buddhism before the theravada

7/31/2019 Buddhism Before the Theravada

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Buddhism = Wake-upism

Buddhaghosa - Visuddhimagga (pali book) - founder of Theravada as we know itAbhidhamma - Points of Controversy

Ancient India:

Republican states -> monarchyAgrarian -> centralized city economy

3rd bce - Asoka - unification of northern IndiaNot far off from the Buddha's death483 BCE is classic, dated on a Sri Lankan text - no reason to date it here at allHis death is probably 400 BCE - much closer to Asokan period than before.

Religious ferment wrong word for what Buddhism isSense we have of the religious in the west is not really what they have in Indian subcontinenteven to this day. Orthodoxes: what you subscribe to in belief systems. Christian Catechism, forexample. What it means to be a Christian: set of props you believe in.

In India are not orthodoxes but also praxes: what you do rather than what you believe. Forexample, Hindus more defined by what they do than what they believe. Hindus from north andsouth have very different belief systems. Do I perform my religious rituals and rites? is morerelevant.

Hinduism did not exist at the time of the Buddha. What did exist was Brahmanism. Religion ofhighest class of Indian society: Brahmans: scholars and priests. Aria: noble. (Aryan society.)By being born into a particular race of people. More noble if at top of pile in Indian society.

Sanskritic languages in the north (Aryan from Caucasus). Dravidian languages in the south(displaced original pop). Pali is a northern Indian Middle Indo-Aryan dialect. Sanskritic. Vedais an ancientIndian dialectic. Hindi is a modern Indian dialect.

Stratified into 4 classes: Brahmans at the top, group at bottom which was still Aryan, and then anon-Aryan group below that (became untouchables). This was not caste, this was class. (??)Varna were the classes of Indian society. Caste is Portuguese, not Indian word.

Priests and scholarsRulers and warriors (highest during Buddhas time) hence claim that he was born into thisclassMercantile class (wealth generators)Menials (all the laboring work)Those outside the system: indigenous, displaced society

Vedic people people of the Vedas people of these four classesVedas are not philosophical very practical (poems/hymns) revealed texts

Sanskrit becomes lingua franca of ancient Indian society.

Highly stratified society. No movement between strata.

Rita: the cosmic order


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Dharma: law, order, the way things are, the way to the universe

Could keep order (rita) through ritual (ritual animal sacrifice). Ancient forms probably hadhuman sacrifice of those outside Aryan society. All by time of Buddha had been transmuted intosymbolic sacrifices all done around ritual fires. Appease the devas.

Buddha demotes devas: theyre not outside samsara. Doesnt dispense with them, puts them intheir place.

A society that considers itself noble by birth. To keep order going, has ritual as itsdominant element. Everything governed by ritual.

Suastika: living well (su=good, asti=to be)Duastika: not living well

Prefix du (as in dukkha) means dirty, unpleasant, painful. Kha means space. Dukkha is adirty space, unpleasant space to be in. Referred to the hole to which an axle fitted in a wheel.Hole filled with dirt, grease, and grit, and went round and round. Also a wound inflicted by an

arrow. Sense of lack as well. Suppurating.

Suffering does not do dukkha justice. Suffering is a very, very inadequate translation. Itmeans anything unpleasant or qualified by lack in your life.

Dukkha is what youre experiencing right now. Anything you find you want to have changed atthis moment in time as you sit there. I wish the chairs were more comfortable. I wish it weresunnier and cooler. Not something happening in the future. Its happening right now.Fundamental aspect of human experience.

Could avoid dukkha in ancient vedic society by performing the rituals.

Sankara literally meant a religious ritual you engaged in. A habit.

If you performed it well, it was good karma. If badly, bad karma. Create cosmic harmony/orderor fail.

Such societies always produce dissidents. In India, they run off to the forests. Different visionof the good life, purity, not be reborn in unpleasant circumstances, etc. Set of literature Buddha quotes it, deliberately misquotes to make fun of it Upanishads (to draw close and tolisten). Teachings from individual teachers, usually in a forest setting. (a few womenteachers, too)

Interested in knowing what future rebirths will be like. Want to know about mechanism of

reincarnation. Nature of the universe. Nature of the human individual and relation withuniverse.

Brahman = nature of things (to expand to be expansive)In the individual = Atman (same nature of the Brahman) universal within the individual

Both considered to be unchanging, fixed. In Upanishads, change is considered to be maya,illusion. The real is unchanging. Anything that was changing was unreal. The phenomenalworld we inhabit is unreal.


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Same idea coming up in Greek society. Plato, Socrates speculation about the real: thatwhich didnt change. Throughout the history of eastern and western thought, there has been acertain revenge against time (Nietzsche). Anything within time is unreal.

Brahman is defined as pure consciousness in some of the Up texts. Atman is defined as pure

consciousness. See the lack of difference between the two. Pursued in Advaita tradition.These ideas infect later Buddhism. They are Brahmanical or later Hindu ideas that reinsertthemselves into the thought of Buddhist philosophy.

Two metaphysical realities. This is the one Buddha deliberately attacks.

Hume: I cant find anything in my experience that is unchanging. Any one fixed point I canaccess empirically. This is the doctrine of anatta (lit not self, NOT no self).

Later Vedic period gave rise to Up texts.http://www.shraddhananda.com/The_Poetry_of_Creation_Rig_Veda_Book_10_Hymn_129.htmlThe Buddha uses this in a particular text, the Aggaa Sutta (On Knowledge of Beginnings).

http://www.urbandharma.org/pdf/AggannaSutta.pdf There are elements of the Creation Poemmisquoted deliberately. The Agganna Sutta is a huge joke that Theravada takes seriously,because they forgot the context in which it was made: attacking this particular piece of Vedicliterature. Creation Poem is open series of questions based in origin of the universe.

This is the way you should hear Bs teaching: in relation to cultural stuff but in relation toturning away from the metaphysical and bringing it to the actual, to what and where weactually live.

Taking it out of consolation of metaphysics and rooting it in this world. We stray outside ourhabitats the moment we start looking for metaphysical explanations for things. We get nowhere.Tevijja Sutta. http ://www .dhammaweb .net/Tipitaka /read .php ? id =13 Points up the uselessness

of the metaphysical. Described as a staircase to a house built at a crossroad with no housearound it. Literally goes nowhere.

[Vasettha, it is just as if a man were to build a staircase for a palace at a cross-roads. Peoplemight say : This staircase for a palace - do you know whether the palace will face east or west,north or south, or whether it will be high, low or of medium height? and he would say : No.

And they might say : Well then, you don't know or see what kind of a palace you are buildingthe staircase for? and he would say : No. Does not the talk of that man turn out to be stupid?Certainly, Reverend Gotama.]

What Buddha says maps on to Vedic or Upanishadic tradition. Buddha probably studied inthese yoga traditions. Inherits this stuff.

Buddha never occurs in any of the texts. Ever. That word is a later appellation. Applied tosomebody.

Biography of the BuddhaNot a biography. More a hagiography. Biography of saints in Xtianity tells you about what it isto be a Christian than it ever tells you about the actual life of the person. Virtually nobiographical details. Small bits we have are probably accurate since they dont lend anything.
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First biography written 500 years after he died. Just on the cusp on Mahayana. Changes occurto the nature of the figure we call Buddha.

When we go back to the early texts, engagement with society, we find a different figure from themythology. If you read in Pali, you get a sense of the personality. Makes joke. Dont comeacross well in English. Puns between words in Sanskrit and their derivations in Pali to make

points disparagement of the earlier tradition.

Deep level of social critique. Ethical critique of his society. Stratification. People consideringthemselves to be noble by birth. B engages that and teaches that being a Brahman meansnothing about birth but totally about action, comportment in daily life. (Achieving Arhatship.)

