Thursday, August 7, 2025
Monday, June 9, 2025
Doug's Dharma: What is 'solitude'?
- 00:00 Intro
- 00:48 The benefits of solitude
- 04:26 Dangers of solitude
- 07:06 Finding the balance
- 10:07 Cultivating solitude in lay life
- 11:47 Buddha's wisdom on solitude
- Facebook: onlinedharmainstitute
- Mastodon: mindly.social/@dougsdharma
- Instagram: dougsdharma
- Threads: threads.net/@dougsdharma
- Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/dougsdharma....
- Thumbnail image courtesy of kalyanayahaluwo at Pixabay.
- Dr. Doug Smith, Doug's Dharma, onlinedharma.org, June 9, 2025; Seth Auberon, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Tuesday, July 23, 2024
The Great Awakened Monk: Ajahn Jumnien
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| Gwendolyn, there's something most extraordinary about this one. - I know it! - Yeah, be good. |
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| Who can fathom another's greatness? |
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| Richard Gere, Ajahn Jumnien, Borobudur, Java |
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| Sacred Ven. Jumnien amulet |
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| How does the great Ajahn teach the Dhamma? (jamnian.org) |
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| Dwell not on hurt feelings. |
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| Living Dharma: 12 Theravada Masters |
Who says so? Wisdom Quarterly says so, and long before us Jack Kornfield (jackkornfield.com) says so in Living Buddhist Masters. But who could believe that either he or we actually met incredible beings of such skill in Dhamma?
Thursday, February 1, 2024
Learning to Love Midlife with Chip Conley
Tuesday, August 8, 2023
The way to happiness: Theravada Buddhism?
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| The white Thai Forest Tradition Theravada Buddhist monks of California (Abhayagiri) |
Monday, April 16, 2012
Who Speaks for Religion?
The Bodhisat, then the ascetic Sumedha, pays homage to a previous Buddha aeons ago.What about religion? How do we get answers?
Holy men, women, and books
Most religion is organized in hierarchies of authority. The world's religions are populated by a constellation of priests, patriarchs, monks, imams, wise women, and gurus. These would seem like the first and last stop in our quest for answers. But not all leaders are the same.
For one thing, there is the question of who gives religious leaders their authority. Even within [patriarchal, hierarchical, fundamental, or papally infallible] Christianity, there are many ways of understanding.... Religious leaders are often expected act as custodians of the faith -- as leaders of a community and keepers of its traditions. However, this is not always the case, because learning and knowledge are not the only paths to spiritual achievement.
If the path to holiness takes you through mysticism or meditation, it may not necessarily prepare you to answer questions of doctrine. Argue any point of... More
Meditacion-Zen (smallcricket.com)The ANSWER
Maya S. Putra, Seven, and Andrew Winn, Wisdom Quarterly
IF no one knows or does not know how s/he knows -- the central epistemological question being, "How do we know that what we know is true?" -- is a timeless one.
The Buddha emphasized the importance of a teacher. We will not stumble upon it ourselves. (He certainly did not become enlightened or, moreover, a teach of enlightenment by chance, luck, destiny, or spiritual rebelliousness). But we are told that he went without one, which is incorrect and at odds with the texts but makes a nice story for American rebel with our impulsive, irreverent, and independent streaks.
The Buddha's Teachings, and those of teachers who continue in his line, teach the Path-of-Practice that leads to ultimate answers. We need to walk not have a priest or priestess report back to us what it was like. The rarefied peak of the mountain cannot be brought down to us (it would no longer be that down here); we have to climb up there, which is not a struggle but a persistent journey with lots of base camps to replenish ourselves for the quest with the help of others.
One must see and experience "the truth" for oneself. And what is our slogan?
"No one saves us but ourselves
No one can and no one may
We ourselves must tread the path
Buddhas only point the way."
So it's do-it-yourself? NO. It does no good that another has found it if we do not make the Truth our own by practice. Yet, it's not a free-for-all that needs us to reinvent the wheel. The path still exists for us to question, follow, and verify by experience in this very life. There is no need to wait till we die to see if we were right.
Even if the Buddha were here, he would not be able to "enlighten" us. He could only encourage, guide, and elate as a living example of what human are capable of.
(mithilkhandare.blogspot.com)But the Buddha was a rebel, no?
What we are usually not told is how long it took the Bodhisat to become the Buddha, through lives when he is referred to as a seeker after truth developing the perfections that would enable him to teach it when he found it. He was determined to become a path-finder. For he was not technically a "trailblazer" but a re-discoverer.
And even in his last life, his final rebirth, he had numerous teachers (his parents, his wife, advisors, tutors, Alara Kalama, Uddaka Ramaputta, devas, fellow ascetics involved in the quest, brahmas, and even after becoming the fully enlightened supreme Buddha, he thought it unseemly to be a young ascetic without a teacher, so fundamental was the Indian custom to have a teacher. But he had no equal, no one who could now be his teacher, except that he would psychically look to the past to see what buddhas in the past had done and choices they made; he may even have had access to simultaneous buddhas on other worlds in distant galaxies (world systems) since there can only be one at a time in any world system, and usually there is not even that).
And little mention is made of the crucial fact that when he determined/resolved to become a supreme buddha (samma-sam-buddha) capable of making known, teaching the Path to completion, and establishing an organized monastic institution of practitioners that could keep the message (the Dharma) alive in perpetuity, that is to say when he became a bodhisattva ("being bent on enlightenment"), he possessed all of the requisites to attain full enlightenment under the Buddha Dipankara.
In that past life he had been reborn as Sumedha (shown above with long hair as a prostrate yogi ascetic who lived in a cave in the Himalayan foothills, palms joined, making his aspiration at the sight of Dipankara Buddha). He was an ascetic, who had access to flight either by levitation or some technological means we assume impossible because we are taught that antiquity is always backwards and unvisited until we evolved.
This planet and human life here is, in fact, cyclical more in accordance with a scientific theory called "punctuated equilibrium" in the social rather than biological domain. Who speaks for religion? Whoever can, whoever wants to.
Who should we listen to? Any and everyone, but ultimately what we should be listening for if we want to advance is not final products (philosophies, theories, dogmas, things to put blind faith in) but living practices.
What can I do, what can I refrain from doing, what can I practice, that will lead me to knowing, to knowledge that surpasses all understanding?
What samadhi (absorbed and purifying states of concentration) makes me like a saint, and what vipassana (mindful insight-wisdom) actually makes me enlightened?
Who speaks that truth, points out that path, who should speak for religion?
Buddhist prayer flags fly high in the Himalayas (Bhakti Omwoods/Facebook).Other religions will get one to the heavens (none of which, however exalted, are actually eternal), and Buddhism can too. But only Buddhism points the way to final nirvana. If all religions led there, there would be no reason to ever pick a tradition. We could just be all of them or none in particular (which we seem to prefer).
Be none, be agnostic, be atheistic, cling to tradition, but whatever is done, PRACTICE. In that way, you will ultimately be able to speak for yourself with great confidence about what is timeless truth and what is not.
- Dharma Here and Now (Bhutan's Kuensel Online)
- Letters To Young Rationalists
- (No. 09, Bertrand Russell) Morally committed to data and evidence-based search for knowledge as opposed to mere faith and belief
- PHOTOS: 25 things about Christianity
- The world has a Buddhist master: Pa Auk Sayadaw
- Dhammaweb.net: Baby monks-in-training
Monday, January 30, 2012
Who will save Buddhists?
Thai Theravada Buddhist monks with mosquito nets (crots for outdoor meditation) focus on candles in front of reclining Buddha, a pose representing final nirvana.No one can and no one may
We ourselves must tread the path
Buddhas only point the way
40 ways to let go and feel less pain
Lori Deschene (TinyBuddha.com)
Eckhart Tolle [who will speak in Los Angeles at GATE 2 on Feb. 4, 2012] believes we create and maintain problems because they give us a sense of identity [ego, soul, self view]. Perhaps this explains why we often hold onto our pain far beyond its ability to serve us. We replay past mistakes over and over again in our head, allowing feelings of shame and regret to shape our actions in the present. We cling to frustration and worry about the future... More
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
The Noble Eightfold Path to Happiness
- 1. right perspective, 2. right intention, 3. right speech, 4. right action, 5. right livelihood, 6. right effort, 7. right mindfulness, 8. right concentration
Note that the Eightfold Path is different than the Eight Precepts in Buddhism, which I do not like so much because they suggest that to become more [insightful in meditation], one should refrain from singing, dancing, and going to the theater! Source
(dimc.org)
Unfortunately, the word "right" (as in right view) raises in the Western mind a moral judgment. There is a path that works, that has been preserved, that has been verified and shown to work. That is the Noble Eightfold Path. It is not up for discussion. What we might discuss is whether or not we want to follow it. But what it is, what these terms mean, that is set.
The purpose of Wisdom Quarterly is to provide in many and varied way a guidepost to understanding the Buddha's Dharma in a uniquely American (irreverent) and non faith-based way. Verifiable-faith is great! The path proves effective immediately -- in the sense that as soon as one practices, for example, generosity, craving is diminished. As soon as loving-kindness meditation is done correctly, hatred is displaced. As soon as mindfulness is set up in the moment, confusion and delusion and ignorance are dispelled. At the point of stream-entry, the path to full enlightenment becomes clear and irrefutable and one treasures the Buddha (who rediscovered the path), the Dharma (that explains the path), and the Sangha (who preserve, practice, and make known the path) become the most treasured guiding jewels.
Internal tranquility creates external peace. It leads to social peace through moral cultivation of individual minds. This is because the mind is the source of peace. If one has a skillful mind, then both speech and action are also skillful. A teaching of the Buddha called the "Knowledge Discourse" (Vijjā Sutta, SN 56.22) is a method of development for an individual's mind that can lead to internal tranquility.Maurice O'Connell Walshe (translator)
- See also: SN 3.12; Itivuttaka 103
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Monday, December 13, 2010
"The Simile of the Cloth" (MN 7)
1. Thus have I heard. Once the Buddha was staying in Savatthi, at Jeta's Grove, in the monastery donated by Anathapindika. There he addressed the monastics: "Monastics." — "Venerable sir!" they replied. The Blessed One then said:
2. "Suppose a cloth were dirty and dull, and a dyer dipped it in some dye or another -- blue, yellow, red, or pink. It would take the dye badly and be impure in color. Why is that? It is because the cloth wasn't clean. So too, disciples, when the mind is defiled[Note 1], an unhappy destination may be expected.
"But suppose a cloth were clean and bright, and a dyer dipped it in some dye or another. It would take the dye well and be pure in color. Why? It is because the cloth was clean. So too when the mind is undefiled, a happy destination may be expected.
3. "And what are the defilements of the mind?[2]
- Covetousness/craving (greed) is a defilement of the mind;
- ill will is a defilement of the mind;
- anger is a defilement of the mind;
- hostility...
- denigration...
- domineering...
- envy...
- jealousy...
- hypocrisy...
- fraud...
- obstinacy...
- presumption...
- conceit...
- arrogance...
- vanity...
- negligence is a defilement of the mind.[3]
4. "Knowing covetousness/craving (greed) to be a defilement of the mind, the practitioner [of this Dharma, a meditator] abandons it.[4] Knowing ill will to be a defilement of the mind, one abandons it. Knowing anger to be a defilement... hostility... denigration... domineering... envy... jealousy... hypocrisy... fraud... obstinacy... presumption... conceit... arrogance... vanity... negligence..., one abandons it.
5. "When in the practitioner who thus knows [these defilements are defilements of the mind, they] have been abandoned. [5]
6. One then and there gains unwavering confidence in the Buddha[6]: 'Thus indeed is the Blessed One, accomplished, fully enlightened, endowed with [clear] vision and [virtuous] conduct, sublime, knower of the worlds, the incomparable guide of persons who are tractable, the teacher of devas and human beings, enlightened and freeing.'
7. One gains unwavering confidence in the Dharma: 'Well proclaimed by the Blessed One is the Dharma, realizable here and now, of immediate result, inviting one to investigate and see, accessible and knowable individually by the wise.
8. One gains unwavering confidence in the [enlightened] Sangha: 'The community of the Blessed One's disciples has entered on the good way, has entered on the straight way, has entered on the actual way, has entered on the proper way. That is to say, the four pairs of persons, the eight types of individuals, this Noble Sangha of the Buddha's disciples is worthy of gifts, worthy of hospitality, worthy of offerings, worthy of respectful salutation, the incomparable field of merit for the world.'
9. "When one has let go, given up, renounced, abandoned, and relinquished [these defilements] in part[7], one knows: 'I am endowed with unwavering confidence in the Buddha... in the Dharma... in the Sangha. And one gains enthusiasm for the goal, gains enthusiasm for the Dharma[8], gains gladness connected with the Dharma. When one is gladdened, joy is born. Being joyous in mind, one's body becomes tranquil. One's body being tranquil, one feels happiness. And the mind of one who is happy becomes concentrated [to the point of absorption, right samadhi, i.e., the first four jhanas].[9]
10. "One knows, 'I have let go, given up, renounced, abandoned, and relinquished [the defilements] in part'...
11. "If, disciples, a disciple of such virtue, such concentration, and such wisdom[10] eats almsfood consisting of the choicest rice together with the most flavorful seasonings, even that will not be an obstacle.[11]
"Just as cloth that is dirty and dull becomes clean and bright with the help of pure water, just as gold becomes clean and bright with the help of a furnace, so too, if a practitioner of such virtue, such concentration, and such wisdom eats almsfood consisting of the choicest rice together with the most flavorful seasonings, even that will not be an obstacle.
12. "One abides suffusing with a mind imbued with loving-kindness[12] one direction, likewise a second, third, fourth, and above, below, around, and everywhere, to all as to oneself. One abides suffusing the entire universe with loving-kindness, with a mind grown great, sublime, boundless, free from enmity and ill will.
"One abides, suffusing with a mind imbued with compassion... joy in others' success... equanimity [impartiality] first one direction, likewise a second, third, fourth, above, below, around, and everywhere, to all as to oneself. One abides suffusing the entire universe with equanimity, with a mind grown great, sublime, boundless, free from enmity and ill will.
13. "One understands what exists, what is low, what is excellent[13], and what escape there is from this [entire] field of perception.[14]
14. "When one knows-and-sees[15] in this way, one's mind becomes liberated from the canker [asava, "taint," "pollution," "mental intoxicant"] of sensual desire, liberated from the canker of becoming, liberated from the canker of ignorance.[16] When liberated, there arises the knowledge: 'It is liberated.' And one knows: 'Birth is exhausted, the pure life has been lived, the task is done, there is no more of this to come.' Such a disciple is called 'one cleansed with the inner cleansing."[17]
15. Now at that time the brahmin Sundarika Bharadvaja[18] was seated not far from the Buddha, and he spoke to the Blessed One thus: "But does Master Gotama go to the Bahuka River to bathe?"
"What good, brahmin, is the Bahuka River? What can the Bahuka River do?"
"Truly, Master Gotama, many people believe that the Bahuka River purifies. Many people believe that the Bahuka River gives merit. For in the Bahuka River many people wash away the [unskillful karma, "sins,"] evil deeds they have done."
16. Then the Buddha addressed the brahmin Sundarika Bharadvaja in these stanzas:[19]
Bahuka and Adhikakka,[20] Gaya and Sundarika, Payaga and Sarassati, and the stream Bahumati — a fool may there forever bathe, yet will not be cleansed of one's dark deeds. What can Sundarika bring to pass? What can the Payaga and the Bahuka? They cannot purify a doer of harm, a person performing brutal and cruel acts. One of pure heart has always The Feast of Cleansing[21] and the Lunar Observance Day.[22] One pure in heart who does beneficial deeds has perfected observances for all time. It is here, O brahmin, that you should bathe[23] to make yourself a guide for all beings. And if you speak no untruth, nor harm any breathing thing, nor take what is not freely given, with conviction and without avarice, to Gaya River gone, what would it do for you? Let any water well be your Gaya!
17. When this was said, the brahmin Sundarika Bharadvaja exclaimed:
"Magnificent, Master Gotama! Magnificent, Master Gotama! The Dharma has been made clear in many ways, as though one were setting upright what had been overthrown, revealing the hidden, showing the way to the lost, or holding up a lamp in the dark for those with vision to see.
18. "I go to Master Gotama for guidance, and to the Dharma, and to the [enlightened] Sangha. May I receive the going forth [ordination as a novice] under Master Gotama, may I receive full admission [ordination as a monastic]!
19. And the brahmin Sundarika Bharadvaja received the going forth under the Buddha, and he received the full admission. And not long after his ordination, dwelling withdrawn, secluded, diligent, ardent, and resolute, the Venerable Bharadvaja by his own realization understood and attained in this very life that supreme goal of the pure life [of a monastic], for which noble sons and daughters go forth from home life into homelessness. He came to this direct knowledge: "Birth is exhausted, the purest life has been lived, the task is done, there is no more of this [suffering of any kind] to come."
And the Venerable Bharadvaja became one of the arahants [fully enlightened practitioners].
Sunday, November 28, 2010
The 5 Kinds of Buddhists
What keeps us from enlightenment and nirvana? The flood of taints (asavas, outflows).*
- The Buddhist. To be a "Buddhist" one need only do two things.
The first is go for guidance (sarana) to the Three Jewels, namely, the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The Buddha is one's own enlightened nature or capacity for enlightenment. The Dharma is the teaching of an enlightened one; it really represents an existing reality, the way things truly are beyond our biases and conceptions. The Doctrine is merely a reflection of it. So whereas the Doctrine (Buddha-Dharma) will become corrupted and fade away, the Truth it represents is completely imperishable. It will be there to be rediscovered by those who in the future manage to cultivate the perfections (paramis). The Sangha is not the monastics in saffron robes. Like the Doctrine, they represent the Sangha. But the Sangha really means the enlightened or accomplished or Noble (arya) Sangha, whether ordained or not. So the Three Jewels (also called the Triple Gem) are the Teacher, the Teaching, and the Taught. The three represent the Enlightened One, the Enlightening Doctrine, and the well-instructed Enlightened Disciples. The second thing is wanting to be a Buddhist, and one need not leave one's faith or cultural traditions to go for guidance or to follow that guidance.
2. The good Buddhist. To be a good Buddhist one need only do three things, the first two just mentioned and uphold the Five Precepts.
What guidance does the Three-faceted Gem give? It teaches the Four Noble Truths, the fourth truth being the Noble Eightfold Path. That is the teaching that leads to enlightenment. But to read it, it all sounds very general. It is not obvious. It needs unpacking. All eight arms open up to very well defined factors. For example, "right effort" does not mean putting in what you call effort then calling it a day. No, right effort has an exact meaning: the effort to abandon unwholesome states, to cultivate wholesome ones, to maintain them, and to bring them to fullness. What are the Five Precepts? They are the minimum of decency and humanity and are not limited to Buddhism -- abstaining from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech, and intoxication occasioning to heedlessness. (All of these factors are also precisely defined leaving no need to interpret and invent biased definitions).
3. The great Buddhist. To be a great Buddhist one need only do four things, the three just mentioned and meditate successfully.
How is one to learn the definitions of all the factors just mentioned? One studies the Dharma and goes for guidance to the Sangha. In this case those in saffron robes become very handy. They preserve and teach the Dharma. Like the Kalama Sutra advises, don't simply take their word for it. Look into it, investigate, read and reason and reflect. But don't merely reason. The path was not arrived at by mere reasoning. It took a supremely enlightened buddha to rediscover exactly because it is not obvious, not attainable by reasoning, not -- like Einstein said -- solvable from the level of the problem. The problem is suffering (dukkha, unhappiness of all kinds) and the cause of suffering. The solution is nirvana and the Noble Eightfold Path. How does one meditate successfully? Read MN 39 (The Middle Length Discourses, Sutra 39), or Bhikkhu Bodhi's summary of it, which recently appeared in the pages of Wisdom Quarterly.
4. The nominal Buddhist. To be a nominal -- that is, by name only -- Buddhist, there's only one thing you need to do. Call yourself one.
It would also help not to do the other things mentioned. Just get the tee shirt, drink tea, buy a yoga mat, maybe get a yin-yang tattoo, tie a red string around your wrist, date a celebrity -- none of which actually have anything to do with the Dharma. Hey, but neither does the nominal Buddhist.
5. The Buddhist who doesn't know it. To be a Buddhist, just be good. You don't need to call yourself a "Buddhist" at all.
What is the advice of all buddhas past, present, and future? "To cease from all unwholesome actions (karma you'll regret when you eventually meet with its consequences), to undertake all wholesome actions (karma you may not like now but will love when you meet with its results), this is the advice of all Enlightened Ones" (Dhammapada). Did you know that for most of his lives the Bodhisat (Buddha-to-be) was not a Buddhist? He didn't know he was on the path to becoming a buddha. He was not without religion (dharma) or spirituality. He was frequently a yogi, an ascetic recluse meditating in the Himalayas, or a king with brahmin advisors, or a laborer married with children, and so an adherent of Vedic Brahmanism, or a god (brahma) living in fine heavenly worlds. He was an outcaste and all kinds of things from his life as Sumedha the Seer (rishi) with wonderful powers able to attain enlightenment in that very life but instead foregoing the end of suffering for himself to win supreme or perfect enlightenment in the future in order to teach everyone in the distant, distant future aeons later. Did he succeed? One of the Four Imponderables is the influence or range of a buddha.
In fact, Buddhism has been instrumental in saving the world. One may think that Christianity opposes it, but Christianity is rooted in it. One may think that Aesop's Fables are better literature, but they're rooted in the Jatakas (birth stories) and the Buddha's influence on the philosophy and spirituality of the expansive Indian empire, which included Greece, the root of Western civilization. One may think lots of things, but Buddhism is a world religion followed by a third of the planet and esteemed in space and other (deva) worlds without having to resort to the Gods and gods but resorted to by Gods (brahmas), gods, godlings, demigods (there are lots of kinds of terrestrial and extraterrestrial devas), and good Buddhists now as in the time of the Buddha.
- IMAGES: The flood of samsara and suffering, golfer Tiger Woods, actress Uma Karuna Thurman daughter of Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman the first Westerner to be ordained as a Tibetan monk, partially-enlightened Buddhist monk Ajahn Brahm, Wisdom Quarterly writers born into and married into Buddhism, the Bodhisat (who became the historical Buddha) and Biblical protagonist St. Issa (Jesus of Nazareth and Kashmir), the light of wisdom.
*Caught in a "flood" (Sanskrit, ogha) are all unenlightened beings -- be they humans, devas, divinities (brahmas), devils (maras), spirits, animals, hellions, or monastics. What flood? We are overcome by delusions and vain desires impeding the path to full enlightenment and nirvana (freedom from all suffering). The four floods are identical with the four outflows: sense-desire, the craving for renewed existence, wrong views, and ignorance of the liberating Four Noble Truths.
