Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal

Wednesday, September 2, 2026

Deadly? Diary of a Buddhist Yogi: retreat

Diary of a Buddhist Yogi: Vipassana Meditation Retreat

Diary of a Buddhist Yogi (Kindle Edition)

Author Dhammaloka ("Dharma-world" or "Dharma-light or white") Viriya ("energy") knows that liberation (vimutti, moksha, vimokkha) from the cycle of rebirth (samsara) comes from the Awakening (bodhi-ification) of the (ennobling = enlightening) Truths.

To be awakened, one needs to practice mindfulness-meditation (satipatthana) by relinquishing attachment to the six senses, which will eradicate the clinging to all [of their attendant] phenomena, before the Dhamma (Truth, Teaching, Doctrine) eventually reveals itself to the practitioner.

Once the practitioner catches a glimpse of the Dhamma, the Ultimate Truth, through direct knowing-and-seeing, the practitioner will know there is no more falling back into the mire of this mundane world.

The Buddha pointed out the way to end of all suffering through mindfulness (sati) practice, and many practitioners since the Buddha’s time have reached that bliss and release from practicing in accordance with it.

However, in the author’s observation, although practitioners in this age find the practice fulfilling, they do not experience the awakening moment and therefore do not see the fruition as they hope to.

What are the challenges of an intensive insight meditation (vipassana) retreat?
What enables a practitioner to experience bliss (piti) from meditation?
What does the practitioner experience when the Dhamma finally appears as direct knowledge and vision?
Vipassanā ("special seeing") Meditators’ Questions

Find out in this book, which is the first-hand experience of a yogi ("practitioner") who went through the trials and tribulations of a vipassana ("insight") meditation retreat at a forest monastery to see for himself the ultimate truths of

non-self (that all phenomena are impersonal),
disappointment (that all phenomena are unsatisfactory and unable to fulfill),
impermanence (that all phenomena are constantly hurtling toward destruction).

Directly knowing-and-seeing these Three Universal Truths produces a life-changing experience.

NOTE: Not all vipassana meditation retreats are affiliated with Indian S. N. Goenka (dhamma.org). Burmese monk U Ba Khin's star student and businessman just popularized it worldwide with a free, volunteer-based, 10-day structure.

You can do "mindfulness" wrong? - Yes.

WISDOM QUARTERLY COMMENTARY

There are dangers in this Wheel?

The Buddha in the usual list we call the Noble (Ennobling = Enlightening) Eightfold Path called one of those factors samma-sati not sati. What's the difference? One might think one is being mindful, but is it what the Buddha or the noble ones call "right" mindfulness? (If there's a right, that implies there's a wrong way to go about it or fool oneself that one is doing it at all). If "mindfulness" only meant awareness, then I'm being "aware" (conscious) right now, right? Yes! Am I being mindful? Probably not. There's a difference, a big difference. Retreat leaders and personal teachers should talk about it more and stop taking it for granted that one will just figure it out or that it is so patently obvious that it needs no defining or delimiting. It does, at least for over-thinkers. Sure, there are some people who will just take to it like guppies or ducklets to water. (They've likely extensively and successfully practiced in past lives).

Wrong mindfulness can be bad (Psychology Today)

We don't know what we're doing, but we got a groupon

Therefore, the most important thing before embarking on a vipassana retreat (whether it's Goenka-based or not), know that it is being defined as satipatthana. That means the fourfold setting up of mindfulness, which is explained in great detail in two sutras (Pali canon discourses or suttas). However, and this is the maddening part, almost nothing is said to define mindfulness (Buddhist sati). That is the most important thing to know, but it gets taken for granted. Or very weak definitions are offered, such as defining it as "awareness." We are aware right now, and more than 99% of us are not being mindful about it. For an extensive definition, see the academic work of Western Theravada professor-monk Ven. Analayo.

The Buddhist version of "mindfulness" called sati, as we understand it, is "bare awareness" with detachment, looking on, dispassionate watching. Sounds easy, but it is very hard because it goes against our deeply ingrained habits and traits. Usually when we are aware of anything, we taint that awareness with the Three Poisons of the heart/mind: liking, disliking, indifference (from the roots of all bad karma poorly translated as "greed, hatred, and delusion."

