“Now this, monks, is the Noble Truth of dukkha: Birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, death is dukkha; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, & despair are dukkha; association with the unbeloved is dukkha; separation from the loved is dukkha; not getting what is wanted is dukkha. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are dukkha.” — SN 56.11 In part one Randi and I talked aboutContinue reading “The Noble Truth Of Dukkha: Buddhism And Beyond With Randi Green (Part 2)”
Category Archives: dharma
Trauma, Teachings And Textual Interpretations: Buddhism And Beyond With Randi Green (Part 1)
At the beginning of February 2023 Randi Green and I did a couple more recordings on somewhat Buddhist related topics in addition to our chat New Inner Domain Races and New Intervention Protocol. Besides the topics listed in the title this first one starts off addressing dukkha, but we really wait until the second chatContinue reading “Trauma, Teachings And Textual Interpretations: Buddhism And Beyond With Randi Green (Part 1)”
Love And Brahmaviharas | Feb 9, 2023 “Meditation Q & A With Wendy Nash” #05
In this fifth installment of the ongoing live series with Wendy Nash inquiring into meditation practice on and off the cushion we explored some of what can skillfully be conveyed about love, and/or more specifically, the four sublime expression of love aka the Brahmaviharas. It is after all February which is often associated with love (orContinue reading “Love And Brahmaviharas | Feb 9, 2023 “Meditation Q & A With Wendy Nash” #05”
Translations And Musings On The Last Words Of The Buddha
Not due to its prevalence of distortion, but due to the number of misattributed Buddha quotes (to name one reason in particular) it seems prudent to take a closer look at perhaps one of the most important utterances of the historical Buddha: the Tathāgata’s last words passed down in Pali as: “vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā”Continue reading “Translations And Musings On The Last Words Of The Buddha”
Meditation Support Language: Some Alternatives For “Ignore”
Samatha is one meditation method, training or technique for cultivating samadhi. Often times taught with a single meditation object, it’s been said samatha is a practice of non-attention. One trains to collect, gather, unify, steady, stabilize, settle attention and the mind — not flitting from object to object, from noticing disparate phenomena after phenomena. SometimesContinue reading “Meditation Support Language: Some Alternatives For “Ignore””
Towards Mastering Holiday “Celebrations” | 12/21/2022 “Meditation Q & A With Wendy Nash” #04
In this fourth installment of the ongoing live series with Wendy Nash inquiring into meditation practice on and off the cushion, we planed to, and did look quite a bit at “…Christmas, family, tense conversations, New Year, alcohol, partying – and how they relate to meditation and ethics.” Amongst other topics we also look atContinue reading “Towards Mastering Holiday “Celebrations” | 12/21/2022 “Meditation Q & A With Wendy Nash” #04″
Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu Questions
[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 IContinue reading “Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu Questions”
Ambiguity And Uncomfortable Truths | 11/30/2022 “Meditation Q & A With Wendy Nash” #03
Before recording this third installment of this ongoing live series inquiring into meditation practice on and off the cushion Wendy said, and I agreed, unless there are live questions we perhaps ought to chat about “how to practice with ambiguity, uncomfortable truths, people we love but don’t like their ways or words, navigating guilt, shame,Continue reading “Ambiguity And Uncomfortable Truths | 11/30/2022 “Meditation Q & A With Wendy Nash” #03”
Irregular Inquires — ‘Let None Deceive Another’
‘Let none deceive another, or despise any being in any state.’ from the metta sutta Does this line in the metta Sutta — ‘Let none deceive another, or despise any being in any state.’ — mean action should be taken (to prevent deception)? If so, how and to what extent? (Deception often happens as protectionContinue reading “Irregular Inquires — ‘Let None Deceive Another’”
What Is Meditation? | 11/2/2022 “Meditation Q & A With Wendy Nash” #02
We primarily address what meditation actually is while spiraling up, around and back on this topic to also include, amongst others: examples of what is and isn’t meditation; mind training; intention; familiarity with the mind; heart qualities; wisdom; aspiration; samatha; ego; Chittamatra or Yogācāra via the statement “emotions are thoughts”; scoundrels; conceit; foolishness; belonging; emotional mirroring; etc.