[12/10/2022 UPDATE: This post was originally published 1/23/2022. I recently discovered that at that time I did not include the audio file here for the podcast so I had to change the blog post publishing date in order for WordPress to push this out as a new podcast.]
Five short excerpts of some questions I asked from the 8/11/2021 Ajahn Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu zoom event with Mid-America Buddhist Association about potential paradox with the Cetana Sutta; advice for preserving and/or unifying various Buddhist schools & lineages; strategies for fear of annihilation; on effort involved with vittaka & the relationship with vicara; and if there’s “Right Jhana” and the Buddha’s instructions for Jhana
The questions individually:
- About the potential paradox of some suttas instructing various uses of will with the refrain of “no need for an act of will” in the Cetana Sutta: An Act of Will:
2. About pros and cons for both maintaining individual Buddhist schools and lineages and for unifying them:
3. I wonder about how to deal with fear of annihilation even if cognitively knowing this is an extreme:
4. I stumble with my question that I wrote before hand but didn’t read verbatim: How does effort for vitakka wax & wane? How does vitakka turn into, or allow, or go along with vicāra?
On effort involved with vittaka & the relationship with vicara:
5. On if there is a “Right Jhana” mentioned in the suttas and if the Buddha ever gave specific instructions for achieving Jhana:
Full event:
Audio: Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu Questions
Or listen via Insight Timer (app or website)
The raw unedited YouTube transcription of this podcast:
august 11th
2021 zoom event with mid-america
buddhist association these questions
deal with the potential paradox with the
chaitanya suta
advice for preserving and are unifying
various buddhist schools and lineages
strategies for fear of annihilation
on effort involved with futaka and the
relationship with vachara and if there’s
right jhana and the buddha’s
instructions for jhana i was always
Jhana and the Buddhas instructions
confused a little bit by kind of the
seeming paradox between
that
approach almost seems like there’s will
involved but then the passage of
um
so such and such no need for an act of
will and then it progresses and so
there’s no need for an act of will
um i guess how do we is that a paradox
if it is how do is it does it need to be
resolved or is it was he just teaching
to um giving that teaching to someone
who needed to hear that more than the
other teach you know
i think so i think in that particular
case he was dealing with people who were
you know who were afraid of putting much
too much effort he says well okay you
can do this and then it will naturally
lead to the next and it will naturally
lead to the next
but i’d say the best way to resolve that
is to actually exert an actor will
and then see it to which to what extent
your active will is actually getting in
the way in which i need the extent which
is helpful
Pros and cons of Buddhism
ah john how about some
pros and cons to
all the different lineages and schools
within buddhism and then maybe some pros
and cons for
finding commonalities and unity
and concord between them
okay
my main concern is okay which which one
do i feel that i’m going to get the most
out of let me focus on that and let
everybody else do what they want
lovely yes
that way you don’t have to disagree
Fear of annihilation
talking about the the death part um
what about either during death or
otherwise there’s this generalized fear
of annihilation or wiping out of
existence even though
intellectually knowing that’s an extreme
are there any suggestions or advice
for that
okay well this way the board said it’s
good to develop conviction ahead of time
that okay the buddha wouldn’t lie to you
you’re not going to be wiped out
but there is that fear okay if i can’t
stand my body where am i going to stay
where am i going to go
and that’s why it’s good to have had
some experience dealing
with some of the formless states in in
meditation where you’re just with a
sense of space or just for the sense of
knowing it’s okay i can focus on this as
my foundation
my teacher had a student one time she
was an older woman
and she was sitting and meditating one
night and this voice came into her head
and said you’re going to die tonight
and she thought to herself well if i’m
going to die might as well die
meditating so she continued meditating
and she said it was like her house was
like her excuse her body was like a
house on fire that
no matter where she went in the body she
couldn’t figure out find a space that
would be comfortable
then she remembered she could think of
space
so she thought of space
space permeating the body space around
the body and she just took space as her
as her object
and she stayed there for quite a while
then she came back and everything back
in the body had settled back down in
normal so it turns out that the voice
was wrong
but she learned an important lesson
maybe you feel it
you can learn how not to identify with
this need to have a body and it can
spill still by the space and not feel
that you’re going to be annihilated
so it’s good to develop that skill
Effort
and then your definitions for that how
does effort for
vitaca like how does it come about
and then how does it relate to
the chara um like
sustained
okay
go ahead when the buddha is talking
about those two things we’re talking
with john he says that’s what i was
talking about in terms of verbal
fabrication
and this is something we’re doing all
the time we’re always talking to
ourselves
it’s like like you’re suddenly when
you’re going to do johnny you suddenly
engage and we thought can we shut up
we’re already doing it anyhow the
question is how can you take these these
activities of the mind and devote them
to your meditation topic
and so this particular case that we
talked about or directed thought was i’m
going to try to keep the breath in mind
and i’m not going to focus on any other
topic if i do wander away i’m going to
bring it back
wandering and bring it back that’s what
that got
and then we charted evaluating is how
does the breath feel does long breathing
feel good this short breathing feel good
deep shoulder heavy light once you’ve
got breathing it feels good
how do you maintain it again you’re
talking to yourself
once once you’re maintaining it how do i
let it spread
so i can get the most out of it doesn’t
get a sense of full body awareness it
feels really good
and then again how can i maintain that
and once you get so that you’re there
okay then you can drop it and just be
with that sensation full body breath
with just simply the perception of
breath pulling humans another thing
Right and Wrong
about uh janna did did the buddha ever
say you know there’s right samadhi but
was there right janna too and if not is
there uh reasons or maybe uh guesses for
that and and also how did he
t
did he teach
jonna specifically or was it just
because a lot of passages just mentioned
you know
enter into first john
into second jonna
so if he did how did he teach it
specifically
okay in response to your first question
um
there’s nothing where the buddhist talks
about wrong china but there surpasses
ronando talks about it
he says you can have a jhana focused on
greed you can have a china focused on
sexual desire you can have a genre
focused on anger
and these are all wrong
in other words you can really be
absorbed in that kind of thinking
you know it’s wrong because
the definition of right ghana is
you know
um
you know secluded from
sensuality secluded from unskillful
mental qualities
so yeah there’s there’s such thing as
right and wrong in terms of how the
buddha taught it
i would say two things one is his
instructions on breath meditation or how
you get the mind into china
and secondly his instructions are right
mindfulness
you know staying focused on the body in
and of itself hardened alert and mindful
putting aside greed and distress and
reference to the world that’s how you do
it
and then it goes on and said when you
when you’d like go up on skillful
qualities there should be a sense of
pleasure in the mind then he says this
is when you let it spread
now he doesn’t say how you let that
spread i think this is where john lee is
very helpful he talks about thinking of
breath energies in the body kind of
opening up the channels through which
the sense of ease can go through the
body
but yeah there are instructions in the
canon about these are the these are the
topics you can focus on you can get in
general based on the breath you can get
genre based on method the buddha doesn’t
go into that in nearly the detail that
he does with the breath
but it can be done
Integrating Presence 