Views/meta-views/pariyatti practice

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CJMacie, modified 8 Years ago at 8/3/15 11:40 PM
Created 8 Years ago at 5/3/15 6:08 AM

Views/meta-views/pariyatti practice

Posts: 856 Join Date: 8/17/14 Recent Posts
pariyatti -- 'learning the doctrine [dhamma]', the 'wording of the doctrine'.
    (from Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines, by NYANATILOKA)

In the 'progress of the disciple' (aka the 'gradual path'), 3 stages may be distinguished:
    theory,
    practice,
    realization, 
i.e.
(1) learning the wording of the doctrine (pariyatti),
(2) practising it (patipatti),
(3) penetrating it (pativedha) and realising its goal.

This is a practice thread, reflecting an individual tendency that comes upon insight more readily through examining facets and variations of dhamma as fugal processes, experimentally contraposing symbolic themes in interplay with lived experience. It entertains views, perspectives, interpretations as pragmatic necessities of mental experience (living), but as floating, shifting filters and lenses, which now and again, and increasingly, come upon moments of confluence, of alignment that spontaneously engender clarity and light where the mind directly realizes the nature of it's own behavior. Momentary realizations are transient, but the process shapes the apparatus, the mental physique, so to speak, into patterns that that develop and persist. It's also, paradoxically, the construction of de-constructive capabilities.

So it's less of a narrative type historical log of sittings with this or that technique, and attainment of associated milestones. Elements along those lines may emerge, as they will. The overall approach, however, is beginning here in terms of building and exploring structures and frameworks of a non-linear nature, a variegated crystal with multiple facets, if you will.

Initially an indexed structure of different postings (with further hypertext linkages) which will likely be changing shape often. A related function will be acting as a repository for the sometimes perhaps tedious essays I often insert into other threads, which intend to contribute to those topics but often go a bit afield. An intention is then to more pointedly and tersely participate in those other threads, and refer, like footnotes, to the more elaborate expositions and background material that will be embedded in this structure here.

Moderators might well offer advice to adjust these goals if they seem too far afield of the intended spirit of DhO. (Trolls will likely do as they please.)

Contents / Index:


A couple of motivating 'insights'
http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/view_message/5722910#_19_message_5722910

Background (conditioning / kamma)
http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/view_message/5722914#_19_message_5722914

Figuring-out MCTB issues and experiencial techniques http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/view_message/5722917#_19_message_5722917

'early Buddhism' & 'what the Buddha taught'
http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/view_message/5722920#_19_message_5722920

Flavors of 'Jhana'
http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/view_message/5722903#_19_message_5722923

Perspective and aperspective
http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/view_message/5722926#_19_message_5722926

Miscellaneoushttp://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/view_message/5722903#_19_message_5722950

(Thread launched May 3rd,2015 -- full 'Flower' moon and Vesak / 'Buddha Day' -- that is, in Myanmar (Burma), Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Nepal, India and Malaysia; Vesak this year is on June 2nd, full 'Strawberry' moon, in Thailand, Laos, Indonesia and China/Singapore. Most years all use the same date, but every 2-3 years there's this one-month variance in the calendars.)
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CJMacie, modified 8 Years ago at 7/30/15 5:05 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 5/3/15 6:17 AM

motivating 'insights'

Posts: 856 Join Date: 8/17/14 Recent Posts
1. Recent realizations addingperspective and leverage to both pariyatti and patipatti practice.
http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/view_message/5722903#_19_message_5762664
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CJMacie, modified 8 Years ago at 5/3/15 6:19 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 5/3/15 6:19 AM

Background

Posts: 856 Join Date: 8/17/14 Recent Posts
<TBD>
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CJMacie, modified 8 Years ago at 5/3/15 6:21 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 5/3/15 6:21 AM

Deciphering MCTB

Posts: 856 Join Date: 8/17/14 Recent Posts
<TBD>
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CJMacie, modified 8 Years ago at 5/3/15 6:22 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 5/3/15 6:22 AM

'early Buddhism'

Posts: 856 Join Date: 8/17/14 Recent Posts
<TBD>
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CJMacie, modified 8 Years ago at 5/3/15 6:24 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 5/3/15 6:24 AM

Flavors of 'Jhana'

Posts: 856 Join Date: 8/17/14 Recent Posts
<TBD>
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CJMacie, modified 8 Years ago at 5/3/15 6:26 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 5/3/15 6:25 AM

perspective and aperspective

Posts: 856 Join Date: 8/17/14 Recent Posts
<TBD>
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CJMacie, modified 8 Years ago at 5/11/15 2:03 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 5/3/15 6:32 AM

miscellaneous

Posts: 856 Join Date: 8/17/14 Recent Posts
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Noah, modified 8 Years ago at 5/3/15 10:23 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 5/3/15 10:23 AM

RE: Background

Posts: 1467 Join Date: 7/6/13 Recent Posts
I love this idea, Chris.  Thanks in advance.  I'll be following it.  
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CJMacie, modified 8 Years ago at 5/14/15 3:02 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 5/11/15 1:42 AM

Definitions of 'Dhamma'

Posts: 856 Join Date: 8/17/14 Recent Posts
by Ven. Nanamoli, in his translation of the Visudhimagga, as footnote 1 to Chapter VII

(Hard copy edition, printed by The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation, June 1997, pp 204-205;
another edition found on-line: PathOfPurification 2011.pdf pp. 186-187)



The word dhamma—perhaps the most important and frequently used of Pali words—has no single equivalent in English because no English word has both a generalization so wide and loose as the word dhamma in its widest sense (which includes “everything” that can be known or thought of in any way) and at the same time an ability to be, as it were, focused in a set of well-defined specific uses. Roughly dhamma = what-can-be-remembered or what-can-be-borne-in-mind (dháretabba) as kamma = what-can-be-done (kátabba). The following two principal (and overlapping) senses are involved here:  (i) the Law as taught, and (ii) objects of consciousness.

(i) In the first case the word has either been left untranslated as “Dhamma” or “dhamma” or it has been tendered as “Law” or “law.” This ranges from the loose sense of the “Good Law,” “cosmic law,” and “teaching” to such specific technical senses as the “discrimination of law,” “causality,” “being subject to or having the nature of.”

(ii) In the second case the word in its looser sense of “something known or thought of” has either been left untranslated as “dhamma” or rendered by “state” (more rarely by “thing” or “phenomenon”), while in its technical sense as one of the twelve bases or eighteen elements “mental object” and “mental datum” have been used. The sometimes indiscriminate use of “dhamma,” “state” and “law” in both the looser senses is deliberate.

The English words have been reserved as far as possible for rendering dhamma (except that “state” has sometimes been used to render bháva, etc., in the sense of “-ness”). Other subsidiary meanings of a non-technical nature have occasionally been otherwise rendered according to context.

    In order to avoid muddle it is necessary to distinguish renderings of the word dhamma and renderings of the words used to define it. The word itself is a gerundive of the verb dharati (caus. dháreti—“to bear”) and so is the literal equivalent of “ that is to be borne.” But since the grammatical meanings of the two words dharati (“to bear”) and dahati (“to put or sort out,” whence dhátu—“element”) sometimes coalesce, it often comes very close to dhátu (but see VIII n. 68 and XI.104). If it is asked, what bears the qualities to be borne? A correct answer here would probably be that it is the event (samaya), as stated in the Dhammasanganì (§1, etc.), in which the various dhammas listed there arise and are present, variously related to each other. The word dhammin (thing qualified or “bearer of what is to be borne”) is a late introduction as a logical term (perhaps first used in Pali by Vism-mht, see p. 534).

    As to the definitions of the word, there are several.

At D-a I 99 four meanings are given:
moral (meritorious) special quality (guóa),
preaching of the Law (desaná),
scripture (pariyatti),
and “no-living-being-ness” (nissattatá).

Four meanings are also given at Dhs-a 38:
scripture (pariyatti),
cause (of effect) as law (hetu),
moral (meritorious) special quality (guóa),
and “no-living-being-ness and soullessness” (nissatta-nijjìvatá).

A wider definition is given at M-a I 17, where the following meanings are distinguished:
scriptural mastery (pariyatti—A III 86),
truth  (sacca—Vin I 12),
concentration, (samádhi—D II 54),
understanding, (paññá—J-a I 280),
nature, (pakati—M I 162),
individual essence, (sabháva—Dhs 1),
voidness (suññatá—Dhs 25),
merit, (puñña—S I 82),
offence (ápatti—Vin III 187),
what is knowable (ñeyya—Paþis II 194),
and so on” (see also VIII n. 68).


[end of Nanamoli quotation]

>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<<<
Here's a quotation where Ven. Analayo has some fun, in his Chapter on the 4th Satipatthana, stringing together a handful of the many meanings of the term 'dhamma':

"Thus contemplation of dhammas [4th Satipatthana] skilfully applies dhammas (classificatory categories) as taught in the Dhamma (the teaching of the Buddha) during contemplation in order to bring about an understanding of the dhamma (principle) of conditionality and lead to the realization of the highest of all dhammas (phenomena): Nibbana"


(The first qualification, in […] brackets I have added here, the rest, in (…), are his.)

>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<<<
And here's definitions of 'dhamma' from Accesstoinsight (thanks to Change A.):

http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/view_message/5723876#_19_message_5726130

>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<<<
This post referenced from:
http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/view_message/5724988#_19_message_5727442
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Nicky, modified 8 Years ago at 5/12/15 7:58 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 5/12/15 7:58 AM

RE: Definitions of 'Dhamma'

Posts: 484 Join Date: 8/2/14 Recent Posts
Chris J Macie:
by Ven. Nanamoli, in his translation of the Visudhimagga, as footnote 1 to Chapter VII

(Hard copy edition, printed by The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation, June 1997, pp 204-205;
another edition found on-line: PathOfPurification 2011.pdf pp. 186-187)



The word dhamma—perhaps the most important and frequently used of Pali words—has no single equivalent in English...


The word 'dhamma' has an unambiguous single generic meaning, namely, 'that which supports'; 'to support'; 'to uphold'.

When dhamma is used to refer to 'phenomena/nature', 'law/truth', 'duty/practise', 'fruit' etc, these refer to various dhammas required for spiritual survival or support, i.e., to uphold the mind beyond the ordinary.

It can be compared to the word 'requisites', which are food, clothing, shelter & medicine.

Similarly, the supporting (dhammic) conditions for enlightened, liberated, peaceful & trouble free life are phenomena, knowing law, doing practise & realising fruit/result of practice, including Nibana.

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CJMacie, modified 8 Years ago at 5/17/15 9:43 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 5/17/15 9:33 AM

'Uposatha' days

Posts: 856 Join Date: 8/17/14 Recent Posts
(Tomorrow, Monday 18 May 2015, "newmoon")

Officially:

(Wikipedia) "The Uposatha (Sanskrit: Upavasatha) is Buddhist day of observance, in existence from the Buddha's time (500 BCE), and still being kept today in Buddhist countries.[1][2] The Buddha taught that the Uposatha day is for "the cleansing of the defiled mind," resulting in inner calm and joy.[3] On this day, lay disciples and monks intensify their practice, deepen their knowledge and express communal commitment through millennia-old acts of lay-monastic reciprocity. On these days, the lay followers make a conscious effort to keep the Five Precepts or (as the tradition suggests) the Eight Precepts. It is a day for practicing the Buddha's teachings and meditation."

"The word "uposatha" is derived from the Sanskrit word "upavasatha," which refers to the pre-Buddhistic fast day that preceded Vedic sacrifices."

"On each uposatha day, devout lay people practice the Eight Precepts.[13][14]

"For lay practitioners who live near a monastery, the uposatha is an opportunity for them to visit a local monastery, make offerings, listen to Dhamma talks by monks and participate in meditation sessions."

"For lay practitioners unable to participate in the events of a local monastery, the uposatha is a time to intensify one's own meditation and Dhamma practice,[15] for instance, meditating an extra session or for a longer time,[16] reading or chanting special suttas,[17]  recollecting[18] or giving in some special way.[16]"

Some (my) commentary:

In Theravada uposatha days arethe days of new moon, 1st quarter, full moon, and last quarter. Sort of the Buddhist "Sunday" or 'sabbath' (it is said SayadawMahasi used that comparison), coming roughly every 7 days (actually every 4th "week" or so in this system has 8 or even 9  days – an artifact of the lunar calendar, similar to the fact that Chinese lunar years have a 13th month every couple of years).

I saw somewhere on the internet that insome communities, monks and lay devotees stay up all night on uposatha meditating – in one case it was noted the Ajahn Chah did so once together with the devotees and monks, without a hint of weakness or complaint, even though he was in the throes of a serious case of malaria.

Recently, on a weekend retreat at a local Mahasi-type meditation center, at one point the teaching monk started to lead group recitation of the Metta-sutta, at which point the translator (for the Vietnamese yogis) questioned it, that this wasn't normally done at this particular time during weekend retreats.The Sayadaw replied that it was an uposatha day, and customary to add more metta practice.

DhO (pragmatic) relevance?


Tomorrow, May 18, 2015 is new moon.Some currently running threads on DhO might benefit from a bit more metta.

Some personal / secular commentary:


New moon and full moon are sometimes considered times that warrant special attention, more mindfulness, so to speak. I read somewhere that human behavior can be affected – new moon being a time of increased vulnerability, and full moon a time of increased agitation, aggressive energy. It was put as: at new moon, energy may seem to drag a bit, and with full moon it's as if you think you're driving along in the speed limit, but the car is actually going 90 or 100 mph (doesn't apply on the German Autobahns) – a time to pay attention carefully, a slight errors can be more serious.

Modern rationalists, many scientists like to pooh-pooh such ideas. It's been said – just ask police, or emergency room personnel whether things don't seem to pick-up at full moon. Scientists cite studies that claim to show, that there's no significant statistical difference, or that when statistica ldeviation shows up, it's merely a function of people's beliefs (myths about full moon effects). What's the real truth? Are people's beliefs de facto "untrue". Who's to say? Scientific opinion does seem to fall into a belief patterns, an over eagerness to debunk anything smacking of beliefs, myths, "old wives' tales." Lots of "science" clearly behaves like religious belief. Notice how they like to lock horns with religious believers, for example "evolution" vs "creationism".

Apropos "old wives' tales": "Wife", German "Weib", is a generic term for "woman". Female reproductive physiology is obviously related, at least in origin, to lunar cycles. I've even heard that it's not uncommon, in this day and age, for human menstrual cycles to synch with the lunar cycle.

Professionally (as practitioner of acupuncture / classical Chinese medicine), menstrual syndromes, notably "PMS", and menopausal-syndromes show up often. Curiously, in pre-modern Chinese culture these were not generally considered medical problems. The (pre-modern) conventions of life accomodated menstration and menopause such that they were smoothly handled. In modern civilization (particularly Western), where women, in order to aspire to "equality" with men, particularly professionally, are pressured to negate, suppress natural accomodation to the physiological phases. Hence epidemic proportions of PMS and menopausal problems. (Not to mention drop-of-a-hat hysterectomies, mastectomies, caesarian sections, etc.)

Demythologizing the calendar, to be non-lunal, may relate to analogous, perhaps pathological, distortionsin other aspects of modern life.

(Running out of steam here, at 4:54 AM…will pick-up and continue at a later date.)
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CJMacie, modified 8 Years ago at 6/16/15 7:39 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 6/16/15 6:59 AM

Nippapañca Blog - Abhidhamma Studies II

Posts: 856 Join Date: 8/17/14 Recent Posts
A review / critique of "The Nippapañca Blog - Abhidhamma Studies II - Arising and Passing Away" – as referenced in the thread "Monks opinion about Abdhidhamma"
(http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/message/5724863)

The whole article in the The Nippapañca Blog is, IME, bogus, at several levels. I will try to here elucidate how, using both domain evidenceand literary criticism. Not that it will influence the understanding of anyone who accepts it's findings (who shares its mindset), but rather as an exercise in expressing an understanding of conflicting culture-bound viewpoints.

In brief, the author uses Western literal translations of foreign (culturally and historically distant) metaphorical or symbolic concepts, applies evidence and logic germane to Western physical science to posit the 'impossibility' of such notions, then projects the perceived irreality back into the Asian Buddhist mentality to utterly refute it. It's overall a variation on conspiracy-theory argumentation. Plus, the author voices blatant misconceptions of the Asian concepts to begin with, which is actually easier to demonstrate.

"The journal of an American Theravada Buddhist monk, sharing experiences and philosophical reflections after his return from 20 years in the forests of Burma."


The author was apparently wasting his time for those 20 years (if, in fact, it's true he spent that time actually immersed in Burmese Buddhist study and practice), if he wasn't able to recognize that there are fundamental differences between his native mindset and that of the Burmese Buddhists (and Asian cultures in general). Though it's incomprehensible to someone who hasn't experienced it, there's an extremely valuable benefit to immersing oneself in a 'foreign' culture, learning to live it and becoming able to see all of reality from its viewpoint. Note that in traditional upper-class education in many European cultures, an important step (after going through education in one's native culture, up through at least the collegiate level) was to live and/or study in an other country, learning it's language, customs,viewpoint, etc. At first, it's quite strange, counter-'intuitive' relative to one's native perceptions and judgments; after sometime (minimum, say a couple of years), one learns to operate more wholly in the new environment – speaks, understands, dreams in the new language; understands the idioms and biases, and, at best, also the historical cultural influences that condition them. Emerging from this experience, say when coming back 'home' (or even during the experience), one gains the opportunity to notice that one's own native mindset is essentially conditioned and in many ways arbitrary and strange, just like the foreign one. One can see one's native culture, so to speak, through the eyes of the s/w acquired foreign cultural viewpoint. This was once considered proper 'e-ducation' – Latin 'being led' (ducere) 'out of' (ex-) one's native conditioned, supposed 'reality', to realize how each culture has its own version of, holds itself as self-evident reality. In a word: cultural relativity.The evidence (this blog article) suggests that this person didn't quite appreciate that opportunity, wasn't able to let go of native biases sufficiently to get the pointof this sort of education, to reach the point of being able to see the relativity of his own native baises. (This is by no means a unique case. Another, more prominent, example could be argued in the case of the writings and viewpoints of Stephen Batchelor – but that's another story.)

"The Abhidhamma philosophy of Theravada Buddhism has interpreted this impermanence to mean that every conditioned entity in the universe exists for only about a trillionth of an eye-blink, i.e. less than a thousandth of a nanosecond."

It is true that the fascination with numerology evident in Asian cultures (among others) of 2000+ years ago resulted in writings calculating both macro and micro dimensions in terms of very large (or very small) numbers. (I noticed this earlier with Chinese medical and philosophical writings of about the same historical period, in a study of the history and theory of Chinese medicine.) One can see this in passages in the (Buddist) suttas enumerating the life-cycles of beings in the multiple levels of divine beings of Buddhist/Indic cosmology – 10's, 100's, 100,000's of 'eons', etc. These were literary devices, conventions to impart a sense of magnitude beyond the ordinary, NOT literal devices intended to represent exact measurement (a more modern device) in terms of practical lived experience.

It's also true, that, for instance, the Pa Auk Sayadaw in his books uses similar computations, e.g. that mental events occur at extremely high rates – millions of millions per second. I believe that this is meant to convey that mental phenomena consist of subevents that operate at rates well beyond 'normal', untrained perception, and that trained perception can detect events occurring orders of magnitude faster then we usually think of them. In practice, and with current understanding of the neurological basis, while 'ordinary' perception may recognize 'several' events in a second, it's conceivable that 10's or even 100's could be brought into awareness in some sense. It's accepted that the basic cycle time of neurological events is in the neighborhood of a couple of milliseconds (ms); complexes of these that make of functional (potentially experientially detectable) behaviors are in the range of perhaps 10-20 ms, or 50-100 per second. This basic cycle-rate of human nervous system is relatively sluggish, compared to current digital logic (supercomputers are measuresd in 'tera-flops' – trillions of cycles/second). BUT the human brain functions with massive degrees of 'parallelism', way beyond computers. The currently fastest Cray supercomputer consists of 200,000 microprocessors, but the human brain (30 billion neurons, at last count, with trillions of interconnections and astronomical numbers of possible discreet events) has 10's-100's of millions of simultaneous operations going on at once, where some smaller number, maybe 100+-, are candidates, are lurking at the borders of sub-consciousness, ready to potentially rise to that singular focus of attention we call 'an object' of consciousness.

"This idea has diffused out of Abhidhamma, and has come to be considered a mainstream tenet of Theravadin philosophy as a whole; and it has been cited as authoritative Buddhism by very reputable Western Dharma teachers, including Ram Dass."

Not true. It remains a relatively fringe (abhidhamma specialists) technicality (and essentially metaphorical rather than literal). Very telling is the author's citation of Ram Dass as evidence of this 'mainstream tenet'. To be sure, he's a 'reputable Western Dharma teachers', but by no means representative of Therevadan understanding.

"Sayadaw U Pandita of the Mahasi tradition has declared many times that one should not accept a Dhamma teacher who has not at least experienced udayabbaya ñāṇa, the insight into arising and passing away, interpreted as seeing this trillion-times-per-second process."


For sure, U Pandita would emphasize the importance of deep understanding of A&P. That he would bind this to experiencing it at literally trillions of Hz – I'd have to see actual quotations from him where he clearly interprets the mythic numerological quantities with observable experience. U Pandita, one sees quickly in reading his stuff, is pretty smart, enough to appreciatethe difference between Asian metaphor and Western literalism. The author here is clearly, repeatedly juxtaposing ideas from disparate areas in ways that are more rhetorical than logical.

"He stressed that the meditator does not experience it as it is happening, but "reviews" it afterwards. However, this would seem to require one of two things—either the meditator is remembering the past, or else he/she is seeing into the past clairvoyantly. But neither alternative seems to work, since one can't remember what one never experienced, and looking into the past, according to Abhidhamma, is impossible since the past is absolutely no longer existing, and one cannot see what is nonexistent."

Yes, 'reviewing' experience while resonance of it is still presence in the neurology. This is readily experiencable. In absorbed jhana there is no logical menta lfunctioning to speak of, but for a period after emerging from absorption the experience is still within reach and can be analyzed by a sharp, insight trained mind. Traditionally experience is said to linger in the 'hadaya-vatthu', the 'heart-base' of consciousness, where it can be viewed and analyzed. This too is metaphorical – not a location in the physical heart organ, but some sense of bodily-mental basis, and readily possible in terms of current understanding of neural imaging and memory mechanisms.

"According to Abhidhamma, the mind arises and passes away at a rate seventeen times faster than does physical matter. For each moment of matter, a seventeen-stage mental process called citta-vīthi is claimed to occur. This process is also supposed to be observed by very advanced meditators; although this implies some more convoluted complications."

The author actually steps on his own foot here -- 1st sentence: the mind (citta) cycles 17x faster than "physical matter"; 2nd sentence: "each moment of matter" is a 17-stage process… The first sentence cannot be attributed to Abhidhamma (what does he attribute it to?); the second sentence is fairly accurate. This is 17-stage process is known as the 'cognitive series' -- citta-vithi -- an analysis of the smallest-scale phenomenologically discernable structures of the phenomena of conscious experience (the individual stages of which the author accurately lists further on), which combines experiencable events with many standard Buddhist terms. It is considered to have 17 discreet component stages (or only 11 if it’s a 'mind-door' 6th sense arising, without external sensory stimulus). But these sub-steps are NOT "physical matter". Maybe he means 17-times faster than a single one of the 17 subevents, each of which is 'physical' in the sense of being somehow correlatedwith physical neurons? But 'material' (rupa) sensations (which are conscious events of materiality) are each a whole 17-partseries.

The author mixes literal Western logic with mis-understanding of abhidhamma ideas, motivated by wanting to assert the bias that the foreign ideas are impossible because they don't translate 1-to-1 into Western schema. The literary evidence suggests, too, that he's no rocket scientist.

"However, it would seem that this would be impossible, even for a fully enlightened Buddha. For starters, one could not observe the seventeen-step process because it requires a complete seventeen-step process to perceive anything, including one of the seventeen steps. So by the time the very first step had been perceived, the other sixteen would no longer be existing to be observed
."

This demonstrates that (probably naively unselfconscious) mixing of viewpoints, with an Escher-like twist. And another basic flaw running through here is interpreting 'passing-away' (trillions per second) as an irretrievable disappearance. Yes, the raw experiencing of the moment is gone when it's over, but there's also an at least momentary echo of it available to succeeding conscious moments. This is both neruologically plausible and easily verified by a discerning but not necessarily that advanced mind. (I could cite both Daniel Ingram and Ven. U. Thuzana – abbot of a near-by Mahasi monastery – as to the experiential reality that a moment of raw sensation is immediately followed by a moment of purely mental awareness of it.)

"The very fact that so many meditators sincerely believe that they have experienced this momentary arising and passing away of phenomena, including their own mental processes, is some fairly good evidence that much of what passes for deep meditative states (jhāna) in Theravada Buddhism is actually hypnotic trance, and the resultant "insight" merely the result of hypnotic suggestion."

Here the author extrapolates from the imposssiblity of truly having experience (of A&P) at the granularity of a trillionth-of-a-second to evidence that Theravadan jhana and vipassana (insight) are reducible to hypnosis-related delusion. The 'logic' of this paragraph distinctly reminds me of the rhetorical and logical style I've seen, and studied extensively over decades, in the area of acupuncture medicine and the rabid attacks on its credibility by a rather prominent organization called the "National Council Against Health Fraud". This organization, originally set-up and run by some de-licensed (obviously embittered) MD, has in recent times reshaped itself to become more respectible. Acupuncture has in the meantime garnered substantial experimental verification of medical effectiveness (albeit in specific, limited areas – not the whole system with all its metaphorical aspects). People who still voice those earlier kinds of refutational attacks are largely overt crack-pots. Anyway, thelogical/rhetorical modus operandi is clearly recognizable in our monk-author's style of argumentation.

(Back then, as acupuncture student and later practitioner, I developed a habit of searching-out and carefully studying such critiques, to see if/what they actually had to offer, to also better understand my own potential biases. As now I eagerly study the theory and research of things like 'Secular Buddhism', 'early' teachings theories, etc., to see what perhaps valid evidence and viewpoints are there, and to be able to clearly understand what biases and fallacies might be there, as well as understand the nature, perhaps biases, of my own 'viewpoints'.)

"I would guess that most people who consider themselves to be
ariyas, or Buddhist "saints" who have had at least a glimpse of Nibbāna, are mistaken. Especially if their tradition insists that they are required to see what is impossible, yet they manage to see it anyway."

Here one notes the subtle linguistic nuances used in this type of argumentation: "I would guess… most … are mistaken." Also in the prior quotation "The very fact that… is some fairly good evidence that…". (Even the grammar is weak: "some fairly good" – double equivication in that 'some' and 'fairly' are both hedges.) There is a pattern here seen similar to one found in most conspiracy-type theories, and often in second-rate academic writing. In the first couple of pages comes suggestion that some evidence or other possibly, might be intrepreted to mean xyz… This is repeated every page or two, and by page 20 or so the qualifications ('might', 'perhaps', 'guessing',…) begin to be left out. And by the final concluding summary, the issue is considered conclusively proven, without, however, additional, stronger evidence having been revealed – just repetition and elaboration of the obvious, dubious, premises.
Also, "ariyas, or Buddhist 'saints'" is a bit peculiar coming from a 20-year monk.
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CJMacie, modified 8 Years ago at 7/30/15 5:04 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 7/30/15 4:30 AM

RE: motivating 'insights'

Posts: 856 Join Date: 8/17/14 Recent Posts
1. Recent realizations adding perspective and leverage to both pariyatti and patipatti practice.

I. Daoist knowing, with Jeffrey Yuen


The point:

An observation, as a teaching Jeffery would voice occasionally – when one 'knows' something directly (e.g. something Daoist, something Buddhist, something in medical practice), one has no need to defend it against other views, or to convert anyone else to one's own view. When people go to lengths to voice and defend their views (or confront others' views), that betrays insecurity about their beliefs, and leads to seeking external confirmation to help overcome this position of weakness.

Background:

Jeffrey Yuen is a Daoist priest (88th generation lineage-holder of a sect going back some 2000 years), who specializes in studying, practicing, and teaching 'classical' Chinese medicine. (In this tradition, all priests are practiced in the Daoist basics, but then each 'specializes' in one or another area, e.g. medicine, feng-shui, rituals, exorcism, etc.). I was in a program for about a decade studying his medical teachings -- several weekends of lectures per year, and audio or video recordings otherwise. (His teaching is strictly oral; the lineage does allow writing to teach.)

He teaches 'classical' Chinese medicine in the sense of going back into the historical periods and writings, re-constructing the situation, the medical challenges, and the theories and practices evolved to cope – held together across history by a theoretical framework going back to the earliest Han era (ca. 2000 years ago) written documents.

(This is in contrast to 'TCM', or 'Traditional Chinese Medicine', which is a modern fabrication that extracts aspects of the historical traditions into a s/w dogmatic modernist system that's highly influenced by modern Western medicine, and is intended to project Chinese cultural and economic interests around the globe.)

Jeffery's teaching method is unusual: a series of courses studying one or another significant historical period and it's 'school of thought'. He has the students immerse in seeing through the eyes of the culture of that period – their view of tradition, the salient social-economic melieu, kinds of health challenges prevelant at the time; to study and practice the theoretical view-points formulated, the methods of practice developed in that period. This depth of study for the, say, 6-month duration of the course, is to take it as if it were the only way to see things; and to use the period methods clinically. Then after such a course, Jeffrey would say let go of that view-point, which the students had to one degree or another internalized and mastered, and go off to use the same method studying some other period / school of thought.

(Chinese medical tradition does not insist, as Western medicine tends to, that there's one correct way to practice (i.e. what science says is the truth at this moment inhistory), and it doesn't reject other systems and traditions as quackery or superstition. Hence the practitioner of the 'classical' medicine has a wide range of perspectives (diagnostic and therapeutic) that can be applied, according to what matches what presents in any partcular patient as any particular time.)

Re The point (above)

All the varied traditional medical materials (2000 years of various, often diverging, historical periods and schools of thought), are relative to this or that momentary perspective, position of observation. Every such positional situation is relative, and transient. Knowing the nature of this flux of circumstance provides a certain freedom – freedom to employ whatever is appropriate at any time, and freedom from having to identify with, invest one's "blood" in transitory, relative realities.

This is a Daoist attitude, and sounds like Buddhism, which in fact played (still plays) a major role in Chinese history. The Chinese took to Buddhism in part because its basic outlook is so similar to their native Doaist worldview. Across those historical periods, especially from the time of the advent of Buddhism in China through the great flowering of the Tang Dynasty (ca. 600-900 C.E.), many, if not most, of the 'Great Masters' associated with the prominent schools of medical thought were also advanced pratititioners of Doaism, Buddhism, often BOTH, and s/t primarily so, with medicine as a secondary career interest.

For the vast amount of historical and medical knowledge imparted in hundreds of hours of listening to Jeffrey teach, that realization about defending, convincing others of one's 'knowledge' or viewpoint, vs the security, unassailability of self-evident, direct knowledge (being also always recognized as relative to the basic fact that every human knower operates from the limitations of an individual perspective) – this was the core learning that remains with me. And actually, Jeffery would let on, on rare occasions, that this is the most important thing he seeks to teach.

II. Evidence and Equanimity, with Ven. Analayo

Evidence:

From reading Ven. Analayo's 2nd book on the topic – 'Perspectives on Satipatthana', pp 123-4

VII.4 DEPENDENT ARISING (paticcasamuppada) [various interpretations, in the context of the Satipatthana "contemplation of feelings")]

[ 1. traditional 3-lifetime model ]

Such direct contemplation need not cover all the twelve links that are enumerated in the common description of the dependent arising of dukkha. Traditional exegesis, found in works like the Patsambhidamagga of the Theravada tradition and the Jnyanaprasthana of the Saravastivadatradition, interprets this twelve-link model as extending over three consecutive lifetimes. This would obviously make it difficult to contemplate the whole series in the present moment. From the viewpoint of this explanation, ignorance (1) and volitional formations (2) pertain to the past, whereas with consciousness (3) the present life period begins that leads via name-and-form (4), the six sense (5), and contact (6) to feeling (7). Based on feeling arise craving (8), clinging (9), and becoming (10), after which come the links that tradition reckons as pertaining to a future life, namely birth (11), followed by old age and death (12).

The traditional mode of interpretation can find support from the early discourses. For example, the Mahanidana-sutta and its parallels identify consciousness as that which enters the mother's womb. This passage occurs in the context of an exposition of dependent arising. Thus
the rebirth interpretation has its roots in the early discourses and it would not do justice to such passages if this mode of explanation were to be dismissed as being merely the product of later times.

[ 2. modern scholarly model based on Vedic creation myth ]

According to modern scholarship, the formulation of dependent arising by way of twelve links appears to involve a criticism of a Vedic creation myth. (Jurewicz 2000; cf. also Jones 2009 [and in Linda Blanchard's 'Dependant Origination in Context') This would be in line with a general tendency in the early discourses to reinterpret ancient Indian ideas and conceptions in order to express Buddhist teachings. Rather than describing the creation of the world, however, the point made by this reinterpretation would be to reveal the conditioned genesis of dukkha.

[ 3. early Abhidhamma model of 12-links in a single mind-moment/process ]

Besides the three-life interpretation of this chain of twelve links, already the early Abhidhamma traditions present an alternative mode of interpreting the standard depiction of dependent arising. This alternative mode, found in works like the Vibhanga of the Theravada tradition or the *Mahavibhasa of the Sarvastivada tradition, applies each of the twleve links to a single mind-moment. From this viewpoint, the reference to "birth" in the context of the twelve links refers to the arising of mental states. According to the Abhidharmakosabhasya, the operation of all twelve links can thus take place within a single moment. This certainly makes the whole series more easily amenable to introspection analysis carried out in the present moment.

[ 4. 12-links analyzed as causes andeffects ]

Traditional exegesis providesanother interpretative tool, which divides the twelve links into causes and effects. Here ignorance (1) and volitional formations (2) are causes. The same is the case for the three links that arise after feeling: craving (8), grasping (9), and becoming (10). The otherlinks are effects.

What causes the arising of dukkha are thus ignorant reactions (links 1 and 2), which manifest when feeling leads to craving, etc. (links 8, 9, and 10). This clearly puts a spotlight on feeling. It is as this juncture that ignorance needs to be deconditioned, so that reactions by way of craving can be avoided. In other words, feeling is the link where the presence of mindfulness can have a decisive effect on the dependent arising of dukkha."

[ end of quotation ]

Analayo's analysis goes on to explore the practical implications of Satipatthana instructions –"…practice can be seen to explore the conditioned nature of feelings as well as the conditioning nature of feelings."

The point:

The point here arose in the context of an earlier debate going on in my own mind and with others as to which interpretation of the paticcasamuppada was really right, the best, truest to the Buddha's early ("real") teachings. Observing Analayo's even-handed summary of the leading candidates, followed by discussion of the practical interpretation of the satipatthana instructions – without his taking sides with any of the alternative theories – this rang a bell, led to considering what it means to feel it necessary to decide on and commit to one or another side in such a field of interpretations (and to engage in the usual debates that arise).

Subsequent studies (of various theories and the evidence for determining what's really the true, earliest teachings of the Buddha) brought out the point, which most scholars admitt, that all the evidence for any theory is indirect – historical, linguistic, epigraphic, whatever the type of evidence. More careful scholars treat this thematically, explaining how they select and evaluate evidence, and thoroughly considering alternative interpretations; they often then argue for this or that specific interpretation as the best fit, internally, externally consistent, or whatever. Other scholars betray a more aggressive agenda focusing on certain aspects and working to assert that their interpretation is clearly most justified, hence the correct one.

This study of other peoples views and investigations, argumentations, as well as my own, proved quite rewarding – rather than myself constantly trying to zero-in on who or what's right, more noticing how and the hints of why people are attempting to do just that.

The upshot is, given the usual wealth of supporting 'evidence' on all sides, and ways of arguing it up and down, back and forth, what determines where one decides to take sides, take a 'position'? Can one discern a 'need' that drives some decided conclusion? Or a sense of prior or resultant 'faith' that feeds a comittment to a position? Is this, in all cases, a form of 'belief'?


III. Practical and theoretical perspectives working together –
pariyatti process

The kind of knowledge in part I (above) is direct, experiential seeing / observation and knowing / understanding. It is certain, unshakable for the person who experiences it. It doesn't require confirmation from other people, nor does it speak for other peoples' experience, that they should necessarily experience the same clarity in the same terms. (The issue of communicating this stuff.)

The theory of study, scholarship isn't to arrive at similar certainty of direct experience, but to entertain the breadth of possibilities of mental frameworks. It can familiarize one with models and maps, their workings and possible relevance. It's possible that practical experience will subsequently be found to approximate such models or maps, which then can help guide further experiential development by suggesting next steps to explore and warning of dangers.

I recently found that Mahasi Sayadaw, in the 'Vipassana Treatise' (aka 'Manual of Insight') vol I, part 1, goes into this. He explicates parts of Sutta-s (and commentaries and subcommentaries) to show a distinction in the Buddha's teaching between direct knowing, and what he translates as 'hearsay' knowing. At great length he shows and interprets this, with s/w esoteric Pali terms -- i.e. not heard in run-of-the-mill type of (usually lay) dharma talks. The idea is that being fooled into takng 'hearsay' knowledge as truly valuable direct knowledge is to be guarded against.

In Mahasi's context, the interplay of pragmatic experience and guiding models (Buddha's teachings) is an important perspective. Yes, penetrating insight is direct knowledge, and it knows itself with certainty when it arises. But on the 'gradual path', most individuals begin from conditioned delusion, and work towards resultant clariy comes through a dialectic of practice and guidance. In fact, Mahasi positions his Treatise / Manualas as an exploration of this dialectic for more or less advanced students – those beyond the initial cultivation of noting etc. (ascovered in the instructions of his various 'practical' and 'exercise' books); there come points in the development of practice where quite subtle distinctions must guide it through and around more subtle, 'advanced' delusions that tend to arise.


IV. Conclusions
(for now)

This essay originally intended to outline past 'insights' noted from Jeffrey Yuen's teaching, and from observing the nature of evidence and interpretation in scholarly investigation. These insight have proven consistently rewarding in guiding observation and understanding my own (and others') behaviors in the areas of practice and communication – notably interaction here in DhO. Both in terms of direct personal experience of practice, and in terms of dealing with 3rd-party sources, in both practical and historical-theoretical matters. When is there solid,direct understanding? When is there more a working sort of faith or belief hypothesis operating? (Especially when is the latter masquerading as the former?)

Coincidentally, the discovery of Mahasi's remarkable Treatise/Manual, in just the last couple of days, has provided another framework, firmly grounded in (hardcore Theravadan) dhamma, which appears to add potentially valuable guidance in working out the further implications of those two 'insights' I stumbled across.

Enough for now.

Tu.29.Jly.2015 --  initial post

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