Can we go back to original Buddhism?

Finally, "Buddhism" makes verifiable sense!

THERAVADA Buddhism: Is this what the historical Buddha (Prince Siddhattha Gotama, "the Sage of the Sakas," the Shakyas, the Indo-Scythians) really taught? The Three Baskets (Ti-pitaka) of Suttas, Vinaya, and Abhidhamma (Discourses, Discipline, and Higher Doctrine). The Buddha did not speak Sanskrit, the exclusive liturgical language of Brahmin priests, but rather Magadhi (colloquial Pali, the lingua franca) and Prakrit. He certainly knew and understood Sanskrit, having been expert in it in past lives, a knower of the Three Vedas. The Pali canon is a collection of canonical texts preserved in the ancient Pali language the Buddha likely spoke.

• (Buddha's Wisdom)

Eating in Bali, Indonesia for big bucks

Why do monks and nuns chant in Pali?

The only reason Mahayana uses Sanskrit is because Brahmin (Brahminical Vedic Hindus) used it to whitewash Mahayana Buddhism into a kind of comprehensible form of Hinduism. The goal of Theravada, the "Teaching of the direct Elder enlightened disciples of the historical Buddha," is enlightenment here and now as soon as possible, whereas the goal of Mahayana is enlightenment never, only after an inexhaustible supply of living beings first attain it. When will that be? It will never be, alleviating the need for any Mahayana Buddhist to actually practice and bring what the Buddha taught about in one's own life. Imagining themselves supremely awakened buddhas of the future, there's never a need to do it now, the only time we actually ever have.

• What the Buddha Taught: revised and expanded edition with texts from suttas and the Dhammapada (Ven. Walpola Rahula, Paul Demieville)

Zen Buddhism came much later

(Tao Temple) We can't understand Zen until we understand this first

The three or four kinds of Buddhism

(The East Made Simple) Every major school (sect, tradition, yana or "vehicle") of Buddhism explained: What each one actually believes, teaches, and attempts to practice. The division is usually Theravada (10%) keeping as close as possible to the teachings of the historical Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama, Shakyamuni) versus all the others aligning with later interpretations, changes, watering down the message or changing it altogether to build a grand boat that calls itself the "Great Vehicle" or Mahayana (90%). But Vajrayana, a Himalayan (Bhutanese, Nepalese, Tibetan, Mongolian, Russian) school of Esoteric Buddhism, combining many occult Hindu practices (tantra, mantra, yoga, etc.) may also be distinguished or Japanese Zen (a combination of Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto, and Buddhism, but Japan prefers faith-based universalism, Nichiren Shōshū, like most of the rest of the world to pray and receive help from another-power to do all the heavy lifting to deliverance) even though all three are considered Mahayana sects.

• Tariki vs. jiriki: other-power or self-power?

UC Berkeley's Calapalooza 2026 (8/27)

Pitch Perfect remembers its small liberal arts college version of Calapalooza: Music Fair Scene

CALAPALOOZA: UC Berkeley's "Club Day" (Vincent Ooi) Looking back seven years at Cal’s Club Day, when students sign up for what interests them to get involved in campus community life.

Are there any all-girl acapella groups to join?

Summer is over. Everyone is back. This is the slow wind up to the beginning of instruction at the University of California at Berkeley (Cal), the world's greatest public institution of higher learning. Move in days just happened, and everyone is bracing for the full moon day of August as everyone returns to class and studying. Thursday, which is coincidentally also a lunar eclipse, marks a big event on campus: Calapalooza:

Why join a student club at UC Berkeley?

Clubs : Where to begin? (UC Berkeley Life)

With over 1,400 student-registered organizations on campus, a student community is right around the corner. Learning a new skill, meeting like-minded friends, and discovering passions are only a few of the perks of joining a student club. Establishing these connections through activities that members have in common enriches the college experience. life.berkeley.edu

'Free Palestine' encampment set up on UC Berkeley campus - UCB holds diploma: drop that flag!

Why even go to college? To get the Big D

Mom, why should I go to college? - To get a Big D! (Wet Leg "Chaise Longue" | Glastonbury '22)

QOTSA: Concert mass surveillance

(Rock Feed) Queens of Stone Age's Josh Homme done with corporate greed

(Rita) When I get to Cal, I'm going to be like Wednesday Addams

I was too cool in school, but I got out of my shell. - I'd go to anyone's party to get over myself.

