A recent ‘Buddhist Intellectual’ who spoke in Bangkok recently, pointed a lot of criticism at Thailand. While doing so he addressed the question of his qualification to throw blame around. He is not a meditator, and not a follower of Buddhism on anything but a scritural level. He asked ‘am I a Buddhist’, and then [...]
Archive for the ‘Dhamma’ Category
The Three Refuges
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma on 18 October, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Listening to Dhamma
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma on 9 October, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Last night we had a dhamma talk by Sayadaw U Sujana. It might not be what most people expected when coming to listen to dhamma. Dhamma talks in Asian countries, especially Myanmar where the teachings are so well known and studied, tend to focus heavily around the Pali language. In Sri Lanaka it is the [...]
Fast quickly
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma on 1 October, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Why shouldn’t you do what you like ? Isn’t feeding the senses what life is all about ?
In fact no one can just do what they like. And no sense is safe when over fed. The Buddhist way was always about ‘RESTRAINT’.
A nice little article in The Daily Beast examines the benefits of fasting. Practically [...]
Notes on the Clockwork Universe
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma on 18 September, 2009 | 2 Comments »
These are the notes on the talk Clockwork Universe – at the Planet Yoga studio, September ‘09.
Beings are the owner of their kamma
Heir to their kamma
Born of their kamma
Related through their kamma
and have kamma as their refuge
Kamma: IMPONDERABLE
The first thing to note every time you approach the topic of Karma is that is it listed [...]
Notes on the ‘Self’
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma, tagged bangkok, dhamma talk, Meditation Bangkok on 12 September, 2009 | 8 Comments »
Notes on ‘Welcome Back to Yourself’
Dhamma Talk, Planet Yoga September 2009
In the previous talk we had looked at the nature of ‘consciousness ‘ in Buddhism. When you see the word ‘consciousness’ it is a translation of the Pali term Vinyana (Vi`n`naana) – but it should really be called ‘cognizing’ or my own favourite description ‘conscious [...]
Notes on the Fridge Light
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma on 4 September, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Notes on The Refigerator Light
Consciousness is the hot topic in neurology, psychology and philosophy right now. It is something we cannot touch, cannot measure and cannot quantify, even though it is perhaps our most basic experience as a human being. What is it?
Thomas Aquinas philosophized three levels of consciousness
Vegetative
Sensitive
Rational
It is hard to imagine how anyone [...]
Notes on Sense Pleasures…
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma on 28 August, 2009 | 1 Comment »
So What is Wrong with Sense Desire ?
Planet Yoga talk Aug 27 2009
Phra Cittasamvaro
Religion takes a dim view of sense desire, and sense pleasure. Think of Christian monastics living in rough conditions, or Indian ascetics torturing themselves… Even in Buddhism, eating once a day, enduring the tough conditions of the jungle etc. Sense pleasure is [...]
Notes on ‘The Guaranteed Method’
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma on 21 August, 2009 | 3 Comments »
‘The Guaranteed Method’
Notes on the 3rd talk at Planet Yoga 2009
During the first two weeks we looked at the meditator’s duty of observation and mindfulness, while allowing ‘Wisdom’ or Panya to do the real problem solving work. Too many meditators try to solve life problems or try to figure everything out instead of getting on [...]
Notes on ‘The Relay’
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma on 14 August, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Last night’s dhamma talk at Planet Yoga was entitled ‘The Relay’ (loosely based on Sutta 24 of the Majjhima Nikhaya)
Principle
While the sutta itself is a little involved, it is our job as meditators to try and bring it to life, and find out how it can be applied to real experience.
The principle is quite straightforward. [...]
Notes on the ‘Way Of Wisdom’ first talk
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma on 7 August, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Last night’s event went well. Last year at Wat Yannawa our brand new amp and speaker system went up in smoke after 10 minutes. It is always tricky starting in a new location. Some of the late-comers were looking around for the venue for quite a while. It is certainly a large enough venue, cool [...]
Honest nature, Buddha nature
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma on 18 May, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In Buddhism we are given a good reason to be good – it helps concentrate the mind in meditation. Morality (Sila) makes the mind happy, and happiness (the good kind) aids meditation. Conversely bad behaviour agitates the mind and makes it cloudy and harder to meditate.
If this teaching is true then we can expect the [...]
Buddha Nature in Theravada
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma, HH Phakchok Rinpoche on 6 May, 2009 | 19 Comments »
Follow up to mention of Buddha Nature by HH Phakchok Rinpoche’s recent talk in Bkk. ‘Buddha Nature’ is an essential part of Mahayana teachings – does it have a place in Theravada? Or is it something new to the teaching of Buddhism?
Buddha Nature
You can look up general definitions for Buddha Nature easily enough on Wikipedia, [...]