Four noble truths (bad translation) is a joke directed at brahmanical society. Ariyasaccni.Saccani can just mean what is but it means the truth in the Vedas. These are the noble is-nesses. Turn out not to be the immutable truths of the Vedas and Brahmans. The truth is:dukkha. Takes it from the metaphysical, places it in the real. They look outward in the sayings,and the metaphysics of the gods, and the rituals performed around it. B brings it right back andsays you are experiencing dukkha: thats your nobility.

Ariyasaccni. Thats appended later. four noble truths is the worst translation FourEnnoblingTruths. Were ennobled by inquiring into dukkha. Discerning the cause, the origin ofdukkha. By beginning to realize its possibility of stopping. Dukkha niroda the third so-calledtruth. Niroda = to stop leaking. Unedifying images. A kind of incontinence that everyone issuffering from. Fetters, hindrances leaking out.

B was speaking about ordinary field. Have to shore up a field to stop it from leaking. Niroda.Stop it from leaking. So you dont lose all the fertilizer (manure). Were stopping the leaking ofthe crap in a different way. By Visuddhi, purity. Different from the Brahman use of the word.

Ennobling activity walking away, way-making. Path seems to be a straight line, march from A

to B. Eightfold Path. Not a path. Complete interaction, interweaving to make our way throughthe world.

QuestionsBuddha is part of Brahmanical society. Used to refer to a seer. Application of a wording at amuch later date to authenticate him within a tradition, back in Indian culture.

Buddha is far more radical than the character that has come down to us. Using the wordBuddha deradicalizes him. One of the good things about the word is that it offers a challenge.If the Buddha is an awakened one, then were fast asleep. That defines sangsaric behavior:sleepwalking. The figure we refer to as the Buddha has woken up to how things are.

Awakening is process rather than Big Bang. Not striking light on the road to Damascus. Mini-awakenings. We wake up, then fall back to sleep. The longer you can keep it going is whatcharacterizes you as a Buddha or an Arahant. Ongoing process.

Nibbana as a big place to end up at. Nibbana is a verb! (extinguishing, blowing out)

Dukkha is like slowly rubbing your arm against a brick wall. Its not stabbing pain. Gets moreand more painful as we do it.


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Buddha did not speak Pali. He spoke a northern Indian dialect. Maybe a number of them.When you go through the Pali you find dialects from other Indian lgs in there.

Pali was an attempt at a later period period of the compilation of the texts to find ahomogenized language that would encompass all those different dialects hes using. Its amiddle-Indo-Aryan dialect. Reflects idioms of spoken languages, the Nikayas. (Not so in

Buddhaghosa.) Written down in Sri Lanka in 1st BCE. Up til that point it was oral teachings.Transmitted orally in Pali. Attempt to homogenize.

Enlightenment is a 19th century word. Awakening is more linguistically accurate (bodhi, towake). Wakening is a process. From a practical sense, thats what its about. Process ofwaking up is what were trying to do. Enlightenment sounds like big bang. What occurred in thewest in the 18th century, not what occurred to figures in the Buddhist tradition.

QuestionsReincarnation - shows up in Upanishads - literally the same thing taking up another body - whatis the same thing? - The Atman - The Self - Sanskrit word literally means breath - linked to

German word for to breath atem - life, breath, self of the individual takes up residence inanother body.

Big diff bt rebirth and reincarnation. (??) Fixed, unchanging thing moving from life to life to lifeuntil something can be liberated. Until it can merge back with Brahman. Metaphysical idea thatpermeates Indian society even to this day. Can wait for future rebirth to make it better. Contextin which Buddha speaks of rebirth.

Rebirth - much more metaphorical than literal. Playing w/ background understanding. If theresno fixed self, even if there was rebirth, its not me thats reborn. Its no consolation. Beingreborn isnt a great big deal anyway. If something is reborn as a cockroach in a south american

jungle, its not going to be me, its going to be something else.

Rebirth is a moment-to-moment thing. We literally carry our stuff over from moment to momentto moment. And if you carry your stuff over, it will create sangsara. The cycle of birth, death,and rebirth. More than that. Literally going round in circles. Finding ourselves in the sameplace repeatedly. Same or similar places on almost a regular basis. Because were carryingthe same stuff over. Thats the sense of how were reborn, moment to moment to moment. Getoutside that, liberate yourself from carrying stuff over. This is a meaning of rebirth that can helpus. Its not metaphysical. Can be free of repetitive behavior in this life. Basically a big versionof OCD.

Motivating force behind it: loba. Infatuation with stuff. Aversion to the stuff were not infatuatedwith. Confusion (rather than delusion or ignorance - pejorative sense to them, its your fault

you're confused and deluded).

Reduce the amount of debris we leave behind as we go on. Passing our bad traits on to ourchildren by harming them. Leaving our rubbish behind.

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Engaged in an intense relationship with two polarities of Indian society: finding a middle waybetween:

Brahman Society Jainism

house and hearth, it was your duty to getmarried and produce children, life wasmapped out from cradle to grave, duties tosocial strata (produces the drop-outs)

Complete asceticism. Digambara, skycladphilosophers. Literally could not stay morethan one night in one place. Strong aspectof non-violence.

Stultifying to any spiritual awakenedexperience (or can be) - all governed by ritual

Extreme ascetic practices.

Social corrective between the two. People become renouncers. B says if you want torenounce society, Ill make you dependent on that society. You cant escape society, even ifyoure entering the sangha.

Puts ethics at the forefront of his movement. Does not get talked about enough in WesternBuddhist circles. Buddhaghosa says even your meditation practices, if not rooted in ethics, aregroundless. Look at your behavior, thinking, intention. Bedrock of practice. Not adjuncts. Notdefined by the style of meditation. Dharma is rooted in ethics. Everydayness. Rule of training.

MistranslationsBhikkhu means beggar or sharer, not monk. Share what they gain as food. They share thedharma.

Vihara is not a monastery. Literally a dwelling place.

Language of the dharma is very precise.

Avijja - ignorance - so pejorative. Means not-wanting-to-know.

Sangsara - going round in circles - its a verb

Nibbana - this is not Buddhist heaven. Nibbana is process, verb. Intransitive verb in Pali.Doesnt move from subject to object. Literally means gone out. Gone-out-ness of greed,infatuation, aversion, and confusion. Ceased to be the flaming forces behind your behavior.

Sankhara - volitional formations - doesnt really get it, which is habit. Good or bad habits.Unthinking, neural pathways on which the mind runs, reproduce themselves in various activities.

Vi a - consciousness - neglects dynamic aspect, thinking. Cognizance.

Led into religiosity by the language we use. Not present in the early texts. Theravada is areligious position. Reading of the early texts in a very particular way. Very selective reading ofthe early texts. Buddhaghosa (5th century), Visuddhimagga. Sri Lanka, pristine Theravada. Itis an orthodoxy.


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Destructive retrieve (Heidegger) of early Buddhism. Trying to retrieve those gold nuggets in theearly texts that get lost in orthodoxy.

Dependent origination is explication of the ennobling truths.

What is this practice about and NOT about?

Its not about mysticism. Its not a mystical practice. Aimed very much at the here and now.Not about transcendental reality to tap into or reach. Reach where we are now. Becoming whowe are now. Not being static about where we are. The teaching is about THIS. Seeing the waythings actually are.

Divine eye? Inner essence? No.

Seeing them as being the three characteristics. Anicca, dukkha, and anatta. Dukkha is like thebridge between them. We dont perceive things as anicca or as anatta that we perceive themas dukkha. Dukkha is the key term in this. See them as impermanent and not self, get rid ofdukkha.

