one understands, for instance, a difficult passage in an economics textbook or the implications of a legal argument. Paññā signifies the understanding that arises through spiritual training, illuminates the real nature of things, and culminates in the mind’s purification and liberation. For this reason, despite its drawbacks, I continue to use the familiar ‘wisdom.’”
”The function of right view is to look at events in the mind in a way that gives rise to a sense of dispassion, leading the mind to a state of non-fashioning and then on to Awakening. It does this by focusing on the way in which passion and desire lead to suffering and stress. In this, it develops the mind’s basic reaction to stress — the search for a way to escape from the stress — in a skillful way so that this reaction actually leads to utter release. When the mind sees, without its normal bewilderment, the actual process by which stress is caused, it will naturally let go of the causes. When it sees passion clearly enough to catch that passion in the act of leading to stress, it will naturally develop a sense of dispassion for and detachment from the passion, so that it can view it simply as a mental event, with no meaning in terms of anything else. This opens the way to the state of non-fashioning where the cause of stress is allowed to cease.”
Review (Click text for answer)
”1) those dealing with bodily action (normalcy in bodily action – refraining from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, taking intoxicants),
2) those dealing with speech (normalcy in speech – refraining from lying and by extension from divisive tale-bearing, from coarse or abusive speech, and from aimless or idle talk).”
Refraining from:
1) killing
2) stealing
3) any sexual activity
4) lying
5) intoxicants
6) eating after midday
7) dancing, singing, music, entertainment, jewelry, scents, ungents, beautification
8) lying on a high or luxurious bed.
”Faith (saddhā) would be the seed … Virtue would be the roots, for it is virtue that gives grounding to our spiritual endeavors just as the roots give grounding to a tree. Concentration would be the trunk, the symbol of strength, non-vacillation, and stability. And wisdom would be the branches, which yield the flowers of enlightenment and the fruits of deliverance.”
“They are part of a course of therapy for wounded minds. In particular, they are aimed at curing two ailments that underlie low self-esteem: regret and denial.”
“Concentration represents an intensification of … one-pointedness of mind (citt’ekaggata) [which] has the function of unifying the other mental factors in the task of cognition.”
“To be in jhāna is to be absorbed, very pleasurably, in the sense of the whole body altogether. A very broad sense of awareness fills the entire body.”
“Its immediate cause is happiness – the happiness born of unplugging stress.”
“What is meant by paññā … is a type of understanding superior to that which occurs when one understands, for instance, a difficult passage in an economics textbook or the implications of a legal argument. Paññā signifies the understanding that arises through spiritual training, illuminates the real nature of things, and culminates in the mind’s purification and liberation.”
“The function of right view is to look at events in the mind in a way that gives rise to a sense of dispassion, leading the mind to a state of non-fashioning and then on to Awakening.”
