Art of dying: How Zen masters face death

(Buddha's Wisdom) Zen wisdom on death: Why Buddhist masters die smiling

How to let go according to Buddhism

(Buddhism in English)

(Thich Nhat Hanh) Our minds are lying to us. Observe instead of believing

What is the purpose of being human?

(Buddhism Podcast) What is the purpose of being human? The Buddha's answer

Aristotle’s Theory of Eudaimonia or Happiness

Eudaimonia (/u-die-moan-ee-uh/, Ancient Greek εὐδαιμονία]) is a Greek word that literally translates to the state or condition of good spirit, commonly translated as "happiness" or "welfare."  In the works of Aristotle, eudaimonia was the term for the highest human good in older Greek tradition. It is the aim of practical philosophy-prudence, including ethics and political philosophy, to consider and experience what this state really is and how it can be achieved. It is therefore a central concept in Aristotelian ethics and subsequent Hellenistic philosophy, along with the terms aretē (most often translated as "virtue" or "excellence") and phronesis ("practical or ethical wisdom") [1]. Discussion of the links between ēthikē aretē ("virtue of character") and eudaimonia (happiness) is one of the central concerns of ancient ethics and a subject of disagreement. As a result, there are many varieties of eudaimonism. More

Is mindfulness just awareness?

7 Simple Mindfulness Exercises & Techniques for Daily Relaxation (Discover Happy Habits)

The difference between Awareness and Mindfulness with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Why bother? Who needs mindfulness?

(Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche) Find yourself wondering about the differences between awareness and mindfulness? In this teaching, Mingyur Rinpoche explains this question from the traditional Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist perspective by exploring the difference between object-oriented and subject-oriented forms of meditation as ways to connect with [bare] awareness.

Meditate by Letting the Mind Be as It Is – Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

• 

  Mindfulness in Plain English

  [EDITOR'S NOTE: Mindfulness is wakeful, vigilant, presence of mind in this moment as a watcher rather than as a participant. It is not being sucked in or getting entangled but merely observing, bare awareness, not evaluating, judging, resisting, preferring, averting, but just dispassionately aware, detached but fully awake to what is, whatever it is even as it is constantly changing. Rather than attempting to fix, improve, change, or involve ourselves, we just watch and see what happens as it happens. This, Wisdom Quarterly suggests, is the principal difference between mindfulness and awareness. Mindfulness is "bare awareness," a kind of looking on (watching) that is free of discursive thinking, drifting off, or having distractions pull us away and scatter our attention. It is undivided, keenly interested attention that does not grasp, cling, or prefer but is open to whatever is in this moment, the "eternal now." See: "Mindfulness" defined (Ven. Analayo), Establishing Mindfulness Sutra (podcast), Confronting Racism with Mindfulness, and Youth Sutra, The Buddha's Mindfulness Diet Plan]

#4: Mind stays stationary at point under the nose

🔗 Joy of Living Meditation Program: Learn meditation under the skillful guidance of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche at your own pace. joy.tergar.org

🔗 Vajrayana Online: Study and practice of the Tibetan Buddhism with Mingyur Rinpoche. learning.tergar.org

🔗 Online events, retreats with Mingyur Rinpoche events.tergar.org

🔗 About Tergar Path: tergar.org/programs

• Transforming the Mind with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
• Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition (Bhante G or Bhante Gunaratana)
• Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, April 21, 2022; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Are women a trap for men? (cartoon)

(Rerun Zone) The Male Gaze: Sexism, Racism, and the Biggest Censorship in Classic Cartoons

The most uncomfortable and forbidden truth about women, according to Schopenhauer

The World as Will...Vol. 1

(Refuge of the Male Mind) June 10, 2025: Let's explore one of Arthur Schopenhauer’s most controversial and philosophical views on women. Drawing from his major work The World as Will and Representation, we can analyze how he saw the female nature, the biological role of women, and how it all connects to the blind Will-to-life, the irresistible will to live and carry on, to consume and reproduce. "Eat, Mate, Kill, Repeat." Prepare to reflect on deep, provocative, and forbidden ideas that still spark intense debate today.

