Asking the Right Questions

[@simonsays525]

Bhante is a sage and a comedian… “belly bhavana” 😂 Such powerful Dhamma here. Much gratitude 🙏🏼

[@zorananda]

I can see myself in the passage ,, me having a lack of understanding, me having a lack of restraint and me being responsible for disturbing myself...and then compensating for all of that by trying to calm myself down with meditation, instead of trying to contemplate how and why i actively partake in disturbing myself in the first place by acting out of greed, aversion and distraction..." It's frightening how deep one's ignorance must be in order to maintain such behavior for long periods without taking notice of the fallacy of one's intentions behind it.

[@StanleyFamilyFun]

Good morning from America!! Deepest Dhamma on the Net

[@Spiritualjourney259]

Thank you very much Venerables.

[@venerablemettaji6944]

Thank you for the thorough and direct truth. Always delivered with clarity, specificity and positive directions. Sadhu

[@CD-kl1dn]

Thanks Bhante

[@xeruli]

Profound 👏🏻

[@swengappuli]

🙏🙏🙏

[@JoshSmith-ff8dw]

Invaluable

[@1hullofaguy]

Great explanation!

[@elielsandoval.author]

🙏☸️🙏 thank you Bhante, this Dharma talk really clarified many of my actual questions and concerns about my practice. This path is about to study, contemplate and realign your efforts with the right view in the right direction

[@cliffmilbrun2803]

Thank you good men

[@FRED-gx2qk]

And women.

[@hariharry391]

🙏

[@zorananda]

It seems like a paradox that ignorance can not be uprooted by reflective thinking only, because ignorance is already inherent in the reflection, yet it seems to be the only tool to expose and narrow down our intentions.

[@extremelyrarebird]

Yes agreed. Reminds me of a quote by Kierkegaard; ''This, then, is the ultimate paradox of thought: to want to discover something that thought itself cannot think.''

[@HillsideHermitage]

@zorananda It's not the only tool. Sense restraint, authentic virtue and taming of the senses is what would diminish your ignorance, even if no special reflexive effort has been made. Hence the Gradual Training and undoing one's unwholesome intentions can be practiced on account of mere faith/trust alone and yield the same result - liberation.

[@zorananda]

@@HillsideHermitage my mistake, not the only tool but rather a major tool. But undoing unwholesome intentions can obviously be done only by understanding wholesome as wholesome and unwholesome as unwholesome, which would be the equivalent of right view. So sense restraint does not necessarily imply right view. But how can there be , as you say, authentic virtue , which in itself would imply that it is established not merely on the basis of a sense of duty , without right view? And if I understand you right, you're saying that undoing your unwholesome intentions can be accomplished merely by faith / without right view and it would yield the same result as as undoing your unwholesome intentions by right view...?

[@zorananda]

@@HillsideHermitage venerable ajahn , in a video called ,,die before you die" you say the following statement : ,,..,,...Enduring the suffering that arises on account of restraint and so on, yeah, that is the first step, but that in itself will not result in the cessation of suffering. If that was so then the Buddha would have said so. But no , it's the understanding of suffering, it's arising and cessation and so on , that's what frees you from that suffering..." ...Yet here you say that no effort of understanding needs to be made and that gradual training and undoing one's unwholesome intentions can be practiced on account of mere faith alone and will yield the same result- freedom from suffering. That in my limited view does not seem consistent but rather contradictory. A explanation on how to understand that would be much appreciated.

[@HillsideHermitage]

@zorananda You can think of it like this: - "Enduring of suffering on account of sense restraint" does not automatically lead to "undoing of one's unwholesome intentions" internally. While: - "Undoing one's unwholesome intentions" EQUALS "understanding of suffering" and the complete freedom. Thus, no effort needs to be made towards understanding, other than uprooting of the unwholesome intentions. How one arrives at making that effort, either through faith or reasoning, it's up the individual. So: Practising on account of "mere faith alone" should not be understood as simply blindly adhering to the restraint and enduring the suffering mindlessly. "Faith" factor here refers to someone who would choose to make the effort towards "undoing those unwholesome intentions" internally, WITHOUT any other convincing or theorizing necessary - simply on account faith in the fact that the Buddha said if you abandon everything that's rooted in unwholesome you will be free. Of course, undoing of such intentions will not be possible if one has not been enduring the suffering caused by sense restraint. Even if mindlessly at first. Why? Because for as long as the sense restraint is there, the basis for uprooting the unwholesome intentions of one's mind remains available.

