Bhikkhu Cintita

Year: 2021

  • New Book: Dependent Coarising, meaning construction in the twelve links

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    Finally I am able to announce the publication of the book that has been in the works for several years. I thank many for the support I have received in this project.

    The twelve links of dependent co-arising are touted traditionally as among the deepest teachings of the Buddha. Yet they have become misunderstood and marginalized as a support for actual practice. The epistemic approach of this book  restores the cognitive basis of this critical teaching, thereby recovering the subjectivity and insubstantiality fundamental to the early Buddhadharma, particularly  in revealing how we misperceive the world . It discusses each of the twelve links in detail and explains how they cohere into the process that keeps us entangled in saṃsāra. Each link thereby becomes a focus for practice toward liberation from the human dilemma.

    This book is now available for download as a pdf HERE. Hardcopies will soon be available at the Sitagu Buddha Vihara library and at the Sitagu Dhamma Vihara (MN), and for order at printing cost from Lulu.com. Ebook formats are also certainly forthcoming.

     

     

     

  • The Buddha’s method

    I have to admit that on first encounter the early Buddhist texts struck me as abstruse and disconnected, and that – given their antiquity and obscure history – I fully expected them to remain so. With further engagement over time, however, I was delighted to discover a brilliant, methodical and consistent mind shining through those profound teachings and now marvel at how well time has treated these ancient texts. Among other things, I recognized the coherence of the Buddha’s methodology.

    Every field of at least intellectual interest sets parameters for what it investigates and how it investigates it. We’ve had the scientific method since the seventeenth century that bounces between empirical discovery/verification of objective data, and hypothesis formation. Mathematics, art criticism, philosophy, law music, psychology and so on have methods appropriate to their fields, sometime explicitly stated, sometimes with an implicit culturally sustained understanding. The characteristic method reflects, but also shapes, the character of the respective field, by setting parameters on its scope of concern and on its means of explanation. It is the same with the Buddhadhamma

    The Buddha’s method breaks down into four recognizable parameters, each of which the Buddha articulates explicitly and carefully. Bringing them together and then pointing out how they logically cohere is the task of the current paper. The parameters of the Buddha’s method are:

    • Practicality. The Buddhadhamma serves to support practice and practice serves to bring benefit. What lies beyond that has little place in the Buddhadhamma.

    • Subjectivity. The realm of Buddhadhamma, its practice and its benefit is the world as we experience it. Underlying mechanisms that stand behind our experience have a marginal role in Buddhadhamma.

    • Insubstantiality. What we presume experientially to be true or to exist “out there” independently of our cognition of it is of dubious validity.

    • Conditionality. Conditional relations constitute a privileged way to explain the world meaningfully without resort to underlying mechanisms.

    MORE … (more…)

  • Dependent Co-arising Project

    coarisingcovervt6For the last several years, I have been working on a project to better understand and clearly present perhaps the Buddha’s most profound and comprehensive teaching, that of dependent co-arising, identified by the Buddha with the Dhamma itself. Several years ago, I used to post a new essay each week to this blog. Since then I have undertaken a series of bigger projects, producing a few books, which can be found under “books” on this site. I apologize for neglecting my readership.

    In any case, I am ready to announce some results of this project:

    • I am distributing a polished draft of the book whose cover appears to the left. Click on the image to download a copy as pdf.
    • I have begin a series of weekly podcasts, starting January 22, based on this text are found HERE.

    I invite you make make use of these resources. Any feedback or discussion is welcome.