Rahula Chapter 8 - Buddhism in Today's World

A recording of today's teachings and discussion (from 24th May) of Rahula's "What the Buddha Taught" (second part of chapter 7 on meditation and chapter 8) can be downloaded here.

Rahula Chapter 6 - Anatta: The Doctrine of No-Self (part 3) & Chapter 7 - Bhavana (Meditation)

A recording of today's teachings and discussion (from 10th May) of Rahula's "What the Buddha Taught" (part 3 on Chapter 6 and chapter 7) can be downloaded here. Among the topics we covered today:

• The purpose of meditation and its benefits in cultivating mental health
• Meditation techniques
• The two forms of meditation, shamatha and vipashyana, and their relationship to each other and to the view (including "form is emptiness, emptiness is form")
• Deconstruction and dis-identification from form, feeling, thoughts, references and self - how meditation allows to cultivate egolessness
• Living in the present moment, losing yourself in your action, flow and positive psychology, creativity and performance

Rahula Chapter 6 - Anatta: The Doctrine of No-Self (part 2)

A recording of the part 2 of the teachings and discussion on Chapter 6 of Rahula's "What the Buddha Taught" (from 3rd May) can be downloaded here.

Rahula Chapter 6 - Anatta: The Doctrine of No-Self (part 1)

A recording of the teachings and discussion on Chapter 6 of Rahula's "What the Buddha Taught" (from 26th April) can be downloaded here.

Rahula Chapter 5: Magga - The Path

A recording of the teachings and discussion on Chapter 5 of Rahula's "What the Buddha Taught" (from 5th April) can be downloaded here.

Four Noble Truths (contd) - Nirodha

On Sunday we continued with Rahula's "What The Buddha Taught", reviewing the First and Second Noble Truths and going through the Third Noble Truth of Nirodha/Nirvana in detail. Some of the topics that came up in our discussion included:

• There's a difference between suffering and dukkha. We noted that many of us still think of the First Noble Truth as "The Truth of Suffering", when in fact it is the truth of dukkha, which is a much richer (and less "negative") idea than suffering. Dukkha has three aspects: (1) ordinary suffering, (2) suffering produced by impermanence and change, (3) conditioned states. Until we correctly understand the First Noble Truth, we will not be able to understand the origin or cessation of dukkha, or the path that leads to its cessation.
• We have "outsourced" much of the suffering in our lives, so that we no are not aware of the consequences of our actions, in much the same way that the acid rain from a power plant can fall hundreds of miles away from the source. We discussed examples such as our attempts to insulate ourselves from disease and death (hospitals, fashion magazines); our unawareness of (and emotional disconnection from) the conditions of factory farmed animals; the fur trade and the fashion industry; and how the US has outsourced much of its drug problem to Mexico.
• Nirvana is not a result, else it would be an effect produced by cause. Nirvana, Truth, is beyond cause and effect. It simply is. All you can do is see it. A path leads to it, but it’s not the result of the path. You get to a mountain along a path, but the mountain is not result of path.
• There’s nothing beyond/after Ultimate Truth, and it has no purpose (as that presupposes something subsequent). The spiritual path has no purpose because enlightenment has no purpose, so there’s no point talking about its “benefits” – which is a direct challenge to the utilitarian approach we take in our materialistic approach to life.
• Even according to the Theravada, Nirvana can be realised in this very life (which might perhaps help to temper our Vajrayana pride!)

A recording of the teaching (108 minutes) may be downloaded here.

What The Buddha Taught

For anyone who hasn't yet bought a copy of Rahula's "What the Buddha Taught", you might be interested in looking at a preview on Google Books (thanks for the link, David)

Week 2 teaching - 18 January 2009

Thank you to everyone who joined us in Vancouver (and virtually in Victoria) for an enthusiastic meeting on Sunday - and for those of you in New York and Germany who wanted to join, our aim is to connect you next week.  A recording of this week's teaching and discussion can be downloaded here.  We talked about:

(1) Our reflections on our homework:

• Why am I on the spiritual path? What am I seeking to get out of it?
  
• When Rinpoche said we should "buy more useless things like Buddha statues, and fewer useful things like iPods", why did he say this? And what did he mean by "useless"?

(2) The first 10 pages of "What the Buddha Taught" by Walpola Rahula, which cover "The Buddhist attitude of mind", including:

• Individual responsibility: Man is his own master, and no higher being sits in judgment over his destiny; Buddha taught the path to liberation, but we have to walk it ourselves; and since we have to determine right/wrong and good/bad for ourselves, we have to develop our own wisdom - this is why Buddhism is a path of wisdom, rather than a religious system of ethics and morality.
• Freedom of thought, tolerance and doubt: The story of the Kālāmas; the need to develop wisdom, as "To force oneself to believe and to accept a thing without understanding is political, and not spiritual or intellectual"; the story of Upali; how human qualities like love and compassion don't belong to any particular religion.
• No attachment to blind faith, tradition or any teachings or views: The story of Buddha and Pukkasāti in the potter's shed - how the young novice realised his companion was the Buddha because he spoke the truth, rather than vice-versa: how we should take refuge in the truth of the teachings, rather than in the teacher; the story of Kāpathika and how traditions without realisation are "like a line of blind men"; how attachment to any teachings or view, even Buddhism itself, is just another fetter: "O bhikkhus, even this view, which is so pure and clear, if you cling to it, if you fondle it, if you treasure it, if you are attached to it, then you do not understand that the teaching is similar to a raft, which is for crossing over, and not for getting hold of"

For next week, our homework is to read and contemplate the first chapter of Rahula once again (to page 15).  Next week, we hope to complete the chapter and then discuss a teaching by Rinpoche which covers many of these same topics.

Week 1 teaching - Rinpoche's "new ngöndro" - 11 January 2009

Thanks everyone for coming today!  We managed to set up a successful live web link with the sangha in Victoria, and even joined them in meditation across the internet.  We went through the first part of Rinpoche's new student manual to accompany the ngöndro (if anyone doesn't have this manual, please contact me: alex at khyentsefoundation dot org), and also the commentary on the manual that he taught in Rio de Janeiro, December 2008.

The first part of the ngöndro has three components:

(1) study and contemplation (based on the reading list below)

(2) meditation of "just sitting" for a total of 50 hours, at least 5 minutes a day

(3) post-meditation, where we start to integrate our practice into our daily lives.  Rinpoche suggests we should start to do things that would be good for ourselves and others, that we start to buy "useless things" like Buddha statues rather than "useful things" like iPods, and that we make some kind of vow or commitment to give up something small in samsara as a way of cultivating discipline.

Rinpoche's recommended reading list includes 5 books:

(a) Books on the nature of faith and devotion

- "The End of Faith" by Sam Harris

- "Feet of Clay" by Anthony Storr

(b) Introductions to Buddhism

- "What the Buddha Taught" by Walpola Rahula

- "Old Path, White Clouds" by Thich Nhat Hanh

(c) Something to help us to "get accustomed to a different logic"

- "Tao Te Ching" by Lao Tzu

We're going to start with "What the Buddha Taught" as our first text, and we'll go through as many of these texts as time allows.  The purpose of this period of study and contemplation is to "test the gold" of the Buddha and his teachings, not just accept them on blind faith. As Buddha himself said:

"As the wise test gold by burning, cutting and rubbing it,  So, bhikshus, should you accept my words - after testing them, and not merely out of respect." 

Homework:

• Contemplate why you are interested in following the spiritual path, and what you expect as a result of following this path
  
• Contemplate what does Rinpoche mean by "useless things"
• Daily practice of "just sitting"
• Buy "What the Buddha Taught"

See you next week

Alex