Three Poisons mutually supported wheel hub

Look up lobha, dosa, and moha. And what becomes apparent is that Pali and Sanskrit terms have wide valence, a range of meaning for a single word. "Greed" or lobha does not mean our idea of greediness. It means liking, preferring, welcoming, grasping, attaching, and getting clingy about pleasant phenomena. "Hatred" or dosa does not mean intense fury or anger; it means disliking, having an aversion to, fearing, avoiding, repressing... It is our customary reaction to any and everything we find unpleasant.

Then there's "delusion" or moha, the worst one, the most embedded one, the hardest one to see. It refers to all the wrong views we hold, consciously and unconsciously, distortions of reality, perversions (seeing what is unpleasant as pleasant, what is repulsive as attractive, what is transient as lasting), confusion, not knowing, not understanding, not fathoming, not knowing, not seeing. This is practically our whole existence, if we think about it, but it might be summarized as failing to notice the Three Characteristics of Existence in all things -- that they are ultimately radically impermanent, eventually disappointing (unable to ever fulfill us), and (no matter how impossible it is to conceive, believe, fathom, or accept) altogether impersonal.

I think I get it, Lisa. - Beginner's luck, Bart!

So to be mindful (to see clearly, which is to practice vipassana) is to look on, watch everything without giving in to the unconscious pull of these old habits. Just watch. Just notice. Just maintain attention. Note how when something is pleasing, greed for it arises. When something is displeasing, aversion with regard to it arises. When something is neutral, dull, confusing, hard to grasp, or boring, delusion arises, which is to say we space out, fall asleep, wander to something more interesting, even if it is a very unpleasant memory. Better than boredom. We do everything but be here now when this is the only real place there is to be. There's only now. The past is done. The future will take care of itself. But all our power is here, now. Let's attend to it. Let's finally see it for what it has always been so as to be liberated by the truth. The truth will set us free. What truth? The Truth, sometimes summarized as the Four Noble (Ennobling = Enlightening) Truths, the ultimate (paramattha) Truth, the true nature of existence (personally penetrating the Three Marks of Existence already mentioned). Need a list? There are the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment (the bodhipakkhiyādhammā). That Truth sets one free here and now, immediately.

But there's something every and anyone who embarks on Buddhist meditation needs to know beyond a good grasp of the meaning of "mindfulness" (sati). And that is that one will meet Five Hindrances whenever one tries to sit still or rest the mind or walk and move about with constant attention to the here and now, which does not involve "thinking" about the here-and-now, just watching it dispassionately.

The Five Hindrances one will meet in meditation (and their antidotes)

This is stupid! It doesn't work! Buddha was wrong!

The historical Buddha taught that there are Five Hindrances (pañca nīvaraṇa, Pali pañca nīvaraṇāni), mental factors that hinder, obstruct, derail progress in meditation and ruin daily life [1].

The Theravada Buddhist tradition identifies these factors as specific obstacles to "meditation," which is defined as jhāna (eight stages of stillness, unification, samadhi, concentration, coherence, superconsciousness) in practice.

Contemporary insight meditation teachers identify the Five Hindrances as obstacles to mindfulness meditation and obstacles to samma-samadhi ("right concentration," though "concentration" is problematic because we have many assumptions about what that means). "Stillness" is better, when the heart/mind has settled out, is silent, lucid, observant, directly knowing-and-seeing. But concentration is sometimes useful because ekaggata (singlepointedness or one-pointedness) is a factor of jhana.

The Five Hindrance are part of two types of obstructions (Sanskrit āvaraṇa, i.e., obstacles to insight, realization, awakening, buddhahood), afflictive obstructions (Sanskrit kleśā-avaraṇa, which include the Five Hindrances) and cognitive obstructions (jñeyā-avaraṇa, which bodhisattvas are trying to uproot) [2].

