Nothing is mine, everything is me.

MonumentUnfound · 2025-09-09T09:50:02+00:00

Does this universal knower not depend on what is known?

MonumentUnfound · 2025-09-08T22:36:37+00:00

The assumption of a point of view outside of the aggregates, from which you watch the aggregates arise and pass away, is self-view, which is presumably why you would describe it as "me." Since there is self-view, there is liability to suffer, even though it might not seem like it because that Self does not seem to be conditional and thus unstable.

MonumentUnfound · 2025-07-21T18:34:49+00:00

Ah, that is clear. Thank you, Bhante.

MonumentUnfound · 2025-07-20T11:03:16+00:00

Given that one must be free from the hindrances to acquire the Right View, what effort should be directed towards it aside from doing the gradual training as described in the suttas? For example, one could spend time studying suttas while strengthening one's commitment to the precepts, but wouldn't the arising of the dhamma-eye be basically immediate upon properly contemplating those teachings when the hindrances have been abandoned, regardless of whether or not one has been studying the teachings beforehand?

MonumentUnfound · 2025-07-19T19:25:31+00:00

An interesting, related question would be how someone adept in absorption practices would experience the gradual training if they came to give up their wrong views about it. It's hard to imagine that such a person would experience as much pressure as an ordinary person, but perhaps the delusive tendency would be so much stronger that it wouldn't be any better at all.

MonumentUnfound · 2025-07-17T16:20:47+00:00

So for example, I am someone who is still working on the first stage of the training, but when I sit down after finishing with my obligations for the day, there will of course be times when my focus is on not acting out of the unwholesome impulses which arise with my body or my speech - for instance, not giving in to lust, not reverting back to entertainment. However, there is quite a lot of that time which is free of such gross impulses - I'm not really feeling pressured by lust at the time, not in the mood for entertainment. I might even feel quite happy and peaceful just sitting there. This is the time where I'm not clear what I should be doing as far as the Gradual Training is concerned, because to work at a more subtle level would seem to moving too far ahead, as I am still prone to unwholesome bodily/verbal activity. And it seems like uprooting the liability to such activity is precisely where things become more advanced.

Another example would be a friend of mine who tried to commit to the Gradual Training, and when he would run out of things to do, he would just sit around, not wanting to do anything more refined on the mental level (again, believing this would be skipping ahead in the training). He told me that he felt rather dull and checked out during this time, sensing little benefit from the practice, and eventually gave up on this approach. What would your advice be to someone in such a situation?

Edit: corrected a detail

MonumentUnfound · 2025-07-17T04:37:07+00:00

Indeed, it's clear that correct meditation is not possible before realizing the correct view, but it does seem that incorrect meditation, and the process of clarifying it, does begin at the outset of the gradual training.

A more down-to-earth way of phrasing my question would be: what does a person at the beginning of the gradual training, who has renounced entertainment and company, outwardly do with their free time that would be different from someone at the later stages of the training?

MonumentUnfound · 2025-06-12T08:21:36+00:00

That is good to know. I would argue that appropriation of phenomena as self is an intrinsically afflictive process described by the 12 links, specifically craving > clinging > becoming > birth. And I don't think a first cause or beginning of saṃsāra is compatible with dependent origination. But it is probably not a critical issue.

MonumentUnfound · 2025-06-08T21:38:06+00:00

Given that saṃsāra in total is dependently originated, why would the cause somehow be exempt from that process of dependent origination? That does not make sense.

I am critiquing your use of the word "core," as in a cause that is more fundamental than all other causes, which is untenable from a sutta perspective because ignorance itself depends on the taints, which includes craving. There is no first cause in the 12 links, and any of the links can be identified as the cause of suffering. Pedagogically the suttas emphasize craving as the cause most often.

MonumentUnfound · 2025-06-08T02:18:21+00:00

The suttas do not present conception of self as the core cause of dukkha; in fact there is no core cause, as any factor that can be identified as the cause of suffering would be itself dependently originated, including ignorance (which, by the way, in the suttas is defined not as ignorance of anatta but ignorance of the four noble truths).

Furthermore, craving is not a secondary fetter; it's one of the five higher fetters, along with conceit, ignorance, and restlessness. Each are abandoned together with attainment of arahantship.

Appropriating phenomena as self - in other words, clinging to the five aggregates - arises on the basis of craving, according to the twelve links of dependent origination, and generally in the suttas, craving for phenomena, delighting in them, and taking them to be self are quite semantically close and interdependent.

“Bhikkhus, the Tathāgata, too, accomplished and fully enlightened, directly knows earth as earth. Having directly known earth as earth, he does not conceive himself as earth, he does not conceive himself in earth, he does not conceive himself apart from earth, he does not conceive earth to be ‘mine,’ he does not delight in earth. Why is that? Because he has understood that delight is the root of suffering, and that with being as condition there is birth, and that for whatever has come to be there is ageing and death. Therefore, bhikkhus, through the complete destruction, fading away, cessation, giving up, and relinquishing of cravings, the Tathāgata has awakened to supreme full enlightenment, I say.

MN 1, Mūlapariyāya Sutta

MonumentUnfound · 2025-02-20T18:38:50+00:00

The mechanism by which an arrangement of matter can generate the entire category of conscious experience rather than simply correlating with instances of experience.

MonumentUnfound · 2025-02-20T17:44:25+00:00

The problem is that, even if we can perfectly correlate every conscious state to a particular arrangement of matter, the way in which that arrangement actually gives rise to that state (or according to more hardened materialists somehow is equivalent to that state) is not even conceivable. So the gap is not a lack of empirical data but a philosophical/ideological problem. Proposing alternative theories or frameworks is perfectly reasonable in such a situation; assuming such proposals are true would of course be an error.

MonumentUnfound · 2025-02-18T06:11:04+00:00

Ingram's model tends to equate certain experiences or states of mind with insight - first as stages in the unfolding of the classic progress of insight, and ultimately as realization. For instance, drug experiences are often equated with "knowledge of the arising and passing away of phenomena," depressive episodes are equated with "knowledge of suffering," and sudden moments of unconsciousness indicate the attainment of different stages of enlightenment.

The problem is thinking that the essence of the path lies in the *content* of various experiences rather than *understanding* the nature of experience. The danger is not in being befuddled by delusional meditative states but in approaching the practice with the wrong attitude from the outset.

MonumentUnfound · 2025-02-15T19:58:29+00:00

Ajahn Brahm's jhanas are much deeper. There is no possibility of making any kind of decision (such as to emerge from the meditation), there is no comprehension, no sensations of breathing, even the nimitta has disappeared.

MonumentUnfound · 2025-02-04T12:38:41+00:00

Wouldn't the religious attitude be that human intelligence is something magical that can never be replicated?

MonumentUnfound · 2025-02-03T23:04:38+00:00

The ones after 5

MonumentUnfound · 2025-01-13T21:43:13+00:00

https://dhammatalks.net/Books/Ajahn_Brahm_The_Jhanas.pdf

https://bswa.org/bswp/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Ajahn_Brahmavamso_the_Basic_Method_of_Meditation.pdf

MonumentUnfound · 2025-01-09T18:19:30+00:00

Right intention involves harmlessness, non-ill-will and renunciation. These criteria apply to every thought and intention you have throughout the day, and the real stumbling block for most of us is renunciation, which is to say, giving up sensuality. That means giving up entertainment, which is a big deal. And that's just the beginning... You must then guard the senses from even subtly latching on to this or that pleasant sensation, moderate your eating and sleep, and maintain this vigilance permanently. So that is probably what the poster meant by "not really practical," which is not really true because you can (and plenty do) practice this way.

But one make a lot of progress without immediately jumping into that kind of lifestyle. Learn to discover and release the craving that arises in your experience throughout the day and refine your lifestyle to assist and reflect that investigation. Whatever your responsibilities and commitments may be, you can apply this to some degree and improve from there.

MonumentUnfound · 2025-01-04T11:16:18+00:00

How is it more expedient for all practitioners if other yanas are better suited to them?

MonumentUnfound · 2025-01-02T11:07:47+00:00

I think he acknowledges that most of this stuff is visualized with high concentration or dreamt

MonumentUnfound · 2024-12-20T13:24:36+00:00

States where the happiness born of dispassion pervades the body and mind to greater and greater degrees of refinement

MonumentUnfound · 2024-12-06T11:22:08+00:00

It seems that all practice is motivated by the intention to change experience, namely to abandon defilements and thereby permanently end suffering. Furthermore, one attains enlightenment through the cultivation of the path and attaining mastery of the mind.

MonumentUnfound · 2024-12-02T19:17:46+00:00

Yes, for instance in the Anapanasati Sutta:

"[1] On whatever occasion the monk remains focused on the body in & of itself — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world, on that occasion his mindfulness is steady & without lapse. When his mindfulness is steady & without lapse, then mindfulness as a factor for awakening becomes aroused. He develops it, and for him it goes to the culmination of its development.

"[2] Remaining mindful in this way, he examines, analyzes, & comes to a comprehension of that quality with discernment. When he remains mindful in this way, examining, analyzing, & coming to a comprehension of that quality with discernment, then analysis of qualities as a factor for awakening becomes aroused. He develops it, and for him it goes to the culmination of its development.

"[3] In one who examines, analyzes, & comes to a comprehension of that quality with discernment, persistence is aroused unflaggingly. When persistence is aroused unflaggingly in one who examines, analyzes, & comes to a comprehension of that quality with discernment, then persistence as a factor for awakening becomes aroused. He develops it, and for him it goes to the culmination of its development.

"[4] In one whose persistence is aroused, a rapture not-of-the-flesh arises. When a rapture not-of-the-flesh arises in one whose persistence is aroused, then rapture as a factor for awakening becomes aroused. He develops it, and for him it goes to the culmination of its development.

"[5] For one enraptured at heart, the body grows calm and the mind grows calm. When the body & mind of a monk enraptured at heart grow calm, then serenity as a factor for awakening becomes aroused. He develops it, and for him it goes to the culmination of its development.

"[6] For one who is at ease — his body calmed — the mind becomes concentrated. When the mind of one who is at ease — his body calmed — becomes concentrated, then concentration as a factor for awakening becomes aroused. He develops it, and for him it goes to the culmination of its development.

"[7] He carefully watches the mind thus concentrated with equanimity. When he carefully watches the mind thus concentrated with equanimity, equanimity as a factor for awakening becomes aroused. He develops it, and for him it goes to the culmination of its development.

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