How was this made? Altered or synthetic content with sound and/or visuals significantly edited or digitally generated. Learn more

• Unfold feminine grace with Ilana's Method

Would the Buddha agree?

What is the point or profit of an ascetic life?

Buddhism is far more sophisticated than nearly anyone realizes. The Buddha taught in a variety of ways, which made him very popular to different types of people. We imagine he only gave discourses or sutras, but he did much more than that. He told fables (many of which were published in Aesop's Fables), recounted past lives with talking animals and stories (jatakas), histories, a disciplinary code with origin stories for each of the rules (with a spicy sinful story that gave rise to the need for a rule), recorded verses of enlightened nuns, and most sophisticated of all is an entire collection of works in Buddhist psychology and physics called the Abhidhamma Pitaka or "Collection on the Dhamma explained in ultimate terms" or The Higher Doctrine Collection. Are women a trap for men, or men a trap for women, or pleasant objects a trap for clingy humans?

How are we raising our girls in the US nowadays?

• Verses of the Senior Nuns: 13.3: Cāpā Therīgāthā

Why do we become attached and clingy?

The Abhi-Dhamma = Higher Doctrine Collection

There exists a sutra where the Buddha points out that nothing is more alluring for a male than the form of a female. This sounds bad, but the same is said of females. Nothing is more alluring than the form of a male. (What can be said of pandakas, the third gender or gender-nonconforming individuals, we are not told, into which category would fit all LGBTQIA+ persons, whether gay, bi, or pansexual). We can imagine that whatever one likes, whatever one is attracted to, that is the most alluring. And this is problematic for anyone who wishes to make progress toward enlightenment and liberation in this very life.

The Buddha's Higher Doctrine in Practice

The Abhidhamma in Practice by N.K.G. Mendis, Wheel 322, BPS.lk, 2006

Wheel 322/323: The Abhidhamma in Practice

When the mind is not experiencing objects through the five sense doors — eye, ear, nose, tongue, or body — it can still be active through the [sixth sense called the] "mind door," taking as its object either something previously experienced through the five sense doors, recently or long ago, or some idea or image peculiar to itself.

Past experiences are registered in the life-continuum (bhavanga) in a subliminal form, where from time to time they can surface through the mind-door to serve as objects for the mind-moment (citta).

On the one hand, karmically active moments can follow this mental activity, and here again the practice of mindfulness — that is, being [dispassionately] aware that there is thinking — will prevent the arising of unwholesome causative mind moments.

On the other hand, if mindfulness is absent there can be unwholesome mental activity, such as longing [or lust] for things of the past, worry, remorse, regret, grudge, and doubt. Mind moments exhibit certain other interesting features that are dealt with in the Abhidhamma (the Doctrine or Dhamma in Ultimate Terms). Some of these are as follows.

Association with "roots"

Mind moments may be associated with mental factors called "roots" (hetu, mula), or they may be dissociated from these roots.

The former kind of mind moments are called sahetuka cittas, the latter ahetuka cittas; these are, respectively, rooted and rootless states of consciousness.

The roots are particular mental factors (cetasikas) that arise together with the mind moments, often giving it a determinate ethical quality.

Because the mind moment and its constituent factors, the mental concomitants (cetasikas), arise together and because both have the same object and base, it is difficult to appreciate the subtle differences in their characteristics unless one's mindfulness and insight are very sharp.

There are six roots. Three are karmically unwholesome (akusala); the other three may be either karmically wholesome (kusala) or indeterminate (abya-kata), depending on the type of consciousness they arise in.

The unwholesome roots are greed (lobha), hatred (dosa), and delusion (moha). The three roots that are wholesome in some mind moments and indeterminate in others are greedlessness (alobha), hatelessness (adosa), and undeludedness (amoha).

Though these last three roots are expressed negatively they have positive manifestations. Greedlessness manifests as generosity and renunciation (unselfishness and letting go), hatelessness as loving-kindness and compassion, and undeludedness as wisdom or understanding.