The classic list of Five Hindrances is [3, 4, 5, 6]

craving, desire, lust (kāmacchanda): seeking pleasure through the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and tactile sensation
aversion, ill-will, annoyance, anger (vyāpāda, byāpāda): feelings of hostility, resentment, hate, bitterness
sloth-and-torpor (thīna-middha): mental-and-bodily lassitude, laziness, weakness, lack of energy to strive, half-hearted action with little or no effort, attention, concentration
restlessness-and-worry (uddhacca-kukkucca): the inability to allow the mind/heart to calm down, relax, become tranquil (passaddhi), serene, unflappable, steady, restful, undistracted, attentive, and focused, diligent, vigilant, energetic
Skeptical doubt (vicikiccha): lack of confidence, conviction, faith, trust that one has understood the instructions, the path, or one's abilities to successfully proceed. More

The antidotes are called the Five Factors of Absorptions, the jhana-anga (limbs or factors). By the way, right mindfulness immediately dispels delusion instantaneously.

Bring your beloved truck to the retreat

Or psycho girlfriend might try something crazy like (pushing it off cliff to convert to ad campaign)

Dhammaloka Viriya (diary); Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson (commentary), Ashley Wells (editor) and Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) selection of video shorts, Wisdom Quarterly

If there's awareness, who is aware?

(Buddhism Podcast) "Who" is aware? A Buddhist teaching on no-self

Aggi Vacchagotta demands the Buddha answer

Proud to be Irish and Catholic (Bible)

(Channel 4 Comedy) Sister Michael's Guide to Not Giving a F**k! | Derry Girls | Channel 4

The beautiful Black Irish in the US

Now, WoQy, w' don't mind if y' rite 'bout tha beyootifull Catholick Shurch as a wondrous institution of goode in the Emerald Isle that saved it from Snakes under St. Paddy 'n the scallywag Protestant-Royalists up North, but ye best not be sayin nuthin harsh or rude about that holy mother superior Headmistress Sister George Michael of TV's Our Lady Immaculate College (Siobhán McSweeney) on the teen British sitcom Derry Girls. And if'n y' do, we might forgit to pray fer yer eternal Souls during vespers. D'ya understand? An' der might be a knuckle-ruler waitin' fer yous to halp y'all see da error uv yer wayz, too. Right?

Irish beauty from aos sidhe, Tuatha de Danann
May we post a wee short Family Guy documentary cartoon about our beloved Isle and its traditions?

Well, that should be just fine, Laddys and Lassies. Seth McFarlane is a right good Irish Catholick boy hisself, tizn't he?

The first Western Buddhist monk in history was an Irishman (U Dhammaloka born Lawrence Carroll, Laurence O'Rourke, or William Colvin with the nom de plume "Captain Daylight")
The Irish lass Maura O'Halloran who became a Zen Buddhist saint
Ireland’s forgotten witnesses to the Faith | The Irish Catholic
Luck of the Irish spreads to all Catholics this Lent | The Catholic Sun

Irish Heritage and History

(Gooz Chos) Family Guy: Irish Heritage and History and Science

A good Christian Bible? Far better to read the original Un-Roman Ethiopian version

Seminarians from Pontifical Irish College, Rome ordained deacons | Irish Catholic Bishops' Con

(Abyss Archive) The final words of an Ethiopian Christian monk (relying on his church's 88-book Ethiopian Bible) about Jesus Christ is raising questions for Western Christians.

Beware the mermaid creatures: Selkies

(Kiki Rockwell) "Selkie" has been spotted in Ireland. Do not ask to marry one, do not consent.

Many Irish cartoon stock photos and royalty-free pictures | iStock

Well that's one way of putting it 👀 #QI #iPlayer

Subscribe to The Irish Catholic...or you may end up in hell. (You really want to chance it?)

Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Blonds, stores, traffic: Life in Russia

What NORMAL, usual Russian neighborhood looks like

Buddhism in Russia (Snelling)

(Arisha in Russia) Buddhism is the third-largest religion in Russia, behind Christianity and Islam. As of 2025, it was practiced by approximately 1.4 million Buddhists, representing about 1.0% of the country’s total population [1].

In America we misuse the term "White Russian" as if that were the exception, when it is the largest of Russia's 93 ethnicities. Russia is massive and includes many indigenous peoples from Northern Europe to the Arctic Circle.

We have so many Russian ethnicities! (Eli)

Buddhism is considered one of Russia's traditional religions -- with the only indigenously Buddhist region in the world in Kalmykia -- and is legally a part of Russian historical heritage [2]. Russian dictator Vlad Lenin, a disaffected Christian who became a nominal/official communist-atheist, had at least one indigenously Buddhist relative.

I'm very Asian and 100% Russian

Historically, Buddhism was incorporated into Siberia in the early 17th century [3]. Besides the historical monastic traditions of the Buryats, the Kalmyks (Kalmykia being the only majority Buddhist republic in Europe), the Tuvans, and a part of the Evenki people (in Buryatia) [4], Buddhism is now spreading all over Russia, with many young ethnic Russian converts [5, 6].

Ancient Tartaria/Tartary was probably in Russia.

The main form of Buddhism in Russia is Vajrayana, particularly the Gelukpa school of Tibetan Buddhism, to which the Dalai Lama belongs, informally a tradition known as the "Yellow Hats" [6, 7] with other minority Tibetan and non-Tibetan Buddhist schools, such as the Mongolian.

Although Tibetan Buddhism is most often associated with Tibet, it spread into Mongolia. Via Mongolia, Buddhism spread into Siberia before spreading to the rest of Russia.

In the early 20th century, the famous Datsan Gunzechoinei in Saint Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) was the northernmost Buddhist temple in Russia. More

Classical metal guitar soloist Tina Setkic

Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata (3rd movement)" Tina Setkic cover

(MD Animations) Where is Yugoslavian French classical metal guitar prodigy Tina Setkic (YouTube's "Tina S"), student of French jazz-rocker Renaud Louis-Servais?

(BERNTH Guitar Academy) I tested TikTok's most viral guitar advice

Heavy metal gone wrong: flops

(Feedback Johnny) Sometimes bands like Metallica sell out to make money

Tuesday, September 1, 2026

The 8 things that control our lives

The 8 things that control our lives without us noticing | The Eight Worldly Conditions

(Buddha's Wisdom) AI. Aug. 27, 2026: 🔍 THE EIGHT WORLDLY CONDITIONS SHAPING OUR LIVES — EVEN WHEN EVERYTHING IS GOING WELL. More than 2,600 years ago, the historical Buddha described Eight Worldly Conditions or Winds that continually affect human life:

(1) gain and (2) loss
(3) praise and (4) blame
(5) pleasure and (6) pain
(7) status and (8) disgrace.

I'm not bored or lonely. And I'm not a monkey!

Known today as the Eight Worldly Winds, this Buddhist teaching reveals why success, approval, comfort, criticism, disappointment, and reputation can move the mind/heart far more than we realize.

The surprising part? Buddhism doesn’t only warn us about loss, pain, blame, and disgrace. Gain, praise, pleasure, and status can consume us, too.

DISCOVER

Why the Eight Worldly Conditions always appear as four opposing pairs
Why the discourse says the pleasant four consume an untrained mind exactly as the painful four do
What the Buddha actually taught about gain and loss, praise and blame, pleasure and pain, status and disgrace
Why the conditions we want can control us as powerfully as the ones we resist
How a famous psychology experiment about sitting alone with your thoughts became widely misunderstood
Why Buddhism sees freedom not as escaping life’s ups and downs, but as understanding their impermanent nature

📚 SOURCES AND FURTHER READING (affiliate links)

Aṅguttara Nikāya (AN 8.6), Dutiya Lokadhamma Sutta (The Eight Worldly Conditions)
Thanissaro Bhikkhu's translation of AN 8.6, which renders the three marks of each condition as inconstant, stressful, subject to change https://amzn.to/4xpbP6g
Thanissaro Bhikkhu on yasa, translated here as "status" rather than "fame"
Wilson, T. D. et al. (2014), "Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind," Science, Vol. 345
Sun Wukong appears as a story from Journey to the West, referenced as literature rather than as doctrine
Fox, K. C. R., Thompson, E., Andrews-Hanna, J. R. & Christoff, K. (2014), Is thinking really aversive? The authors challenged the popular interpretation of the experiment, noting that many participants who used the shock described curiosity as a motivation.

⚖️ FAIR USE DISCLAIMER: This video references The Social Network (2010, Columbia Pictures) for commentary, criticism, and educational analysis under Section 107 of the US Copyright Act. All rights to the film remain with the copyright holders. No affiliation or endorsement is implied.

🙏 If Buddhism that connects ancient teachings with ordinary modern life is of interest, subscribe and turn on notifications. Buddha's Wisdom publishes twice a week. And after watching, comment on which of the four pairs runs your week most often?

The worst ways to get "enlightened"

I did my yoga, and I'm starting to see not-self and that I am One. What's for lunch?

Rites and rituals for samadhi in India

(dakota of earth) India's worst way to reach "enlightenment," usually defined in Hinduism as mere samadhi, which is a stage to understanding not the final goal itself in Buddhism.

I think I'm starting to lose my grip on reality.

When one becomes a "saint" (a NOBLE ONE) in Buddhism, having entered at least the first stage of enlightenment (of seven stages usually condensed and described as four main stages), one is immediately rid of four things.

Of these is the wrong view that clinging to rites and rituals could ever lead to enlightenment (bodhi, awakening to the ultimate truth).

Dhutanga of living under a tree
Attachment to rites and rituals (sīlabbata-parāmāso) is one of the subtle fetters binding beings (who are constantly becoming and never actually being) to samsara, the Wheel of Life and Death. Śīla refers to "virtue" or "moral conduct" + vata (bata) to "religious duty, observance, rite, practice, custom" [25] + parāmāsa to "being attached to" or "a contagion" (clinging, upādāna) and has the connotation of "mishandling" the Dhamma [26], Buddha's Teachings. Together sīlabbata-parāmāso translates as "the contagion of [adhering to] mere rule and ritual, the infatuation of good works, the delusion that they suffice" [27] or, more simply, "fall[ing] back on attachment [clinging] to precepts and rules" [28]. Whereas the fetter of "doubt" (vicikiccha) can be seen as pertaining to the dharmas of competing wandering ascetics (samanas) during the time of the Buddha, the fetter regarding clinging to rites and rituals likely refers to some practices of contemporary Brahmanical authorities [29]. More
I punished the body (Erika Tanith)
The former prince Siddhartha Gautama (the future historical Buddha), as a wandering ascetic on a quest for enlightenment, practiced these futile things -- particularly extreme fasting -- for years until he finally stopped blaming the body for the mind's defilements and accepted the blissful meditative absorptions (jhanas) as the real path of purification and path of freedom to seeing things as they really are and thereby finally being able to let go of lust, clinging, attachment, and all that binds us to interminable rebirth and suffering in samsara.
The 13 Sane Ascetic Practices (dhutangas)

Then I realized I was that One God incarnate

Until then, a person might do any useless thing -- particularly engaging in the extremes of severe austerities and bodily mortifications (tapas, penances, extreme austerities, attempts at purification) to purify oneself or hedonism, debauchery, and excess with the excuse that "anything can be used in the service of liberation, including the very poisons -- alcohol, drugs ("Crazy Wisdom"), sanctified or twisted sexuality (tantric sex), meat eating and cannibalism (as in Aghori holyman practices), fasting and self-starvation (inedia), self-mummification (sokushinbutsu)...

What's wrong with drinking alcohol?

(Typical Life Stories) The habit/addiction that took everything

Liquid ignorance tastes bad.
FIFTH PRECEPT: Surā meraya majja pamā daṭṭhānā veramaṇī sikkhā padaṃ samā diyāmi, which means, "I undertake the training-precept to abstain from consuming intoxicants that may occasion heedlessness."

The fifth precept prohibits the use of intoxicants that occasion heedlessness such as alcohol, drugs, or other means. Its virtues are mindfulness and self-responsibility [12, 13] applied to food, work, behavior, and with regard to reality [132] and the true nature of life.

Awareness, meditation, and heedfulness can also be included here [125].

Let's drink this and start breaking other precepts.

