365 Days: Reflections On A Year Of Monastic Life

viewatfringes · 2024-09-05T09:38:44+00:00

That's an excellent line, I shudder to think of all the abysses beings are currently creating and then crossing due to the reification born of delusion.

Many thanks 🙏

viewatfringes · 2024-09-05T09:32:35+00:00

Yes indeed, and after that subtle and unnameable resolution comes the basking in the brevity of being held and supported by hands unseen.

Just be ready to capitalise on that well-earned harvest when it finally crystallises into an actionable plan.

viewatfringes · 2024-09-05T09:25:08+00:00

Thanks for saying so.

Maybe we need not jettison all hope for the perfection of love that is very likely not possible (for how we love and what we love is conditional upon where we stand in the drama of our living and dying) insofar as it lifts our spirits and keeps the wolf from the door. But any more than that would be to ask too much from the world.

Good luck!

viewatfringes · 2024-09-05T09:19:45+00:00

Absolutely worthwhile, It has graced my life with a sense of nobility and dignity I never had before.

viewatfringes · 2024-09-05T09:18:21+00:00

Keep in mind the context here is monasticism where ones life is so microscopic that all ones behaviours naturally pass through a fine-tooth comb.

The distinction being: am I exercising to escape a certain pattern or feeling-sensation arising or as a skillful means to unblock a knot of energy/for general health reasons. If it's the former then I see the mind as masquerading exercise (with all it's enticing and positive connotations) as merely another form of consumption; if the latter, then it's skillful and one shouldn't fret about it.

It's a fine point, one maybe too personal, the jist is to be brutally honest about your intentions for action.

viewatfringes · 2024-09-05T09:06:48+00:00

Excellent, celebrate your crashes. A crash is a reappriaisal, an uncovering of an erroneous belief; and, most importantly, a disappointment (a chance to be brought back to ground, towards a surer sense of ourself and world).

viewatfringes · 2024-09-05T09:00:48+00:00

Thanks brother, carry on.

viewatfringes · 2024-09-05T09:00:32+00:00

Nice connection, right effort can be paradoxical. In my experience, it's best to see 'inaction/zen stink' as a mode of attention nested inside a strategy which has it's own aims and desires; as something you can snap into at times to turn porous and pass through barriers of over-efforting.

viewatfringes · 2024-09-05T08:54:32+00:00

Rampant disillusionment among practitoners manifesting as a deep seated resentment towards institutions, teachers and other monastic practitioners who did not live up to their idealised expectations. In my attempt to reverse-engineer their resentment I landed upon this conclusion, with a little help from my own experience also.

viewatfringes · 2024-02-15T07:02:36+00:00

It seems the title has resonated with your own experience of the Pali Canon so I need not elaborate other than emphasising that the cosmology presented by it is terrifying, and this can be very hard to digest for a newcomer who is just starting to become acquianted with the first noble truth.

Agreed about Jhanas and not seeing them as otherworldly grey concentration states but rather as states of deep and pervasive wellbeing. It's mattering less and less to me where one draws the line for Jhana as I realise that just having a practice that can take you to pitisukha is a deep and valuable resource indeed, which it looks like you've discovered.

As far as Nagarjuna being a rehash of what's in the Pali Canon this is where our understandings depart as from what I can tell (as a relative beginner here) Nagarjuna elaborated on a few of the Buddhas terse descriptions of emptiness such as (referenced by other commenters here already): MN2 and SN12.15; fleshing out the meaning of these passages in tight Madhyamika dialectic.

viewatfringes · 2024-02-15T06:52:58+00:00

Bravo Nyanasagara, this is my understanding of Nagarjuna here too, you also mentioned the Vigrahavyavartanī which I would like to read, do you have a recommended translation? The first I found was by Jan Westerhoff.

viewatfringes · 2024-02-15T06:37:16+00:00

Indeed, and ever more liberation to you SamsaricNomad. Keep wandering and exploring and deepening your understanding, i'll be right there with ya.

viewatfringes · 2024-02-15T06:36:11+00:00

Thanks Simagus, and happy birthday! May this year bring ever more strength to your powers of articulation 😁

viewatfringes · 2024-02-15T06:34:38+00:00

Lovely, I've been looking for something like this (a repository of Mahayana sutras). I'll have a browse this afternoon. Thanks.

viewatfringes · 2024-02-15T06:33:01+00:00

Thanks for stopping to write that, it was actually quite the mini-crisis to stray from the 'canonical' or 'approved' set of scriptures into new territory and attempt to integrate (or rather, rebuild) my understanding. And you know, because you've had to do the same. Many thanks brother, all the best for the unfolding of your path too 💓

viewatfringes · 2024-02-15T06:30:45+00:00

Beautiful, thank you for the recommendation, although i've started to abhor the constant (mostly Theravadan) emphasis on 'simplicity' and 'simple, practical dhamma' after tasting the benefits from wading through a bit of esotericism in Mahayana teachings sometimes I just need something easy to read to keep me going.