I Have No Home
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma, Myth and Tale, Sayadaw U Jotika, tagged bangkok, Sayadaw, U Jotika on 30 March, 2009 | 13 Comments »
The Mp3 recording from Wednesday 25th March 09 when Venerbale Sayadaw U Jotika stopped off in Bangkok to give a (much too rare) public talk, hosted by his publisher DMG Books is posted below (English only segments)
Sayadaw will be back in Bangkok at the end of June ‘09. If you enter your email in the [...]
Notes from U Jotika’s last talk
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma, Sayadaw U Jotika, tagged bangkok, buddhism, Sayadaw on 23 March, 2009 | 1 Comment »
On Wednesday 25th March Sayadaw U Jotika will be making a second public appearance here in Bangkok.
Some notes from one of the attendees at Sayadaw U Jotika’s previous talk here:
Calming things down:
“Get things ‘inside’ yourself calmed down, then the outside calms down.”
E.G. No need to send one’s mind out towards wars or crimes etc as [...]
Samsara Sucks
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma on 22 February, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Buddhism has a clear take on the world. Ultimately, it sucks.
There are of course, lots of beautiful things in the world, and lots of beautiful qualities and states of mind that are worthy of being developed; but when you boil it all down, the world sucks and cannot provide lasting peace or happiness. It is a constant [...]
More about Meghiya
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma on 24 January, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Meghiya was the Buddha’s own attendant, before the position was taken over by Ananda. He was the closest to the Buddha, but still found that his mind was beset with huproductive thoughts when he went to meditate in an ideal grove.
There is a lesson here – we are always looking for the better teacher, trying [...]
The Beauty Queen
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma on 19 January, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
During the YBAT weekend retreat one of the stories told was the Beauty Queen. Like all parables, it uses images that the audience would have been able to relate to. Parhaps they had recently held a beauty queen competition… The analogy is one of ‘Mindfulness Immersed in Body’ which is the staple practise in Vipassana [...]
Kamma Sutta
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma, Karma & Rebirth on 14 October, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Second part of the notes on Kamma – Talk Wat Yannawa 2008
Samyutta Nikaya XXXV.145
Kamma Sutta
Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
For free distribution only.
Monks, I will teach you new & old kamma, the cessation of kamma, and the path of practise leading to the cessation of kamma. Listen and pay close attention. I will speak.
“Now [...]
Karma – Notes
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma, tagged dharma bangkok, dharma Thailand on 14 October, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Notes for the final talk at Wat Yannawa 2008. Topic : Karma
Sanskrit = Karma
Pali = kamma
But the word kama (with a long ‘a’ sound) means sense desire – usually referring to lust. This is where we get the sexual ‘kama sutra’ from.
Kamma is one of those topics in Buddhism that attracts a lot of attention, [...]
Last part on Disenchantment
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma on 10 October, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Two earlier posts started the topic, which formed the basis of a Talk at Wat Yannawa 2008. Below is the rest of the notes on the topic, which is a work in progress…
A Beautiful Thing
So the task is to accept and welcome disenchantment. Don’t take this to extremes by thinking about it. Thinking will tell [...]
Disenchantment Notes Cont..
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma, tagged meditation thailand on 6 October, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Continued notes on Disenchantment: Talk @ Wat Yannawa 2008
Satisfaction, Misery, Escape
This is a classic Buddhist teaching. That in all things there is the aspect of satisfaction, of misery and the escape therefrom.
That condition in the world owing to which pleasure arises, is satisfaction. If there were not this condition then beings would not be attached [...]
Defense Mechanisms
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma, tagged Dhamma, psychology, Thailand on 26 September, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Notes on the talk Facing the Tormentor, Wat Yannawa Sept 1008. Defense Mechanisms.
No set of talks on Buddhism is complete without mention of Dukkha - suffering. This time, in a departure from the sutta based talks, we looked at the defense mechanisms that were introduced to the world by Sigmund Freud, and developed by his more [...]
Right Efforts cont.
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma, tagged Meditation Bangkok on 22 September, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Continuing the Four Right Efforts from previous post
Abandoning:
Unwholesome States that have arisen should be abandoned. This sounds rather straightforward, and it is. But it is often difficult to recognise when you are entertaining an unwholesome mind state. A meditator can recognise anger as burning oneself, or spite as poisoning oneself … and then see the [...]
Four Right Efforts
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma, tagged dhamma bangkok on 20 September, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Samma Vayama – or Right Effort is the sixth part of the Eightfold Path in Buddhism, but is mostly overlooked with all the emphasis on Mindfulness and Concentration. It is a fundamental teaching of Buddhism, and is so clear, and so clearly correct, that it should be taught to all people in all schools, the [...]
Feeling Insight
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma, tagged Meditation Bangkok on 20 September, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Final notes on the talk on Feeling-tone (Vadana), Wat Yannawa 2008:
By stepping back from feelings of liking and disliking distance is gained from them, and one is not chased around trying to get plaesure and avoid pain as a direct stimulous-response mechanism. You maintain mindfulness. As with all mind factors, when you observe what is [...]
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