In the ordinary unenlightened worldling these six roots can occur in various combinations. When one enters the path leading to enlightenment, the unwholesome roots are eradicated in stages until final emancipation is achieved.

For the fully enlightened person (arahant), the liberated one, the mind moments that arise can no longer be associated with any unwholesome roots. The mind moments that the fully enlightened experiences are neither wholesome nor unwholesome, as one does not generate any further karma; one's mind moments are exclusively indeterminate.

These indeterminate mind moments can be functional (kiriya, kriya), as on occasions when one is mentally active, or resultants (vipaka) when one is experiencing the effects of past karma or abiding in the meditative attainment of fruition.

For spiritual progress, it is important to be aware of the roots associated with the mind moments that we are experiencing at any particular moment. This is possible only by the practice of mindfulness as expounded in the Discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

This awareness helps us to rid ourselves of the unwholesome roots and to cultivate the wholesome roots. This practice enables one to purify moral virtue (sila), to develop stillness (samadhi), and to achieve insight (vipassana).

Association with feeling

Mind moments differ according to the feeling associated with them. Every mind moment has a concomitant feeling, but the quality of this feeling differs from mind moment to mind moment. Some are accompanied by a pleasant feeling (sukha vedana), some by a painful feeling (dukkha vedana), some by an indifferent feeling (upekkha vedana).

It is important to recognize the feeling that accompanies each mind moment, for feelings serve as a condition for defilements to arise.

The mind's natural tendency is to develop attachment to a pleasant feeling and aversion to an unpleasant one. Any attachment will eventually cause disappointment (dukkha); for everything within and around us is impermanent, so when inevitable separation takes place, if there is attachment, the result will be sorrow, lamentation, and despair.

Aversion, apart from giving further nourishment to the unwholesome roots, is a totally futile response. We cannot change the essentially unsatisfactory nature of the Rebirth Cycle (samsara), but we can alter our reactions to our experiences in this cycle.

Therefore, the sanest attitude would be neither to get attached to anything pleasant nor react with aversion to anything displeasing.

This would be an attitude of equanimity or indifference, which can be of two kinds. One is a callous indifference that is a total disregard for one's own well-being or that of others. This type of indifference is born of the unwholesome roots and obviously should not be cultivated by a spiritual seeker.

The other type of indifference is a highly refined mental state that is better referred to as "equanimity" (unbiased looking on). This attitude, born of wisdom pertaining to the real nature of phenomena, is an attitude of mental calmness amidst all the vicissitudes of life. This is the kind of equanimous state that we must cultivate [for progress]. More

• Rerun Zone; Schopenhauer via Refuge of the Male Mind, June 10, 2025; N.K.G. Mendis, Wheel 322, BPS via  accesstoinsight.org; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Doug's Dharma: What is 'solitude'?

Solitude: Its advantages and drawbacks in Buddhist practice

(Doug's Dharma) June 9, 2025: The Buddha praised solitude [well undertaken as temporary withdrawal, mental seclusion, peaceful isolation, private intensive meditation, accompanied by piti from samma-samadhi] as highly beneficial.

• 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

He also warned of its dangers [when not well undertaken, done without the jhanas, the meditative absorptions, "right concentration," the stabilizing inner-stillness of samadhi].

How can we best balance solitude and community in our practice? How can we cultivate solitude [mental seclusion, temporary withdrawal] even in our busy everyday lives?

🧡 Find this material useful? Check out the Patreon page and get fun benefits like exclusive videos, audio-only versions, and extensive show notes: dougsseculardharma.

Do God or gods exist?

🧡 It is also possible to make donations through: paypal.me/dougsdharma. 📙 Check out the book, A Handbook of Early Buddhist Wisdom, with a foreword by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi:  books2read.com/buddhisthandbook.

☸️ Free mini-course at the Online Dharma Institute: onlinedharma.org. 🎙Check out Doug Smith's podcast with Jon Aaron, "Diggin' the Dharma": digginthedharma.com.

✅ Videos mentioned:

• Superiority of Solitude in Early Buddhism: The Rhinoceros Sutta
• Striking A Balance: Finding The Middle Way in Buddhism
• Is Meditation Dangerous?

✅ Sutras mentioned:

• suttacentral.net/mn122/en/sujato
• suttacentral.net/an10.99/en/s...
• suttacentral.net/sn45.2/en/su...

WEBSITE: dougsdharma.com

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• Thumbnail image courtesy of kalyanayahaluwo at Pixabay.

❤️ Thanks to Patreon Patrons: Anonymous (3) Omar John Oborne Debbie Mattison Ron Peat Michael S. Kearns Anne Matthew Smith Shantha Wengappuli Karma_CAC Jorge Seguel Christopher Apostolof GailJM David Bell T Pham VCR Upayadhi Andi and Erik Michael Scherrer khobe schofield Alex Perdomo Benji Forsyth Sonny Flink Steve Marlor Joy L Lee Andrew Tom Anthony Tucker Karlee R Ethan M Billy in Singapore Olivia Otter Carl Lennartson xiao mao Jeff Harvey Andrew Ingrouille Kenneth Grandchamp Rene Gariepy Russell Needham Smoggyrob Mac Roja Clémence Ortega Douville Kwan Alex Scott Johnston Richard J Beninger Nathanael O. Arnquist SaturnianMandala Trin P Letesa Isler Dorien Izel Robert Paterson Jake Tobiason Louvenia Ortega Steve S. Richard Rappuhn Sarah Kress John Aaron Paul Niklewski Kong Ing Kai Dave Gorman rhys reed Osanda Wijeratne Scarlett Farrow BJ - RetreaTours™ Roland Harris karen Rob John Brady Schickinger Jenn A. Hieu Chi Tran Kenneth Sorensen Will Mosse Sharon E. Ken M Mattias Sjölin Marc Belanger Kyaw Thurein

• Dr. Doug Smith, Doug's Dharma, onlinedharma.org, June 9, 2025; Seth Auberon, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Let go, OK. But let go of SEX?

What do you mean don't think about sex? Mara wants us to. What's mind to do? (Teal Roberts)

Why does the Buddha say letting go of sex is the most skillful thing to do with sex?

Ego (Buddhism Podcast) April 13, 2025: Buddhism Explained. Ever wonder why the Buddha considered letting go of sex the most skillful action we can take [in the Sensual Sphere]?

Ugly faces of pretty girls (ebaumsworld.com)

In this poorly worded and mildly insightful talk by American (Thai Theravada Forest Tradition monk) Ven. Thanissaro, let's explore the Buddha's teachings on sensual desire, attachment (clinging), and the profound freedom gained through a sense of urgency (samvega) non-complacency and mindfulness.

Discover how the mind creates reality through constant choices and learn practical techniques to transform commonplace attachment into extraordinary liberation. Explore how mindfulness and concentration can help us understand and skillfully handle sexual desires and other sensual attachments.

• (Of course, the strongest attachment is to views, which is what insight and wisdom are for, helping us break free of ignorance manifesting as delusions, illusions, and wrong views).
• I'm not ugly if you think I'm pretty: 45 unbelievable before and after pics that show the same girls (DeMilked)

Find out why heedlessness can become our worst enemy, and how the Buddha’s path to freedom leads to a state of genuine liberation, peace, and happiness.

Let's take an enlightening journey towards mastering the minds and emotions we habitually identify with and fixate on until we're completely trapped in webs of delusion with no easy way out.

• More idiosyncratic wording: Meditations 3: Dhamma Talks

📍 #Buddhism #Mindfulness #LettingGo #Meditation #BuddhaTeaching #Spirituality #MindMastery

• Ven. Thanissaro via Ego (Buddhism Podcast), April 13, 2025; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Lost Greek-Buddhists of Alexander

1st human representation of the Buddha: Gandhara

The LOST Greek Buddhists: The Untold Story of Alexander's Monks

(Buddha's Wisdom) 🗡️ When Greek Warriors Became Buddhist Monks: History's Greatest Plot Twist. In 326 BCE, Alexander's unstoppable army met something their swords couldn't conquer -- the wisdom of naked monks (Gymnosophists). Greek warriors laid down their weapons to follow the Buddha's path, sparking one of history's most fascinating cultural fusions.

Discover how fierce Greek soldiers became peaceful Buddhist monks, why they created the world's first Buddha statues, and what happened when Greek philosophy met Buddhist enlightenment.

From lost kingdoms to hidden [Central Asian] monasteries, uncover the epic story that changed both East and West forever.

🗡️MAJOR REVEALS

• The warrior who dropped his sword and changed history
• The Greek king who chose enlightenment over empire
• Recently discovered scrolls that reveal ancient secrets
• The stunning truth about the Buddha's familiar face
• New evidence of undiscovered monasteries

🎯 KEY MOMENTS

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:03 Warriors Meet Wisdom
• 6:38 The Naked Truth
• 9:18 Kingdom of Two World
• 13:08 The Face of Buddha
• 17:10 The Lost Scrolls
• 23:05 Legacy of the Lost Monks
• 17:59 Conclusion

Support this channel: Buy us a coffee ☕: buymeacoffee.com/buddhaswisdom. Join in as archaeology meets adventure in this untold tale of warriors, wisdom, and one of history's greatest transformations. #Buddhism #History #AncientGreece #Philosophy #Archaeology

• Scythian Prince Siddhartha, the Buddha, was from Gandhara
• Greco-Buddhist art: fusion of East and West
• Gandhara grave culture (Pakistan, Afghanistan, India)
• Partition of India led to creation of Pakistan (formerly part of Northwest India, with Afghanistan in Central Asia or Indo-Sakastan, as its neighbor)

• Buddha's Wisdom, 11/19/24; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

How to repay one's parents (sutra)

Mom, are you defecating? No, that's okay. I'll just wash this dress shirt. *Smiles*

"Meditators, I will teach about a person without integrity and one with integrity. Listen, pay close attention, and I will speak."

"As you say, venerable sir," they responded.

The Buddha then said, "Now what is a person without integrity? A person without integrity is ungrateful and unthankful. This ingratitude, this lack of (knowing what has been done for one) thankfulness, is promoted by rude people.

"It is just the sort of thing people without integrity do, whereas a person with integrity is grateful and thankful. This gratitude, this thankfulness, is promoted by civil people. It is just the kind of thing people with integrity do."

People in the world

{II,iv,2} "I say, meditators, there are two people who are not easy to repay. Who are these two? One's mother and father.

"Even if you were to carry one's mother on one shoulder and one's father on the other shoulder for 100 years, and were to look after them by anointing and massaging them with oil, bathing them, rubbing their limbs, even as they defecated and urinated right where they sat [on one's shoulders], one could not in that way be able to pay or repay one's parents.

"Even if one were to establish one's mother and father in absolute sovereignty over the whole of this great earth (every country and territory), abounding in the seven treasures, one could not in that way be able to pay or repay one's parents. Now, why is that?

"Mother and father do much for their children. They care for them, nourish them, introduce them to this world.

"However, anyone 

• who rouses one's unbelieving mother and father, settles and establishes them in confidence (saddha, faith, conviction),
• who rouses one's unvirtuous mother and father, settles and establishes them in virtue (sila),
• who rouses one's stingy mother and father, settles and establishes them in letting go (dana, generosity),
• who rouses one's foolish mother and father, settles and establishes them in wisdom (panna, direct knowing and seeing, discernment),

"to this extent one indeed pays and repays one's mother and father."

• See also: MN 110; SN 7.14; AN 4.73; Iti 106
• Ven. Thanissaro (trans.), Kataññu Suttas: Gratitude (accesstoinsight.org), edited by Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Rapid Ego Death: Story | Enlightenment

A Rapid Ego Death: A Short Story | Enlightenment

(Telos1) Oct. 1, 2024: Best of Telos. Tom realized that the thing he had been most afraid of wasn’t life — it was himself. He had been afraid that he wasn’t enough, that he was broken, that he was a failure. But now he knew that none of that was true.