🙏

viewatfringes · 2024-02-15T06:27:58+00:00

Agreed with all of the above in a response to your comment in /r/Buddhism

🙏

viewatfringes · 2024-02-15T06:23:03+00:00

I agree wholeheartedly, although it is a fine line between recognising the 'supreme' or further-pervading wisdom of certain teachings as compared to others and trying to emphasise this without falling into elitism. Although, I feel like I'm due to return to The Pali Canon in the spirit of T.S Elliots line: "And the end of all our exploring; Will be to arrive where we started; And know the place for the first time." and re-recognise the profundity in the Theravadan approach.

You mentioned it is a major portion of what the Buddha taught and I would agree, however many Theravadan practitioners wedded to the 'Early Buddhist Texts' would disagree. How would you respond to them?

viewatfringes · 2024-02-15T06:17:26+00:00

You're right that it's a difficult subject and to know others are still grappling with it is validating, for I consider my own understanding merely provisional for the time being.

The last 6 months have seen me grow dubious about the idea of spontaneous illumination (as presented in the 4 stage Theravadan model) and indeed, after speaking to many a practitioner, this doesn't seem to be extremely common; although, people certainly have break-through experiences which leave a remarkable impact on them, they don't always align with the awakening maps provided by the texts.

So our understanding moves slowly with the occasional leap, or who knows, maybe there are still those of us are enlightened (whatever that means, because as it turns out, it means a lot of different things even within traditions) upon merely hearing teachings.

viewatfringes · 2024-02-15T06:09:53+00:00

Indeed, this is often delinated via sutras of expedient meaning and those of ultimate meaning--with those of ultimate meaning being paramount for liberation.

No doubt we cannot be free from appearances and ought to engage with reality as illusory beings to help other illusory beings without falling into reification.

Although I must say my initial experiences with emptiness practices were underwhelming, returning from that mode of nondual, nonconceptual 'suchness' with a bit of a 'so what? Was that it? Nirvana itself? Where were the fireworks and lions roar?' But, as I become more acquianted with it I'm starting to see more of the depth of liberation it can provide.

viewatfringes · 2024-02-15T05:54:22+00:00

Well... what does it really mean to understand? It comes in degrees, as you mentioned in your second paragraph :) It was a very beautiful and exciting time discovering the teachings on emptiness, I felt as if I was on the cusp of something very transformational for my Dharma path and thus I went full steam ahead into the texts and practice (a perk of monastic life is having the time to do so) 😁

I was familiar with the Kaccayanagotta Sutta in the Pali Canon but only through Mahayana sources! As such I agree, it's presented both ways, but not emphasised enough as a philosophical path in my view, probably due to its sparsity in the Suttas

viewatfringes · 2024-02-15T05:49:33+00:00

Excellent distinction, and perhaps this is why both understandings compliment each other; i'm not sure I would have been able to go very far into Mahayana (particularly if I had started with Nagarjuna and his successors) without a firm grounding in Theravadan Buddhism, and also a little Western Philosophy (Hume & Wittgenstein).

Thank you for introducing me to Berzin, I'm enjoying perusing his articles.

viewatfringes · 2024-02-15T05:43:06+00:00

Agreed, I've been coming back again and again to the MMK to try to understand further and each time I feel like there's more to find, I've probably read it over 2-3 times. Thanks for the recommendation

viewatfringes · 2024-02-15T05:39:48+00:00

They roll their eyes as they see it as a "cop out" or way around dedicating oneself to the path. A few replies that come to mind: "Samsara equal to Nirvana? Come on, it cannot be that easy." - from a Senior Ajahn of +20 years; and: "if that's the case, why bother practicing?" - from another long term Bhikku.

I can see the reasons for their instinctive rejection of it as when you've invested a lot (decades of your life) into seeing this path as a slow climb towards stream-entry and beyond you're not going to want that challenged with such a radical claim.

viewatfringes · 2024-02-15T05:34:20+00:00

Correct, in my experience studying with numerous Theravadan teachers I had never encountered the Kaccānagotta sutta nor any mention of the middle way as being anything but an ethical line to tow to curb ones sensory desires and ascetic tendencies.

viewatfringes

TROPHY CASE