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This web site invites inquiry into early Buddhism, especially the relational or interpersonal practices and potentials found in the Pali suttas, along with corollaries of those early practices in contemporary life and practice.
Such inquiry inevitably involves some engagement with scholarship, but by intention it is also personal, ad hoc, and a bit haphazard—reflecting the opportunities, teachings, and experiences that come to me. Read more about this project.
upaddha sutta:
Ānanda went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to the Blessed One, sat to one side. As he was sitting there, Ānanda said to the Blessed One, "This is half of the holy life, lord: admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie."
"Don't say that, Ānanda. Don't say that. Admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie is actually the whole of the holy life."
—Upaḍḍha ("Half") Sutta, SN 45.2
- Read more about Upaḍḍha Sutta on this website; or read a translation of the entire sutta on accesstoinsight.org.
Category: book/article/movie reviews
G. C. Pande’s Stratigraphic Criteria
Overview and critique of the methods presented by G. C. Pande for separating the Pali suttas into early and late material. Continue reading
Getting the (Working) Mind to Empty
Personal productivity expert David Allen describes a type of distractibility very familiar to meditators—and diagnoses it as stemming from the attempt to manage too commitments in short term memory, which is poorly suited to the task. He thinks we can get to concentrated clarity and “flow” by managing those commitments outside the mind, in an external system reliable enough that the mind can trust it. Continue reading
Posted in book/article/movie reviews
Tagged daily life, flow, monkey mind, support for practice, Visuddhimagga, work
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The Scent of Green Papaya
This movie presents a young Vietnamese girl who habitually meets the world with bright, steady, clear attention and just a trace of a Buddha-like smile. Continue reading