The most famous Buddhist commentator in the Pali canon Buddhaghosa writes that whereas violating the first four precepts may be more or less blameworthy depending on the person or animal affected, the fifth precept is always "greatly blamable" because it hinders one from understanding the Buddha's Teachings and may lead one to "madness" [18], which is the karmic result in the future of indulging in alcohol now.

It's a natural product of rotten sugar.

In ancient China, Daoshi described alcohol as the "doorway to laxity and idleness" and as a cause of suffering. Nevertheless, he did describe extraordinary circumstances when drinking might be considered less bad than what it prevents. For example, there's the case of a queen who distracts the king using alcohol to prevent him from murdering.

However, Daoshi was strict in his interpretations. For example, he allowed medicinal use of alcohol only in extreme cases [152].

Early Chinese translations of the Three Baskets or Collections (the Tripitaka of Sutras, Disciplinary Code, and the Higher Doctrine) describe negative consequences for people breaking the rule on drinking, for themselves and their families.

The Chinese translation of the Upāsikaśila Sūtra, as well as the Pāli language version of the Sigālovāda Sutta, speak of terrible consequences from intoxication such as the

loss of wealth,
ill health,
a bad reputation,
being accused of misdeeds,
"stupidity" [in future rebirths],
culminating with rebirth in hell [18, 153].

I need a swig every night to be regular in my poo.

The Dīrghāgama adds to that that alcohol leads to quarreling, negative states of mind, and damage to one's intelligence.

The Mahāyāna Sanskrit version of the Net of All-Embracing Views Discourse (Brahmajāla Sūtra) [Note 6] describes the dangers of alcohol in very strong terms, including the crime of selling alcohol [154], which is listed among one of the forms of wrong livelihood proscribed in the Noble Eightfold Path.

Similar arguments against alcohol are found in Nāgārjuna's writings [155]. A strict interpretation on the prohibition of alcohol consumption in Buddhism can be supported by the Upāli Sūtra's statement that a disciple of the Buddha should avoid drinking alcohol "even [so much as] a drop on the point of a blade of grass."

However, in the writing of some Abhidharma commentators, alcohol consumption was condemned depending on the intention with which it was consumed. For example, an intention that was not condemned was taking alcohol in a tiny amount as a form of medicine [156] or because it is used in the extraction and preservation of plant medicines (syrups, potions, decoctions, concoctions, etc.)

Sanity and sobriety in practice

A little "water of life" never hurt nobody. *Burp*

The fifth precept against consuming alcohol is regarded as extremely important because drinking alcohol leads to lack of self-control and sluggishness [72, 157], which is extremely likely to lead to breaking the other precepts [18] that one would normally if sober avoid breaking.

In Spiro's field studies, violating the fifth precept was seen as the worst of all the five precepts by half of the monks interviewed, citing the harmful consequences [18].

Nevertheless, in practice abstention from alcohol is often disregarded by lay people [158]. In Theravada Buddhist Thailand, drinking alcohol is fairly common, even to the point of drunkenness [159].

Do all bad things as "crazy wisdom," Dummies!

Among Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhists, drinking beer is common, partly because it is very weak and only slightly alcoholic [155].

Medicinal use of alcohol is generally not frowned upon [145], and in some countries like Thailand and Laos, smoking tobacco is usually not regarded as a violation of the precept to avoid intoxicants.

Thai and Laotian Buddhist monks have been known to smoke as part of their culture, but monks who have received more training in Buddhism are far less likely to smoke [43, 160].

Let's live it up, steal, and break things. Woo-hoo!

On a similar note, as of the year 2000, no Buddhist country prohibited the sale or consumption of alcohol, though in Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist revivalists unsuccessfully attempted to become prohibitionist by getting full prohibition passed in 1956 [43].

Moreover, pre-communist Tibet used to prohibit smoking in some areas of the capital, Lhasa. Monks were prohibited from smoking, and the import of tobacco was banned [43].

Vietnamese Zen Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh included even mindful consumption in this precept, which consists of unhealthy food, unhealthy entertainment, and unhealthy conversations, among others [137, 161]. More

What about the dollar, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs?