This is the fourth of five videos in the online course “Mindfulness: where Dharma meets practice.” “Living in wisdom” takes us from right understanding of Dharma to the intense examination and internalization facilitated through mindful observation of cognition.
Author: bhikkhu cintita
5. Living in the midst
This is the fifth of five videos in the online course “Mindfulness: where Dharma meets practice.” “Living in the midst” offers practical advice on integrating Buddhist practice into a modern life already busy with responsibilities and pursuits, and to nonetheless make it foundational in a meaningful and satisfying way.
Contemplations of non-self
Non-self is a practice more than it is a philosophical viewpoint. However, this practice begins with a conceptual investigation of the presumed experiential manifestations of the constructed self. (February 16, 2024)
Rethinking Satipaṭṭhāna: from investigating Dhamma to dwelling in jhāna
Satipaṭṭhāna (often translated as “Foundations of mindfulness”) is the Buddha’s method of wisdom contemplation, best known through the ancient practice tutorial The Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta. It is recognized as the basis of modern vipassanā or insight meditation and of many other modern and historical practices. Unfortunately, the currents of Buddhist intellectual history have not been kind to this early teaching.
“The wonder of intrinsic motivation” (2020)
In extrinsic motivation a task is performed in order to achieve some goal outside of the task itself. In intrinsic motivation a task is satisfying and worth pursuing in itself. Psychological research demonstrates a greater degree of satisfaction, meaning, well-being, proficiency and creativity associated with intrinsic motivation. It is striking how closely this is to a Buddhist understanding of such matters.
Introduction to early Buddhism, book and class
Book
I’ve just published a new addition of my 2020 book, Mindfulness, where Dharma meets practice. The title is now simply Where Dharma Meets Practice. (If you follow my writings, you might know that I maintain that the word ‘mindfulness’ (the word, not the concept) has not served our understanding of the early texts well. It is no longer a faithful translation of Pali sati) I’m doing something new with this book: publishing it for global distribution; it a few weeks you should be able to buy it from you local book seller, at a nominal price. It can be found as PDF or as PAPERBACK.
Buddhism is a practice tradition. It aims at achieving the cardinal skills of virtue, wisdom, and maturity. The awakened person has perfected these skills, much as the master chef and the virtuoso pianist have perfected theirs. The Dharma is a guide for Buddhist practice, much as a cookbook is a guide for haute cuisine.
We discover that the Buddha’s Dharma is radical in any culture. This book gives particular attention to bringing these ancient teachings to life for those trying to navigate our troubled modern times.
Book
I’ve just published a new addition of my 2020 book, Mindfulness, where Dharma meets practice. The title is now simply Where Dharma Meets Practice. (If you follow my writings, you might know that I maintain that the word ‘mindfulness’ (the word, not the concept) has not served our understanding of the early texts well. It is no longer a faithful translation of Pali sati) I’m doing something new with this book: publishing it for global distribution; it a few weeks you should be able to buy it from you local book seller, at a nominal price. It can be found as PDF or as PAPERBACK.
Buddhism is a practice tradition. It aims at achieving the cardinal skills of virtue, wisdom, and maturity. The awakened person has perfected these skills, much as the master chef and the virtuoso pianist have perfected theirs. The Dharma is a guide for Buddhist practice, much as a cookbook is a guide for haute cuisine.
We discover that the Buddha’s Dharma is radical in any culture. This book gives particular attention to bringing these ancient teachings to life for those trying to navigate our troubled modern times.
Introduction to early Buddhism, book and class
Two announcements:
book
I’ve just published a new addition of my 2020 book, Mindfulness, where Dharma meets practice. The title is now simply Where Dharma Meets Practice. (If you follow my writings, you might know that I maintain that the word ‘mindfulness’ (the word, not the concept) has not served our understanding of the early texts well. It is no longer a faithful translation of Pali sati) I’m doing something new with this book: publishing it for global distribution; it a few weeks you should be able to buy it from you local book seller, at a nominal price. It can be found as PDF or as PAPERBACK.
Buddhism is a practice tradition. It aims at achieving the cardinal skills of virtue, wisdom, and maturity. The awakened person has perfected these skills, much as the master chef and the virtuoso pianist have perfected theirs. The Dharma is a guide for Buddhist practice, much as a cookbook is a guide for haute cuisine.We discover that the Buddha’s Dharma is radical in any culture. This book gives particular attention to bringing these ancient teachings to life for those trying to navigate our troubled modern times.