There is nothing hyperintellectual about understanding that everything is impermanent!Doesnt take a great brain to work it out. Nothing worse than your partner changing on you.Irritating fact of ordinary life. Things break down. Look for things to possess something theycannot deliver.

If youre not seeing things with the eye of impermanence and live that way, then we setourselves up for dukkha on a big scale, because we dont live in accordance with the way thingsare.

Rates of impermanence are different. Old buildings crumble but not as fast as a human life.

But when your headache disappears, dont say wish headache was permanent. We set

ourselves up for big time aversion and craving. Everyone knows this, but as soon as somethingdoesnt go our way, we suffer.

Impermanence written into everything: our emotional qualities, our grasping after what we like,rejecting what we dont like.

Awakening is nothing other than the ability to live impermanence. (Dzogchen)

But not me! We think were somehow immune from the impermanence written into everything.

Dukkha of impermanence. Dukkha of conditions. The dukkha of dukkha. Of sickness, of oldage, of corporeal existence. Doesnt go away.

We will not get rid of pain. Is there the possibility of coming into a different relationship with thepain in our lives? Of loss, old age, disease, sickness, natural things in our lives. This is thechallenge.

Nibbana is not about some inner, mystical experience. If you want an inner, mysticalexperience, its this life. The mysticism is in dealing with this life as it presents itself. We like lifewhen it presents itself as in our favor. Otherwise, not so happy.


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Develop genuine responsiveness to life, not reactive. To respond is to still be in the heart andmidst of life. Detachment. Sounds like somebody standing on the periphery of life.

Updna - attachment, graspingOpposite is correct engagement, not detachment

Anatta: not-self. What does this mean? Nothing possesses any kind of fixed essence. Nospecific character trait that can remain completely permanent. Mental states. No fixedself.

Thats good news! Whatever is bad, seemingly intractable in life does not have to remain thesame. Links up with impermanence. It can change.

How do you nudge the change in the right direction? Thats the point of the path. Wholesomeas opposed to unwholesome. Skillful, not unskillful.

Succinct def of path: Cease to do whats unwholesome, start to do whats wholesome, clarifythe mind.

Eminently practical concerns. Not a philosopher. Philosophy speaks Greek. B doingsomething completely different. Stoicism and Epicureanism probably come closest.

Myth of authenticity: need authentic mental feeling to do the right stuff. Have to have the fullemotional quality to engage in behaviors that go with it, otherwise a hypocrite. But the path aintlike thatmuch of the time.

Metta is not loving-kindness. Its kind of sloppy. To befriend. Boundless friendliness towardoneself and toward others. Friendliness is doable. Youre not going to love everybody.

Could wait a really long time for the authentic, expansive emotion of generosity to descend uponus, but you might wait your whole life.

If you want to know what it feels like to be generous, be generous. Action comes before thefeeling. Often think the opposite. Keep doing your acts of whatever virtue you select, you mightactually genuinely experience it.

Whats feeling got to do with it?? Just be compassionate.

B emphasizes this practical dimension.

However you incline the mind, that will become the shape of your life. Infatuation, aversion, andconfusion - then you get lives that include those things. Generosity, friendliness, understanding- then get a life shaped that way.

We couldnt shape our lives by inclining our minds if it was somehow preset. (Anatta) Imstuck with this. Well thats the way I am! [and I cant possibly change!] But we can alwayschange. Change is going to occur anyway. How do you generate it in a direction that works todevelop wholesome, skillful behaviors in your ordinary, day-to-day existence? Thats the litmustest: How are you in average, ordinary, everyday situations? Not sitting in some meditation hallor on retreat. Everyday existence.


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Training in service of the development of the understanding of tilakkha a, the three characteristics. Thats the content of what were meant to get.

The world is structurally incapable of providing you with satisfaction - because it changes.

The ability to live with that knowledge itself makes it a completely different world (loca).

Word loca or world often seems to refer to whats outside. World is the world of our mindsthrough which all the exp of the outside is filtered. Of course theres stuff out there. Our worldis the world that is imprinted with our minds. If we incline our minds with greed, aversion,infatuation, and confusion, then thats what we get. We get a world saturated with that and allthe psychology generated from it. If we incline with the eye of kindness and friendliness, thenwe get a world that reveals itself in a very different way.

Mind precedes all things. (Dhammapada) How the mind is inclined determines what storyfollows next. Tell yourself the story about your happy childhood or your unhappy childhood?

Were always perceiving the world through a mood. The way the mind imprints itself on the

phenomena it encounters. Change that, change your world.

The goal really is equanimity- not to be pushed out of balance by whats going on in the world.To be in the middle of life - seated, balanced, poised there without being thrown by whatshappening.

Life is a play of joy and sorrow - sometimes one or another. Preciousness in any joyful momentis that it will change. We know it will change.

B is a very practical teacher/guide to get us to see, hear, and reflect upon certain things.

Buddha makes no distinction between theory and practice. Understanding is just as important

as sitting on a cushion. Sutta = to hear something. To start any inquiry is to receive it.

Citta means to reason through and analyze for yourself - to connect it to experience. Does itmake sense through the authority of your experience?

Saddh - not faith, but trust, confidence - founded on something yoiuve already investigatedand understood and experienced for yourself. Based on something youve contacted in yourown average experience. Unfolding inquiry.

Citta is about establishing that base of inquiry so you can inquire further.

Practice, cultivate what you have insight into: bhavana. Insight that arises through cultivation,

inquiry...

Paa does not mean wisdom, means understanding or insight.

Sutta, citta, bhavana - three approaches. That is the path, way, template for the inquiry theBuddha gives. Three-pointed approach to being integrated practice. Not just bhavana (sittingor walking). Its doing these other things. Being-involved in opening out your field of inquiry.

Anatta


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Lack of fixed self.

Indian tradition speaks about atman. Essence of the individual. The kernel of what representedthe individual, their real self. What is a real self?

There is no fixed self. The self is a verb. Its not a thing. Things->processes. Early texts -

talking in terms of processes, not things. Buddhist lgs tend to talk more in verbs than in nouns.Many verbs and declensions. 8 verb case declensions in Pali.

We are one of the processes in the world. Not outside that. Our world - senses, mind - isprocess itself. B is really the first process thinker.

Atman in Sanskrit is very much an unchanging phenomenon within the person. It representsthe real self of the ind - somehow connected to unchanging aspect of the universe = Brahman.Unchanging essence of the universe. Wonderfully consolatory idea. Connected to everything.Arent we all one? phenomenon.

5 khandhas (aggregates) = lumps - exhaustive analysis in the Abidhamma - taken from

Brahman religion where its very exaltedAll the corporeal processes (rupa)

Any meaningful talk of the self has to be spelled out in terms of the lumps.

Appear to be linear in the way theyre set up in teaching. Not rupa, then consciousness allinteracting together. All 5 processes occurring simultaneously. Otherwise reductionist.

Material processes (rupa - form - forming, in process) going to make up, nothing remaining thesame within it. Nothing is static. Physical processes are not under our control. Any kind ofcondition for being a real self is that if it was a real self it would have real control. Homunculusin the head. Crane driver in the crane. Our bodies do peculiar things to us. Doing bodily

things. Were not under control in that sense. We try to be. Live healthier lives. Still get sick.

Vedan (feeling) - pleasant, unpleasant, neither pleasant nor unpleasant - not even consciousof areas (neither pleasant...) e.g., earlobes - actual absence of sensation.

Out of pleasantness/unpleasantness a connection with...

Sa khra - the vedana will drag on in the sankharas of emotion. Aspects of forming ourexperience. Theyre already formed, many of them. Deep-set narrative structures thatrationalize experience. This is what emotion is. Emotion is completely rational. It has its ownlogic about the rationalization of our experience. But its a rationalization of something I findpleasant or unpleasant. Youre going to tell yourself big stories about pleasant or unpleasant

experience. Main job of sankhara: tell us stories. Infects every aspect of our sense of being inthe world. Most of our perception (sanna) are colored by deep narrative structures whichmeans: Do you actually experience anything new? All youre doing is connecting pastexperience in the present moment. Its already perceived in that process.

Perception of time speeds up as you get older because youre not encountering anything new.Sense of curiosity and connecting with something new when youre a child. Been there, done it,seen it as you get older. Experience of time contracts, gets faster. This is why meditationretreats can seem very long. Opening experience to reperceive, ignite something lost. Igniting


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curiosity, interest in what is actually happening. Moving from already knowing to not knowing.Not-knowing opens us to whats really going on. Not contracting.

Our sankharas affect our perceptions which affect our way of feeling about things which thenform further sankharas. Around in a lovely, vicious circle. Sooner you can break this circle,otherwise trapped in this cycle. Entrapment. Sangsara (samsara). 5 aggregates of dukkha, of

grasping. When were grasping, theres dukkha arising. It creates more dukkha. Any time wetry to grasp after any of these dimensions of being us, its dukkha. Singularly or collectively.

Vi a - cognizance more than consciousness - not just bare but also has elements ofsankhara and perception in it. Consciousness in the thinking which is involved in these which isembodied and never not-embodied.

Mahayana talks about consciousness being a primal base, the part which is reborn. Dimensionof consciousness reborn into another situation. None of this is coherent with the early texts.

ALL vinnana is an embodied consciousness/cognizance.

He who has no mindfulness of body (rupa) has no mindfulness.

Saa - discrimination - infected my narratives of sankhara, affecting way we perceive - abilityto discriminate things - capacities included which are also highly significant to being human:memory and language - Language is an important function of sanna. If were to use lg, we needmemory. One def of sanna is ability to take an object and mark it for recognition. Markingobjects - linguistic markers. No good having them if you cant remember.

If you want a self -- what is the self other than ability to remember past events and connect themup with present experience? Thats what the self basically is. Not a fixed self. Memory of life isnot continuous, its fragmentary. Bits drop out, others come in.

Its not no-self, its not-self. Memory goes in dementia. Cant remember who they are anymore.

Ability to connect up aspects of experience to construct a sense of I. Buddha notrecommending us to be like that. Its how we hold the sense of self. How do we hold the selfingprocess? Are you attached, grasping at it? Or lightness of touch that can hold it? Can you bea self w/out being egotistical? No Pali word for ego, its from Latin. How to be a selfingprocess w/out being selfish. The teaching of no-self is positively dangerous, esp with peoplewho have fragile sense of self. Could be quite destructive.

Khandhas firing all together, mixed together. Not linear.

Vi a or citta (pronounced chitta, not cheetah) used synonymously - consciousness or cognizance - in the Nikaya material. Vijnana connected with the narrative structure and withperception. Rarely just conscious of something. Conscious of it being this or that, with a certain

narrative, liking or disliking it. If its a dead zone, connected with confusion or delusion, becausenot even aware of it.

QuestionsMindfulness-based application therapies. Drawing on traditional B understanding in a modernmodel. MBCT. Dialectical behavioral therapy. Acceptance and commitment therapy. MBSR isthe precursor of most of them. Western models of mind not necessarily in contradiction. They

just come from a different angle.


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Disparities with psychodynamic theory. Freudianism. Emptying contents of unconscious out. Fsuspicious of this. But thats what were trying to do in MBCT.

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Unborn, deathless, uncreated, etc. Made much of by many Western teachers.

Only 2 citations in whole canon. Both in Khuddaka Nikaya. Its canonical, not an insertion.Most interpret it in a metaphysical way, transcendent state. But in Pali, you make negations.Do so to make the opposite point. The not-born is also the born. Peculiar.

Dealing with the self. Occasion for a transcendental self? Arahants have access to mysticaldimension of experience ordinary people dont.

If there is no fixed self, then what is it that dies? There is no self to die. Only that which ispermanent can die. This lg only makes sense if theres something fixed. But there is nothingfixed.

Not a reality behind experience of change. Absolute, unconditional reality. Really speaking ofdismantling constructions of greed, aversion, and delusion. Death is only present when thereare these.

Mara. Literally means the killer. GAD (greed, aversion, delusion) are that which kill life.When there is not GAD, there is life. Not transcendental life, just real life experienceddifferently. Not through that stultifying killer that kills experience. Desire kills the experience butin the thought that were intensifying it. Great temptation of Mara.

When were just with desire, we kill the experience.

When you sit in med and youre expecting something to happen, you lose sight of what IS

happening. You kill the experience.

Absence of GAD is the immortality, not a transcendent experience.

---

Jhana. Something like this going on with the Hindu teachers that the B studied under.

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Doesnt see liberation in simple jhanic states.

The Origin ofBuddhistMeditation. The concentration experiences are actually more mundanethan the tradition points out. Theres something about the holding on to power within monasticcontext. If you keep upping the bar to have these extraordinary experiences that dont hold thatmuch value in terms of liberative process. A form of the power within religious traditions wherethe goal is outside the realm of ordinary people. But in Bs life, people are doing this all thetime. Gaining awareness, insight, states, liberation. Not this massive, uphill, mythic, sisypheantask.
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Buys into competitivism. Even if its only with yourself. To get these states. Equivocal positionin the early texts.

---

Reading the Suttas.

Basic Teachings ofthe Buddha, tr Glenn Wallis.

In the Buddha s Words.

Middle -Length Discourses. Central. Majjhima Nikaya.

---

Citta more expansive sense of mind. Sometimes just a synonym for vinnana. Manas is anotherterm used for mind. Overall functions of mind. Vinnana more often than not in early tradassociated with consciousness. Many connotations.

QuestionsEmptiness. Anything that is dependently originated is empty and vice versa. Emptiness is anegative term. GIves wrong impression of what teaching is about. Nothing and everything.Sunyata.

Lots of wrong-headedness around the notion of karma. Always ends up being Hindu fatalism.Not what B intended.

---

Evolution of Bs ideas? Sat under bodhi tree, and boom. What happened?

Almostrevealed truth. Never claims to have revelation from on high. Claims to have foundsomething.

Time contraction. Bodhi tree exp - whatever it was - there is something like a bodhi tree exp.Doesnt happen out of a vacuum, just like B-ism.

Probably occurred over a period of time, probably not on one night.

Bs conception of what hes doing, way sangha is evolving, changes from early strata of text.Problem with suttas is that theres no chron order. Very difficult to know development of Bsthought over time. Can see development of sangha. Vinaya Pitaka: Ananda, werent things

better in the old days?

Cant do with the Pitakas what you can do with the Gospels, of laying it out chronologically andseeing whats original and whats interpolations. Can only look at the themes emphasized againand again. If something only occurs twice (business about the deathless), thats one thing.Dependent origination mentioned many times. Skandhas mentioned again and again. Probablyform the core teaching.

---
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Why did B pursue monasticism? Sign of breaking away from the conventions of society in Indiaat the time. To pursue listening to someone speak, pondering them, engage in meditation - theywere luxuries in Indian society. Still are in some places. Degree of wealth and leisure. B-ists ormonastics now primarily talk about ethics. Only way these people have time to practice. Byentering into monastic tradition, create time. Free yourself up from other responsibilities.

First time you get lay people meditating is under colonialism. Colonialism employed a lot ofpeople, paid them relatively well, created wealth. Meditating as lay practitioner. Sri Lanka.19th century. British rule. That wasnt available to people earlier than that.

B-ist cultures were subsistence economies: China, Korea, Tibet. If you just wanted to learn toread and write in Tibet, had to enter a monastery.

