Beyond enlightenment - buy or read on line !@#?

While I browsed through some books on Buddhism I came across this USD120 book by Richard Cohen called "Beyond Enlightenment: Buddhism, Religion, Modernity (Routledgecurzon Critical Studies in Buddhism)". Obviously, this is another Buddhologist book, where the author only produced a few commercial copies, and not that many people would probably buy them so they have to settle on selling it commercially with a very high price tag (no sarcasm intended).

Anyway, I did a little googling afterward, and found this web sit on the author, which seems legitimate: " Richard Cohen's CV "
where there is a link to the probably all the non-commercial version of the "Beyond Enlightenment" book!

Here is a the "Table of Contents", which seems to be the same...

• Front-pages, Table of Contents, Preface, Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1: A Benign Introduction + notes
  
• Chapter 2: A Place of Exceptional Universal Value + notes
  
• Chapter 3: A Tale of Two Histories + notes
  
• Chapter 4: The Anthropology of Enlightenment + notes
  
• Chapter 5: What Do Gods Have to Do With Enlightenment? + notes
  
• Chapter 6: A Baroque Conclusion + notes
• Bibliography

Have a good, free and legitimate reading!

Prince Siddhatta's family - father side

(Also don't know where I got this from)

Click on the diagram to enlarge !

Prince Siddhattha's family - mother side

(don't know where I got this from)

Click on the diagram to enlarge !

Tinnitus and white noise

If you find tinnitus troubling you during meditation, you can play white noise background at the level that do not "mask" the tinnitus, but at the same level as it is. Here is a 10-mins MP3 white noise that you can play on repeat using computer and speakers.

White Noise Download

The best thing, IMO, is not to have any negative attitude toward it. It can simply disappear when you no longer pay any attention to it. Or you can still hear it and it does not bother you.

A lot depends on attitude toward the noise, which is actually no different from straying thoughts or some other sights or sounds you experience during meditation.

The 4th Noble Truth

The Noble Eightfold Path, the 4th Noble Truth, may be a wide 20-lane path that allows for more "right views", rather than only 1 right view that has to be identical for everyone, everywhere, anytime.

Perhaps the path starts off wide, but get narrower as one comes closer to total liberalization, when all the 10 fetters have been eradicated.

Twins

Casper and Jade

Named by

My daughter











Just like having more amazingly active kids :-)

Mini samsara

Last weekend I went back to Thailand to attend a friend's wedding. I also saw a few close friends that I have not seen for sometime.

One of my close friends, who has also ordained at Wat Doi Dhamma Chadee for a few years, was there too. It's amazing how he lives his life, which is like a mini cycle of samsara. For a few months, he would be a party animal, going out every night and spending most of the day sleeping; and when he felt he could not take it any longer, he would spend the next couple of months sobering up and stayed at Wat Doi Dhamma Chadee for a week or so, probably meditating like crazy. Then he would be off to do his partying thing again. And another mini samsara cycle repeat itself.

I wonder how long he will be like that. Now he is near 40, and has been doing his mini samsara thing for about 15 years already. Perhaps it is rooted in his childhood, as he was sent off to boarding school in England since he was eight, and has not see his dad much until even today. May be he is still lost, after all these years. It is amazing how we don't know how much influence parents can have on kids until we have a few kids of our own, ....and also how much influence kids have on their parents, on how we choose to live our lives....which is mostly for them.

Wat Pah Nanachat via ThaiPulse

A link via ThaiPulse to Wat Pah Nanachart, which can be translated into "International Forest Monastery".

The atmosphere looks like other forest monasteries that I have been to in Thailand, which are mostly in the Northeast of Thailand or in the Eastern Coast of the country (like Rayong and Chantaburi).

Recently, many forest monasteries or branches of forest monasteries have been established in areas around Kao Yai as well. My teacher, Ajahn Baen (who is the student of Ajahn Kongma, one of the students of Ajahn Mun who was the Master of the Masters of the Thai Forest Tradition) also spend a few months of the year in Kao Koh, near Kao Yai, while spending the rest in Wat Doi Dhamma Chadee in Sakon Nakorn (also in Northeast of Thailand).

These areas in Kao Yai are good for practice because they are quit serene and full of forests. Also, it is convenient for people who live in or near Bangkok to visit Ajahns because it only takes about 2-3 hours drive each way, so we can make one-day visits during weekends. Having said that, I have not seen Ajahn Baen for over a year now since I came to work in Hong Kong.

Well, as for myself, although I do visit other Ajahns in the Forest Tradition (both Ajahn Mun and Ajahn Chah's lineages, which to me are the same) when people go, I am content with studying with Ajahn Baen at Wat Doi Dhamma Chadee. I am sure that are many great and fully liberated teachers both in Thailand and elsewhere, but, really, what is the need if I have already found the teacher who can see right through my kilasa (defilements) and give great advices, even without words....

Brain or dependent origination as the cause of consciousness

Every consciousness, hearing, sensing, etc, requires no proof. A billion people cannot convince that there is sight that can be experienced. The brain, however, is the content of consciousness, a theory, a concept, which can be refuted.

They are of different levels.

Each consciousness is real, cannot be refuted that they are experienced, but they also arise and cease. So they have the characteristic of impermanent, stressful, and not-self.

What gives rise to consciousness, again, is a theory, that can be debated. Some may say that it is due to the brain. Buddhism says that they arise due to "dependent origination", the root of which is "ignorance" or avijja.

Bodhidharma

The Zen master....

Cittas and their contents

The problem with observing the changing cittas (not individual ones, of course) is that there is no proof that the "contents", which includes everything in life, can be said to truly exist. What can be experienced that also arise and fall are cittas that belong to samsara. The Buddha also taught that lokutara cittas can arise and fall. The impact of lokutara cittas on the stream of mundane cittas are of course, immense.

But can we prove that there is more to this? Do we have to believe in conventional teachings that involved "contents" of citta on faith?

(a post on e-Sangha, which hopefully won't be deleted).

Security and Buddhism

The map that we call “Buddhism” takes us from "insecurity" to "security". It’s pretty simple, really. The whole of the Buddha’s teachings can be summarized into "the four Noble Truths” (BTW, I really don’t quite understand why there is a need to add any more to this).

The First Noble Truth is about the nature of samsara, about life, about our world of “insecurity”. The Second Noble Truth is about the reasons why we are so insecured. The sources of "insecurity" are due to our attachments, our silly egos and conceits and any kinds of delusion - or put simply, about the root cause, “ignorance” - clueless of what life is all about.

Ignorance about life? It’s the ignorance of our individual worlds we live in that we call samsara – the cycle of existence, of never-ending births and deaths.

The Third Noble Truth is the “security” that we seek. It’s where no suffering can be found. It’s not of samsara, and it is also not touched by samsara. Nor can it touch samsara. This is "security", non-self, independent by itself from anything (and that is why it is somtimes called the "unconditioned").

The Forth Noble Truth is simply the way to know the first three Noble Truths – “the eightfold path”. As we travel along this path, we initially take refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha as the sources of security.

During our journey along the Buddhist path, we may stop to “do merits” for a while; get stuck to some experiences in meditation for a bit longer; or even mistake some stages of concentration to be the Third Noble Truth, nibbana. But eventually we should pull ourselves through.

And "security"? I believe what we do in Buddhism is simply to practice in order to know what life is all about - what the first three Noble Truths really are. And as we go on, our eyes should be clearer and eventually, if we walk in the right direction and don’t stop here or there too often, we should finally know all about life. We should know about the world of existence – samsara – and the other side of samsara – what we sometimes call the”unconditioned”, “deathless”, “unborn”, “nibbanna”, etc. This is "security".

The knowledge of both sides of life - samsara and non-samsara - frees us from attachments. It is liberalization from attachments, liberalization from cycle of births and deaths. There is no tiny bit of attachment left, no tiny egos or tiny conceits remained. As there is clearly nobody, not even a tiny pride, where can we find "insecurity"? That pure knowledge of the Four Noble Truth gives us “security”.

The Third Noble Truth is where “security” can be found.

To me, Buddhism isn't only about getting way from suffering, or even to find security, it is also the knowledge of what life is all about.

The importance of "openness"

It is probably a part of being human: when we study and learn something, we get better understanding of it. We are transformed from being "clueless" to become "experts" who can teach others about our specialized fields.

Is it different in Buddhism? After years of learning, studying and practice, years become decades, and decades becoming multi-decades. Buddhist students and practitioners learn a lot of things, some from books, some from practice, and some from listening to others talking about their experiences. Some "meaningless words" and "states in meditation" that we were clueless become clear, or at least they seem to become clear, and we can talk and talk about this and that, all day all night.

Mystified words like jhanas and attainments and nibbana and unconditioned and deathless and unborn and the rest become words that we use everyday. Sometimes we use them because people want to know what they are, and as experts we tell them what they are, even though deep down we are still clueless. Sometimes we use these wonderful words and explanations because we have learned so much about them that they are imprinted in our minds.

But do we really know them? Be truthful, do we really know them at all? As we grow older, and we practice longer, and as we went through periods of intense practice and relaxed practice, or even went from one tradition to another and to another. Do we really know what Buddhism is all about?

We may think we know them all - we are the experts. But what if what we believe we know are still concepts, drilled down into our minds due to years of learning, readings, debating, and practicing, but not by any tiny nanoseconds of true realizations of the Truths that really lead to eradication of defilements.

It seems to me that the longer we spend studying and practicing Buddhism, we face the danger of becoming "narrow-minded". We don't except others' points of view. Ours are the only right one. Others are wrong. We have learned so much.

Is this what it should be? Buddhism is, in my opinion, an "open religion". We only know the Truths by keeping an open mind. Why? Because the Buddha's teachings are not barely concepts that we have to understand and one day say "oh, I get it"...

Buddhism is all about something deeper. Concepts are ways into the realization of non-concepts, and in my opinion, the heart of Buddhism is in the non-conceptual parts; the transcendent parts; the part that lead us to liberalization.

But that part, in my view, requires an "open mind", not a "shut mind", not the "I know best mind". Because the non-concept is so out-of-this world than we can imagine.

Openness is, in my opinion, a very important part of the way to practice - if we want to really know what Buddhism is all about, we have to keep our minds open.

After all, what happened after people become "brain-dead"? All concepts are gone. All memories of non-conceptual realizations are gone. What are left, however, are the "results" on the series of cittas due to those non-conceptual realizations. What exactly are these "results" on the series of cittas that I probably am cluelessly going on about? It's simply the lack of defilements as they have been eradicated by correct practice, that have been eradicated by the breaks in mundane cittas by supramundane cittas, that have severed the chain of samsara forever. Any lokutara realizations become memories, and memories are anicca -they end. What is important, however, is that these lokutara realizations have left the permanent marks on the streams of cittas. Even though an individual may not be able to recall their experiences as a result of correct practice, unwholesome intentions and wrong views can never take place in these mindstreams again.

As we have not come across any non-conceptual realizations, or we may mistake some mundane realizations as supramundane/lokutara realizations, we still need open mind. In my view, it is vital that we maintain open mind.

Perhaps, those who have experienced lokutara realizations may hold no view at all! Their minds may be completely open, completely free and open to realizations that us worldlings have unknowingly shut ourselves the chance by closing out minds because we know best.

Just a thought.

A few words on "enlightenment"

The word "enlightenment", in my opinion, is used rather loosely in the West, and probably loosely in the East like in some places in Thailand when people get drunk and love to discuss dhamma into the middle of the night.


If you go to Amazon.com, and search the word "enlightenment" in the book section, you will get close to 100,000 results. That may tell something. Perhaps the word is great for marketing, and perhaps it is oversold. If we assume that one person writes about 5 of these books, you can make a rough estimate that there must be about 20,000 writers who know something or believe they know something about real enlightenment ... out there (don't forget to subtract a few cons).


Anyway, the word"enlightenment" seems to point to something like sainthood or something like that. But those who have really been liberated, there is not a tiny bit of ego or conceit left. For them, they are probably more down to earth than most of us unenlightened beings. For all I know, some real liberated beings might be sleeping on pieces old planks on monastery floors while other monks are busy teaching lay visitors the path to enlightenment.

Another aspect of enlightenment is that some people wants to believe that they are enlightened so bad so that they make themselves act like one. And believe that they are one. This is a sad bit.

Better getting rid of defilements first.

Sockaroo avarta

On our trip back from Bangkok to Hong Kong this afternoon, my 10-year-old daughter played with the notebook and drew a few kid drawings. I asked her to save them on the notebook because I find them so refreshing and imaginative in an innocent way.

I particularly like this sock image which she called "sockaroo", as it was supposed to be a mixture of a sock and kangaroo. I really don't know how sock can be mixed with kangaroo though. But it seems that kids find it very natural!!

So I put this up as the avarta for my e-Sangha account. :)