ABOUT: If the Telos channel resonates, share, like, comment, subscribe, and hit the notifications bell to stay connected and never miss out on future videos. Subscribe: @channeltelos. To support the channel, buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/teloscha... or click $ Thanks from the menu below the video. Become a Telos Member: @channeltelos. From the bottom of my heart to all hearts, thanks for the support. #egodeath #spiritualawakening #enlightenmenttags: egodeath, spiritual awakening, enlightenment, spirituality, telos, ego death, ego, short story. How this was made: Altered or synthetic content. Sound or visuals were significantly edited or digitally generated. Learn more.

Ego Death Meditation: Experience transcendent "enlightenment"

(iDoser Mindfulness Meditation Music and Tutorials) Jan. 4, 2022: NEW YORK. Ego Death Meditation is an audio induction sequence designed to bring transcendent "enlightenment" (not the real bodhi/nirvana or satori/kensho but a more Mahayana/Hindu advaita sense of connection with the One, the Whole, rather than the delusion of separation) through ego loss. Experience transcendence through the powerful loss of self-identity or clinging to views of self or being attached to an illusion.

• [Paradoxically, it takes a strong sense of self to let go of the delusion. What is and is not "self"? It is not all this impersonal stuff around. To find it, we closely examine and investigate form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. If it's anywhere, it's there among these processes. The delusion that there is an ego (an unchanging soul, self, personality, watcher, or owner) apart from everything else, the dreaded sense of separation, is illusory. When we refer to "self," myself, yourself, themselves, we are referring to one or more of these five ever-changing heaps or aggregations of things we are identifying with as "self."
• (But if we are doing it, who is doing it? Isn't that the self?)
• [Ah, good question! No, that is not the self doing it, not the self clinging to the Five Aggregates clung to as self. As bizarre as it may sound, these Five Aggregates or heaps are doing it: Form (the Four Elements or qualities of materiality) forms and clings to form, feeling feels and clings to feeling, perception perceives and clings to perception, mental formations form and cling to formations, and the impersonal process of consciousness -- which is a series of mind-moments or cittas and mental-concomitants or cetasikas, not a thing unto itself -- is conscious and clings to consciousness. This would all be gobbledygook and just words if it were not for something precious the Buddha left behind -- the instructions on how to know-and-see this for oneself. Unless those aggregates know-and-see this, they are not going to detach, let go of, and stop clinging to the illusion.]

• I'm a professional declutterer and think everyone should get rid of things before they move. Here's how to do it
• Elon Musk lies? The Optimus robots at Tesla's Cybercab event were not robots, just real humans in disguise to dupe the public
• How G-Joe Biden drove Elon Musk into the arms of candidate Donald Trump

The Sex Talk Sutra: First day of spring

O, nun, Venerable Subha, your hair was so beautiful, yet you cut it all off!

.

The Nun and the Libertine

Subha Jivakambavanika: The Venerable Lady Subha

Coming through, excuse me, please.

As the nun Ven. Subha was going through Jivaka's delightful mango grove, a randy libertine, a goldsmith's wealthy son with sex on his mind, blocked her path. So she said to him:

"What wrong have I done to you

That you obstruct my way?

It is improper, friend,

That a man should touch

A female who has gone forth.

I hold dear the Master's message, this

Training pointed out by the Well-Gone One.

I am pure, without blemish, so

Why do you stand in my way?

"You with your mind agitated,

I with my mind at ease,

You full of aggravating passions,

I dispassionate, untainted,

With a mind in every way released,

Why do you stand in my way?"

Power Girl's new costume is the fantasy upgrade she needs to stand apart from Supergirl

[The man replied:]

"You're young and not ugly.

What need have you of going forth

[From a home to a left-home life]?

Cast off that [monastic] saffron robe.

Come, let's delight in the flowering forest!

They exude a sweetness all around,

Towering trees sending aloft their pollen.

The beginning of spring is a pleasant season.

Man, what do you see in this skin bag of bones?

Come, let's delight in the flowering forest!

The trees to their blossoming tips moan

As it were, in the warm breeze.

