How You Develop Mindfulness-of-breathing To Absorption (Knowing & Seeing – Talk 1 by Pa-Auk Sayadaw)

This is my reading of the first talk from the book Knowing and Seeing by the most Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw read by me and is a gift not for sale / to be sold. It is from the Fifth Revised Edition via: More info:

Neither Pleasant Nor Unpleasant Follow-up To “Engaging The Abhidhamma With Tony Bernhard”

This is a clip of my comments to Tony Bernhard about not needing to believe nor disbelieve fantastical accounts from the suttas during “Engaging the Abhidhamma” live event. But most of this is actually my newly recorded follow-up to musings to Tony on the “neither pleasant nor unpleasant” portion of vedanā (hedonic/feeling tone) not seemingContinue reading “Neither Pleasant Nor Unpleasant Follow-up To “Engaging The Abhidhamma With Tony Bernhard””

Lankavatara Sutra: Notes And Questions

Shortcut to this blog post: https://tinyurl.com/redpinelanka If remembering correctly the only text the legendary Bodhidharma took with him to the East was the Lankavatara Sutra. That in itself ought be enough to read it. So after urging of a Dharma friend; the perception were it seems Chan has moved away from [amazon affiliate program link]:Continue reading “Lankavatara Sutra: Notes And Questions”

Buddhist Cosmology Structure And Access With Ajahn Punnadhammo

On August 23, 2023, I spoke mainly with Ajahn Punnadhammo about Buddhist cosmology and related topics. Part of the Ajahn’s comments towards the end dropped from the high quality recording, but have been patched in from a backup recording. There’s also short portions of distortion due to wind to bear with. My pre-recording notes manyContinue reading “Buddhist Cosmology Structure And Access With Ajahn Punnadhammo”

Initiating Mindfulness To The Fore As The Foremost Meditation Instruction

What the heck does “parimukhaṁ” mean? It’s mentioned in classic Buddhist meditation instructions and is often translated as something like “bring mindfulness to the fore.” Some other translations of this Pali word “parimukhaṁ” — found in the essential Satipaṭṭhāna and Ānāpānasati Suttas — are: More on this topic from different angles later but first variousContinue reading “Initiating Mindfulness To The Fore As The Foremost Meditation Instruction”

Somewhat Advanced (Yet Mostly Mundane) Practices

This article is a hodgepodge collection of various ideas and approaches to particular challenges in various areas of experience. It collects prior Integrating Presence blog posts along with new material. Challenges: Family, Ex-partners, difficult folks and their social media Are you a cyber stalker? Do you check in on what your ex is posting onContinue reading “Somewhat Advanced (Yet Mostly Mundane) Practices”

Questions And Points Put To Leigh Brasington On “Psychic Powers” In The Suttas

March 23, 2023 Update: See below for Leigh’s responses via email. I may or may not give some future response to Leigh’s responses Honor and respect to Leigh Brasington, not only for his extensive teachings on the jhanas, but for all the thoughts, teachings and practices surrounding the Sāmaññaphala Sutta (DN 2) during the FebruaryContinue reading “Questions And Points Put To Leigh Brasington On “Psychic Powers” In The Suttas”

Travel And Moving To Expand Perception And Awareness

Shortcut: https://tinyurl.com/travelforexpansion The pitch for this minimally edited February 16, 2023 Insight Timer live event: I invite participants and expats to share travel wisdom while I share what I’ve noticed about Denmark so far comparing and contrasting with the United States where I’ve lived my whole life. Then using all this to explore how toContinue reading “Travel And Moving To Expand Perception And Awareness”

The Noble Truth Of Dukkha: Buddhism And Beyond With Randi Green (Part 2)

“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)”

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)”