European medieval monasticism. Monasteries own the land. Tithes to the monasteries.Spiritual/religious welfare looked after by the monks. When thats no longer a necessity, it startsto break down.

Is it useful in Western context now? No. Were in a very unusual situation here. Onlymonastics in the past would have received this information. Case for monasticism becomesincreasingly less convincing. Not a big player in establishing B-ish in a Western context.

Whats the teaching vs. the culture? Heavily inculturated aspects of Buddhism. Tibetan is oneof the most heavily cultured. Hard to pull B-ism out the culture there. Influenced by previousindigenous religious traditions.

Controversy about the role of women in Thai Forest. Big cultural difference. Fought and gainedin west, retrogressive and patriarchal with trad Thai approaches. Doubt role of monasticism.Cultural clashes.

***

Paticcasamuppda - Dependent OriginationKernel of the Buddhist teaching. Conditioned co-genesis. Many translations. Probably themost important teaching in the Pali canon. Memorize the links in the chain. Fantastic tool formeditation. Feeling, craving, grasping - real kernel of the problem that everyone suffers from.This is how we create the mess - not always deliberately. No moralistic finger-wagging. This ishow it naturally starts to unfold with certain things being in place. Sangsara starts to unfold entrapment starts to occur as a natural condition of certain things being there.

Maha -nidana Sutta. Great teaching on causation. Classic. Main teaching on DO. Only 10links, not 12. Other two added in as an afterthought by the tradition? Other 2 are from an

Abidhamma perspective. Probably afterthoughts. Primacy on direct exp of things, what we canactually experience. B chain does not start with ignorance but with consciousness.

Ananda comes to the B and says the teaching on DO is clear. Can imagine sharp intake ofbreath by B here. Ananda, think again. This teaching is profound. He means its difficult. Notintellectually but experientially.

12-link version starts with avijj, usually translated as ignorance. Fundamental ground onwhich we walk. This word can also mean confusion. Confusion is the fund ground on which
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we walk. Also not wanting to know about things. Its all too difficult. I dont want to know aboutit experientially. Can sort it out intellectually.

(More scholars of B-ism than awakened practitioners. Vacillation between all study and no medor vice versa. Theravada: Scholarly monasteries (town-based monks) and the forest-basedmonks (the meditators). Whole history of B-ism has been like that. Need to bring them

together.)

How do we get it? Through your laboratory - your meditation practice. Intellectual grasping justone part of the story. When you see it in practice, it gets real.

Dependent origination - dependent- not a description of causality - not A causes B but Ais dependentupon B. Image of cornstalks. Collect them in bundles, stack them against eachother. They support each other. (Stacked rifles in triangles.) Mutually supporting aspects.

Avijj does not cause sankharas to arise. Dependent on avijja being present, sankharas willarise. (??) Get away from any sense of linearity. Tibetan wheel of life. This causes this, thenthat, then, that, then death. Not that simple. Profundity is in complexity of interactions of links in

the chain. Not just one thing supporting another; all supporting each other. Thats why its diffto unravel exp even when have best motivation. Lots and lots of interdependent dimensions, allwhich support, reinforce. Reinforce a sense of self.

AvijjProblem doesnt just start with avijj. Everything takes place on the backdrop of avijja, but it isnot a first cause. Where does it come from? B doesnt say. Its just there, in our experience.

Confusion rather than ignorance - fundamental existential confusion. What were doing, howwere doing it. Like being dropped in by parachute into a strange land. No map. Wanderaround. Bump into a few locals. Landscape is life. Confused inhabitants are probably yourparents. All theyre trying to do is give you their confusion. Confusionism. [Heidegger: thrown

projection] Unskillful actions arise out of the fundamental condition of being confused.

Not just that I dont know; I dont want to know. If someone says everything is impermanent, thepart that wont let you live with impermanence doesnt want to know.

None of the teachings are difficult. But our lives dont change that much. Something burieddeeply in the psyche that doesnt want to know. Thats the blockage. Need to clear the path.Sweep the blockages, rubbish, impediments, etc.

Thinking too much is an impediment. Proliferation, spreading out - thought gone rampant. Toobsess about things.

Avijja will not suddenly go away.

Avijja is composite. Not just one thing. Composed out of the savas . Hard to translate. Cangive a sense of its dynamics. Word borrowed for Jainism. Means influx, something coming in.Jains believes sangsara occurred because we engaged in any act at all, good or bad. Atmanweighted down by the dust of the influxes which weighted it and stopped it from beingawakened.

For Buddha, main meaning is flowing out. Whats flowing out of us? Incontinence. Effluent.


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Avijjsava - the effluent of confusion. I dont like to keep my confusion to myself; I like to spreadit around!

Outflows cancres (not very good translation) what is flowing out of us, coming out ofus? Literally what we cant keep to ourselves?

4 asravas - roots of all unwholesome psychological behavior - its that bad! Arahant is usuallydescribed as kinasravas - lit ended the asravas

Kmsava- the asrava of sensual desire - deeply craves sensuality, sees it as a positive thingalways - cravings for innovation, new experiences - really deep stuff, addiction to sensuality inall its forms: substance abuse, sex addiction, etc. - a bit like a dog being thrown a bone, no fleshon it, just smeared with a bit of blood, keeps chewing it again and again searching for nutrimentout of it - compulsions

Bhavsava: craving for continued existence - not just a physical craving to continue but acraving for continuing to be reborn as the same person - deeply linked sense of wanting to be

me forever - deep grasping after self, clinging to it - continued existence through children, goodworks, people having good memories of you, chippings on your tombstone - somehow to go onin some way

Di hsava - the asava of views (opinions) - were just opinionated - contrast opinion withknowledge/insight into the way things are - lots of opinions about the way things are but not a lotof insight - manifestation of the confusion - most conflict is about views - correct/incorrect -right/wrong

The asavas block insight into the 3 characteristics. Unpromising beginning!

These are the conditioning factors for the arising of sankharas. Sankharas arise in dependence

on confusion.

Everything misplaced here. Confusion is misplacing the search. (??)

Were not bad people. Lack of moralistic finger-wagging for the most part. Moralism is not inthe bulk of the text. Outcomes of dealing with the problems of life. Still under thedelusion/confusion that these things will give me what I want.

SankharasDeeply embedded habits. Volitional formations. Avijja described as two blind men trying tolead each other. Tapping their way through the world. Sankhara usually seen as molding pots.One is being produced, similar to the one being molded, but wonky. Molding and remolding,

often our habits. Proclivities to behave in certain ways. Neural pathways. Bad habits. Alwayssetting up and operating out of sankharas. Here is the habit that moved in and didnt leave.(Rilke) When the going gets tough, fall back on default option. Dont even have to think about it- even if result is further misery.

Lit means formed and forming. Model of the potter is a good one. Often just shaping thesame thing. Painter who can only paint one subject.


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Narrative structures, stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves and who we are. Twoaspects to breaking a habit. Often a great feeling of loss. But also of freedom. Double-edged,initially. Until you become more relaxed, comfortable with what you lost. Almost a grief.

This is describing sangsaric experience: sankharas and avijja. Unwholesomeness, somethingnot being quite right, sense of lack.

Pathology of desire. Desire is linked to a philosophy of lack. Always feel like were lackingsomething. Can fill ourselves up with something which will then make us feel fulfilled.Elimination of this pathology of desire - dimension of early teachings. Its there in the traditionsbut not so much stressed.

Some links in chain more susceptible to intervention than others. Can break it down in practice.In ordinary life its going on so quickly. Often dont see a desire for a piece of chocolate arisingin the mind. Just find yourself eating chocolate. Slow down the process. See a lot moreclearly. Then we know when we can intervene.

Questions:

Tib obsession with emptiness in some ways just an implication of DO

DO = the mess, the sangsara-ing mess - an activity were engaged in

DO covers everything. Nothing arises out of nothing. There is no first cause. Everything iscaused.

This happens, this happens. This ceases to happen, this ceases to happen. There arecauses/conditions upholding sangsara-ing activity. If we get rid of those causes, then sangsara-ing will cease to be. Extrapolation of 2nd of ennobling truths. There is an origin... somethingwhich supports dukkha. Supports its arising.

Proximate cause of the arising of dukkha is Ta h . In Pali the word possesses enormouspathos about the human conditions. Not quite craving. Dominated, absolutely pervaded bytanha - so its pretty sad. Not captured by craving or desire.

12 links all occurring in one moment. Classic Theravadan desc of DO as spread over 3lifetimes. Visuddhimagga. Buddhaghosa is a closet Hindu. Cant throw off idea of somethingbeing passed around over 3 lifetimes - rather than desc of this all going on in the moment.

Situational patterning. Every situation/moment is patterned. Things take up a particularpatterning in your life, moment to moment, if something not done about it. Always somethingcarrying over into the next moment. We started looking at this by thinking about avijja(confusion).

Vijja derives from veda which means knowledge. Lit avijja means non-knowledge. Whatwe dont possess. Its not simply about lack of the requisite information. Youd all be awakenedby now, you have the knowledge. Were not talking about the collecting of some kind ofinformation/knowledge that we need. We have the knowledge, but we still dont do anythingabout it. Its also not-wanting-to-know. Fundamental existential level - its pretty painful.Existence characterized by dukkha and not-self. Doesnt get any better than that! Structurallyincapable of providing you satisfaction. So this has to come from within. Instead of lookingwithout, the only certainties and satisfactions can come from how we process the material -


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however it comes to us, whatever comes to us. We learn not to get into this reactive patterningof simply pushing away what we dont like, grasp what we like and stabilize it and make itcertain. So we live with some degree of wisdom in this world, knowing whether it is aversive orpleasant, it will change. Not pessimism - realism. B is not into cheap certainties or cheapconsolations. Absolutely all phenomena are impermanent. Now get on with it. Only peace,happiness, tranquility comes from within - while connected with others. (Metta - boundless

friendliness) Then we can find and seek for the tranquility that we dont find when weexternalize.

Death knell of a relationship = make me happy. Impossible burden. Cant make someone thecause of your happiness. Another instance of Mara, the killer.

Avijja - confusion - is carpet of your experience. Trying to make sense of the world. Its notignorance, because its not your fault. Our conditioning does not give us the tools to cope withlife, so we cope the best we can, not having the full range of skills to deal with things. Soconfusion is better. Often not under your control. Take pejorative sting out of it.

Guilt? Judeo-Xtian thought. Not one Asian lg other than one guilt has been translated into an

Asian lg. Not in canonical lg of B-ism. Words for shame but not guilt.

Starting place? No. Background. Not the first cause.

Deeply rooted aspect of experience. Hard to eradicate.

Sankharas arise next. Volitional formations. Being formed. Actively engaged in. Acts ofintention and will. Formed by chitina (citta?), intention. Practice is about beginning to discernwhat our intentions are. Some will be unconscious. Not immediately perspicuous. Dont haveimmediate access. Uncovering our intentions behind our actions.

Opens minefield of karma/kamma. Most misinterpreted word. Simply means action. Layers of

metaphysics laid on this, particularly in HInduism. Fatalistic (in cruder forms) - cannot doanything about.

Vipka - fruit of the action (result) - phala

B lived in an agrarian society, so he often uses phala, things fruit. All the trees are fruiting atdifferent times. This is how actions produce consequences. Different fruiting times in our lives.Some dont catch up until many, many years later. (Dont worry about lifetimes model.)

We live in this world creating sankharas because we cant avoid acting. Even if I dont act,thats an act. Doctrine of acts and omissions. Omitting to act is also an act. Even sitting in acave in Himalaya is an act with consequences. Thought, word, deed body, speech, mind.

Intentions are generated in the mind. Try to clean up your intentions, but dont be attached tothe fruit of them. If you do something nice and expect a consequence, youre looking for a fruit.World we live in is a complex nexus of causes and conditions. Even the best intention will notalways give rise to the fruit we may want. Often good intentions end up with badconsequences. The real consequence is in relation to your mind. If your intention is clean,wholesome, then it has a positive effect on the mind. Not about getting everything you want.

Actually engaged in this stuff all the time, every moment. Intentions are there rapidly. Big partof sitting practice. Examining your intentions. Whats your intention behind your practice?


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Does your intention coincide with your bodily posture? Intention to stay awake, alert. Intentionis a bodily thing, not just something going on in the mind. Reflected in the body itself.

---Goal of Vipassana practice:Upekkha, attainment of poise, balance, and equanimity in this life. Thats the point of the

Nibbana experience. To have a degree of responsiveness instead of reactiveness in life.

Pranna, wisdom. Goal of all practice. Its a bad translation. The goal is understanding,insight. Insight into 3 chars. also meant to lead to equanimity. Thats the insightful way of livingwith this. The getting on with it. Strive on diligently is the more polite way of putting it.

Mostly we dont want to know about the TCE. (avijja) Insight into this generates uppeka and allthe brahmavihras. Ground or soil of metta. Metta has been sidelined. Much more central towhat the B is teaching. Any practice w/out metta involved in it is actually extremely cold.Simply tied into an ideal of wisdom. Cold, brutal wisdom. Softness and gentleness comes withmetta. boundless friendliness One of the etymologies means to grow fat with friendliness.Spread out.

Goal of understanding all of this. Its a big project. The nibbanaing experience includes all that.Cessation of greed, aversion, and delusion/confusion, too.

Shantideva - beginning to gain empathy with others. It makes no sense to talk about my dukkhaor your dukkha but just dukkha. Stop personalizing it.

Everything that occurs to us, we take so personally. Any suffering that occurs, Why have Ibeenpicked out?? Alternative: WHY NOT?

I start to add the Royal I-ness into this at an early stage. Yet the links in DO are prettyimpersonal up to a point, and then it becomes personal.

Movement out into metta is an absolutely fundamental movement in the process. Friendlinesstoward confusion. Kindness toward it instead of castigation.

Have to start with our dukkha, our patterning at the moment. Have to own up to who we are.The happinesses, too, so it begins to become a full appreciation and acknowledgement in orderto move in some direction. Otherwise its not held with kindness.

One thing that struck most eastern teachers when they came west was how tough, cruel we areto ourselves. Big guilt. Beating ourselves up. Sometimes the practice can be another wayof beating ourselves up, of not being perfect at this. When western people get intomeditation, they make their lives even more miserable. Striving for perfection. Metta softens

this.

---

Kamma and vipaka are implicated in sankharas. Routes your mind will run down. Ways ofdealing with problems, dealing with people. Narratives about who you are. Stories we tellourselves about ourselves. Almost as if you believe the sankharas (dispositions) are you.Proclivities of dealing with phenomena and situations - believe they are you. Attach yourself tothem. You are this particular type of person.


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Trust me, Im telling you stories.

Dont necessarily want to psychologize it, but thats whats implied in the text. Stories weveinhabited for long periods of time, so we think this is who we are.

***

VinaCognizance. Third link in the chain. In direct relationship with the sankharas. Sankharasdont CAUSE vinnana. The one depends on the other. Most of these point in both directions.Not this, then that, then that. Absolutely dynamically interlinked. Chains of dependency.

Cannot divorce consciousness from what youre thinking about, in experience. Intimaterelationship between the two.

ALL consciousness is intentional. All consciousness has an object. Never consciousnesswithout an object.