[@deeteevee2292]

Hey thank you all for these talks they have truly left no space for error to creep in. You have greatly expounded the teaching and have changed the course of my practice. I have a quick question. About “letting Mara in”. I have recently been pondering when I’m going to work am I technically distracting myself even if that’s not the intent. I’m a server and while I’m working I’m technically distracted as in I’m focused on my work and nothing else. I know it’s different that watching tv or going out with friends. But is it still leaving room for Mara?

[@ancestralhypnosis]

The Ajahns here seem to be teaching us that lust, aversion and distraction aren't in the bodily action but in the motive. Hence if we are engaged in distraction motivated by the intention to avoid the ambiguity of the body and of experience it's unwholesome. If you're distracted simply technically, that wouldn't be the direction that they are encouraging us to inquire into. It would seem that our work is on the level of clarity and integrity in regards to our current intention

[@robertma5424]

In mn19 the buddha mentions that wholesome thinking and these types of contemplations won't lead to danger but doing this for a long time would tire someone, disturb the mind, and the mind would be far from samadhi. So the says he "steadied my mind right within, settled, unified, and concentrated. Why is that? So that my mind would not be disturbed." Isnt this the opposite of what you are suggesting to do here?

[@light1518]

Good question! It would be good if this can be answered by someone at Hillside Hermitage. The sutta you have mentioned, the relevant section: "And as I remained thus heedful, ardent, & resolute, thinking imbued with renunciation arose in me. I discerned that 'Thinking imbued with renunciation has arisen in me; and that leads neither to my own affliction, nor to the affliction of others, nor to the affliction of both. It fosters discernment, promotes lack of vexation, & leads to Unbinding. If I were to think & ponder in line with that even for a night... even for a day... even for a day & night, I do not envision any danger that would come from it, except that thinking & pondering a long time would tire the body. When the body is tired, the mind is disturbed; and a disturbed mind is far from concentration.' So I steadied my mind right within, settled, unified, & concentrated it. Why is that? So that my mind would not be disturbed. And as I remained thus heedful, ardent, & resolute, thinking imbued with non-ill-will... And as I remained thus heedful, ardent, & resolute, thinking imbued with harmlessness..."

[@NothingTheGreat]

While I find much value in these talks, I believe it's somewhat presumptive to dismiss contemporary practices as "belly bhavana" and "calming techniques". In reality, they may very well pave the way for deeper contemplation and understanding of attachment in relation to suffering. It's widely acknowledged, both empirically and anecdotally, that meditation goes beyond mere relaxation. It enhances metacognitive awareness throughout the day, diminishes emotional entanglement with experiences like anxiety (seemingly through it’s reduction in and greater frontal connectivity with the amygdala, if you're into such materialist ontology), and improves the ability to stay present and direct attention consciously. Similarly, Bhante's past references to the conducive environment for awakening in ancient times resonates today outside of just renunciation, as contemporary lifestyle challenges sustained focus, too. The efficacy of all of the preparatory hours undertaken by the venerable that he now views as misguided might have actually been quite instrumental in allowing for the needed depth and precision of awareness for observing the conditions for which his suffering plays out in real-time. In essence, while sense restraint and intellectual contemplation certainly hold value, it's unwise to disregard the multifaceted benefits of diverse meditative approaches. The venerable cannot know for certain the extent of their impact, particularly in a modern context where attention spans are challenged to say the least (many can barely sit through a five minute video or two page article without being lost in thought),and individual capacities for observation of reality and one's own reactivity may vary greatly at baseline when approaching the path.

[@moistgravy]

🙏