Awakening means seeing through illusion

(ECHOES OF LOST KNOWLEDGE) Bodhidharma: "Awakening" means seeing through illusions (cleansing the heart/mind of the Three Poisons) | First Zen Patriarch from India

Abuse of the Buddhist term "mindfulness"

(Natasha Yehenara) Psychology's corporate takeover of Buddhist mindfulness (sati)

• "Mindfulness" defined by Ven. Analayo Bhikkhu
• The field of psychology appropriated (hijacked) the Buddhist term "mindfulness" (originally sati but now just "awareness" or "paying attention")
• Anyone who thinks it was a commonplace practice in ancient India during the time of the Buddha should look up the Hindu definition of sati, which reveals it used to mean throwing a wife on the pyre when her husband died 😲
• The great work of Jon Kabbat-Zin to help therapists led to the unexpected disconnection of the practice with anything, as if it could be a standalone endeavor
• "Bare attention" is a component of sati, but it must be coupled with dispassionate (unbiased) looking on, free of greed, hatred, and delusion (wanting, aversion, and confusion)
• What is one to be mindful of to advance to insight, realization, and awakening? The Buddha pointed at four things: body, feelings, mind, and mind-objects. What does this mean? Psychology cannot tell us, but the Dhamma can
• Who needs Dhamma when we have a corporate bottom line to advance, productivity to raise, and mental health symptoms to abate?
• Why call it "mindfulness," Psychology? Why not pick a new name for what you've turned this into?

Ego (buddhism podcast) The Buddha didn't teach us only to be "present." He taught us to remember (recollection, memory, bearing in mind, the faculty of sati)

On the road to Berkeley like Benji (The Graduate)

Personally, in college at UC Berkeley many years ago, I took a "Buddhist Psychology" course in the department and was so excited to finally be able to learn what "cognition" meant and what the Buddha had to say about all these psychological things. Our assigned textbook, written by a psychologist, was called Mindfulness. "All right," I thought, "I'm finally going to advance in my practice and being in college is going to help me. Imagine my surprise when, as I read, I did not recognize what was being called "mindfulness." It did not align with all the translated ancient texts I had read and was continuing to read from the Buddhist Publication Society and the Pali Text Society. A few years in the future I would even visit BPS Editor Bhikkhu Bodhi in Kandy, Sri Lanka, to ask him about all this.

The Art and Science of Mindfulness

Not yet having him as a direct resource, except through his translations and BPS newsletter messages, I asked my professor in class about how I was left perplexed by reading our textbook. She looked at me and shrugged, "Of course! This "mindfulness" isn't the Buddha's mindfulness. It is psychology's," she explained. I looked around and many students were nodding their heads in agreement. "There are two mindfulnesses?!" I balked. "There are now" was the implicit answer. "Does Berkeley know about this? Why is this class called Buddhist psychology if all we're going to talk about is Western psychology?" She winked because she was subverting the system and introducing Buddhist ideas back into class, but we had to know that the new mindfulness had been taken, changed, and applied in rigorous scientific ways to the behavioral sciences, therapy, counseling, and the mental health field. Sure, it wasn't the Buddha's mindfulness, but that's because it had to be stripped of all spirituality and/or religiosity to get by the gatekeepers of the university system. What a gyp.

• The Art and Science of Mindfulness: Integrating Mindfulness Into Psychology and the Helping Professions (Shauna L, Shapiro, Linda E. Carlson
• Amazon.com: psychology mindfulness textbooks

White House recognizes Buddhist holiday

(Buddha Dharma) White House VESAK 2026 from the White House to Bodh Gaya ("Enlightenment Grove"), the light of Buddha-Dharma (the timeless "Teachings of the Awakened One") More

• Light of Buddhadharma Foundation International | Berkeley CA | Facebook
• Wangmo Dixey, Executive Director of Dharma College (Tricycle)
• Dharma-College.com
• Beneath the Bodhi Tree: LBDFI
• University of the West | accredited University in Greater Los Angeles, CA
• Naropa University | Buddhist-inspired Contemplative Education
• Buddhism in the United States
• Buddhism in the West
• Buddhism in the Americas
• Buddhist Association of America (BAUS)
• Hsi Lai Temple: Coming West
• Vegetarianism by country
• Vegetarianism and veganism in China
• Japanese Buddhist Temples in Hawai‘i: An Illustrated Guide
• Creating a Buddhist Community: A Thai Temple in Silicon Valley (Asian American)
• Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
• Wangmo Dixey (Buddha Dharma), Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Seeing what's actually happening now

Buddha Yoga. Correcting Zen. Lost principles

 

"Zen" is a silly word, carrying so much meaning in American English. Goodness knows what it means in Japan or China nowadays, a dying religious sect taking sides in the jiriki vs. hariki battle?

We aim to find on Thursdays in Los Angeles at the Pasadena Zen Sangha. There is a path. What is it? Ask the average American Zen practitioner, and everything likely to be heard will be some derivation of Taoism. No relation to the historical Buddha. Lao Tzu (, Latin Lacious) 

Buddha Yoga: Cultivating the Yoga Path of the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Guardian Spirits

Author William Bodri has 4.9 out of 5 stars (with 17 reviews).

The path to enlightenment, self-realization, moksha ("spiritual liberation") is essentially a path of yoga.

Specifically, this path of “Buddha Yoga” entails both mental meditation practice and inner cultivation of the Qi (chi) or prana within our body so that we can attain the first fruit of the spiritual path, which is an independent spiritual body that can leave the physical body at will.

Buddha Yoga is also a pathway that requires us to polish our mind and behavior so that we can achieve the purity of virtue in thought, word, and deed.

Regardless of our religion and hard work at spiritual training, most people will not achieve the initial fruit of the spiritual path because we usually lack the proper instructions and devotion to effective spiritual practice efforts.

The most we can then hope for is success in some afterlife, during which time we can choose to become bodhisattva protectors or guardian spirits for all sorts of earthly activities. That being the case, this book teaches ordinary people how to properly perform spiritual practices and how readers can most effectively train to become a guardian spirit, buddha, or bodhisattva of one's own choosing.

This includes spiritual careers as protectors of nations, cities, people’s health, wealth, agriculture, and so forth.

It reviews common spiritual teachings about the origin of the universe and consciousness, helps readers

• decide on a specific life purpose(s) within this life,
• delineates the yoga practice methods for cultivating the physical body and stages of emptiness meditation required of Buddha Yoga,
• goes over several foundational topics of study for becoming various types of guardian spirits or bodhisattva protectors for humanity, and
• reveals how religious professionals can better help greater society through certain forms of self-study.

A tour de force, the book contains countless practical topics, serving as a training guide for various types, and it also "reveals" how spiritual leaders can more easily raise money for their centers. More

Correcting Zen: Reforming Buddhist Practice According to Lost Buddhist Principles

Author William Bodri has 4.3 out of 5 stars (with 18 reviews). When Buddhism first arose in India (and ancient Afghanistan, called Gandhara) it collected and espoused a number of the best meditation and inner energy cultivation techniques of its day.

However, many of the principles behind these practices have become lost over time, sometimes because they are considered "secret" in Buddhism's later esoteric traditions.

When Buddhism first entered China and the majority of its teachings were as yet still untranslated, a large number of practitioners were still able to attain enlightenment without depending on sutras because those individuals primarily relied on just two cultivation techniques that had been transmitted, anapana inner breath (energy) work and the white skeleton bone visualization practice.

Buddhism today rarely produces enlightened sages as it did in the beginning because its training curriculum is now inadequate in inner energy work, breathing practices, and mindfulness work, visualization efforts, immeasurable meditations, mantra-yana, stretching exercises, self-rectification, and Buddha vows.

This work helps restore many of the lost principles for these practices that were once responsible for Buddhism’s previous great success in producing countless enlightened masters.

These instructions of highly effective enlightenment practices are for the benefit of all people, of all traditions and religions, who are seeking spiritual attainments and who desire the quickest pathway of sequential steps and practices for attainment. More

• William Bodri, April 13, 2019, Jan. 20, 2023; Amber Larson, CC Liu, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Two Paths to Knowledge (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

I trust the Orgy Pit's been scraped and buttered

Many of the most formidable social and cultural problems we face today are rooted in the sharp divide (schism) that has divided Western civilization between science and religion.

Science claims invincible knowledge based on testing (empirical investigation of) the natural world. Most religions do little more than call for faith in supernatural beliefs along with obedience to codes of morality and ethics that require restraint, self-discipline, and worst of all self-sacrifice.

Since most religion, as traditionally understood, often rests on no more than blithe promises and pompous threats, its appeals to our allegiance seldom win.

The ethical ideals it claims to advocate (when not being hypocritical) don't stand a fighting chance against the constant injunction — thrust in our faith by screens, radios, and signboards — to ENJOY life to the hilt while we can.

What'd you do in there? - Well, I took the butter

As a result, a most of humankind has become alienated from religion as any kind of meaningful guide to life, left with no alternative but to plunge headlong into another kind of religion: secularism, the religion of rejecting religion through mass consumerism and hedonism.

Too often, those in the religious camp, sensing the threat secularism poses to their own security, feel driven toward an aggressive fundamentalism in a desperate bid to salvage traditional loyalties.

The quest to establish a sound basis for proper conduct in today's world has been made particularly difficult. Why? A consequence of the "scientific" worldview has been to banish values from real life.

While many scientists, in their personal lives, are staunch advocates of such ideals like world peace, social justice, and greater economic equality (parity), the worldview promoted by modern science gives values no objective grounding, not in the grand scheme of things. Thinking like this, values' root and basis is purely subjective. So they bring along all the qualities that subjectivity suggests: being

• personal,
• private,
• idiosyncratic,
• relative,
• not to be talked about with others
• and sometimes even arbitrary.

The overall effect of this is that, despite the best intentions of many of them, scientists give a green light to lifestyles founded on a quest for personal gratification. Not only that, it's also based on a power drive aimed at exploiting others.

The Buddha's Teaching

"If there's any religion...it would be Buddhism"

In contrast to the classical Western antithesis of religion and science, Buddhism shares with science a common commitment to personally test and uncover the Truth about the world.

Both Buddhism and science draw a sharp distinction between the way things appear and the way they really are. And both offer to open our minds to insights into the real nature of things normally hidden from us, sometimes in plain sight as falsified ideas based on distorted sense perceptions and "common sense."

Forget science-school and meditation. Let's dance!

Still, despite of Buddhism and science's affinity, it is necessary to recognize the great differences in the aim that separates Buddhism and science. Both may share certain conceptions about the nature of reality, but science is essentially a project designed to provide control and objective, factual knowledge, with information about the public domain. Buddhism is a spiritual path intended to promote inner transformation and the direct realization of the highest good, called awakening, enlightenment, liberation, or nirvana.

In Buddhism, the quest for knowledge is important but not as an end in itself or to control others. The main cause of our suffering and bondage is ignorance.

What does that mean? Ignorance (avijja) is not understanding things as they really are. Instead, we distort things even as we perceive them, judge, and label them. So the antidote needed to heal ourselves is knowledge or liberating-insight.

The type of knowledge acquired by practicing Dhamma differs from that sought by science in several ways. Most importantly, the knowledge sought is not gaining objective information about the physical world. It is about a deep personal insight into the real nature of our personal existence.

The aim is not to understand reality from the outside. It is to understand it from the inside, much as psychology originally intended to do. Knowledge from the perspective of one's own living experience is the key -- as it is to shamans, Gnostics, and experimenters on a quest in this lifetime.

We seek not debated "facts" and "opinions" as knowledge, but insight, wisdom, personal knowledge that is inescapably subjective. That's the point. The whole value of it lies in its transformative power and impact on our own life.

Concern with the outer world as an object of direct knowledge arises only insofar as the outer world is inextricably implicated in personal experience.

As the Buddha says, "In this body, with its perception and thought, I declare

• the world,
• the origin of the world,
• the cessation of the world, and
• the way to the cessation of the world."

First, I'll be born as a prince then renounce it all

Buddhism takes personal experience as the starting point, without aiming to use experience as a springboard to an impersonal, objective type of knowledge. Buddhism includes within its domain the entire spectrum of qualities disclosed by personal experience.

This means that Buddhism gives prime consideration to values. But even more, "values" for Buddhism are not merely projections of subjective judgments fashioned according to our personal whims, social needs, or cultural conditioning.

On the contrary, they are written into the texture of reality itself just as firmly as the laws of motion and thermodynamics. So values CAN be evaluated: rated in terms of being true or false and ranked as valid or invalid.

And part of our task in giving meaning to our lives, which means unearthing the true scheme of values. To determine the true gradation of values, we have to turn our attention inward and use subjective criteria of investigation. So what we find, far from being private or arbitrary, is an integral part of the objective order.

This order is permeated by the same lawfulness that governs the movement of the stars and planets.

Science says it's for something

Natural science (wiki)

Affirming the objective reality of values implies another major distinction between Buddhism and science. For liberating-insight or knowledge of enlightenment to arise, an investigator has to undergo a profound personal transformation guided by the inner perception of genuine values.

While natural science can be undertaken as an intellectual discipline, the Buddhist quest is an existential discipline. That can only be implemented by regulating and restraining our conduct, purifying our mind, and refining our capacity for attention.

What is there to pay attention to? To our own physical (bodily) and mental processes.

This kind of Buddhist training requires ethics all the way through. Ethical guidelines support and pervade the entire training. The starting point is right action, and the culmination is the highest liberation of the heart/mind.

OK, there's escape from this lack-of-fulfilment?

What is noteworthy is that the ethical thrust of Buddhist training and the mental thrust of it converge. Where? They converge on the realization of the ultimate truth of selflessness (anatta). [This is an advanced notion, but it is the gateway to stream entry, the first stage of enlightenment.]

It is just here that contemporary science approaches Buddhism in its discovery that "nature" is a process actually. It reveals the lack of any ultimate substance hiding behind a sequence of events. There are events. But this correspondence again points to a fundamental difference.

In Buddhism the impermanent, unsatisfying (unfulfilling), and impersonal nature of reality is not just some factual truth to apprehend (or believe in). It is above all an existential truth. It is a transformative principle.

It offers the key to being able to stop clinging to the false and to let go as we gain right understanding.

Right understanding (seeing things as they really are) leads to right liberation. To use this key for its sole purpose, which is to open the door to spiritual freedom, we must govern our conduct on the premise that the false idea of a substantial self is a delusion.

It is insufficient to merely intellectually grasp this selflessness as some idea or to turn it into a plaything of thought. The principle must be penetrated by training ourselves to discover the absence of selfhood in its subtlest hiding place, the deep recesses of our own bodies and minds.

• 

  Knowing and Seeing: True...

  [HOW? How can this ever be accomplished? Buddhist Meditation Master Pa Auk Sayadaw explains. By mastering "meditation" (the absorptions or jhanas), the mind/heart is purified and able to see. What does it look at? It breaks down this body, this materiality, into its components, the smallest of which are "form particles" (rupa kalapas). The body is not "body," but rather countless constituent elements constantly built up and torn down, rising and falling away. The mind is not "mind," but rather countless constituent elements (a stream of "mind-moments" called cittas) constantly built up and falling away. This is what's really there, if only we could ever see it as it truly is.

• 

  Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw of Burma

  We can see it. That is to say, we can know-and-see directly. How? First, we settle the mind into absorption, emerge and move to a deeper absorption. With practice, this comes at will. Then we turn our attention to the "fourfold setting up of mindfulness." This is just a fancy way of saying we give systematic attention to body, feelings, the mind, and various phenomena. With exercises to directly perceive the Dependent Origination of things (the fact that everything that arises arises dependent on causes and conditions), the mind is made ready to see things as they really are. And in doing so, it naturally lets go of ignorance, illusion, and falsehoods. It thereby gains light, knowledge, wisdom, and liberation.]

Buddhist thinkers and open-minded scientists, if they were to share insights and reflections, could show us an effective way to heal the divide. What divide? The rift between seeking "objective" knowledge and spiritual wisdom. We could bring about a reconciliation of science and spirituality.

In this way, spiritual practice could become an integral part of the discipline that aims at knowledge. Spiritual practice and knowledge combined could become the tools for achieving the highest good stuck in the world and breaking beyond limitations to enlightenment and spiritual freedom.

Hedonist Stephen Hawking in Epstein Files

This has always been the position of Buddhism. The evidence is in the most ancient texts. The Buddha, the "Enlightened One," is not only a kind of scientist, a lokavidu or "knower of the world." He is also, above all, "one complete in both knowledge and conduct" (vijja-carana-sampanno). Could a scientist say that? Could one ever get to that through science? Source: Two Paths to Knowledge

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

American Theravada monk Bhikkhu Bodhi

Bhikkhu Bodhi (born Dec. 10, 1944) is an American Theravada scholar-monk and prolific translator of ancient Buddhist texts from the Pali canon. He was born in New Jersey and moved to California to get his PhD from Claremont before heading to Asia to ordain as a Buddhist monk. He went in search of a teacher and found one in Sri Lanka, Balangoda Ananda Maitreya Thero, along with many fellow Jewish Buddhists from Germany in and around the Buddhist Publication Society (BPS). He now teaches at the Buddhist Association of the United States (BAUS) in Upstate New York (Chuang Yen Monastery) and in New Jersey (Bodhi Monastery, which is not named after him). He is a Buddhist author, translator, and commentator, who was Wisdom Quarterly Dharma Editor Dhr. Seven's first theoretical Dharma teacher [who himself studied at Berkeley and UCLA before journeying to Sri Lanka in Bhikkhu Bodhi's steps and onto India, Nepal, Thailand, and Burma to meet his practical teacher, the great living Buddhist meditation master Pa Auk Sayadaw]. Bhikkhu Bodhi was appointed BPS's second president [2] after its founder, Ven. Nyanaponika, following in the footsteps of the great Western maverick Ven. Nyanatiloka. He is currently president of BAUS and the founder of the Buddhist feminist charity Buddhist Global Relief [3]. More

• Online Dharma Lectures | BODHI MONASTERY
• Bhikkhu Bodhi (accesstoinsight.org, 2005) clarified and expanded by Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Mindfulness with Thich Nhat Hanh

How do we have reverence for all life?

Thich Nhat Hanh: "To live, we must die every instant. We must perish again and again [like flickering individual stills run in a series of connected frames of a filmstrip, one passing away and the next appearing] in the storms that make life possible."

Thay (Thích Nhất Hạnh) was a Vietnamese Zen (Thiền) teacher who practiced Engaged Buddhism. He often spoke of mindfulness (Buddhist sati) without, to our knowledge, doing much to define or explain it in detail. He lived it. It is, after all, a practice of doing (karma) much more than a theory of being.

• Wisdom Quarterly: "Mindfulness" defined (Ven. Analayo)

Vietnamese Zen?

Buddhist nuns and laywomen

Thiền (Zen) Master Thích Thanh Từ (1924–2022) is credited for renovating Trúc Lâm in Vietnam. He was one of the most prominent and influential Thiền masters of the 20th and early 21st century. He was a disciple of Master Thích Thiện Hoa.

The most famous practitioner of modern Thiền Buddhism in the West was Thích Nhất Hạnh (1926–2022), who authored dozens of books and founded the Plum Village Monastery in France together with his colleague, Thiền Master Bhikkhuni (Nun) Chân Không.

Bhikkhuni (Nun) Chân Không

Other influential Vietnamese teachers in the West include Thích Thiên-Ân, who taught philosophy at UCLA, said "We all shed salty tears and shed red blood; all is one," and founded a meditation center in Los Angeles, and Thích Thiện Tâm, the author of several books in English such as Buddhism of Wisdom & Faith: Pure Land Principles and Practice.

In recent years, the modernization of Thiền has taken a new global dimension, as Vietnamese Zen is becoming influenced by the teachings of influential overseas Vietnamese Buddhist leaders such as Thích Nhất Hạnh, who have adopted Thiền to Western needs, focusing on mindfulness.

As a result, Vietnamese Buddhists have also now begun to practice these modernized forms of Thiền [17]. More

• Magnolia Grove Monastery (Instagram)
• Thay (Thich Nhat Hanh); Eds., Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Buddhist Christmas climax: Dhammakaya, LA

The original Dhammakaya is in Buddhist Bangkok, but Los Angeles has one, too. VISIT

WHAT HAPPENED?

It was a beautiful moonlit night, though Luna (Soma) did not appear until just after the ceremony officially wrapped up, low to the southeast and reddish. One hundred and ninety Buddhist monastics from about 13 Buddhist countries came together from a cross-cultural, multi-school spectacular. Dhammakaya is a kind of loving cult that is all about giving dana in expectation of rich rewards here and hereafter. It is a big movement in Theravada Buddhist Thailand, boasting the largest Buddhist monument in the world, a spaceship (deva vimana) looking structure out by the Bangkok Int'l Airport topped by a million golden Buddha statues. Quietly nestled in the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley, the American international meditation center (DIMC) is a peaceful place to meditate the Dharma-body way.

Dhammakaya meditation

Dhammakaya literally translates from the Pali as "Dhamma body." The focus of this meditation is not the breath but a visualization of a small crystal ball entering the nostril (right for males, left for females), traveling to seven points in the body, and coming to rest two finger widths above the navel. This clear magic crystal, a kind of nimitta or produced image, vibrates along the way. Its sound emanation or mantra is samma arahan. This literally means "right full-enlightenment." The crystal starts at the nostril for three repetitions, moves up the nose to the corner of the eye for another three, slowly moves to the center of the skull for another three, down behind the throats, and so forth. Instructions are offered free on weekends. Donations (dana offerings) welcome.

Cult?

(Cori Ander) I went to the Wat Phra Dhammakaya temple, Thailand's most controversial sect

We never thought of the place as an actual cult -- though the many women who surround the place wearing white, do act awfully strange and suspicious, very "nice" but always watching and on edge -- until self-appointed investigative reporter Cori Ander went out and paid the mother center a visit. She doesn't find much, but there are scandals and rumors of scandals, mainly to do with money. If the SGV is a hollow (valley or canyon) then this temple complex is just a holler from the largest Mahayana Buddhist temple complex in the western hemisphere against the hill to the southwest, Coming West Temple.

“Hsi Lai Temple, translated as 'Coming West,' is dedicated to spread the [mostly Mahayana] teachings of the Buddha to the Western hemisphere and help people find inner peace and happiness in their life. It devotes its effort in providing everyone in the society with joy, hope, faith and service.” More: hsilai.us

Dhammakaya Azusa Meditation Activity Teaser (Azusa, Los Angeles County, DIMC.info)

• Where in LA County is Azusa, CA? (Asuksa-nga)

The three sacred events celebrated by Vesak - Relics ceremony Vesak Day 1 (Huong Dao)

Vesak night at Dhammakaya is a spectacle

May 2026 is a special occasion because Prince Siddhartha Gautama (the Bodhisattva) was born on the "Full Moon Day in May," and it's also the day he later became enlightened, and the same day he reclined into final nirvana. This is, therefore, "Buddhist Christmas" but as a thrice blessed day, it is even more significant. This year, because May 2026 has two full moons (according to the Gregorian Calendar forced on us), gives us two opportunities to practice and celebrate. Wisdom Quarterly is teaching at the Eight Precept Fasting Day at the Sri Lankan North Hollywood Temple (Sarathchandra Vihara) by day and attending a grand ceremony representing all Buddhist countries in Los Angeles at the Thai Theravada monastery Dhammakaya in Azusa. Both events are free and open to all.

• Vesak Day 2026: A Celebration of the Buddha (FREE TICKETS), Sunday, May 31, 6:00 pm-8:45 pm, Azusa, Los Angeles (Eventbrite)
• ‘Buddhism in Spanish is here’: the Latino monks building a unique community | Los Angeles | The Guardian
• Please join Sarathchandra Buddhist Center | Facebook
• Village Poets of Sunland and Tujunga: Poetry at historic Bolton Hall, Sunday, May 31, 2026, 4:30-6:00 pm (feree)

(Phra Nicholas Thanissaro) Vesak (Vesakha) in Azusa, Los Angeles

• Dhammakaya Meditation system
• Global Buddhist Network (DMC)
• Wat Phra Dhammakaya, Bangkok

Try Vesak differently this year | Colombo - Vesak Day alms offering @ Wat Phra Dhammakaya

✨️Vesak Day, Dhammakaya Temple, Thailand #Vesak2024 - Vesak Day 2026 USA

Vesak Day 2 Peace Pain Meditation Ven. Maha Phommasan - 🌕 Vesak turning point, Colombo

Las Vegas Vesak | Nevada Buddhist Vihara | 2026Coming West Temple

Wakefulness vs. Drowsiness (sutra)

The Buddha of Gandhara (1st cent.)

At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī at Jeta’s Grove, in the millionaire’s monastery.

Late in the afternoon, he came out of seclusion, went to the assembly hall, and sat on a seat prepared for him.

Likewise Venerable Sāriputta came out of seclusion, went to the assembly hall, bowed, and sat respectfully to one side. The great venerables Mahā Moggallāna, Mahā Kassapa, Mahā Kaccāna, Mahā Koṭṭhita, Mahā Cunda, Mahā Kappina, Anuruddha, Revata, and Ānanda did the same.

 

[As an example] the Buddha spent much of the night sitting in meditation, then rose from his seat and entered his dwelling. Soon after, the venerables each went to their dwellings.

But the junior monastics who had only recently gone forth from the home life to the left-home life, new to this Teaching and Training, slept until the sun came up and snored.

The Buddha perceived this with his clairvoyant vision which is purified, surpassing the human. He entered the assembly hall, sat on a prepared seat, and addressed them:

“Meditators, where is Sāriputta? Where are Mahā Moggallāna, Mahā Kassapa, Mahā Kaccāna, Mahā Koṭṭhita, Mahā Cunda, Mahā Kappina, Anuruddha, Revata, and Ānanda? Where have these senior disciples gone?”

They replied, “Soon after the Buddha left, those venerables went to their own dwellings.”

“Meditators, when those senior monks left, why did you sleep until the sun came up as you snored?

Vajrapani, Protector of the Buddha

“How do you see it, meditators? Have you ever seen or heard of an anointed warrior king, who rules his whole life and is dear and beloved by his kingdom, indulge in the pleasures of sleeping, laying around as drowsy as he likes?”

“No, venerable sir.”

“Good, meditators, nor have I ever seen or heard of such a thing.

“How do you see it, meditators? Have you ever seen or heard of an appointed officer… a hereditary officer… a general… a village chieftain … or a head of a guild who runs a guild his whole life, who is dear and beloved by his guild, indulge in the pleasures of sleeping, laying around as drowsy as as he likes?”

Is there a best way to sleep to get great rest?

“No, venerable sir.”

“Good, meditators, nor have I ever seen or heard of such a thing.

“How do you see it, meditators? Have you ever seen or heard of a wandering ascetic or Brahmin priest who indulges in the pleasures of sleeping, laying around as drowsy as he likes?

• Sense doors unguarded,
• eating too much,
• not dedicated to wakefulness,
• unable to bring forth skillful qualities,
• unable to pursue the cultivation and development of qualities that produce awakening into the evening and before dawn

Kushan, Brahma, Indra (Greco-Buddhist art)

who yet realize an undefiled freedom of the heart, freedom by wisdom, in this very life? Or that they live having realized the truth through their own direct knowledge and vision (insight) due to their destruction of the defilements?”

“No, venerable sir.”

“Good, meditators, nor have I ever seen or heard of such a thing.

“So train yourselves: ‘We will guard our sense doors, restrain ourselves in eating, and dedicate ourselves to wakefulness (mindfulness), bringing forth skillful qualities, pursuing the cultivation and development of qualities that produce awakening into the evening and before dawn.’ This is how to train yourselves.” More

• Adorable Sleeping Monks (BuzzFeed)
• Attānuvāda Sutta: Discourse on Four Types of Fear
• Dhr. Seven (ed.), based on Bhikkhu Sujato (trans.), SuttaCentral.net, Soppa Sutta: "Warm-Hearted: On Sleep"  (Numerical Discourses, AN 6.17.2), Wisdom Quarterly

The MIND that sees without reacting

(Buddhist Wisdom)