Buddhist Philosophy
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The doctrines and perspectives which serve as the intellectual foundation for the practice as a whole.
Table of Contents
- Articles (14)
- Audio/Video (31)
- Booklets (15)
- Canonical Works (74)
- Essays (20)
- Excerpts (1)
- Monographs (15)
- Papers (1)
- Reference Shelf (1)
- Subtopics (1)
Articles (14)
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This essay gives an introduction to the three characteristics and, by analysis, their function.
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To approach what, for the want of a better term, we call the mythic portions of the Nikayas with the attitude that such categories as “mythic symbol” and “literally true” are absolutely opposed is to adopt an attitude that is out of time and place. It seems to me that in some measure we must allow both a literal and a psychological interpretation. Both are there in the texts.
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In general, we humans are a self-interpreting species for whom the practice of recollecting and redescribing ourselves is a crucial necessity. For us the reconstruction of identity is a continuous process wherein the past is selectively crafted into a history. It is a creative and self-constitutive exercise. We come to know each other and ourselves not by exchanging resumes (mere inventories of events), but by telling our stories. And our stories change as we do; they reflect what actually happened and what we think is worth remembering, they reflect who we were, who we are, and who we would like to become.
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In the context of Christian missionary activity, it seems again entirely natural that rebirth is seen as one type of belief that needs to be replaced with another belief, which in this case is belief in an almighty god. However, the perception of the rebirth doctrine as a belief to be either accepted on faith or else rejected does not seem to capture fully the position this doctrine occupies in early Buddhist thought.
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Venerable Analayo shows how the Four Noble Truths are akin to a medical treatment plan—from diagnosis to cure—and explains “the significance of [their] realization as the fulfilment of right view.”
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A thorough description of what makes someone fully enlightened, explaining how arahantship is the culmination and perfection of the path.
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Beside the creek, one can forget language altogether and watch meaning slip away with the current. It is humbling and awe-inspiring to merge into the creekside, just another natural formation.
Audio/Video (31)
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A beautiful music video on the truth of anicca: that all things are “synthesized” and are thus subject to decay, disappearance, and death.
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These classic recordings give a thorough and dense overview of current, orthodox Theravada doctrine.
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Gives a basic introduction to Early Buddhist Philosophy, with a special emphasis on how it differs from later doctrinal developments.
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All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a reflection, a shadow, or a flash of lightning, or a few drops on the morning grass. So, for example, by the time you see the flash of lightning, it’s already gone. In no time, it’s come from somewhere and it’s gone somewhere else. You see it, and it’s gone. Which is to say that the world is something that you can see and experience but you can’t obtain or possess it.
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Bhante Yuttadhammo outlines the five preparatory factors we need to be open to the truth and to see the world from the right perspective, hopefully illuminating why Right View can be thought of as both first and last step of the Noble Eightfold Path.
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A short talk on this profound sutta (MN28) which serves as an EBT basis for the Abhidhamma.
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We call that “Progress”
But it’s just movement -
On how we can distinguish Buddhism from other philosophies.
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Ajahn Brahmali walks us through this sutta on Right Concentration and explains how it changed slightly in the Theravada recension.
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Ajahn Brahm discusses the Buddha’s qualities and tells some stories from his time as a monk in Thailand.
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A sick Ajahn Brahm explains for us the “Great Aggregate of Suffering” and why everyone quarrels so much.
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And once we become familiar with the nature of objects, because of seeing that, one sees the implications — “this thing that I’m basing my happiness on is uncertain, is subject to change, is going to pass away”
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Bhante Sujato walks us through this deep sutta, one of his (and, I must say, my) favorites, giving us a bit more info on the commentarial background story as well as the sutta’s parallels.
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A relaxed talk on MN 148 and on our stubborn ignorance.
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On Dependant Origination and its reversal to liberation.
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I have never yet had the question why good things happen.
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Ajahn Brahm tells us all the secrets of life: from how to find a partner to getting what you really want.
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An incredible music video, perfectly capturing the world-weary feeling of saṃvega.
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A very brief introduction to the four foundations of mindfulness: the way to experience the five aggregates directly.
Booklets (15)
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‘Iddhi’ means greatness and ‘pāda’ means path. Together they form the path to success. Whether it be in the Dhamma or the worldly sense, one simply needs the four bases of spiritual power in order to succeed.
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The First Noble Truth is not: ‘I am suffering and I want to end it.’ The insight is, ‘There is suffering’. Now you are looking at the pain or the anguish you feel not from the perspective of ‘It’s mine’ but as a reflection: ‘There is suffering, this dukkha’. It is coming from the position of ‘the Buddha seeing the Dhamma.’ The insight is simply the acknowledgement that there is this suffering without making it personal.
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One of the few books written directly by Luangta, this meditation manual represents some of his clearest advice on developing the path.
Canonical Works (74)
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conditioned phenomena have these three characteristics…
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beings are intoxicated with life and engage in misconduct by body, speech, and mind. But when one often reflects upon [death], the intoxication with life is diminished.
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it is only here that there is the contemplative
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A disrobed monk, Sunakkhata, attacks the Buddha’s teaching because it merely leads to the end of suffering. The Buddha counters that this is, in fact, praise, and goes on to enumerate his many profound and powerful achievements.
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Challenged to show the difference between his teaching and that of other ascetics, the Buddha points out that they speak of letting go, but do not really understand why. He then explains in great detail the suffering that arises from attachment to sensual stimulation.
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I have taught the Dhamma compared to a raft, for the purpose of crossing over, not for the purpose of holding onto. Understanding the Dhamma as taught compared to a raft, you should let go even of Dhammas, to say nothing of non-Dhammas.
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Bhikkhus, before my enlightenment, while I was still only an unenlightened Bodhisatta, I too, being myself subject to birth, sought what was also subject to birth
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When a space is enclosed by sticks, creepers, grass, and mud it becomes known as a ‘building’. In the same way, when a space is enclosed by bones, sinews, flesh, and skin it becomes known as a ‘form’.
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If there is rebirth, then what gets reborn?
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Very similar to MN 41, this British recording of the Buddha’s words on ethics is included for your historical imagination.
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Wisdom and consciousness–these things are mixed, not separate. And you can never completely dissect them
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A monk wonders why the Buddha hasn’t disclosed certain cosmological facts, and the Buddha informs him that such views are not conducive to the ending of stress.
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Indeed, I have long been tricked, cheated, and defrauded by this mind.
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If a person has faith, they preserve truth by saying, ‘Such is my faith.’ But they don’t yet come to the definite conclusion: ‘This is the only truth, other ideas are silly.’
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He doesn’t assume consciousness to be the self, or the self as possessing consciousness, or consciousness as in the self, or the self as in consciousness.
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The Canonical definition of the Noble Eightfold Path.
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Master Gotama, what is the cause and condition why human beings are seen to be inferior and superior?
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by depending and relying on the six kinds of joy based on renunciation, abandon and surmount the six kinds of joy based on the household life
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One should not neglect wisdom, should preserve truth, should cultivate relinquishment, and should train for peace.
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Sāriputta is able to teach, assert, establish, clarify, analyze, and reveal the four noble truths.
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The Buddha analyzes the six senses from six different perspectives and encourages us to see them all as “This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.”
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It is wrong perception that leads to the concepts of being and nonbeing.
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Why now do you assume ‘a being’? Mara, is that your speculative view? This is a heap of sheer formations: Here no being is found.
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“Is what is impermanent, suffering, and subject to change fit to be regarded thus: ‘This is mine, this I am, this is my self’?”–“No, venerable sir.”
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It is, Ānanda, because it is empty of self and of what belongs to self that it is said, ‘Empty is the world.’
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One somewhat confusing point of Buddhist philosophy is that the three feelings (painful, neutral and pleasant) are all included under “dukkha.” Thankfully for us, a monk at the time of the Buddha decided to ask him about it.
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The basic definition of nibbāna.
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There is, monks, an unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned.
Essays (20)
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Let’s consider how a person, me, arises in your experience. First certain colors and shapes arise, largely maroon. A sense of foreboding ensues. The features arise: “monk,” “shaveling,” then the discernment “worthy of offerings.” The features arise: “wire-rimmed glasses,” “wry grin” and finally “Bhikkhu Cintita,” then the discernment “maybe not so worthy of offerings.” At some point in this process you are convinced that I exist
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the Bhikkhu Sangha alone can ordain women as bhikkhunis, based on the Buddha’s statement: “I allow you, bhikkhus, to ordain Bhikkhunis.” This allowance was never rescinded by the Buddha.
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We wouldn’t say “this is proof of reincarnation,” but I would say it’s strong evidence of something like it.
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While dependent origination can be understood as describing both our moment-to-moment “rebirth” as well as rebirth from lifetime-to-lifetime, many modern scholars sceptical of rebirth have downplayed the latter interpretation. Ajahn Brahm defends the multiple-lifetime interpretation of Paṭicca-samuppāda by citing the Buddha’s own analysis of its twelve factors.
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The key principle in Buddhism is that understanding sets you free. It’s not about attaining or creating anything, it’s about simply understanding things as they are
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During my first weeks with my teacher, Ajaan Fuang, I began to realize that he had psychic powers.
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while the Theravādins have preserved the clearest and best-understood early texts referring to the in-between state, their philosophical posture prevented them from investigating and describing this in any detail. For that we shall have to listen to the other schools, starting with the Puggalavādins and Sarvāstivādins, as passed down through the Chinese and Tibetan traditions.
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An eye is a dangerous thing. Left unguarded and misunderstood it unleashes a world “out there” that we become infatuated with, to our detriment. When we understand fully that the eye, the world and the interface between them are fabricated, the world ends, the infatuation ends, saṃsāra ends.
Excerpts (1)
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A short encyclopedia entry on the meaning and place of rāga in the Pāli Canon.
Monographs (15)
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“The person” has to be killed before one can be an arahant. If what we call “the person” has not been killed, there is no way one can be an arahant.
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Then one day, [the young man] utters these three words. When the young lady hears this, she trembles, because it is such an important statement. When you say something like that with your whole being, not just with your mouth or your intellect, but with your whole being, it can transform the world. A statement that has such power of transformation is called a mantra.
Papers (1)
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Persons of integrity provide the world with real progress.