Partly in rel to Indian culture at the time. Upanishads always talking about pure consciousness,Atman or Brahman.

B: there is no cons without being cons-of.

Some of the Zen traditions and Dzogchen and Mahamudra talk about pristine forms ofconsciousness without an object. Yogacara, too. Much later development.

This early stuff is more radical than the later traditions.

Has the word nana in it - has to do with knowing.

When were conscious, were conscious of an object. Theres a divisive aspect of it. There is adividing of consciousness between the object and the consciousness. Consciousness is alwaysa consciousness of. Always a reflexive movement in it.

Franz Brentano. Husserl. Phenomenology. Exactly about this. Consciousness and its actsand the objects it has in it. B had already discerned this at such an early period.---Formation of Pali canon probably started in Bs lifetime, including the Abidhamma. Canon itselfprobably isnt closed even after its written down until early Xtian era.

Buddhaghosa: consciousness is like a king. Always arrives with a huge retinue.

Vinnana arises with a whole lot of sankharas (mental factors), both wholesome andunwholesome, to create the narrative structures.---

Vinnana doesnt arise on its own. Its dependent on namarupa.

Nmarpa


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Name and form. Mental and physical processes. Name = mental and rupa = physical. (Namaincludes discriminative, perceptive aggregate.)

Buddhaghosa sees this as generation of actual physical body and mind coming into existence.If you think about this as a one-lifetime process instead of a two-lifetime process, you have aproblem: two bodies being born. One at link 11 and the other at link 4. The only way to make it

work is to say that before this is past. 11-12 is future. Three lifetimes. You seem to have twobirths within this system.

What the B is actually indicating by NR is the patterning or blueprinting of whats going to comelater within it. If you think of NR as the way in the present that youre determining your future,you can think about time but not lifetimes. Blueprint for future moments. Could be 20 years or10 mins. Doesnt matter. But its a very rapid process. What we do now determines what wewill become unless we influence it.

Consciousness is part of the NR. Were conscious of mind and body. Conscious of thepatterning. Very dynamic process.

Buddhaghosa lost the plot.

In India, sense of the real person was the nama. B takes this and plays with something there inIndian thought and saying, no, its not the real sense of the person, just the processes beingpatterned. Not the fixed individual with some particular form. Playing with this. Part of thebackground. Its in the poem of creation, too. Plays with doctrines, philosophies, and religionsof his time. Theravada loses the context.

This is you as you are patterning yourself now through all this stuff. Not essence of anindividual. Its whats going on right now. You should be concerned by how youre patterningyour NR right now.

Sa yatanaSix sense spheres. Mind/body possesses and conditions the way our senses operate. Fivesenses + mental sense of consciousness. Job of mind sense consciousness is to cognizemental stuff just like eye cognizes visual stuff.

Spheres of existence. Eye literally palpates or encompasses the visual field. Thats why itscalled an ayatana which is a sphere in Pali.

PhassaContact

Every sensory organ is coming into contact with something. We cant help but contact stuff.

We cant ever avoid being in contact. Even sensory deprivation wont work because you stillhave mental sense contact. You dont escape being in contact with stuff. External phenomena.Perceived in particular ways because of the senses, vinnana, sankharas... It all comes in withsomething. This is the something.

VedanFeeling that arises. Pleasant, unpleasant, or neither. Sukkha, dukkha. Particularly physicalprocesses. Everything has a feeling tone to it.


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adukkham-asukh: dead zone. Its not really neutral, its that we dont even perceive it.Absence of sukkha or dukkha. Thats the way our world is divided up.

I like I dislike I couldnt care less! Poverty-stricken world.

Metta - people you like, dislike, feel neutral toward. Most people we either like or dislike. Quite

difficult to find someone we feel neutral toward.

This is how experiences come up us.

Connection with sankharas. There is also the narrative, story, the emotion that comes in with it.The rationalization of the feeling.

I dont like BECAUSE and that becomes the rationalization and usually the emotion.

Two things supporting each other very strongly - sensations and feelings supported by theemotional narrative. Very strong concatenation of things. Very power narrative.

Dependent on vedena is...

Ta hCraving. Enormous pathos. This is the human cond as far as the B is concerned. Did all thissketching in to get to the proximate cause of dukkha: craving.

Unquenchable thirst. It is, by its nature, a thirst that can never be satisfied. Never going to findany terminal point. Tanha is founding on the feeling of lack within our experience. Try to fill itup with something.

Tanha is productive of the sense of self. When do we most feel ourselves? Often when wefeel were lacking something. When there is contentment, i.e., absence of craving, there is

minimal sense of self.

Self comes into being between where I am and where I want to be/want to avoid. Betweenthose two processes. Thats where we feel it most strongly. Here I am again in that moment oflack. Continuous generating the self in that moment.

Tanha cannot come to an end. Lacan: the endlessness of desire. Our society is very good atproducing desire and craving. Advertising promises a sense of fulfillment through theattainment of certain goods.

Unlike ordinary thirst - like when you need a glass of water - tanha cannot be.

If only I had _______________, Id be happy. Infinite progress of these sorts of statements.If only I was with ____________________... The possibility of satisfaction, possibility of fillinglack we feel. Always dir toward something external. Intimately related to external phenomena.Search is externally generated.

A lot of this stuff is probably hard-wired. Survival. If theres any argument against design,nobody would have organized the brain like we have. Internecine war. Primitive part of thebrain in rel with the higher cortical function. Partly the reason why its so difficult - hard-wired,evolutionary, to fulfill function that it cant fulfill now.


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First manifestation of it iskma-ta h . Three forms of tanha we see manifest in ourexperience. Craving for sensuality. Constant craving for sensuous stuff. Material possessions.Intellectual acquisition.

Fusion between being and having. We are what we have. Confusion. We are what we

acquire. Rather than just being.

Occurs in many lists. Hindrances. We are sense-seeking missiles. We are searching out foranything we can get something pleasurable from.

Why is this a tanha? Because its endless.

Model of addiction. Start with a low dosage, end with a high one to get the same amt ofpleasure.

Clinging to kama-tanha is updna. Clinging, grasping after sensory perception as a means offinding some kind of happiness in this world.

Bhava-ta h , the craving to be. Everybody wants to be something. Cult of celebrity. Caughtup with novelty, innovation, always looking for where the action is. Stimulus to keep on wantingstuff. Always wanting to be in the midst of whats fashionable, going on, etc. Gold, silver,elephants, slave-girls.

Can also be represented by the things I have. Immortality. I want to be me forever. Atman. Bis making a jibe at the brahmans. Idea of the atman carries through the whole of Indian thoughtup until this day. Bhagavad Gita. In line with the Upanishads. If you think you kill or are killed,you are mistaken. Ethically dubious. You can kill a person, but its not really the person youkill.

Wish to perpetuate yourself in some form. I am going on through you (my children). Many achair at Oxford named after the person who set it up.

We all have this craving. Could be subtle. Writings on your tombstone.

Theres a dark side:

Vibhava-ta h - drive toward extinction - wishing not to be at all - suicidal tendencies - self-harm - aggression toward others - annihilate self by annihilating the other - give you a hard timebecause I want to give myself a hard time - I dont like being here at all.

Eros vs. thanatos. Wanting to become something, making a mark, worldly whims, wealth, fame

vs. this is such a strain, too much work to keep it together, its all too much.

Not mutually exclusive. Mixed up. Drinking too much. Nice sensations oblivion. Sense ofnot being at all.

I am what I have, Im making a statement, I am becoming this person in my acquisition ofknowledge/wealth/whatever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C4%81mahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C4%81ma


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Not a linear process. Not character types. Descriptive of ordinary, everyday processes.Trapped within this.