What delight will you have if you

Withdraw into the forest all alone?

Full of packs of wild beasts,

Disturbed by rutting elephants all aroused,

You want to venture unaccompanied

Into that big, lonely, frightening forest?

You're like a precious doll all of gold. Will you go

Whisking about a goddess in a heavenly garden?

With delicate, smooth Kasi fabrics,

You shine, O, beauty without compare!

You would have me under your spell

If we were to go into the woods together.

For there is no one dearer to me than you,

O nymph! I languish without you. If you

Do as I ask; come live happily in my house!

Dwell in the calm of a palace,

Have women wait on you,

Wear delicate Kasi cloth,

Adorn yourself with garlands and scents.

I will make for you ornaments

Of gold, jewel encrusted, with pearls.

Climb into my costly bed,

Perfumed with carved sandalwood,

With a clean coverlet, beautiful,

Overspread with a new woolen quilt.

You are a blue lotus rising from water

Where nature sprites dwell, yet you

Will come to old age limbs unseen

If you stay as you are living the pure life."

• Beautiful Sydney Sweeney says she feels dehumanized when people sexualize her body: I have no control
• Polygamous Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: What was Maroni Johnson thinking planning sex with kids?

Awakened Buddhist nuns: Therīgāthā: The Voice of Enlightened Nuns (Sutta Friends)

Inspiration: Verses of Enlightened Buddhist Nuns: Therīgāthā – Sutta Friends

.

[She replied:]

The Therigatha (pariyatti.org)

"What essence do you see or assume

In this carcass that will swell the cemetery

Already overfilled with corpses,

This body that is destined to break up?

What do you see when you look at this,

You, man out of your mind?"

"Eyes like those of a deer,

Of a nymph in a mountain haunt,

Seeing your eyes delights my senses

And passion grows all the more.

They are like blue lotuses.

And your golden face is spotless.

Staring into your eyes delights my senses

And passion grows all the more.

Even if you run far, far away, I will

Always think your sweet long-lashed gaze,

For there is nothing dearer to me than your

Eyes, O nymph. I languish without you."

"You want to stray from the path.

You want the moon as your very own plaything.

You want to vault over Mount Meru.

You have designs on one born of the Buddha?

But there is nothing anywhere in all the world,

With its devas and men, that would for me

Any longer be an object of passion.

I do not even know what passion would be,

For it is slain, root and all, by the Path.

Like embers in a smoldering pit, scattered.

Like a cup of poison, evaporated.

I do not see what that passion would be

For it is slain, root and all, by the path.

Go seduce one who has not reflected on this,

One whom the Master has not yet instructed.

But try to seduce one who knows and

You do yourself violence.

For whether praised or insulted,

In pleasure or pain,

My mindfulness remains unbroken.

Knowing the unattractiveness

Of all formations, of all fabricated things,

My heart no longer clings to anything at all.

I am a student of the Well-Gone One,

Riding the vehicle of the Eightfold Way.

Passion's arrow removed, defilement-free,

I delight, having gone to a quiet dwelling.

For I have seen well-painted puppets

Yanked by sticks and strings,

Made to dance in foolish ways.

With sticks and strings removed,

Cast away, dispersed, shredded,

Smashed to pieces, nowhere to be found,

Within what will the mind make its home?

This body, which is just like that,

Devoid of necessities no longer functions.

Devoid of necessities, it no longer functions.

Within what will the mind make its home?

Like a mural smeared on a wall,

Painted with golden pigments,

Your vision is all distorted, perverted.

Your perception is meaningless, seeing

A human being, an evaporating mirage,

A tree of gold in a dream,

A magic show in the midst of a crowd —

You run blindly after what is unreal.

Resembling a ball of wax set in a hollow,

With a bubble in the middle

And bathed in tears, the filth of the eye

Secreted there, too; the parts of the eye

All rolled together in various ways."

Plucking out her eye with mind detached

She felt no regret.

"Here, it's yours, this eye. Keep it."

Then and there she handed it to him.

Then and there his passion was extinguished.

And he begged her forgiveness.

[He said:] "Be safe, pursuer of the pure life.

This sort of thing shall not happen again.

To harm a person like you would be to

Embracing a blazing fire. It is as if

I have seized a venomous snake.

So may you be safe and forgive me."

The drishti of your virtue restores me.

No longer detained, the nun Subha went in
Search of the Buddha's. When she beheld

The mark of his excellent merit, her

Eye became just as it was before. Source

• How should we regard this beautiful human body?
• Bag of Bones: A Miscellany on the Body (Wheel 271, BPS.lk)
• Women and Money? try.dowjanes.com

Who was the nun Subhā?

G.P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pali Proper Names edited by Wisdom Quarterly

Jain nuns existed before Buddhist nuns.

Subhā Jīvakambavanikā (an appellation that means "Beauty in the Mango Grove"): She belonged to an eminent Brahmin family of Rājagaha (modern Rajgir, India).

Seeing the danger and bane in sensual pleasures, she became a Buddhist nun under the Buddha's foster mother (sister of his biological mother who passed away seven days after his birth), the world's first Buddhist nun, Ven. Maha Pajāpatī Gotamī.

She was called "Subhā" because her body was beautiful (asubha being the familiar term for "repulsive, foul, unlovely." reflecting on the impure, unattractive, or repulsive aspects of bodies as a means of curing lust). One day, in Jīvakambavana, a libertine, a man in the prime of youth, seeing her going to meditate in seclusion, stopped her, inviting her to engage in sensual pleasures. She talked to him of the danger of such pleasures, but he persisted.

When's beauty a curse? When men won't shut up.

Seeing that he was particularly enamored of the beauty of her eyes, she pulled one of them out, saying: "Come, here is the offending eye [I've plucked it out]." The horny youth was appalled, chastened, and begged her forgiveness.

Ven. Subhā went to the Buddha and, at sight of him, her eye recovered. Filled with joy, she stood venerating him, and he taught her and gave her an exercise for meditation (kammatthana*). She developed insight (vipassana) and became an arahant (fully enlightened). Thig.vss.366-399 (PTS); ThigA.245f.

• *Kammatthāna: literally, "working-ground" for meditation, is the term in the Commentary for the 40 or more "subjects of meditation"; see cultivation (bhāvanā).

Where did this happen?

Modern mango groves are pruned orchards

Jīvakambavana: Jivaka's amba (mango) vana (grove) was a mango grove in ancient Rājagaha (Rajgir), belonging to the eminent physician Jīvaka (Komārabhacca). He was the Buddha and the king's personal physician. He donated the land to the Buddha and the Sangha (the community of monks and nuns). Jivaka then built a forest monastery in the grove, where the Buddha stayed several times.

Magadha, proto-India, where the Buddha stayed

On one occasion Ajātasattu (the prince who, allied with bad monk Ven. Devadatta, the brother of Prince Siddhartha's wife, killed his own father, Bimbisara (king of Magadha), to usurp the throne by force even though the good king was an enlightened disciple of the Buddha, a stream enterer reborn as a yakkha named Janavasabbha in the lowest of the heavens, the Realm of the Four Great Sky Rulers) visited the Buddha and heard the famous discourse called "The Fruits of Recluseship Sutra" (Sāmaññaphala Sutta, D.i.47ff).

The archeological remains of Jivakambavana Monastery, Rajgir, northern India (wiki)

Jīvaka, the Buddha's physician

The Jīvaka Suttas were also given there. The mango grove was near Maddakucchi (the park under Vulture's Peak, a hill where Ven. Devadatta tried to roll a boulder or throw a rock to kill the Buddha, but it missed and broke apart, sending a large splinter that cut his foot and drew blood), so this is where they carried the Buddha when his foot was injured (DhA.ii.164).

It was in this grove that Cūlapanthaka attained enlightenment. At that time, there were 500 (which just means "a large number of") monastics there (J.i.114f., etc.). Nuns also went there for their day's abiding (ThigA.245f.)

• Ven. Thanissaro (trans.), Thig 14.1; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly