… But our ‘slaves’ & ‘workers’ & ‘servants’ behave one way with the body, a different way with their speech, and their mind is different from that. It’s amazing, lord. It’s astounding—how, with so much human convolution, so much human muck, so much human deception going on, the Blessed One knows the welfare & harm of beings. For human beings are a convolution, lord, while …
… Now, when he said play,
he didn’t mean playing around in a desultory way. It’s more like the
way, say, Michael Jordan would play basketball. In other words, you
keep doing it, keep trying to figure out new ways of tackling problems
but at the same time enjoying what you’re doing, making a game out of
it.
This relates particularly to …
… This is the second ground on which he can be praised.” [emphasis added] — SN 42:12
The last example shows that ascetic practices, in and of themselves, are not necessarily contrary to the middle way. It is possible to follow them all the way to the noble attainments.
As for Ven. Mahā Kassapa’s refusal to give up his practices: Anālayo is here clearly …
… This is the second ground on which he can be praised.” [emphasis added] — SN 42:12
The last example shows that ascetic practices, in and of themselves, are not necessarily contrary to the middle way. It is possible to follow them all the way to the noble attainments.
As for Ven. Mahā Kassapa’s refusal to give up his practices: Anālayo is here clearly …
… If the Community wants to, it may also authorize an area in front of the uposatha hall, marked with boundary markers, specifically for this purpose, but this is an optional step. (The markers are to be determined in the same way as the markers for a territory. See Chapter 13. Also, see Appendix I for the statements used in the transactions for authorizing and …
… Find the Middle Way that’s just right. While you’re practicing in this way, you’ll be able to observe what the mind is like when it has mindfulness and discernment in charge, and then you make the effort to maintain that state and keep it constant. That’s when the mind will have the opportunity to stop and be still, to be …
Majjhima Nikāya | The Middle Collection
MN 33
MN 66
MN 111
MN 1 Mūlapariyāya Sutta | The Root Sequence — The Majjhima Nikāya opens with one of the few suttas where his listeners did NOT delight in his words. In it, the Buddha dismisses the tendency—common both in his time and in ours—to posit a metaphysical principle from which the universe emanates.
MN 2 …
… the nose, the middle of the head, the base of the throat, the tip of the breastbone, above the navel—but there are other possible spots as well. Focus attention on wherever the breath seems to originate, and think of breath energy radiating from that spot. If there are any feelings of tension that seem to get in the way of that radiating energy …
… Both of these views, from the Buddha’s point of
view, stood in the way of awakening. This is why—to show that
the similarity between his teachings and that of the Nigaṇṭhas
was only superficial—he actually sought out Nigaṇṭhas to refute
their views.
“Monks, there are some contemplatives & brahmans who teach in
this way, who have this view: ‘Whatever a person
experiences …
… In the area where devas of middling influence occupied
sites, there the minds of the king’s royal ministers of middling
influence were inclined to build their homes. In the area where
devas of low influence occupied sites, there the minds of the
king’s royal ministers of low influence were inclined to build
their homes.
The Blessed One, with the divine eye—purified …
… One further reflects that total formlessness would open the way to greater peace than the level of form; and that the cessation of becoming would open the way to greater freedom than formlessness. These last observations in no way prove that there is total formlessness or total cessation of becoming, but they do incline the mind to view those possibilities favorably.
The second part …
… Do this all the way down the spine. Focus your attention at your tailbone. Then visualize the breath going down the spine—again, both during the in-breath and during the out—and then flowing through your tailbone into the air.
If the pressure is in the middle of the chest, visualize opening the energy channels going out your arms through the palms of …
… The first one doesn’t see, the middle one doesn’t see, the last one doesn’t see. In the same way, the statement of the brahmans turns out to be a row of blind men, as it were: The first one doesn’t see, the middle one doesn’t see, the last one doesn’t see. So what do you think, Bhāradvāja? This …
… Then King Pasenadi of Kosala approached the Blessed One in the middle of the day and, on arrival, having bowed down, sat down to one side. As he was sitting there, the Blessed One said to him: “Well now, great king, where are you coming from in the middle of the day?”
“Just now, lord, I was engaged in the sort of royal affairs …
The Greater Craving-Destruction Discourse
Mahā Taṇhāsaṅkhaya Sutta (MN 38)
Introduction
This sutta teaches how to understand the relationship of consciousness to rebirth in a way that helps put an end to rebirth.
Although the Buddha never used any word corresponding to “rebirth” in his teachings, he did describe birth as a process following on death again and again as long as the appropriate …
… These assumptions require an extensive knowledge of Middle Indic dialects. A scholar will assume a particular dialect to have been the original language of the text, and will further make assumptions about the types of translation mistakes that might have been common when translating from that dialect into the languages of the texts we now have. The textual trigonometry based on these assumptions often …
… Attend to things in this way, don’t attend to them in that. Let go of this, enter and remain in that.’ This, Kevaṭṭa, is called the miracle of instruction.
“Then there is the case where a Tathāgata appears in the world, worthy and rightly self-awakened. He teaches the Dhamma admirable in its beginning, admirable in its middle, admirable in its end. He …
… They hung (the cloth) by the middle. The dye dripped down both sides.
bhagavato etamatthaṁ ārocesuṁ.
They reported the matter to the Blessed One.
anujānāmi bhikkhave kaṇṇe bandhitunti.
“Monks, I allow that it (the cloth) be tied at the corners.”
kaṇṇo jīrati.
The corners got worn.
bhagavato etamatthaṁ ārocesuṁ.
They reported the matter to the Blessed One.
anujānāmi bhikkhave kaṇṇasuttakanti.
“Monks, I allow a …
… This is in line with the principles of the middle way discussed in Chapter 1, and with the instructions in DN 21 (§263), that only those feelings should be pursued that help skillful dhammas to increase and unskillful dhammas to decline.
• As for mind-states, MN 10 starts with a list of the three basic unskillful roots and their opposites (§130), followed by pairs …
… But nowadays, we don’t do things that way. We can meditate in all our activities, in every posture. That’s the way it is.
I want you to understand our practice of virtue. We gain happiness and prosperity because of virtue. Virtue means normalcy in body, normalcy in mind. It’s a matter of abandoning harm, refraining from harm, great and small, through …
MN 51 Kandaraka Sutta | To Kandaraka
… But our ‘slaves’ & ‘workers’ & ‘servants’ behave one way with the body, a different way with their speech, and their mind is different from that. It’s amazing, lord. It’s astounding—how, with so much human convolution, so much human muck, so much human deception going on, the Blessed One knows the welfare & harm of beings. For human beings are a convolution, lord, while …
A Trojan Horse
… This is the second ground on which he can be praised.” [emphasis added] — SN 42:12 The last example shows that ascetic practices, in and of themselves, are not necessarily contrary to the middle way. It is possible to follow them all the way to the noble attainments. As for Ven. Mahā Kassapa’s refusal to give up his practices: Anālayo is here clearly …
A Trojan Horse: | The Question of Bhikkhunī Ordination
… This is the second ground on which he can be praised.” [emphasis added] — SN 42:12 The last example shows that ascetic practices, in and of themselves, are not necessarily contrary to the middle way. It is possible to follow them all the way to the noble attainments. As for Ven. Mahā Kassapa’s refusal to give up his practices: Anālayo is here clearly …