Class
I teach a class here in Minnesota Wednesday Evenings 6:00-7:30 pm, CDT (Chicago time) called Buddha’s Book Club that can also be attended via Zoom. Next week, May 7, we will begin reading the book together, word for word, while I offer commentary. I would like to invite anyone in my readership here who might be interested to join us. Email me at bhikkhu.cintita@gmail.com for a Zoom link.
New Book: Rethinking Satipaṭṭhāna
From investigating Dhamma to dwelling in jhāna,
Bhikkhu Cintita (2025)Satipaṭṭhāna (often translated as “Foundations of mindfulness”) is the Buddha’s method of wisdom contemplation, best known through the ancient practice tutorial The Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta. It is recognized as the basis of the modern vipassanā or insight meditation movement. Unfortunately, the currents of Buddhist intellectual history have not been kind to this early teaching.
Rethinking Satipaṭṭhāna is a thoroughgoing reevaluation of the early satipaṭṭhāna teachings that integrates right view, right recollection and right samādhi based on a critical rereading of the earliest Buddhist texts in an effort to recover a doctrinally coherent, cognitively realistic, etymologically sound, functional, and explanatory interpretation of this ancient wisdom practice.Satipaṭṭhāna is seen as a practice that extends Dhamma study to investigation, verification, and internalization in terms of direct experience to produce the fruit of “knowledge and vision of things as they are.” The jhānas are seen, in accord with modern cognitive research, as an aid to internalization that offloads sophisticated Dhamma understandings onto the effortless and intuitive “intrinsic” system of human cognition.
Bhikkhu Cintita is an American Buddhist scholar-monk. He is a former professor and research scientist in linguistics, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence. Since 2001 he has dedicated himself full time to Buddhist study and practice. He ordained in 2003 as a Soto Zen priest, then in 2009 as a Theravada monk in Myanmar. He currently resides in a monastery with 4 Burmese monks in rural Minnesota, and is the author of several books, including Buddhist Life/Buddhist Path, an introduction to Buddhism based on the earliest texts. He’s been a meditator for 45 years.
The jhānas: Dhamma made easy
Chapter in the rethinking satipaṭṭhāna series
What follows is an account of the jhānas and the fulfillment of the functions attributed to them in the early texts. Strangely, in spite of the clarity of the early texts, this endeavor is likely to meet with controversy, for many will insist that jhānas are difficult or almost impossible to attain, others that they are well within reach of the average meditator. Some will insist that they are necessary for awakening, or even the lone basis of awakening, others that they are dispensable. Some will insist they constitute a practice on their own, others that they integrate with other practices (notably satipaṭṭhāna contemplation).
Such views certainly reflect at least in part the range of meditation practices available in the Buddhist world and our tendency to seek authority for that method with which we began or with which we became most intimate (in my case it was shikantaza in Japanese Soto Zen, for many readers it will be one of the vipassanā schools based on the 5th century Visuddhimagga). But even if we adopt only the early Buddhist texts as authoritative (as I do here) controversy lingers.
The account I offer here will start with three basic premises concerning the teaching of the early texts:(1) Buddhism is a practice tradition, the Dhamma provides a framework for training in practice and the arahant is a type of Buddhist virtuoso.
(2) The nature, uses and functions of jhāna are described in a highly consistently and detailed manner in terms of lived practice experience in the earliest texts. An account of the jhānas must be similarly consistent with how they are so depicted.
(3) The jhānas arise in human cognition. An account of the jhānas must be consistent with the mechanics of human cognition.
MORE …
Buddhism is a practice tradition. It aims at achieving the cardinal skills of virtue, wisdom, and maturity. The awakened person has perfected these skills, much as the master chef and the virtuoso pianist have perfected theirs. The Dharma is a guide for Buddhist practice, much as a cookbook is a guide for haute cuisine.
Rethinking Satipaṭṭhāna is a thoroughgoing reevaluation of the early satipaṭṭhāna teachings that integrates right view, right recollection and right samādhi based on a critical rereading of the earliest Buddhist texts in an effort to recover a doctrinally coherent, cognitively realistic, etymologically sound, functional, and explanatory interpretation of this ancient wisdom practice.