Tanha governed not just by what we want but by what we dont want to happen. Livesgoverned by what they dont want to happen. I crave to avoid certain things to happen to me. Icrave that they dont happen in my life. If only I didnt have this, Id be happy. If only I wasnt in

this situation. In this, weve got aversion. Distinct, powerful elements of aversion workingthrough continually. Aversion, craving. Reactiveness all the time.

UpdnaBs brilliant play on words. Brahmanical rituals around a fire. Three fires. Sanskara, to performthe ritual. B takes that and builds it into a volitional formation, sanskhara. Upadana lit means tofuel the material process. Referred to the physical act of putting more wood on the ritual fire.Youre actually stoking your fires.

But there are three fires. The whole world is burning with the three fires of greed, aversion, anddelusion. If you really want to keep your fires stoked, keep on grasping.

B uses stuff of his own society to keep on making an alternative point.

Fire appears to cling to the wood. B-ist path is about cooling. Brahman path is about heating.Fire no longer clings to the wood. Loads of metaphors used around fire. Mind aflame. Thesenses burning. T.S. Eliott - The Wasteland - everything is burning.

Swamped by stuff - mental and physical - that we take on board.

Upadana is polyvalent - also means a closed hand, not being able to let go, wont release to findour freedom.

Holding on to grievances, malice, retribution, thoughts of revenge. The stuff of primitive human

emotions. Refuse any sense of spaciousness or freedom in our existence. Claustrophobic.Confined in a very narrow space by it.

Tanha-Upadana, this is what its doing.

This is a sequence we can observe in meditation: contact, feeling, craving, clinging. canreally see this. Traditionally, in med exp, weakest link is between vedana and tanha. Vedanais an automatic arising. Some feelings are hardwired. If I stick my hand on a hot plate, Imgoing to feel it as unpleasant. Cant do anything about the vedana. Can do something aboutthe craving and the clinging subsequent to it. What follows the vedana?

Goenka trad - whole practice dedicated to looking at the vedana, esp bodily vedana. Scanning

the body, looking at connection between vedana, clinging, and craving.

Monastic high-jumping: thinking you can break it between contact and feeling. In exp Ive neverseen this as being possible. Can see it very clearly between vedana and tanha.

Ways monastics cling to power and authority: putting bar higher and higher about what peoplecan do. Often that is the case with this, saying you can break the chain higher. U Pandita: oh,theres no problem, you can do it up here. But U Pandita is U Pandita.


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Can immediately see the vedana giving rise to the tendency to crave avoidance or having.Clinging and grasping that follows upon that. Really, tanha-upadana come as a pair.

Dependent upon upadana, you get...

Bhva

Were always in the process of becoming something, always wanting to become something. Abeing who wants a cup of tea. Always trying to make a mark in the world in some way.

The ways we try to become the images we project of ourselves ni the future. Might beextremely mundane: I am the person that wants to get a drink. Psychologically and physicallymanipulate a situation to get who or what we want to become.

That will give rise to...

JtiBeing born in that situation as the outcome of this process. If Im the drinker who wants to getthe drink through the grasping and craving, manipulation to get there - I might find myself being

born in the bar. Its as literal as that. Thats where I find myself. And if you go that far...

Jarmara aOld age and death. Dont have to take it literally. That situation is going to decline anddisappear. Im going to drink my drink, and the bar is going to close. And Im back into that oldsituation again. Can be trapped in that cycle of addiction. Could be drink, could be anything.Expecting something to provide you with happiness. Sankharas contract around that idea. Toactually finding yourself in the situation.

Always born in a situation. Always find yourself somewhere as the outcome of yourpsychological processes. Even if they dont get you want, they get you somewhere - probablyfurther misery.

Whatever situation we find ourselves in, its going to decline and disappear, replaced by anotherthing. Ongoing process happening in every moment. Supported by Abidhamma moments aswell. Going on in every moment. No three-lifetime interp necessary. Diffuses power of whatthis is talking about.

Past, present, and future right now. You are all of them as you sit on your chairs.

This is the summum bonum of the Bs practical way of getting out of sangsaric experience. Ifwe truly begin to understand this and see this sequence in action, then you can start to dosomething about it. Can start operating within the laboratory of your exp, do something about itright now. See craving, serve the craving, go with it - anything arising in the mind will arise and

pass away. We take it so seriously, hold on to it, but it arises and passes away.

Thoughts: Just Passing Through!

QuestionsNibbana - absence of greed, aversion, and delusion. GAD help reify the self. Greed andaversion are both in tanha. Self is coming into being through that. Without GAD, no solid senseof self. Nibbana literally means the going out of the three fires that uphold that sense of selfingin that contracted sense.


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How do we want to live this world? As a contracted being, contracted around a non-existentthing (fixed self), or do we want to live it in a spacious, expansive sense where we can beresponsive instead of simply reactive. Self as noun reacts, self as verb responds.

Tangles of notions of emptiness. Self is empty of any inherent, contracted existence. End

of story. Thats all it is.

Can contract around the things we do - create an identity out of our profession - thats who I am- I am what I do.

What do you do? - I play at being professor of linguistics. You are not it.

We try to create identity out of any mode of being we inhabit. Could be I am a professor oflinguistics, I am a waiter, etc. Reductionism. Reduced to some thing. Because of fear ofnot being anything.

This is why were so deeply attached to our dukkha: it gives us a sense of identity. I am my

misery. People can become the set of their symptoms. At least I know who I am now; Im mysymptoms.

Can try to create identity out of anything. Not-self is actually a spacious process. Not tied tobeing any one thing. It opens up possibilities for us.

I think Im a depressive. Youre probably far more than that. Open up other possibilities.

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What hijacks intentions? The automatic nature of DO. Slow it down on the cushion. Start toregain freedom.

Have to have interest and curiosity. What the hells going on here?

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When we start to spot the sankharas, habit-patterns, proclivities in behavior - looking at thenarratives that support those behaviors, support this process of DO. Traditional view: vedana-tanha is the weakest point. With more exp can start to see the patterns of the sankharas andhow they form the patterns of our cravings, what were aversive to, what were wanting.

Sankharas are us. Deeply responsible for our sense of identity. Feeding the whole process.Feed the mechanism just like we feed the fires. Reinforcing the sankharas.

Theyre all interacting with each other. Sankharas feed into bhava, my way of being. Bhava isfeeding into my sankharas, which are fed by my cravings.

Hold the whole process of unbinding with metta, friendliness.

Nibbidas, disgust with things. Disenchantment. Starting to become disenchanted with thepatterns that seem so seductive. Rather than being disgusted with the world, which is atraditional theravada thing, reflected in asceticism. Tibetans are very joyful. Unlike Burmese.


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History of Buddhism has been one of creeping Brahmanization and Sanskritization. Everythingthe B tried to cut out, stop, creeps back in slowly through the history of B-ism.

One of the four great clingings is to rites and rituals. What does B-ism become full of? Ritesand rituals.

Sanskrit was the lg of the intellectuals. By end of 3rd c bce, B-ist texts are starting to becomposed in Sanskrit. Increasingly cut off from the mainstream. Most people cant read them.

Dissemination of B-ism in Tibet - arising of Tantra - intermixed of Hinduism and Buddhism -thats what the Tibetans got - thats why theyre so ritualistic.

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A mystery explained is no longer a mystery. Thats what metaphysics does. The mystery of lifeis revealed in the living of life. But mystery is not mystical.

A sense ofwonder, not mystery. Thats what B-ist practice has given me: a sense of wonderabout the world.

Sense ofinterest and curiosity - comes out of a sense of wonder. Explore the wonder out ofsense of interest and curiosity.

There is a sense ofjoy in uncovering the origins of dukkha.

buddhism before the theravada

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