Real-life time travel: Travelers, religion

(ApexTV)

Anyone who disbelieves in real-life time travel may want to spend some time watching "Glitch in the Matrix" videos content creators make by gathering testimonies of inexplicable real-life experiences.

Let's time travel! - To when? - To next weekend!

An anonymous time traveler operating under the alias Darryl Dean (from 2033) claims to hold a detailed chronology of upcoming events on Earth. The mysterious man shared his shocking predictions on the internet in a bid to validate the remarkable assertion that time travel is real.

In his declaration, the time traveler prophesized alien (ET) contact and global peace. He said: "I saw that there was a lot of skepticism regarding my story, and I want to say that it is not my goal to convince everyone that I am telling the truth. I simply want to speak to those of you who will listen."

Mr. Dean insists he comes from the Year 2033 and initially intended to stay in the current era only briefly. Speaking with the paranormal investigators from the YouTube platform ApexTV, purported time traveler Dean argued his predictions will prove accurate over time.

These claims come after a "time traveler" from the Year 4413 made a terrifying claim about the future of humanity.

• 'Time traveler' from Year 6000 makes chilling AI claim with photo from the future
• NASA-backed doomsday warning from Stephen Hawking could happen soon
• "China's Nostradamus" terrifying warning about how US-Iran War will end

The math checks out! It's theoretically possible.

He said: "I saw a bunch of questions asking if there are going to be any wars in the future. I can tell you that there will be no major wars, and when the aliens come in 2028, they will usher in a state of peace and prosperity. People will realize they are not so different, and the entire world will unite," reports the Daily Star.

Humanity's descendants will also embrace a single universal religion, which Mr. Dean asserted will have replaced all existing faiths by 2033. He refused to share any details about the religion, fearing it might cause a temporal paradox.

Neil de Grasse Tyson believes

E=MC2: The faster I go, the slower time moves

— until it stops [then it begins to go backwards]

The self-proclaimed time traveler then claimed that time travel technology becomes public knowledge in 2028, along with revelations about extraterrestrial life forms beyond our planet.

• What do we want? Time travel! When do we want it? Uh, it doesn't really matter because, paradoxically, once we have it, we will always have had it, going anywhere in time.
• Source: 'Time traveler' from 2033 shares year aliens will make contact and it's soon (MSN)
• 'Time traveler' from 2033 shares year aliens will make contact and it's soon (AOL)
• Time travel PROOF: Time traveller from 2033 reveals shock predictions of future | Express.co.uk
• The Truth of Rebirth: why it matters for Buddhist practice

Time travel in religion

What's real, how can we know? Practice

Some ancient accounts feature characters who appear to leap forward in time. In Buddhism's Pāli canon, the Payasi Sutta ("Payasi Discourse") describes how the disciple Ven. Kumara Kassapa explains to a skeptic that time flows differently on different planes of existence, particularly the long-lasting heavenly realms [4].

Christian time jumping with Rip VW

Drink and idle hands make for sleepiness.

American and European Christians (with a capitalist work ethic to teach) persistently recount the tale of Rip Van Winkle, a Dutch American man with a habit of avoiding work. Rip lives in a village at the foot of the Catskill Mountains years before the American Revolution. 

One day, he goes squirrel hunting in the mountains with his dog, Wolf, to escape his wife's irritation.

You're off your rocker, old coot! - No, I'm not!

When evening comes, he hears a voice calling his name and finds a man dressed in old-fashioned Dutch clothing, carrying a keg of alcohol. Rip helps the man carry his burden to a cleft in the rocks from which thunderous noises are emanating; the source proves to be a group of bearded men wearing similar outfits playing ninepins.

Hinduism derives from Vedas

In Hinduism's Vishnu Purana we find the story of Raivata Kakudmi (son of Revata), who visits the God Brahma in a certain heaven then returns to Earth to find that many ages have elapsed [2, 3]. King Kakudmi is a king often featured in Hindu literature. He is described as the king of Kushasthali, the son of Revata [1] and the father of Revati, the consort of the deity Balarama. His account is given within texts such as the Mahabharata, the Harivamsha, the Devi Bhagavatam, and the Bhagavata Purana.

 

Time traveler Darryl Dean reveals the future of India in 2060

The Japanese legend of "Urashima Tarō," first recorded in the Manyoshu, tells of a fisherman who visits an undersea palace for three days, only to return and find that centuries have passed and his world is gone [5].

• This should be compared to Middle Length Discourse 50 (MN 50), where Ven. Maha Moggallana describes mermaids ("sea nymphs") dancing in dazzling undersea palaces, which he can see through his highly developed psychic powers but which has not made sense to scholars and readers ever since his comments were written and included in the Pali canon: "In the middle of the ocean/There are mansions aeon-lasting, Sapphire-shining, fiery-gleaming/With a clear translucent luster,/Where iridescent sea-nymphs dance/In complex, intricate rhythms."

Jewish time travel?

In one Jewish tradition, the Prophet Mo (Moses) is transported by one of his tribal Gods to the study hall of Rabbi Akiva, where he is confused by the future evolution of Jewish law.

Another Talmudic story features Honi HaMe'agel, a 1st-century BCE miracle worker who sees a man planting a carob tree that will take 70 years to bear fruit. Honi falls asleep and awakens 70 years later to find the tree fully grown and its fruit being harvested by the man's grandson [6, 7].

In Islam, the Quran (Koran) tells of the Seven Sleepers, a group of monotheistic (more likely henotheistic) young men who sought refuge in a cave to escape persecution. As they slept, their preferred God preserved them for centuries. When they awake, they discover that the world around them has changed. This narrative, found in the Quranic Surah Al-Kahf, describes divine protection and time suspension [8, 9, 10]. More

Rip Van Winkle (continued)

Actual photo of Rip, 1896 (JJ)

Not asking who these men are or how they know his name, Rip joins them in drinking from the keg he has helped carry and soon becomes so drunk that he falls asleep. He awakens on a sunny morning, back at the spot where he first saw the keg-carrier, and finds that many drastic changes have occurred:

• His beard is now a foot long and grey,
• his hunting musket is badly deteriorated, 
• his dog Wolf is nowhere to be found.

Returning to his village, he discovers it to be larger than he remembers and filled with people in unfamiliar clothing, none of whom recognize him. When asked how he voted in the election that has just been held, he declares himself a loyal subject of King George III, unaware that the American Revolutionary War has taken place in his absence.

Why is this fiction so popular in the US?

He learns that many of his old friends either were killed in that war or have left the village and is disturbed to find a young man who shares his name, mannerisms, and younger appearance.

A young woman states that her father is Rip Van Winkle, who has been missing for 20 years, then an old woman recognizes him as Rip. The young woman and the young Rip are his children, and the former has named her infant son after him as well.

Rip discovers that his wife has been dead for some time but is not saddened by the news. He learns through a village elder that the men he met in the mountains are said to be ghosts of the crew of the Dutch East India Company ship Halve Maen.

His daughter takes him into her home, and he soon resumes his usual idleness (unconcerned by the major political changes during his slumber) and begins telling his story to every stranger who visits the village. The tale is solemnly taken to heart (despite some assuming him to be off his rocker) by the settlers, particularly by the old Dutch inhabitants who say that, whenever thunder is heard, the men in the mountains must be playing ninepins. More

Pi Day: fun with numbers: 'fixing' pi (π)

Quest for Pi solved with polygons 🥧 - 22/7=pi (3.14...) since ancient architects calculated it.

Understanding irrational numbers: pi vs. rational numbers - 

Pi as a fraction? It's possible #shorts #math - Visualization of pi being irrational

Worship the number, Kids, like in dumb religion

At UC Berkeley, my roommate Nathaniel and I used to mull over the Big Questions -- rebirth, telepathy, PSI, ultimate reality, physics, infinity, the nature of space, psychic powers, black holes, UFOs, the meaning of life, the futility of death, and the importance of birth control, in addition to debating whether reading fiction (like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) could serve any practical function. Those were the salad days, under a powerful red light in a half-mannequin lamp in otherwise very hippie digs, there was no question we would not tackle. I came at things from mysticism, literature and psychology, whereas he was the numbers man, practical engineer, and theoretical physicist.

Douglas Adams' fictional book about a Guide

He loved sports, I loved music. He did homework (problem sets) with all his free time, and I meditated at the Berkeley Zen Center and more or less gazed at my navel the rest of the time. He was much smarter, but I got better grades. We were in school to be schooled and went on to grad school to continue the cat and mouse, chasing GPAs and glory of a most trivial and nerdy sort. Because what college really gives a person of privilege is the leisure to think, philosophize, question, debate, foster intellectual creativity, and expand. How sad that so many people spend it drinking or doing all the things they missed out in high school from having to study so much to get into a place like Cal, Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, or Yale in the first place. We were sober for our discussions.

If only I had done more math, if only he had taken a real philosophy class (instead of accidentally landing himself in a course on logic), what might have been? We'd be two doctors having this debate:

• Natty, my good man, let me propose a problem for analysis.
• Yeah-yeah, Dawg, wassup?
• As you are a privileged white male in our society, having undertaken a full and rigorous course of mathematics up to and including calculus, I have a thought experiment for you.
• Aw, Man, drop that b*tch, and let's hear it.
• Would you mind, Friend, dispensing with the urban diction?
  
• The whuh?
• The Ebonics or whatever manner of slang you're currently employing.
• Say whut, Nugs? I be talkin' like I always be talkin! Word!
• You never talk like this! Anyway, if it's what you prefer, it's just that you're making a mockery of these proceedings.
• Ahh, yeah, lemme git da redlight! Sounds like an all nighter to wax on 'bout.
• Here it is. I say pi (π, 3.14159...) is stupid because it is, as you say, "irrational." I want it to be rational rather than go on forever. And I think I thought up a way to do it.
• Do whut, Dawg?
• Get it to end, get it to be rational, get it to divide cleanly (without remainder), get all the measurements in order, from say a perspicacious, anal, or OCD drive in me to make better pyramids, architecture, and other low-to-no margin of error constructions by making the calculations in the blueprints better.
• "Better"?
• They'll be better in that they come out without infinite remainders of trailing digits beyond the decimal point.
• No need, my Brutha.
• This has never been about a need. This is pure science with no (apparent) application, research for its own sake, and you're just the man to do. Take this back to your professors and put it to them. They may see the wisdom of such a pursuit in building, calculating, and approaching the verities of life in a perfect simulation/world.
• Pi can'ts bee evenly divided; it stays irrational.
• I know. But I have a way to evenly divide it and make it rational, that is, to turn it from an odd number to an even number.
• Ain't gonna happen, Bruh.
• That's what the purpose of this thought experiment is! I'm going to make it happen. See if you don't agree, as my mind is not bogged down with all the math knowledge, rules acceptance, and numerical assumptions you labor under, I think I'm onto something. It's very easy in theory. How it would be proven, that I leave up to you. I'm the visionary madman making a creature. You are a white lab coat wearing functionary in this thought lab.
• STEP 1: Switch from Base 10 to another base, such as Base 11 (or 13, 22, 7, 28, 60, 364, or 365). We'll start with those first.
• STEP 2: Calculate pi. I bet it will break even without all those digits after the decimal.
• Aww, ai don't think it'll work, Dawg, ai'ight?
• STEP 3: Keep plugging in different bases until it does work.
• Whut's da use? If it ain't workin, how's swtichin gonna work it?
• I suggest we try Base 11.5 or Base 5. Then Base 10.66 or 10.67. See Base 10 is even, and I think that's the fundamental problem, so let's switch to an odd base.
• "Odd base"?
• Yes, something that is not even like 10.
• Ya may be onto sumthin.
• I know. And I need you to prove it. Otherwise, I'm going to have to resort to Mathletics, AI, Chat GPT, Grok, and other demonic entities to work it out. And you know they can't, for all they can do is tell me what a genius I am and how I just invented a new math system, and all that other back patting and feelgood replying they do to sincere saps who resort to such compliments when, in fact, they need pushback.
• I ain't sure Texas Instruments calculators can handle this job cuz, internally, they might be juzz as jacked as math books in publik schoolz, ya hear?
• Yeah, I hear. We may have to use a computer or supercomputer for this one. Doesn't your physics class have a lab with just such a program or IBM, Apple, or Hewlett Packard device?  

Supporting mixed-level math learning: Mathletics success story from elementary

(Kristina Gobetti, Feb. 19th, 2026) Categories: Educators

Int'l Day of Women and Girls in Science

In classrooms where students read at different levels, teaching math becomes a double challenge: helping students understand both the mathematics and the questions [word problems] themselves.

Teaching a split class in rural Alberta, Canada, Jennifer Doherty at Alder Flats Elementary School needed a program flexible enough to support all her students.

She found that solution in Mathletics, an online math program for schools that has become an essential tool for building numeracy [the number version of literacy] skills and confidence. Watch Doherty explain how Mathletics works in her classroom every day, from audio support to clear progress reporting. More

Is Pi rational? Not by this definition

Local royalty: Rose Queen Serena Hui Guo

The Rose Queen

Did K-pop Rosie give Asian females more clout?

Who in the world is the "Queen of the Tournament of Roses"? More commonly known as the "Rose Queen," she is a young woman selected for the annual Pasadena Tournament of Roses in California, U.S.

Six "Rose Princesses" are also selected to make up the Rose Court of seven. The Rose Court rides on a float in the Rose Parade on New Year's Day and they become ambassadors.

The 2026 Rose Court includes

1. 

   The Rose Queen crown should be in the Louvre

   Naira Elaine Wadley, John Muir High School;
2. Sophia Bai Ren, Arcadia High School;
3. Olivia Hargrove, Pasadena City College (PCC);
4. Keiko Rakin, Alhambra High School;
5. Serena Hui Guo, Arcadia High School;
6. Riya Gupta, California Institute of Technology (Caltech);
7. Livia Amy de Paula, Temple City High School.

Qualifications and selection process

After the parade, there's a big football game

Each September, approximately 1,000 females between the ages of 17 and 21 interview to serve as a member of the Tournament of Roses Rose Court [1].

To be eligible, applicants must be a female resident of the Pasadena City College district, which includes the cities of Pasadena, Altadena, La Cañada Flintridge, South Pasadena, San Marino, Sierra Madre, Arcadia, Temple City, the northern portion of Rosemead, and the western portion of El Monte.

Starting with the 2025 Rose Parade, the cities of Alhambra and San Gabriel and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Eagle Rock, Highland Park, Monterey Hills, and El Sereno will be included as part of the geographic expansion plan.

Australian Asian singer Rose

They must be currently enrolled as a 12th grade senior in high school or as a full-time college student (minimum 12 units) in any accredited high school or college in the Pasadena City College district, Alhambra Unified School District, San Gabriel Unified School District, or Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), possess at least a 2.0 grade point average in the current year's and previous year's course work, and be at least 17 years of age by Dec. 31 of the current year and not more than 21 years of age before Jan. 5 of the next year.

Each applicant also must never have been married or have had a marriage annulled, have no children, and must agree not to marry prior to Jan. 5 of the next year [1]. More

"Mindfulness" defined (Ven. Analayo)

Mindfulness in Early Buddhism

Ven. Bhikkhu Analayo (Wiki)

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of one out of various types of mindfulness descriptions in the Buddhist traditions, namely the notion of mindfulness as reflected in the early Buddhist discourses.

• MNDFULNESS (sati, smirti) means a special kind of nonjudgmental attention, unbiased bare awareness, acceptance (not resistance) of what is but simply watching it with vigilance and wakefulness (Wisdom Quarterly).

INTRODUCTION: A recent survey of research on meditation, prepared for the US Department of Health and Human Services, comes to the rather disconcerting conclusion that “scientific research on meditation practices does not appear to have a common theoretical perspective and is characterized by poor methodological quality.

“Firm conclusions on the effects of meditation practices in healthcare cannot be drawn based on the available evidence. Future research on meditation practices must be more rigorous in the design and execution of studies,” in particular “specific attention must be paid to developing definitions for these [meditation] techniques that are both conceptually and operationally useful. Such definitions are a prerequisite for scientific research.”

The best Buddhists practice Buddhism.

In the case of mindfulness practices, “general descriptions of mindfulness vary from investigator to investigator and there is no consensus on the defining components or processes” [1]. This finding clearly points to a need to invest more time into the conceptual models that stand behind research into the effects of mindfulness practice [2].

While we do have excellent operational definitions of mindfulness that capture the modern-day clinical perspective on this particular mental quality [3], our understanding of mindfulness could be broadened by turning to its definition and mode of function in the Buddhist traditions.

Examining the historical roots of mindfulness in its traditional context would enable ascertaining similarities and differences vis-à-vis the notion of mindfulness in the modern-day setting and perhaps open up new avenues for research into the significance and effects of its cultivation.

The theoretical construct of mindfulness and the practices informed by this notion have gone through considerable development during nearly [2,600] years in the history of Buddhist thought, making it practically impossible to speak of “Buddhist mindfulness” (sati) as if this were a monolithic concept.

Moreover, a proper assessment of any specific form of mindfulness needs to be based on a comparative study that takes into account all extant traditions pertaining to a particular historical period, instead of uncritically relying on a certain school or line of textual transmission because that happens to be the one with which one is personally familiar.

• 

  Analayo shares teacher with WQ: Bhikkhu Bodhi

  Ven. Anālayo is a bhikkhu (Theravada Buddhist monk), scholar, and meditation teacher who was born in Germany in 1962 and went forth in 1995 in Sri Lanka's Theravada monastic tradition. He is best known for his comparative studies of Early Buddhist Texts as preserved by the various Early Buddhist schools. More

Hence, as a starting point for further research into the theoretical foundations of the multiple mindfulnesses found in the various Buddhist traditions, in this paper I take up the notion of mindfulness as reflected in the historically earliest stages of Buddhist thought that is accessible to us through textual records.

"Meditation" means much more than sitting.

These are the early discourses (suttas, sutras, texts) that according to tradition were spoken by the Buddha and his [enlightened] disciples, which have come down to us as part of the canonical scriptures of various Buddhist schools in the Nikāyas (Pali canon) or Āgamas (Sanskrit canon).

In terms of school affiliation, while this material has been transmitted [orally] within reciter lineages that eventually came to be part of the Dharmaguptaka, Sarvāstivāda, or Theravāda schools, and so on, its origins are earlier than the formation of schools.

Hence, comparative study of parallel versions preserved in a variety of Buddhist languages -- such as Chinese, Pāli, Sanskrit, and Tibetan -- offers us a window on the earliest stages in the development of Buddhist conceptions of mindfulness, in as much as these have left their traces in literature [4].

These in turn would have been the starting point for later conceptions of this mental quality and how to cultivate it.

1. The Four Ways of Establishing Mindfulness

Central for my present purpose are descriptions of mindfulness in action, which instruct how establishing mindfulness (Pali satipaṭṭhāna, Sanskrit smṛtyupasthāna) functions as a form of meditation practice.

Independent of whether such instructions are descriptive or prescriptive, they do allow us an assessment of the notion(s) of mindfulness held by those responsible for the formulation of these descriptions.

The early discourses describe four main areas of practice for the establishing of mindfulness, which are: 

1. the body,
2. feelings,
3. mental states,
4. dharmas ["things" detailed in the two Satipatthana Suttas].

A detailed exposition of these four is found in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (as well as in the longer Mahā Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta) of the Pāli canon of the Theravāda tradition, with parallel versions found in the Madhyama-āgama and in the Ekottarika-āgama, two discourse collections preserved in Chinese translation [5].

Regarding the first of these two Chinese Āgamas, scholarly opinion generally tends to consider this discourse collection to have been transmitted within the Sarvāstivāda tradition(s) [6].

The school affiliation of the Ekottarika-āgama, however, is still a subject of continued discussion and thus is best considered uncertain [7].

Comparison of the three versions brings to light several differences [8]. In relation to the first area of body contemplation, the three parallel versions agree on taking up the following three topics:

• the body’s anatomical constitution,
• the body as made up of material elements, and
• the stages of decay of a corpse that has been left out in the open to rot away [9].

Early Buddhism is closer to historical Buddha

In the case of the first of these three, according to the fairly similar instructions given in the parallel versions, contemplation of the anatomical constitution of the body requires reviewing its various parts, such as its hair, nails, teeth, and so on [10].

Such reviewing could presumably take place by way of an internal meditative scanning of the body or else as a reflective recollection. This exercise can act as an antidote to conceit and to sensual desire.

The parallel versions agree that an examination of the body’s anatomy should be undertaken from the perspective of the “impure” or “unclean” nature of some of its parts [11].

The term “impure” or “unclean” reflects conceptions prevalent in ancient India [12]. At times the discourses (sutras) employ the alternative term “not beautiful” [13], which in a less provocative manner still conveys the basic objective of deconstructing the attraction of bodily beauty.

Whether “impure” or “not beautiful [compared to its un-deconstructed appearance],” there can be little doubt that carrying out this instruction involves a purposive element of evaluation [14]. At the background of this stands the early Buddhist notion that the attraction of sensuality is based on an erroneous perception [15].

This erroneous [deceptive] or even distorted perception is seen as requiring a form of de-conditioning by inculcating a perception of the body as lacking beauty or even as being impure.

The point of this mode of evaluation is not to nurture in the practitioner an attitude of negativity towards the body [16].

The evaluation introduced into mindfulness practice in this way is meant as a detergent that purifies the mind from sensual attachment to the body, a cleansing process whose final aim is a balanced attitude. More

• Bhikkhu Analayo, Mindfulness in Early Buddhism (PDF), Journal of Buddhist Studies, Vol. XI, (JCBSSL, VOL. XI), 2013; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly