Bhikkhu Cintita

Discussions

Tibet, 15th Century
Tibet, 15th Century


He who, having traversed this miry, perilous,
and delusive round of exis­tence,
who has crossed over, and reached the other shore,
who is meditative, calm, free from doubt,
and, clinging to nothing, has attained to nibbāna:
him do I call a holy one. (Dpd 414)



Discussions

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2025
  • September 27th Q&A w/BC: What are fabrications/formations (sankharas)?
    QUESTION, another important one from Celsa: Studying the Paticca-samuppada- Vibhaṅgasutta, and reading a couple of translations, I have a hard time understanding the concepts of “consciousness”, “fabrications” “contact” and “becoming”. B Sujatto, calls “fabrications”, choices. I find that word clearer, but how do we go from a choice to consciousness? Or better yet, what is […]
  • September 26th Q&A w/BC: Is Theravada Buddhism less developed than Mahayana Buddhism?
    QUESTION from Claudia: What is the key difference(s) between Theravada and Mahayana traditions? Why is Theravada called the lesser vehicle? Someone said recently that Theravada school was less developed than the Mahayana because it did not go to advanced states of mind-developing. ANSWER from BC: The Buddhist world is generally divided into two major schools, […]
  • September 24th Announcement: we’re moving soon
    As part of the revitalization of this site, we’ve been remodeling it. We will soon be active at https://cintita.org/ , possibly within a week. The subscriber list and blog submissions will be moved, hopefully without any disruptions. It’ll be real artsy. You can visit it now; just don’t trip over anything or lean against any […]
  • September 15th Q&A w/BC: Is it useless to try to fix the world’s problems?
    Question from Celsa Because this world and our life is ‘suffering’, there is no hope that the suffering will go away, and it’s useless to try to fix the world’s problems. Of course, the obvious solution would be that every person becomes virtuous and behaves in a moral way, so suffering can decrease. This is […]
  • September 9th Q&A w/BC: How do we repackage Buddhism to make it simple, relevant and compelling for young people?
    QUESTION from Gerry Trione: Bhante, As you probably know, there are about 700 million Buddhists around the world, most of whom are in Asia. There are an estimated 3-4 million in the US, but most of whom are Asian, leaving only about 600,000 “westerner” Buddhists; far less than 1% of the population. I know from […]
  • July 11th Satipaṭṭhāna Rethought: a meditation manual based on earliest Buddhist texts
    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 complexities of Buddhist intellectual history have not been kind to this early teaching.
  • July 2nd 1. Living in mindfulness
    This is the first of five videos in the online course “Mindfulness: where Dharma meets practice.” “Living in mindfulness” serves as a general introduction to the Dharma and practice with particular attention to the role of mindfulness.
  • July 2nd 2. Living in virtue
    This is the second of five videos in the online course “Mindfulness: where Dharma meets practice.” “Living in virtue” explains the fundamental ethical practices that belong to a Buddhist life: precepts, giving, and purity of mind developed through mindful observation of emotional factors.
  • July 2nd On Buddhist ethics
    On Buddhist ethics. The primary principle of Buddhist ethics is the development and cultivation of virtue as a quality of character. Virtuosity in virtue is a quality of the awakened ones. This is contrasted with modern understandings of ethics, but is arguably a basic human drive and definitive of a meaningful or well-lived life. (February 9, […]
  • July 2nd 3. Living in devotion
    This is the third of five videos in the online course “Mindfulness: where Dharma meets practice.” “Living in devotion” discusses the wider motivational context of Buddhist practice, how we develop it and how we remain mindful of it, in order to uplift and incentivize our practice.
  • July 2nd 4. Living in wisdom
    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.
  • July 2nd 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.
  • July 2nd 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)
  • July 2nd 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.
  • July 2nd “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 […]
  • July 1st 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 123
  • June 30th Buddha’s Bookclub
    Wednesday evenings, 6:00 – 7:30 pm, Sitagu Dhamma Vihara.
  • April 30th 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 […]
  • January 20th 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 […]
2024
  • October 25th 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 […]
  • August 4th Major themes of satipaṭṭhāna investigation
    The contemplative practice of satipaṭṭhāna is a process of verifying and internalizing Dhamma through experiential investigation, moving beyond a mere intellectual understanding of Dhamma to an effortless, intuitive and automatic way of seeing. The Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (for our purposes, “the Sutta”)is a tutorial that presents a set of twenty-one exercises through which this practice is […]
  • April 27th Satipaṭṭhāna Rethought, now in print
    Satipaṭṭhāna Rethought: a meditation manual based on earliest Buddhist  texts.  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, […]
  • January 28th Buddhist Life/Buddhist Path: online course
    Buddhist Life / Buddhist Path in person and via Zoom 12 weeks 2/14 – 5/1/2024 Wednesdays 7:00 – 8:30pm Central (Chicago) Time with Bhikkhu Cintita Sitagu Dhamma Vihāra, Chisago City, MN USA, email BC to register and for Zoom link. This course is based on the earliest stratum of Buddhist texts interpreted for the modern […]
  • January 10th Satipaṭṭhāna Rethought
    a practice guide for contemplating Dhamma This is the one way, bhikkhus, a path for the purification of beings, for the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, for the disappearance of pain and grief, for the attainment of the true way, for the realization of Nibbāna—namely, the four satipaṭṭhānas. (Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, MN 10) So begins the […]
2023
  • September 19th Non-self in Satipaṭṭhāna
    RETHINKING THE SATIPAṬṬHĀNA The seminal Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta is today one of the most studied discourses of the entire Pali canon. It serves to verify, investigate, intuit and internalize Dhamma through through contemplation of direct experience, that we may attain knowledge and vision of the way things are, and it is the historical basis of modern […]
  • April 1st A back-road tour of the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta
    RETHINKING THE SATIPAṬṬHĀNA SERIES The Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (MN 10) describes a practice of contemplating Dhamma in terms of direct experience through a long series of exercises, which are grouped under the four categories of body, feelings, mind and dhammas. This practice is properly a development of right view, whereby individual Dhammic teachings are verified and […]
  • February 28th How “mindfulness” got mislabeled
    RETHINKING THE SATIPAṬṬĀNA SERIES By 1881 the scholar T.W. Rhys Davids had found the optimal translation for the Pali word sati. Previous scholars had variously tried translating or defining it as ‘remembrance,’ ‘memory,’ ‘recollection,’ ‘thinking of or upon,’ ‘calling to mind,’‘active state of mind,’ ‘fixing the mind strongly upon any subject,’ ‘attention,’ ‘attentiveness,’ ‘thought,’ ‘reflection,’ […]
  • January 31st Samādhi springs up
    rethinking the satipaṭṭāna series Samādhi or jhāna is the meditative state, an attribute of mind (samāhita citta), recommended in the early texts. It arises with the delight in engagement in a task requiring utmost skill, as the mind centers itself fully around the competence and attentiveness required for that skill, and yet slips into an […]
  • January 27th Introduction to Buddhism via Zoom
    ON LINE CLASS Buddhist Life/Buddhist Path an intoduction to Buddhism Sundays 3:00-4:30 pm CST (Chicago time) Starts Jan. 29 A 12-week course on the fundamental concepts of Buddhism based on the earliest sources. We will use Bhikkhu Cintita’s book Buddhist Life/Buddhist Path as a text, which is available as download or hard copy. Copies are […]
2022
  • November 19th The Satipaṭṭhāna Method
    rethinking the satipatthana series [revised 1/30/2023] Suppose you want to do something really well, maybe wash the dishes, ride a bicycle, write a report, identify the birds feeding in your back yard, play a tune. What mental resources do you require? First, you need to bring the relevant knowledge and skills to bear; they are […]
  • March 18th Rethinking the Satipaṭṭhāna
    A podcast series on the Establishment of Mindfulness Bhukkhu Cintita starts Friday, March 18 Find it HERE
  • February 4th Talks on Samādhi
    The following is another series of talks that has appeared in my two-year-old podcast series, found on the audio and video page and many podcast hosts. https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/twvavg/podcast-v31-samadhiRightView2.mp3 4. Samadhi and right view (2/2). How is it possible to develop knowledge and wisdom based on right view from within samadhi? This is the art of balancing […]
  • January 27th Interview with Bhikkhu Cintita: “Sitagu Sayadaw, the coup and Burmese Buddhism”
    Please click on the image to hear the interview.
  • January 20th Talks on the Buddhist life and the Buddhist path
    Continuing to offer an overview of my weekly podcasts for the last two years, I offer the two series that supplement my book  Buddhist Life/Buddhist Path. Buddhism began with the Buddha, a towering figure who lived some hundred generations ago, taught for forty-five years, developed a huge following of ascetics and householders, kings and paupers, […]
  • January 12th Audio: What did the Buddha think of women?
    I have been quietly reposting my podcast to this site since the beginning of COVID on THIS PAGE. I thought I would start highlighting some of these posts for the sake of my blog subscribers, starting with: What did the Buddha think of women Buddhism is widely known throughout the world as a religion of peace […]
2021
  • June 15th New Book: Dependent Coarising, meaning construction in the twelve links
    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 […]
  • March 26th 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 […]
  • February 5th Dependent Co-arising Project
    For 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 […]
2020
  • June 28th New On-line Classes
    Saturday afternoons, July 11 – August 29, 2020 led by Bhikkhu Cintita “Kind words: adventures in being nice” (for kids, 7 – 12 years old), 1:00 – 1:50 pm Are you a jackal or a giraffe? Giraffes are gentle creatures with super big hearts. They also have really really long necks and can see what […]
  • June 5th New podcast: What did the Buddha think of women? – part two
    Last week’s talk demonstrated the exemplary support the Buddha provided to women’s practice. This week we will look at a controversial text, describing with the origin of the nun’s sangha, that at first sight seems to paint a starkly contrasting picture of the Buddha. https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/5m43l4/podcast-v11.mp3  
  • May 29th New podcast: What did the Buddha think of women? – part one
    Buddhism is not widely known as a religion of gender-equality. But the early the discourses show repeatedly that the Buddha had the deepest kindness and respect for women, as particularly evident in his treatment of the nun’s Sangha. (In part two we will look at the most controversial text in this regard.) https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/06keaw/podcast-v10.mp3
  • May 22nd New podcast: understanding the aggregates
    Understanding the aggregates. The aggregates are a foundational teaching of the Buddha, but they are rarely properly understood. This talk shows how to identify all the aggregates in your own experience and explains their role in contemplative practice.   https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/p3ixhn/podcast-v09.mp3 Podcasts from the last two weeks follow. What is the Buddha-Sasana?  The Buddha-Sasana is Buddhism […]
  • May 8th New podcast episode: The story of my ordination
    Source: The story of my ordination
  • April 24th New podcast episode: The thunder of intrinsic motivation
    Source: The thunder of intrinsic motivation
  • April 18th New podcast episode: The blunder of extrinsic motivation
    Source: The blunder of extrinsic motivation The second ‘trinsic motivation sermon.
  • April 18th Podcast episode: The wonder of intrinsic motivation
    Source: The wonder of intrinsic motivation The first ‘Trinsic motivation sermon.
  • March 25th The Wonder of Intrinsic Motivation
    During my days in graduate school, where I studied theoretical linguistics (of all things), I happened to have a conversation with a young man outside my normal circle that went something like this: “So, what do you do?” “I am a linguistics graduate student.” “Oh? What is linguistics?” “Well, …,” I very briefly explained that […]
  • March 22nd New Buddhism Video Course
    I have completed a five-part video course and uploaded it to Youtube just in time for the wave of social distancing that is driving people out of Buddhist centers among other public gathering places. The videos are based on my new book Mindfulness, where Dharma meets Practice.  Click here for access: I have plans for […]
2019
  • October 7th New introduction to Buddhism
    Mindfulness, where Dharma meets Practice I am releasing in draft form a textbook for a five-week course on Buddhism based on early sources. I am currently using an earlier draft to teach a class in Minnesota and will use it in the next two months to teach in Austin and Houston, Texas. This was originally […]
  • August 5th Book: With Needle and Thread
    essays in early Buddhism This volume presents a set of essays, each of which is intended to put a few stitches in what the author regards as a common traditional or modern mis­understanding of an important point of Dhamma, or (in the case of the first es­say) Vinaya. In each case it advances an alternative […]
  • June 25th With Needle and Thread
    Essays on early Buddhism In this new book (pdf linked below) I present a set of essays, each of which is intended to put a few stitches in what I have come to regard as a common traditional or modern mis­understanding of an important point of Dhamma, or (in the case of the first es­say) […]
2018
  • December 20th How did mindfulness become “bare, non-judgmental, present-moment awareness”?
    “Mindfulness” in modern discourse – whether among meditation teachers or clinicians – is defined in various ways, but generally circle around “bare, non-judgmental, present-moment awareness.” Nonetheless, although mindfulness (in Pali, sati) is one of the most fundamental concepts in the Early Buddhists Texts (EBT), one would be hard-pressed to find a definition or description of […]
  • November 8th Sati really does mean ‘memory’
    “Mindfulness” as we now understand it is the result a history of semantic change. This began in ancient times with the Pali word sati, which in origin means ‘memory’, and has somehow given rise to the modern term ‘mindfulness’, which the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines as “the practice of maintaining a nonjudgmental state of heightened or […]
  • September 6th Consciousness in the EBT
    Dhammānupassanā Series Thus, Ānanda, for beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving, kamma is the field, consciousness the seed and craving the moisture for their consciousness to be established in an inferior [… repeated also for middling and superior] realm. (AN 3.76) Consciousness (viññāṇa) as represented in the early Buddhist texts (EBT) has received […]
  • June 26th The Buddha as Biologist
    Dhammānupassanā Series The Buddha taught suffering and the ending of suffering. His teachings were stringently parsimonious and practical. It made sense that he would teach us about craving the origin of suffering, because understanding those factors and internalizing their under­standing through practice makes a difference in how we deal with these factors in everyday experience: […]
  • May 31st Dhammānupassanā
    Seeing through the eyes of the Buddha Samādhi (concentration) is the dominant factor of the higher training toward awakening in the early Buddhist texts (EBT), and yet it is lamentably misunderstood. It folds all of the energies of the previous seven path factors into a unified whole: There are right view, right intention, right speech, […]
  • April 16th What is the Eye?
    Dhammānupassanā Series The eye seems like a commonplace enough and useful thing. Who would imagine that it would be so implicated in the human pathology, nor that understanding the eye would play such an important role in its resolution? The Buddha attributes many, at first sight, puzzling properties to the eye in the Early Buddhist […]
  • February 21st Am I my five khaṅdhas?
    Dhammānupassanā Series One day, the awakened nun Vajirā Bhikkhunī, having returned from Savatthi with her daily alms, having eaten and having set­tled down in the Blind Men’s Grove for the day’s abiding, was confronted by the infamous Māra, who tried to disrupt her samādhi by raising a thorny philosophical question: What is a liv­ing being […]
  • February 12th Theravāda and Mahāyāna Need Each Other (2/4)
    Myth 2: Mahāyāna as higher teachings Theravāda has been remarkably orthodox historically, although it did undergo some further development from the early Buddhist texts (hereafter EBT). This earliest layer of scriptures, as close as we know to what the Buddha himself taught, was supplementing very early on by the canonical Abhidhamma and, beginning around 500 […]
  • February 3rd Theravāda and Mahāyāna Need Each Other (1/4)
    The gap in the Buddha-Sāsana (S: Śāsana)[i] between the Theravāda and Mahāyāna traditions began in India as doctrinal differences, but came to be India itself, for when the Sāsana died out in India, these two great traditions became substantially isolated from one another, Theravāda to the south and Mahāyāna to the north, remembering each other […]
2017
  • December 14th Buddhist-Rohingya Relief
    I am soliticing donations on behalf of people recently displaced by violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar, and particularly the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who have been forced to flee to Bangladesh and to other lands. Donations will be transferred to the International Rescue Committee, an agency that is active in the region, as […]
  • December 6th Those Self-Absorbed Buddhists
    A few months ago I gave a talk to some seminary students who wanted to learn about Buddhism. After the talk, after the Q&A that followed, and as we were adjourning, one of the students approached and confided in me that he had in his younger days as a spiritual explorer visited a number of […]
  • September 19th The Case of the Missing Sangha
    a selective review of Stephen Batchelor’s After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age, 2017, Yale University Press. Other reviews of this work have missed what I think is the main arc of this book, its thoughts on the nature of the Buddhist community, on the fourfold assembly, on monasticism, on Buddhist institutions and […]
  • September 15th Sangha
    This essay is updated from the chapter “The Buddhist Community” in my book A Culture of Awakening: the life and times of the Buddha-Sasana. When the Buddha returned to visit his princely home after his alms-financed Awakening, he continued his rounds in the streets of Kapilavastu much to the distress of his aristocratic father. The […]
  • August 18th Take Seriously but Hold Loosely: perspectives on Secular Buddhism (3/3)
    Sorry for the delay; I changed my mind a couple of times in writing this. So far, in parts 1 and 2, I have argued that the Buddha proposed a middle way between belief and practice function that gives us a lot of flexibility in our interpretation of Buddhist teachings insofar as we retain the […]
  • July 25th Take Seriously but Hold Loosely: perspectives on Secular Buddhism (2/3)
    The previous episode (1/4) demonstrated that the teachings of Buddhism provide a support for practice and have no other function, in particular, no function in terms of philosophical or scientific speculation. When a teaching is taken seriously, its practice function has the potential to be realized and its benefits to be attained. Is taking a […]
  • July 17th Take Seriously but Hold Loosely: perspectives on Secular Buddhism (1/3)
    Recently someone compared my writing to that of Stephen Batchelor, the most prominent and perhaps most articulate proponent of the new Secular Buddhism movement. I had to think, at first, what the similarities and differences might be, because I don’t identify myself as a Secular Buddhist – largely because I feel the distinctions between “religious” […]
  • June 14th The nuns’ Sangha update
    A few years ago, I wrote an essay “What Did the Buddha Think of Women,” which has turned out to have had more hits than any other article I have posted on this blog. In this essay I propose that the Buddha’s intention from the beginning was to secure for women the same opportunities as […]
  • May 2nd Textbook: Buddhist Life/Buddhist Path
    Now in Second Edition, April, 2019 Buddhism began with the Buddha, a towering figure who lived some hundred generations ago, taught for forty-five years, developed a huge following of ascetics and householders, kings and paupers, and left behind a vast corpus of teachings, astonishingly profound and comprehensive, consistent, brilliantly coherent and still intelligible today. His […]
  • January 12th Sandals on the Ground in America
    by Bhikkhu Cintita and Dr. Win Bo The following passages will appear in the forthcoming book, Teacher of the Moon: the Life and Times of Sitagu Sayadaw, by Bhikkhu Cintita Dinsmore and Dr. Tin Nyunt. In 1988, Sitagu Sayadaw displeased elements of the military government of Burma by delivering his famous sermon on the responsibilities […]
2016
  • November 10th A Trump Presidency Need Not Be the End Times
  • July 7th Harmony (6/6)
    Those eager to read to the end to see how it comes out can click here for the whole chapter as a pdf. Practicing Harmony The skill of harmonizing with others is developed on top of the skills of generosity, harmlessness and purity. It adds to these the specialized skill of dealing with the complexities […]
  • July 1st Harmony (5/6)
    Those eager to read to the end to see how it comes out can click here for the whole chapter as a pdf. The Ideal Society An important conditioning factor in communal harmony or disharmony that goes beyond individual interactions and relations is certainly governance or the institutional structures of the society. This also was […]
  • June 26th Harmony (4/6)
    Those eager to read to the end to see how it comes out can click here for the whole chapter as a pdf. Social responsibilites Two other conditions of harmony in the Buddha’s thought is how we fulfill our social roles and what we expect of others concerning their social roles. Where fulfillment and expectation […]
  • June 16th Harmony (3/6)
    Those eager to read to the end to see how it comes out can click here for the whole chapter as a pdf. Respect Another condition for harmony in the Buddha’s thought is respect (gārava). The larger ascetic tradition to which the Buddha and Buddhism belonged in ancient India, quite readily rejected prevailing cultural norms, […]
  • June 11th Harmony (2/6)
    Those eager to read to the end to see how it comes out can click here for the whole chapter as a pdf. The error of retribution Much of natural human behavior is based on reciprocation. Friendship is reciprocated, our economy is based on the principle of mutually agreeable exchange. It is not surprising that […]
  • June 3rd Harmony (1/6)
    Herewith I begin a series on the topic of interpersonal and social harmony. This is a serialization of a chapter to appear in the next draft of the text I have been progressively improving as I teach a semiannual introductory course in Buddhism. Those eager to read to the end to see how it comes […]
  • May 27th Name-and-Form (5/5)
    Name and Form:  nāmarūpa in the suttas   Please click here for a pdf of the entire five-part essay, especially if you would like to read footnotes and references. Name-and-form as cognition or as biology? We have understood name-and-form as a factor implicated in cognition, that is, in how we conceptually construct the world, and […]
  • May 7th Name-and-form (4/5)
    Name and Form:  nāmarūpa in the suttas   Please click here for a pdf if you would like to read footnotes and references. Please note also that I have made small but significant changes in previous sections of the pdf version, adding a section on Designation. Also I have inserted a series of images to […]
  • April 19th Name and Form (3/5)
    Name and Form:  nāmarūpa in the suttas  Please click here for a pdf if you would like to read footnotes and references. The interplay of name-and-form with consciousness The two constantly swirl around one another. Recall that this interplay is described as the source of  the whirlpool (vaṭṭa) that underlies the entirety of saṃsāric life. […]
  • April 12th Name and Form (2/5)
    Name and Form:  nāmarūpa in the suttas Please click here for a pdf if you would like to read footnotes and references. Name-and-form and the sense spheres I stated that name-and-form (viewed in terms of its inner structure), dependent co-arising and the sense spheres represent three perspectives on cognition in Early Buddhism. I want to […]
  • April 6th Name and Form (1/5)
    Name and Form:  nāmarūpa in the suttas  Please click here for a pdf if you would like to read footnotes and references. Abstract. Name-and-form (Pali, nāmarūpa) is, according to what you are about to read, the richest part of experience. It is the subjective experience that plays out in each of the five material senses: […]
  • January 7th The Buddha and His Legacy
    “Fortunate is the arising of Buddhas. Fortunate is the teaching of the true Dharma. Fortunate is the harmony of the saṅgha. The practice of those in harmony is fortunate.” (Dhp 194) Some hundred generations have passed since Gotama, the sage of the Sakyans, eighty years of age, departed from the world. He had warned his […]
2015
  • November 29th Following the Path
    The Path leads to nirvana, to awakening, to the end of all suffering, to escape from the round of rebirth. Before that, the path leads to many intermediary attainments on the way, not only stages of awakening but also progressively to greater virtue, to the purification of mind from defilements with the development of kindness […]
  • November 21st Embarking on the Path
    This, last week’s post and some yet to come are chapters of a text I am preparing in conjunction with a class I teach periodically here in Austin. I encourage any feedback about mistakes or omissions, and about typos. The text will be called something like Foundations of Early Buddhism: practice and understanding. In the […]
  • November 14th Introduction to Early Buddhist Ethics
    Refraining from every evil, Accomplishing good, Purifying the mind, This is Teaching of Buddhas. (Dhammapāda 183) Seeing the complete awakening while seated in meditation as the Buddha’s greatest accomplishment, we often fail to recognize how thoroughly Buddhism is about ethics or virtue or morality. The Buddhist path creates saints before it creates awakened ones. Buddhism […]
  • August 16th Refraining from Every Evil (5/5)
    This is the Teaching of the Buddhas In conclusion of the preceding posts on this topic, both the gradual instruction and the Noble Eightfold Path are oriented around ethics. Buddhism produces saints, by which I mean the highest exemplars of virtue. But where does awakening fit in? Are saints and arahants (awakened beings) the same? […]
  • July 31st Refraining from Every Evil (4/5)
    Purifying the mind Well-makers direct the water; Fletchers bend the arrow; carpenters bend a log of wood; Good people fashion themselves. (Dhammapāda 145) Our actions, for harm or benefit, arise first in the mind, as thoughts with certain intentionality behind them. For most of us, as we attempt to refrain from evil and accomplish good, […]
  • July 21st Refraining from every evil (3/5)
    Accomplishing good Go your way, monks, for the benefit of the many: for the happiness of the many, out of compassion for the world, for the welfare, the benefit, the happiness of gods and men. (Vinaya, Mahavagga). To accomplish good is to perform actions that have beneficial consequences. It is to make a gift to […]
  • July 14th Refraining from every evil (2/5)
    (commentary on Dhammapāda, 183) This mind of mine went formerly wandering about as it liked, as it listed, as it pleased; but I shall now hold it in thoroughly, as the rider who holds the hook holds in the furious elephant. (Dhammapāda, 326) Refraining from every evil is alternatively translated as the not doing of  […]
  • July 7th Refraining from Every Evil (1/5)
    (commentary on Dhammapāda, 183) Refraining from every evil, Accomplishing good, Purifying the mind, This is Teaching of the Buddhas. (Dhammapāda 183) Sabbapāpassa akaraṇaṃ kusalassa upasampadā sacittapariyodapanaṃ etaṃ Buddhāna’sāsanaṃ. Striking about the Dhammapāda are the many verses compelling in their simplicity and yet so far-ranging in their implications. We read verse #183 and it speaks to […]
  • May 6th What is Believable? (6/6)
    For five episodes we have been considering ways in which we might respond to a Buddhist teaching that we initially find unacceptable in some way or another from a modern perspective. We have looked at the consequences of everything from simply accepting it on faith to rejecting it out of hand and we have looked […]
  • April 2nd What is Believable? (5/6)
    After looking at the relative nature of truth as we accept a thesis, we trace the problem of finding a thesis unbelievable back to its source, to the tacit, unexamined beliefs that make a thesis seem unbelievable. Series Index How to reconsider your standards for believability The method here is to open our minds to […]
  • March 25th What is Believable? (4/6)
    Series Index Some Buddhist teachings are unbelievable to some Buddhists. This section discusses the first of three strategies for reconciling this eventuality, short of simply rejecting the teaching. How to contextualize a teaching The method here is “lighten up” with the realization that truth is relative, that there is no irrevocable commitment in “belief.” Every […]
  • March 17th What is Believable? (3/6)
    Series Index We have seen that certain Buddhist teachings are unbelievable for many moderns. Today we consider the practical consequences of simply rejecting them while accepting the less problematic teachings. How to reject a teaching The method here is “balderdash!” It is recommended only in limited circumstances. It looks like one of the following: Faltering […]
  • March 7th What is Believable? (2/6)
    Series Index Last week I promised to consider five strategies for  coming to terms with Buddhist teachings (rebirth, for instance) that are found problematic for many moderns. Today we take up the default case, in which a Buddhist teaching is relatively easily assimilated. This will reveal the main cognitive mechanisms involved in coming to believe […]
  • February 24th What is Believable? (1/6)
    Series Index This is the first of a six-part series on coming to terms with Buddhist teaching, particularly where it seems to conflict with common modern predilections. It relates to issues in faith and reason, Secular Buddhism, Buddhism and science and modern attitudes about religiosity. Introduction The ancient teachings of Buddhism sometimes raise skeptical modern […]
2014
  • December 22nd Announcing Through the Looking Glass: the book
    The completed published version of Through the Looking-Glass: an American Buddhist Life by Bhikkhu Cintita is now available, either for free download or through a printer at nominal cost. Please go here for more information. As previously announced, the book A Culture of Awakening: the Life and Times of the Buddha-Sasana is similarly available. Please […]
  • November 15th Lecture Series: Consciousness and Being
  • October 11th “A Culture of Awakening” Book is available in hardcopy
    My book, A Culture of Awakening: the life and times of the Buddha-Sasana is available at Lulu.com for a nominal printing cost ($4.29) plus postage. Blurb. The Buddha-Sasana is the living Dharma, that is, Buddhism in its personal, cultural, social and historical dimensions. This rather unique book lays bare the inner life of the Buddha-Sasana […]
  • September 10th Call for Blurbs
    I am finally, after five years, ready to seek a publisher for Through the Looking-Glass: An American Buddhist Life, available for download here on this site. I am gratified that many of you have read this text or one of the various early drafts and have provided favorable feedback, everything from “It’s a real page-turner” […]
  • September 5th Karmic Dividends (2/2)
    How Buddhist Communities Accrue Them Almost everybody would agree, Buddhist or not, that the practice of generosity is a good idea, and also that the world could use all the generosity it can get. The impulse toward generosity comes naturally, is found even in children and even feels good, but as we live our complex […]
  • August 31st Karmic Dividends (1/2)
    I’ve been finishing up the series “All My Ancient Karma” more slowly than expected. In the meantime I offer: Karmic Dividends Generosity is the very first step in the Buddha’s gradual path. It is easily comprehended by all, including children, and brings great karmic benefit, that is, every act of generosity, when carried out with […]
  • August 20th Unplugging yourself from media for the masses
    This adjustment to your life style may produce more benefit than any other aspect of a Buddhist life, for instance, more than an intensive daily meditation practice. Though little mentioned in the early discourses, in the modern context this is huge. Modern culture was devastated by two parallel developments in the twentieth century that working […]
  • August 14th All My Ancient Karma (2/5)
    Discovering My Ancient Twisted Karma All my ancient twisted karma, From beginningless greed, hate and delusion, Born through body speech and mind, I now fully avow. – Zen verse of repentance Is my karma older than me? Will its results outlive me? Or is karmic history limited to a fathom-long body and a few decades […]
  • August 7th All My Ancient Twisted Karma (1/5)
    Perceiving what can be expressed through concepts, Beings take their stand on what is expressed. Not fully understanding the expressed, They come under the bondage of death. – Itivuttaka 3.14 Discussions of rebirth generally focus on theory, that is, rebirth is conceptualized into a belief or proposition, a topic of speculation or conjecture, that is […]
  • July 22nd Universal Beatniks
    A counterculture – think of the romantics, the bohemians, the beatniks or the hippies – defines itself in opposition to the dominant or mainstream culture in terms of its values and social norms. As if to underscore its role, it often distinguishes itself even in coiffure and apparel. A counterculture holds a mirror up in […]
  • July 13th Newly Old: a Fantasy
    I have been working with a student to proof my pending autobiography. A number of passages are fanciful, each of which is intended to make a Dharmic point, at least obliquely. I thought I would begin to post these as a series. Most, maybe all, have been posted independently in a previous incarnation as separate […]
  • May 12th Through the Looking Glass: the book
    Hot off the Press! I have completed my autobiographical narrative, after about five years of writing. This is a proof, for which I request any constructive criticism, particularly editorial corrections. This is available as a pdf file, and is about 340 pages long. Please click on the picture to the left for more information.  
  • April 21st Delightful Resourses for Burma-philes
      Short film with views of Myanmar Blog with interesting posts on Buddhism in Burma  
  • April 15th “Culture of Awakening” available on-line
    My new book, A Culture of Awakening: the life and times of the Buddha-Sasana is now available on this site. Just click the cover image on the left. In the meantime, I’ll keep working on my other projects. I recently became aware of an interesting blog, Burma Dhamma, in Israel, of all places, that links […]
  • March 29th The Latest on Cintita and Austin
    I haven’t been submitting weekly Uposatha Day posts for some time. Realizing that I have quite a few subscribers undoubtedly waiting in suspense, I thought I would send out this morsel and perhaps set a precedent for myself. The primary reason for suspending Uposatha Day posts is not that I have ceased writing, but that […]
  • January 28th Alms Round in America?
    Adapted from my autobio for publication in our monastery newsletter. When the Buddha returned to visit his princely home after his alms-financed Awakening, he continued his rounds in the streets of Kapilavatthu much to the distress of his aristocratic father. The alms round was for the Buddha a key feature of the monastic life and, […]
  • January 8th Happiness or Meaning?
    Following on the heals of my recently posted essay, “The Cushion or the World?,” the present post may establish what we can call the “or” series. This is not really an essay as much as a report of some interesting things I have been reading on the Internet about the difference between happiness and meaning, […]
  • January 1st Happy New Year Greeting from Sitagu Sayadaw
2013
  • December 19th The Cushion or the World?
    Bhikkhu Cintita Dinsmore Alternative format: There is a pervasive disagreement in Western Buddhism. Those whom we can call the traditionalists see virtue in adhering rather strictly to Buddhist practices as they have been transmitted by our Asian teachers, particularly focusing on stringent meditation practice. Those whom we can call the modernists feel the necessity of […]
  • November 25th Updated eBook: Sasana
    I have just posted a final or nearly final draft of Sasana: the blossoming of the Dharma, formerly Growing the Dharma (which I just finished serializing). Draft, November, 2013. Sasana: the Blossoming of Dharma.  Sasana is the living Dharma, that is, Buddhism in its personal, cultural, social and historical dimensions. The Sasana is something organic […]
  • November 21st Growing the Dharma: Finding Your Way
    You are reading a serialization of the ebook Growing the Dharma: Buddhism’s Religious Spadework. We now complete the last chapter and the ebook serialization. Recall that we I have described “Simply Uninformed” and “Stuck in the Familiar” as personality types that are recognized both at the buffet table and a the early stages of Buddhist […]
  • November 21st Buddhist Extremist Cell Vows To Unleash Tranquility On West
    Read about it HERE.  
  • November 13th Growing the Dharma: Navigating the Sasana
    You are reading a serialization of the ebook Growing the Dharma: Buddhism’s Religious Spadework. We now begin the last chapter. Chapter 8. Navigating the Sasana (1/2) The Springdale Buddhist Center held a lavish banquet for its members, and offered the whole fare, from hors d’oeuvre to dessert. To their great dismay, few seemed to eat […]
  • November 7th Growing the Dharma: Negotiating the Dharma
    You are reading a serialization of the ebook Growing the Dharma: Buddhism’s Religious Spadework. In another rather long installment we consider the many conversations that constitute the Buddha-Sasana. Chapter 7. Negotiating the Dharma The whole world is talking about Buddhism. People debate points of doctrine in the tea shops of Burma, citing Jataka tales or […]
  • October 28th Growing the Dharma: Folk Buddhism
    Let’s get sociological. You are reading a serialization of the ebook Growing the Dharma: Buddhism’s Religious Spadework. In this rather long installment we consider how there are always two kinds of Buddhism side by side, Adept and Folk. Chapter 6. Folk Buddhism Each weekend many people set out to conquer the mountain in the middle […]
  • October 19th Growing the Dharma: History of the Dharma and Sangha
    You are reading a serialization of the ebook Growing the Dharma: Buddhism’s Religious Spadework. In this installment we complet the chapter on the history of Buddhism. Next week we will look at how the Sasana plays out in its social context, in particular at Folk Buddhism. Chapter 6. Propogation and Evolution of the Sasana (2/2) […]
  • October 12th Growing the Dharma: the History of the Sasana
    You are reading a serialization of the ebook Growing the Dharma: Buddhism’s Religious Spadework. In the last chapters we have looked at the factors articulated in early Buddhism that define the Sasana, Buddhism in its social context. In this chapter we look at the subsequent history of Buddhism. Chapter 6. Propogation and Evolution of the […]
  • October 4th Growing the Dharma: the Rest of the Buddhist Community
    You are reading a serialization of the ebook Growing the Dharma: Buddhism’s Religious Spadework. In this chapter we look at the Buddhist community as it is constituted in the earliest texts and generally lived to this day. Last week we began discussion of the ten-point mission statement of the monastic sangha as spoken by the […]
  • September 27th Growing the Dharma: the Buddhist Community
    You are reading a serialization of the ebook Growing the Dharma: Buddhism’s Religious Spadework. In this chapter we look at the Buddhist community as it is constituted in the earliest texts and generally lived to this day. The primary source of the Buddha’s teachings on community is the Vinaya, the monastic code. Next week we […]
  • September 20th Growing the Dharma: Alternatives to Rebirth
    You are reading a serialization of the ebook Growing the Dharma: Buddhism’s Religious Spadework. I have suggested that rebirth provides a the epic perspective that gives urgency and full meaning to Buddhist life and practice. I now consider from a functional viewpoint what range of understandings support this epic perspective. Chapter 4. Transcendence (2/2) Approximations […]
  • September 13th Growing the Dharma: Transcendence
    You are reading a serialization of the ebook Growing the Dharma: Buddhism’s Religious Spadework. This chapter deals with the question, Why did the Buddha teach rebirth? This is a bit different aspect of what falls under Buddhist religiosity than the social concerns of the rest of the book, but is included for completeness. In short, […]
  • September 6th Growing the Dharma: Refuge in Dharma and Sangha
    You are reading a serialization of the ebook Growing the Dharma: Buddhism’s Religious Spadework. This concludes the chapter on Refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. There has been some additional discussion over at Dhammawheel.org here. Refuge in the Dharma “Well expounded is the teaching of the Buddha, Directly visible, with immediate fruit, Inviting investigation, leading […]
  • August 31st Growing the Dharma: Refuge
    Refuge in the Triple Gem (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha) is where Buddhist practice begins. Sometimes it is said that it is what makes a Buddhist. Notice its prominent role given to it last week as the nutrients that feed the flower of Sasana. Refuge is the locus of trust, faith, confidence, whatever you want to […]
  • August 25th Growing the Dhamma: How the Religious Context Works
    This is part 2/2 of the Second Chapter, “Buddhist Life and Practice,” and the fourth installment of the weekly serialization of Growing the Dharma: Buddhism’s Religious Spadework. This explains how the various parts of an organic Buddhism, including the Triple Gem and the two-part Buddhist community work together to the benefit of the sasana. How […]
  • August 20th Calgary Kids
    Last month I got back from three weeks in Calgary, Canada, where I was invited to teach a daily class on Buddhism to the Burmese kids. Here we are: After each class adults provided snacks, such as popcorn. The great advantage I have in teaching kids, aside from being a father, is that the kids […]
  • August 17th Growing the Dhamma: Buddhist Life and Practice
    The third installment of the serialization of the book Growing the Dharma: Buddhism’s Religious Spadework is the first half of Chapter 2. A couple of commenters have expressed appreciation for serializing it in this way, as we can focus on and discuss each section as a group as we go along. The second half of […]
  • August 11th Monks on Stage
    Yesterday evening the four Austin Sitagu monks were the first act of a free concert called “Peace Wave.” Our job was to establish the mood of the event. Accordingly we chanted the Metta Sutta and out of compassion ensured that there would be an easy act to follow. Here we are, Ashins Agga, Cintita, Ariya […]
  • August 10th Growing the Dharma: Introduction
    This is the second serial installment of my recent ebook draft. I couple of people who posted comments to the first installment see value in focusing on one segment at a time as a readership community.  I encourage critical feedback and comments. I don’t expect what I write to be wildly popular; I wrote it […]
  • August 4th Growing the Dharma: Preface
    Hmmm, the hits to this blog are in sharp decline. This is certainly because I have rarely posted in recent weeks, and in fact intend to do no writing until after vassa (rains retreat). Lest this blog realize final liberation before the rest of us, I have come up with the idea of serializing my […]
  • July 23rd Complete Draft of “Through the Looking Glass”
    I have uploaded a completed draft of my autobiography: If you were following this before you will know that the final chapter has been long over due. This chapter is included in this draft. Moreover I have shortened most of the early chapters. I wanted to post this now because we are beginning the three-month […]
  • July 16th Growing the Dharma: Buddhism’s Religious Spadework
    I have uploaded a highly reworked and nearly final draft of the eBook I had called Buddhist Religiosity. Please find it here: Growing the Dharma: Buddhism’s Religious Spadework. Draft, July 2013. “The individual or collective Western response has often much like that of the new landowner who discovers an overgrown but still potentially productive corn […]
  • July 1st Anti-Muslim Monks
    A lot of people ask me about reports of anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar, since I live at a Burmese monastery and they assume I might have special inside knowledge. With the appearance of a new cover story in Time magazine on this topic, let me say here what I can figure out about this. As […]
  • June 16th Buddhist Religiosity, hot off the press
    I have completed a substantially good draft of the book I have been working on: Foundations of Buddhist Religiosity: Devotion, Community and Salvation and their Historical and Social Manifestations into the Twenty-First Century. Please click on the cover to the left to download your own pdf (106 pages). I invite feedback. I apologize for not […]
  • April 25th The Buddhist Child and the Sangha
    Uposatha Day, Full Moon, April 24, 2013 Traditionally Monastics have played a great and pervasive role in the way Buddhist kids are exposed to Buddhism. Of the three Gems the Sangha is the only that is a living breathing presence. The Sangha exemplifies and teaches and at the same time becomes an object of veneration, […]
  • April 17th The Buddhist Child Bows to the Buddha and to the Sangha
    Uposatha Day, First Quarter Moon, April 18, 2013 A handicap in being a Westerner or a child of the European Enlightenment is that it makes bowing problematic. I learned this first as a personal exemplar of this profile and second as a Buddhist teacher who has felt compelled to teach bowing to other exemplars. Even […]
  • April 10th The Buddhist Child and the Triple Gem
    Uposatha Day, New Moon, April 10, 2013 Last week I brought up the topic of Buddhism for children. What do we teach them and how do we do it? I am glad that so many posted comments, which I take as indicative of the importance of this topic in many people’s lives. I proposed that […]
  • April 2nd The Buddhist Child in a Nutshell
    Uposatha Day, Last Quarter Moon, April 3, 2013 Last week I outlined a gradual course of practice beginning with the Refuges and generosity and ending with samadhi, a course that gives a much broader and well-rounded perspective on practice than we are generally used to in the west, but most of which is much more […]
  • March 25th The Buddhist Path in a Nutshell
    Uposatha Day, Full Moon, March 26, 2013 Kutthi Sutta (Udana 5.3) mentions a gradual course of practice beginning with generosity that gives a much broader and well-rounded perspective on practice than we are generally used to in the west. I’ve been thinking about this since I began working on the “Buddhist Religiosity” project, since it […]
  • March 19th Authenticity
    Uposatha Day, First Quarter Moon, March 19, 2013 I still owe one more chapter of Buddhist Religiosity. Meanwhile, I have been reworking the drafts of earlier chapters and wish to post today a new section of Chapter 2, on Core Buddhism. – BC Imagine someone has made up and told an elaborate and original joke […]
  • March 11th Fundamentals of Buddhist Religiosity: Negotiating the Dharma
    Uposatha Day, New Moon, March 11, 2012 Chapter 8. Negotiating the Dharma Buddhism is radical in any culture. It goes “against the stream.” The Noble Ones understand that virtually all progress toward peace, happiness, virtue and understanding one is likely to make on the Buddhist Path will be directly correlated with what is given up […]
  • March 4th Fundamentals of Buddhist Religiosity: Folk Buddhism
    Uposatha Day, March 5, 2013 Index to Series Chapter 7. Folk Buddhism Each weekend many people set out to conquer the mountain in the middle of the state park, a large and very mixed group of people of every age, state of health, type of footwear, size of backpack or picnic basket, degree of inebriation […]
  • February 25th Fundamentals of Buddhist Religiosity: Retooling
    Uposatha Day, Full Moon, Feburary 25, 2013 Index to Series Chapter 6. Retooling Buddhism Let’s get historical. The Buddha gave us a Buddhism that would be subject to and tolerate retooling and embellishment. Perhaps this is why it gained a place as the first world religion as it simply passed peacefully from one land to […]
  • February 18th Support our sisters
    Friends in the Dhamma, This is an opportunity to support a community of Western Theravada nuns in California. I know most of them personally, and have always been deeply moved by the sincerity of their aspirations and the dignity of their deportment as they endure more than their share of hardship and insecurity. They are […]
  • February 18th Fundamentals of Buddhist Religiosity: Transcendence
    Uposatha Day, February 18, 2013 Index to this series Chapter 4. Transcendence “I’m Saved!” Buddhism is about salvation, it’s even about, uh, being born again. The soteriological aim of Buddhism is Nibbana, the Buddhist form of salvation. Nibbana is achieved by Awakening, but it given a particularly lofty scope in Original Buddhism, the escape from […]
  • February 9th Fundamentals of Buddhist Religiosity: Community
    Uposatha Day, New Moon, February 10, 2013 Index to this series This is the next chapter of my eBook on Buddhist Religiosity. I am doing well so far in producing a chapter a week, and I am about half-way through. These are probably long for popular blog tastes (parse: popular tastes in blogs, not tastes […]
  • February 2nd Fundamentals of Buddhist Religiosity: Refuge
    Uposatha Day, February 3, 2012 Index to this series Chapter 3. Refuge. In summary of the last chapter, reverential trust (or faith) in the Triple Gem, that is, of the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha, is what nourishes our Buddhist aspirations and practice just as sun, water and soil nourish a flower. This is […]
  • January 25th Fundamentals of Buddhist Religiosity: Core Buddhism
    Uposatha Day, Full Moon, January 26, 2013 Index to this series Chapter 2. Core Buddhism There is a Buddhism that shines through constantly through the various Buddhist traditions, a Buddhism visible first in the earliest scriptures and a common edifice behind the many often wild and perplexing guises appearing under the name “Buddhism.” In order […]
  • January 18th Fundamentals of Buddhist Religiosity: Introduction
    Uposatha Day, First Quarter Moon, January 19, 2013 Index to this series I have been reworking some of my previous writings into an eBook of maybe about 80 pages. This will include some things I posted under “Buddhist Religiosity,” “American Folk Buddhism,” etc. also with new content, assembled into an integrated whole. I intend to […]
  • January 11th The Calgary Talk on Dana
    Uposatha Day 1/11/2013   [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPPFKkcdUDs]   [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxzCSmIRDvU]   [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5sKHsbzxCE]   [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJFrZlqR0AQ]
  • January 5th Uposatha Day Post 1/5/2013
      Buddhist Rules and Culture The Vinaya, the First Basket of early Buddhist teachings is the Code for Monks and Nuns, the rules, regulations, policies and procedures by which the monastic Sangha lives. Although this is intended to be studied and followed only by those who have taken monastic vows I have gotten interested in […]
2012
  • December 28th Uposatha Day 12/28/2012
    Ch. 12. Requisites of the Bhikkhu A monk is like a house pet: helpless on his own, absolutely and vulnerably dependent on the kind hand that feeds him, but at the same time of therapeutic value to that kind hand (not to mention cute as a kitten in his fluffy robes and under his bald […]
  • December 23rd Greetings from Canada
    Banf, Alberta, in the Canadian Rockies, December 20, 2012.
  • December 21st Uposatha Day 12/21/2012 (and Mayan End-of-the-World Day)
    Tales of Burma This is the eleventh and  latest chapter of my autobiographical narrative Through the Looking Glass to attain draft completion. This will leave two chapters: 12. The Requisites of a Bhikkhu and 13. The American Monk. I will post chapter 12 next week. Chapter 11. Tales of Burma Shortly after my ordination and […]
  • December 13th Uposatha Day 12/12/2012
    Travels with Bhante I flew to California on the first of the month to spend about ten days with my father on the Point Reyes Peninsula. We settled some issues that remained concerning my deceased brother Arthur’s estate and spent time together. We shipped three big boxes of books that I had selected on my […]
  • December 7th Uposatha Day 12/7/2012
    A new essay: What Did the Buddha Think of Women? Buddhism is widely know throughout the world as a religion of peace and kindness. Unfortunately it is  less known as a religion of equal regard for both genders. And in fact many Buddhists throughout the world are taught that women because of their characteristic karmic dispositions […]
  • November 28th Uposatha Day 11/28/2012
    Our Amazing Sangha The Buddhist monastic order is plausibly the world’s oldest human organization in continual existence, still recognizable in terms of attire, life-style, practice and function after 100 generations. It was there as great empires arose and grew mighty, it was there as those empires collapsed. From India it extended its civilizing reach to […]
  • November 23rd Uposatha Day 11/21/2012 (a little late)
    Shining Through I have been reading a lot of “Gombrich” lately. Richard Gombrich is a very respected British scholar of Buddhism. Scholars of Buddhism generally fall into two categories, Buddhists and non-Buddhists, and I think which one is at hand makes a significant difference in the nature of the scholarship. Practioners of Buddhism also fall […]
  • November 12th Uposatha Day 11/13/12
    I have been considering how best to proceed with my writing (you might have gotten a sense of that if you noticed that I sent no OopDay posting last week). I would like in the coming months to focus on what needs focusing on: a number of larger projects that I have in the works […]
  • October 30th Robes of the Bhikkhu
    Uposatha Day, Full Moon, October 30, 2012 From a forthcoming chapter of my bio, much of it originally written in Burma in 2009, appropriate now with the end of the Rains Retreat on this Full Moon Day. The bhikkhu traditionally has Four Requisites that substantially form the material world of the monk. These are: robes, […]
  • October 23rd Burmese Alms Rounds
    Uposatha Day, First Quarter Moon, October 23, 2012 Another excerpt from my bio narrative: When the Buddha returned to visit his princely home after his alms-financed Enlightenment, he continued his alms rounds in the streets of Kapilavastu much to the distress of his aristocratic father. The alms round was for the Buddha a key feature […]
  • October 15th Alms in Minnesota
    New Moon Uposatha Day, October 15, 2o12 I have three chapters left in “Through the Looking Glass” to finish (first draft): Tales of Burma The Four Requisites The American Monk The following is from the last chapter.   From distant Minnesota I remembered U Pañña’s insistent admonition in Yangon, “When you go back to America […]
  • October 8th The Case of the Missing Hour
    Last Quarter Moon Uposatha Day, October 8, 2012 I am hoping that there is a prospective sleuth or a professional gumshoe among my readership who can illuminate the Case of the Missing Hour. Not that I expect to get the hour back (I would probably just spend it writing on this blog in any case). […]
  • September 30th Latest Chapter
    Uposatha Day, Full Moon, September 30, 2012 This week we have had three visitors on private retreat and we have been meditating together in the Dhamma Hall at 5:30, 10:30, 2:00 and 7:00 for 50 minutes a shot, my normal schedule, and chanting as usual at 8pm. Along with studies I have gotten a lot […]
  • September 23rd Giving and Receiving the Dhamma
    Uposatha First Quarter Moon, September 23, 2012 How far must the teacher and the student each reach? At what place do they meet? Reverse Proselytizing. (Tassajara Zen Mountain Monastery, January 2002.) Tassajara has an initiation tradition for incoming monks, a kind of five-day Zen hazing, called tangaryo. Tangaryo has an ancient history. As the reader […]
  • September 15th Death in the Family
    Uposatha Day, New Moon, September 15 One by one we lose everybody and everything that is dear to us. Until at some point anyone who is still left out there all at once loses us. We are adrift in an ever-changing unreliable world. Our every attempt to grab onto something as it flies into and […]
  • September 8th Books on Rebirth
    Uposatha Day, First Quarter Moon, Sept. 9, 2012 What do we do with this “Rebirth Thing”? Commonly, perhaps typically, Western Buddhists have trouble with the this aspect of Buddhism and reject the whole notion out of hand as unscientific, premodern balderdash. This might be said of much in the Buddha’s discourses, such as many factually […]
  • September 4th Dharma Talk in Austin
    For those readers in Austin, TX: This Thursday I will give a talk for the Mariposa Sangha in Austin. All are invited to attend. Karma = Practice Speaker: Bhikkhu Cintita, Sitagu Buddha Vihara Location: Trinity United Methodist Church, Interdenominational Chapel 4001 Speedway, Austin Time: Thursday, September 6, 7pm – 8:30pm Afterwards Bhante Cintita will present […]
  • September 1st Buddhism in Myanmar
    Here is a glimpse of monastic life in Burma. The middle part of this, from about 10 minutes, was shot in Sagaing Hills in central Burma, where I spent most of my time. “Dhammadana” http://vimeo.com/13815026#
  • August 31st Metta Day
    Uposatha Full Moon, September 1, 2012 Today marks the end of the first month of the Rains Retreat (Vassa). This particular full moon day is in the Burmese tradition Metta Day, and traditionally the Karaniya-Metta Sutta is recited on this day, as we will do this evening. I’ve included an English translation of the Metta […]
  • August 25th Awe and Faith
    Uposatha Day, First Quarter Moon, August 25, 2012 This week I have been rewriting a thematic thread that runs through my life story. I thought I would represent three excerpts here. The first concerns my childhood, the second my graduate studies in linguistics and the third my early Zen career. Childhood A bloke enters unexplored […]
  • August 17th Robe Offering
    Uposatha Day, New Moon, August 17, 2012 It’s been a busy week in Texas. Two weeks ago, after the full moon, we began our Rains Retreat. I have set a daily schedule that looks something like this: 4:30 – Arise, coffee up and memorize Pali words 5:30 – Meditation 6:30 – Breakfast 7:00 – Break, […]
  • August 9th Dogen’s Turtle
    Uposatha Day,Last Quarter Moon, August 10, 2012 Recall that my Uposatha Day posts are going to assume a more spontanious form during the next three months of Rains Retreat. In my correspondence with students I found one simple quote from Dogen to be applicable twice in one week (this is a paraphrase): “If you come […]
  • August 1st Vassa, the Rains Retreat
    Full Moon Uposatha Day, August 2, 2012 This particular full moon marks the beginning of vassa, the three month rains retreat as observed in the Theravada tradition. According to tradition Buddhist monks and nuns are encouraged to stay put during this rainy season where every muddy step would endanger the many living things that are […]
  • July 25th American Folk Buddhism (17)
    First Quarter Moon, Uposatha, July 26, 2012            Series Index Conclusion to Series This will be the last and concluding episode in this, uh, longish series on American Folk Buddhism. In summary, I made a distinction between two kinds, or actually polarities, of Buddhism: Essential Buddhism and Folk Buddhism. The Refuges assure the authority of the […]
  • July 17th American Folk Buddhism (16)
    New Moon, Uposatha, July 18, 2012            Series Index Psychoanalysis and American Folk Buddhism The Four Noble Truths are often described in medical terms, in brief: Suffering is the symptom and the Noble Eightfold Path is the cure. Furthermore the causes of suffering that must be addressed are factors of mind. This suggests immediate parallels with […]
  • July 11th American Folk Buddhism (15)
    Last Quarter Moon, Uposatha, July 11, 2012            Series Index Social Engagement in American Folk Buddhism. In response to the American invasion of Afghanistan the Austin, Texas, chapter of the Buddhist Peace fellowship planned a walking meditation for peace. There was a massive anti-war rally already scheduled at a park in Austin, so we intentionally scheduled […]
  • July 2nd American Folk Buddhism (14)
    Full Moon, Uposatha, July 3, 2012            Series Index Consumerism in American Folk Buddhism. If anything characterizes American Folk Culture it is consumerism, the boundless commercial advertising whetting and then drenching our appetites for more and more, the commodification of everything under the sun, the common regard of financial wealth as one’s greatest spiritual aspiration and […]
  • June 27th American Folk Buddhism (13)
    First Quarter Moon, Uposatha, June 19, 2012            Series Index Gender Equality in American Folk Buddhism (4) Karl Marx famously stated, “I am not a Marxist!” I think this statement was in response to the popular understanding of Marx’s teachings that arose even in his lifetime, a Folk Marxism that no longer accorded to his satisfaction […]
  • June 19th American Folk Buddhism (12)
    New Moon, Uposatha, June 19, 2012            Series Index For an updated version of the following post, see my essay What Did the Buddha Think of Women? Gender Equality in American Folk Buddhism (3) I hope last week I made persuasively the point that, Essential Buddhism is concerned with securing for women exactly the same opportunities […]
  • June 11th American Folk Buddhism (11)
    Last Quarter Moon, Uposatha, June 12, 2012            Series Index Please see my essay What did the Buddha think of Women? for an updated version of this post. Gender Equality in American Folk Buddhism (2) It is not always necessary to go back to the Buddha to discover the Essential Buddhist wisdom about things, but that […]
  • June 9th Pictures from our monastery
    Here is a nice set of pictures for the curious from the monastery where I live in Austin, Texas USA. It has a lot of shots of the new construction, including the pagoda and our effort to become a full-fledged meditation center, along with some festive ceremonial activities related to the pagoda construction. https://picasaweb.google.com/aariyadhamma/June62012FromMyIPhone#slideshow/5751088012130965682
  • June 3rd American Folk Buddhism (10)
    Full Moon, Uposatha, June 4, 2012            Series Index For an updated version of this post, see my essay “What Did the Buddha Think of Women?” Gender Equality in American Folk Buddhism (1). Two characteristics are often regarded as most unique in Western Folk Buddhism: (1) gender equality and (2) social engagement. This week I look […]
  • May 28th American Folk Buddhism (9)
    First Quarter Moon, Uposatha, May 28, 2012            Series Index Individualism in American Folk Buddhism. America is traditionally a land that values, or at least thinks it does, “rugged individualism,” self-reliance, freedom from the dictates of society and forming one’s own views about things. We are, after all, primarily a people created of wave after wave […]
  • May 20th American Folk Buddhism (8)
    New Moon, Uposatha, May 20, 2012            Series Index The Sangha in American Folk Buddhism To recap: I have been describing the distribution of knowledge within the Buddhist community. The Buddhist community can be viewed as something like a comet, with a head and a tail trailing off from the head. The head is Essential Buddhism, […]
  • May 12th American Folk Buddhism (7)
    Last Quarter Moon, Uposatha, May 13, 2012 The Triple Gem in American Folk Buddhism Refuge in the Triple Gem, the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, is in the intersection of Essential and Folk Buddhism. In fact it is what makes Folk Buddhism Buddhism. Repeatedly in the Suttas the newly convinced becomes a disciple of […]
  • May 9th Latest Bio Episode
    Through the Looking Glass, Book Three: “Zen Days,” Chapter Four: “The Zen Monk,” in which Kojin discovers another Path. Books One, Two and Three Here (pdf) Book Three, “Life Choices”  Here (pdf) “Dropping Out At Last” Here (pdf) “Priestcraft,”  Here (pdf) “The Zen Monk” Here (pdf) Series Contents Here (html)
  • May 5th American Folk Buddhism (6)
    Full Moon, Uposatha, May 5, 2012 Authority in American Folk Buddhism To summarize, in any Buddhist society two kinds of Buddhism can be observed side-by-side (or more commonly overlapping): Essential Buddhism is the Dharma, or more properly the Dharma-Vinaya or the Sasana. It is sophisticated, best understood and preserved by adepts, who are people who […]
  • April 29th American Folk Buddhism (5)
    First Quarter Moon, Uposatha, April 29, 2012 4. Burmese Folk Buddhism (2) I began last week by taking Burmese Folk Buddhism to illustrate the relationship of Folk Buddhism, the popular understand of Buddhism predominant in an Buddhist culture, from Essential Buddhism, the adept’s understanding of Buddhism that is functionally the closest  to the Buddhadharma. By […]
  • April 20th American Folk Buddhism (4)
    New Moon, Uposatha, April 21, 2012 4. Burmese Folk Buddhism (1) I want today to use Burma as an example of the difference between, and interrelatedness of, Essential and Folk Buddhism. I choose Burma primarily because I’ve gained quite a bit of familiarity with it, but also Burma provide a particularly good example of a […]
  • April 13th American Folk Buddhism (3)
    Last Quarter Moon, Uposatha, April 14, 2012 3. Folk Buddhism Essential Buddhism is the corn, the Buddhism that sustains and is most directly sustained by the adepts. Folk Buddhism is the undergrowth that nourishes far more beings. Last week we considered Essential Buddhism, this week we look at Folk Buddhism. Against the Stream. Essential Buddhism […]
  • April 5th American Folk Buddhism (2)
    Full Moon, Uposatha, April 6, 2012 Essential Buddhism Last week I introduced but did not fully explain the distinction between Essential Buddhism and Folk Buddhism. In brief, when people criticize Asian Buddhists as not being real Buddhists or as caught in a mesh of superstition and religiosity, they are probably talking about Asian Folk Buddhism; […]
  • April 4th Latest Bio Episode
    Through the Looking Glass, Book Three: “Zen Days,” Chapter Three: “Priestcraft,” in which Kojin ordains and begins life as a Zen priest. Books One and Two Here (pdf) Book Three, Chapter One  Here (pdf) Book Three, Chapter Two Here (pdf) Latest Episode, “Priestcraft,”  Here (pdf) Series Contents Here (html)
  • March 29th American Folk Buddhism (1)
    First Quarter Moon, Uposatha, March 30, 2012 Introduction How did it happen that Western Buddhists so quickly gained a monopoly on real Buddhism? We in the West certainly don’t seem to have gained much of a handle on Christianity over many centuries, and the average citizen of my country is pretty clueless about science., history, […]
  • March 22nd Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 19
    New Moon Uposatha Day , March 22, 2012       index to series Conclusion With this posting I conclude this longer than originally anticipated weekly series on meditation. In episode #1 I expressed concern for the bewilderment, doubt and contention resulting from the daunting plethora meditation methods, along with differing reported experiences and lack of […]
  • March 15th Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 18
    For more current writings on this topic by the same author, please visit the project page for Rethinking the Satipaṭṭhāna. (4/8/2023) Theravada Meditation: Vipassana Jhanas Last Quarter Moon Uposatha Day , March 15, 2012       index to series Last Quarter Moon Uposatha Day index to series The Twentieth Century and perhaps late Nineteenth Century […]
  • March 6th Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 17
    Theravada Meditation: Visuddhimagga Vipassana Full Moon Uposatha Day , March 7, 2012       index to series Last week I began discussing the Visuddhimagga, a massive meditation manual compiled almost a thousand years after the Buddha (and 1500 years before us), that itself claims to accurately represent the Buddha’s intention in the Suttas. The Visuddhimagga, […]
  • February 29th Latest Bio Episode
    Through the Looking Glass, Book Three: “Zen Days,” Chapter Two: “Dropping Out at Last,” in which Cold Taco lives at Tassajara monastery in California Books One and Two Here (pdf) Book Three, Chapter One  Here (pdf) Latest Episode Here (pdf) Series Contents Here (html)
  • February 29th Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 16
    Theravada Meditation: Visuddhimagga Jhanas First Quarter Moon Uposatha Day , February 29, 2012       index to series In the Fifth Century AD in Sri Lanka, the Visuddhimagga (Path of Purification), was compiled by Ven. Buddhaghosa from previously existing materials and would prove to have lasting influence on the meditation methods of Theravada school of […]
  • February 25th Latest Bio Episode
    Book Three, Chapter One of Through the Looking Glass, in which John seeks the skill of life, discovers Zen and helps start a Zen Center. Previous Episodes Here (pdf) Newest Episode Here (pdf) Series Contents Here (html)
  • February 20th Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 15
    Theravada Meditation New Moon Uposatha Day , February 21, 2012       index to series Buddhism spread from its home in Northern India in all directions, north, east and west. We have considered some of what happened to Buddhism in China and the rest of East Asia. Some two hundred years before reaching China Buddhism […]
  • February 18th Cintita-Related Resources
    Readers of this blog, especially anyone living in Austin, might be interested in the following. Blog: News from the Dhamma Ceti Library. The Dhamma Ceti Library is being established at the Sitagu monastery in Austin (I am the librarian). I intend to post book reviews here, things you might want to read or to avoid, […]
  • February 15th Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 14
    The Experience of Zen Meditation Last Quarter Moon Uposatha Day , February 15, 2012       index to series In summary the method of Zen meditation described last week compares with the Buddha’s method as follows: In Zen meditation also begins with the removal of distracting factors of the mind, which are the Hindrances for […]
  • February 6th Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 13
    Methods of Zen Meditation Full Moon Uposatha Day , February 7, 2012          index to series In our comparison between Buddha’s meditation and its Zen variant we turn to method. Last week we considered prerequisites and next week we will consider the experience of meditation. Removal of the hindrances. This step just prior to […]
  • January 30th Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 12
    Zen Meditation: the Prerequisites First Quarter Moon Uposatha Day , January 31, 2012                            index to series Today we begin looking at Zen meditation, or zazen (seated Jhana), and compare it point by point with the Buddha’s meditation as I have described it over the last weeks. I will try to follow the template […]
  • January 22nd Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 11
    Buddhism in the Land of the Chopstick New Moon Uposatha Day , January 23, 2012                            index to series The well-known late German Theravada monk Nyanaponika Thera wrote many years ago, I think in the Fifties or Sixties, in the Heart of Buddhist Meditation (p. 14): “Among the Mahayana schools of the Far East, […]
  • January 15th Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 10
    Summary of Buddha’s Meditation and Template for its Variants Last Quarter Moon Uposatha Day , January 16, 2012                            index to series In the last weeks we looked at what the Buddha taught and described in the Suttas concerning meditation. This week we will summarize the main points in a way that also give […]
  • January 9th Long Awaited Autobiography Episodes
    I have finished a draft of Through the Looking Glass, Book Two: “The Young and the Samsaric.” The first two books can be found  here. This represents about half of the complete work. Since my last post of these episodes I’ve added chapters 7-8 and revised chapters 5-6. The previously posted chapters are in a […]
  • January 7th Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 9
    Buddha’s Vipassana Full Moon Uposatha, January 8, 2012            index to series Full Moon Uposatha Day index to series Centered Samadhi. Last week I began discussing Buddha’s samadhi and today I would like to talk about serenity and insight (samatha and vipassana) as features of samadhi. In the meantime, I hope you will read or […]
2011
  • December 31st Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 8
    Buddha’s Samadhi: The Shape of the Flame First Quarter Moon January 1, 2012            index to series In summary of last week, Buddha’s samadhi is at its core concentration, but it is not one-pointed concentration; it is broad. Its breadth is clear in the various descriptions of what factors give rise to Right Samadhi, most […]
  • December 23rd Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 7
    Buddha’s Samadhi: Concentration New Moon Uposatha,  December 24, 2012                  index to series Mindfulness is the method of meditation, samadhi is the resulting experience of meditation. The analogy is the tending of a fire, and the fire itself as the result. You never know what samadhi is from any description, but practice the method and […]
  • December 17th Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 6
    Six Remarkable Features of Buddha’s Mindfulness Last Quarter Moon Uposatha Day                              index to series Last week … er, two weeks ago, I provided an overview of Right Mindfulness as described in the Satipatthana Sutta and many other related suttas. Recall that mindfulness is essentially keeping something in mind. What and how you keep that something […]
  • December 9th No Uposatha Day Post This Week
    Today’s post, which was called “Buddha’s Meditation and Its Variants 6: Five Interesting Features of Buddha’s Mindfulness” will have to wait until next week. Sorry. This is due to computer error, or perhaps errorful human response to computer error. In short, the text I was about to post is gone with no backup. I think […]
  • December 3rd Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 5
    Buddha’s Mindfulness Overview First Quarter Moon Uposatha Day                              index to series Meditation in the Buddha’s discourses is described in terms of three aspects: effort, mindfulness and samadhi. Last week we looked at Right Effort in some detail. The next two weeks we will look at Right Mindfulness, the primary technique of meditation. Mindfulness. The Buddha […]
  • November 24th Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 4
    Right Effort New Moon Uposatha Day                              index to series Buddhist practice often seems extremely austere to those, like myself, who grew up in the self-indulgent, instant-gratification West. However we should remind ourselves that this practice is already the Middle Way, and itself the product of backing away from a more extreme austerity. This particularly applies […]
  • November 17th Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 3
    How to Build a Fire Last Quarter Moon Uposatha Day                              index to series Meditation in Buddhism is an integral part of the totality of Buddhist practice, as most commonly stated as the Noble Eightfold Path, and cannot be understood apart from it. The Path is as follows, eight folds falling into three groupings, the last […]
  • November 10th Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 2
    Discovering Buddha’s Meditation Full Moon Uposatha Day                              index to series The Suttas report that the Bodhisattva left home to become a wandering ascetic, and lived and practiced much like other wandering ascetics, until he rebelled against the prevailing wisdom, boldly plunged into his own way of doing things, … and succeeded. I think of the […]
  • November 2nd Buddha’s Meditation and its Variants 1
    Introduction Uposatha Teaching for First Quarter Moon A number of people have asked if I would write about meditation in this blog. Meditation practice is a very individual thing, opening deep levels of personal exploration, hopefully in communication with an engaged and understanding teacher. The audience for this blog is moreover likely to come from […]
  • October 29th The End of Blog Vacation
    I will resume my weekly series of Uposatha Day posts next week, for the First Quarter Moon on November 3. I have used my little vacation to put some ideas into order, to visit family and the attend the Seventeenth Annual Western Buddhist Monastic Conference in Sacramento, CA. In the meantime the weather here in […]
  • September 27th Uposatha Day Teachings Going on Vacation
    I have been posting Uposatha Day teachings weekly for almost a year and a half on this blog. I have decided at least temporarily to suspend this schedule. The primary reason is not to take a break from writing, but to put more energy into reworking and consolidating much of what I have written, which […]
  • September 19th The Art of Lay Life 11: Lay and Monastic (cont.)
    Uposatha Teaching for the Last Quarter Moon (Index to Series) In this series I have been careful to distinguish the monastic lifestyle from the being an ordained monastic. The monastic lifestyle is adopted as a matter of degree, an ordained monastic is something you either are or are not. The two do not necessary coincide. […]
  • September 16th New Episode: “Through the Looking Glass”
    Book II: The Young and the Samsaric Episode Two: Becoming Synopsis. With difficulty met by determination, John becomes what he once was. Find complete contents including this new episode: HERE
  • September 12th The Art of Lay Life 10: Lay and Monastic
    Uposatha Day Essay for the Full Moon Index to Art of Lay Life Series Over the last nine weeks I have presented the Art of Lay Life. Summarized in brief the ideal is to live a life that includes those elements, aside from recognized Buddhist practices, that you just have to include, but otherwise is […]
  • September 5th The Art of Lay Life 9: Simplifying
    Uposatha Day Teaching (Index to Series) Layman Pang is the very model of the enlightened layman from Eighth Century Chinese Zen (or Chan) lore. He had been a wealthy merchant with a wife and daughter who studied the Sutras and aspired to progress along the Buddhist path. His wife and daughter shared the same aspirations. […]
  • August 29th New Episode: “Through the Looking Glass”
    Book II: The Young and the Samsaric Episode One: Good Friends Synopsis. After false starts as Mathematician, Carpenter, Hippie and Traveler, John thinks he has found his true path. Find complete contents including this new episode: HERE
  • August 28th New Episode: “Through the Looking Glass”
    Introduction to Book II: The Young and the Samsaric I have posted the brief introduction to the second book of my tale, in which John (no longer Little Johnny) entangles himself in Samsara big time. This ultimately will lead to discovering the Buddhist Path. My plan to post the 24-page first chapter in a day […]
  • August 27th The Art of Lay Life 8: Balancing Elements (cont)
    Uposatha Day Essay for the New Moon (Index to Series) We started last week to look at ways to start to empty what we normally think of our secular or lay-life values and activities of the self. Since the sense of self is the root of all suffering, this brings these elements more in accord […]
  • August 22nd The Art of Lay Life 7: Balancing Elements
    Uposatha Day Essay for Last Quarter Moon (Index to Series) I hope in the last few weeks the advice I have conveyed has been useful in examining the elements of your life, what is or is not appropriate in the context of Buddhist practice, but at the same time what is or is not important […]
  • August 13th The Art of Lay Life 6: Rejecting Elements (cont)
    Uposatha Day Teaching for the Full Moon (Index to Series) Last week we considered the Precepts and Right Livelihood, both of which advise us not to engage in certain behaviors, primarily out of ethical considerations. We have seen that the significance of Right Livelihood is that our livelihood tend to lock us into certain behaviors […]
  • August 11th New Episode: “Through the Looking Glass”
    “Devoted Adept” The latest installment in the autobiographical series advising how to become a monk or nun. Little Johnny exhibits Faith as part of the glob of karma he inherited from his previous life. Find this episode HERE
  • August 6th The Art of Lay Life 5: Rejecting Elements
    Uposatha Day Essay for the First Quarter Moon (Index to Series) We began the Art of Lay Life by Selecting Elements, prioritizing our values and obligations with particular attention to their costs alongside their appeal. I have appealed primarily to the reader’s own values in selecting what is most important. I have hopefully, however given […]
  • August 1st New Episode, “Through the Looking Glass”
    The new installment looks at the existential insights of the now teenage reborn monk. The New Episode, “Reflections on Reality,” can be found HERE
  • July 29th The Art of Lay Life 4: Selecting Elements (cont.)
    Uposatha Day Teaching (Index to Series) Your life is based on a long history of lifestyle decisions of your own making. Some of these decisions are to include something because something appeals to you, some of these are to include elements out of obligation. This is the pull and push of decision making. If you […]
  • July 22nd The Art of Lay Life 3: Selecting Elements
    Last Quarter Moon, July 23 (Index to Series) As for the qualities of which you may know, ‘These qualities lead to dispassion, not to passion; to being unfettered, not to being fettered; to shedding, not to accumulating; to modesty, not to self-aggrandizement; to contentment, not to discontent; to seclusion, not to entanglement; to aroused persistence, […]
  • July 21st New Episode: “Throught the Looking Glass”
    I have just added a new episode, “G.I. Discipline,” to the series which has been following the adventures entailed in Little Johnny’s rebirth, after having been a monk, but not a very good monk, in his previous existence. The series so far can be found: HERE Please look for a new episodes every two weeks […]
  • July 14th The Art of Lay Life 2
    New Moon Uposatha, July 15 (Index to Series) Whether it be a householder or one gone forth, it is the one of right practice that I praise, not the one of wrong practice – SN 45.24 In summary of last week, Buddhism is practiced be different people at many different levels. It is most coherently defined […]
  • July 11th New Episode: Through the Looking Glass
    Download the new chapter, “A Mind Turned Inward” as well as previous episodes  HERE.
  • July 8th Inauguration of Series “Through the Looking Glass”
     I have been working on a literary project, a book, tentatively entitled Through the Looking-Glass: How to Become a Buddhist Monk or Nun, which describes autobiographically how and why one would do such an odd thing, in an attempt to inspire others to follow this noble pursuit. I have now begun to serialize it on […]
  • July 7th Lay Buddhist Practice 1
    Uposatta Day, July 8 (Index to Series) Energetic and heedful in his tasks, Wisely administering his wealth, He lives a balanced life, Protecting what he has amassed. Endowed with faith and virtue too, Generous he is and free from avarice; He ever works to clear the path That leads to weal in future life. Thus […]
  • June 30th Faith IX
    Uposatha Day, New Moon, June 30, 2011 Summary and Conclusion Modern Buddhist commentators have not settled on an English translation for the Pali word “saddha,” often choosing a word like “confidence” or “conviction” to disassociate Buddhist faith from faith as it is uncomfortably understood in Western religion, and particularly from blind faith. I have chosen […]
  • June 23rd Faith VIII
    Uposatha Day, Last Quarter Moon, June 24, 2011 Wielding Faith II Last week we discussed faith as a quality of mind that serves Buddhism well and that it is important to cultivate and develop as a part of Buddhist practice. I described faith as representing the explorer’s mindset in that it is bold, resolute and […]
  • June 15th Faith VII
    Uposatha Day, Full Moon, June 16, 2011 Wielding Faith I We live in a world of overwhelming uncertainty, and at the same time we need to live our lives, set goals, act in the world. There are some things we know, or pretty reliably know, from direct experience, but really not very much. The rest […]
  • June 11th Request for Uposatha Day Proposals
    Dear readers, During the last year or so I have posted to this blog every Uposatha Day. I’ve run several series of posts on such topics as the Noble Eightfold Path, History of Buddhist Cultural Adaptation, Karma and Rebirth, Buddhist Religiosity, Not-Self, and now Faith. And before all that I was posting a travel log […]
  • June 8th Faith VI
    Uposatha Day, First Quarter Moon, June 9, 2011 Kalama Sutta Workbook Last week we discussed the Buddha’s advice on faith offered in the Kalama and Canki Suttas, what or who to believe in. In very brief summary: Don’t place faith blindly in: (1) Religious tradition (when this is conveyed without knowing). (2) Inference and logic […]
  • May 31st Faith V
    Uposatha Day, New Moon, June 1, 2011 The Buddha on Faith The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible. — Albert […]
  • May 25th Faith IV
    Uposatha Day, Last Quarter Moon, May 25, 2011 Origins of Faith It is important for us to understand the nature of faith because faith, like fire, is a powerful thing and we cannot get away from it; it is a source of great benefit when it directs our actions skillfully; it is highly toxic when […]
  • May 17th Faith III
    Uposatha Day, Full Moon, May 17, 2011 Faith Part III: Devotion Not to associate with fools, to associate with the wise, to honor those who are worthy of honor. this is the highest blessing. To reside in a suitable locality, to have done meritorious actions in the past, to set oneself on the right course. […]
  • May 9th Faith II
    Uposatha Day, First Quarter Moon, May 10, 2011 “It takes a lot of faith to do zazen [Zen Buddhist practice], otherwise you’d never do something so stupid.” – Rev. Shohaku Okumura Last week I introduced the notion of faith as a space in which we all spend most of our waking time, the space that […]
  • May 1st Faith I
    Uposatha Day, New Moon, May 2, 2011 The Buddha asked Sariputta, “Do you take it on faith that these five strengths — faith, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment— lead to the deathless?” Sariputta answered, “No, I don’t take it on faith. I know.” Humans live in the midst of a perennial dilemma. This has critical […]
  • April 25th The Self Collapses, Concluding this Series.
    Uposatha Day, Last Quarter Moon, April 26, 2011 In the many weeks past we have seen that the self is a fabrication that begins with a single faulty thought but which acquires a whole architecture as it extends its scope and influence and develops layers of protection. We begin by staking a greatest claim in […]
  • April 17th Non-Self and Buddhist Practice – Part Five
    Uposatha Day, Full Moon, April 18, 2011 Right Concentration (Samma-Samadhi) is the final step on the Noble Eightfold Path, the culmination of the Path, the last termite implicated in the destruction of the structure of the self. The Termite of Right Concentration. Right Concentration is a different kind of step because it is not actually […]
  • April 10th Non-Self and Buddhist Practice – Part Four
    Uposatha Day, First Quarter Moon, April 11, 2011 To recap the discussion of previous weeks, the recalcitrant sense of self is a fabrication that gives rise to a vast structure of additional fabrications, emotions and intentions and behaviors that together cause us and others huge problems. We are considering the Noble Eightfold Path from the […]
  • April 4th Non-Self and Buddhist Practice – Part Three
    Uposatha Day, New Moon, April 3, 2011 Sorry for this week’s tardiness. I am visiting my sister in Indianapolis, Dell laptop in hand, but without easy Internet access. Moving right along, we make our fourth step down the Noble Eightfold Path with Right Action. Recall that we are considering how each of the eight fundamental […]
  • March 27th Non-Self and Buddhist Practice – Part Two
    Uposatha Day, Last Quarter Moon, March 27, 2011 We have been looking in previous weeks at the various ways we create, then extend, then strengthen the sense of being a substantial separate self, until we are thoroughly invested in a framework of mutually supporting views, interests and activities that not only make it hard to […]
  • March 18th Non-Self and Buddhist Practice – Part One of, oh, about Three
    Uposatha Day, Full Moon, March 19, 2011 Impermanent are compounded things, Prone to rise and fall. Having risen, they’re destroyed, Their passing truest bliss. Suffering are compounded things, Prone to rise and fall. Having risen, they’re destroyed, Their passing truest bliss. Without self are compounded things, Prone to rise and fall. Having risen, they’re destroyed, […]
  • March 12th Non-Self for the Newly Old
    Uposatha Day, First Quarter Moon, March 12, 2011 I hereby present my first rerun. For a number of months I have posted anew each Uposatha Day. This week, slowed by various projects with perhaps a bit of sloth and torpor, I have failed. However most current followers of this blog are probably not aware of […]
  • March 3rd Non-Self: The Problem of Having a Self 2
    Uposatha Day, New Moon, March 4, 2011 A mind overcome with unskillful qualities borne of greed, aversion and delusion, his mind consumed, dwells in suffering right in the here and now, feeling threatened, turbulent, feverish, and at the breakup of the body, after death, can expect a bad destination. AN 3.69 The self is born […]
  • February 26th Non-Self: The Problem of Having a Self 1
    Uposatha Day, Last Quarter Moon, February 26, 2011 The anatta [non-self] doctrine teaches that neither within the bodily and mental phenomena of existence, nor outside of them, can be found anything that in the ultimate sense could be regarded as a self- existing real ego-entity, soul or any other abiding substance. This is the central […]
  • February 18th Non-Self: What is It?
    Uposatha Day, Full Moon, February 18, 2011 Monks, suppose that a large glob of foam were floating down this Ganges River, and a man with good eyesight were to see it, observe it, & appropriately examine it. To him — seeing it, observing it, & appropriately examining it — it would appear empty, void, without […]
  • February 10th Non-Self and You.
    Uposatha Day, First Quarter Moon, February 11, 2011 In the past four weeks we have conducted some thought experiments that raise questions about what exists or does not exist, or in what way things exist. We considered various kinds o things: Holes, for which there really is nothing to observe outside of the context in […]
  • February 2nd Not-Self: Thought Experiment 4 (Final Frontier)
    Uposatha Day, New Moon, February 3, 2011 “O.K., Scotty, we’re ready to beam up now.” “Energizing, sir.” Bzzzzz Wrrrrrrrr … Fwup Fwup. Captain Kirk and Spock materialized in the transporter on board the Starship Enterprise, hair mussed and looking a bit ragged from their latest, uh, enterprise, and at that moment in the midst of […]
  • January 27th Not-Self: Thought Experiment 3
    Uposatha Day, Last Quarter Moon, January 27, 2011 Thus shall ye think of all this fleeting world: A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream; A flash of lightning in a summer cloud, A flickering lamp, a phantom, a dream. The Diamond Sutra. Are clouds objects? Do they exist? Two answers suggest themselves immediately: […]
  • January 18th Not-Self: Thought Experiment 2
    Uposatha Day, January 19, Full Moon Are shadows objects? Do they exist? Two answers suggest themselves immediately: yes and no. Let’s try to rationalize each. But first, consider, where does a shadow come from? Well, as shadow arises with the presence of all of the following: A light source. A screen, or more or less […]
  • January 12th Not-Self: Thought Experiment 1
    Uposatha Day, January 12, First Quarter Moon Are donut holes objects? Do they exist? Two answers suggest themselves immediately: yes and no. Let’s try to rationalize each. Don’t be silly, holes don’t really exist. There is nothing there! Donuts happen to have a particular shape, they are hollow in the middle. But the donut is […]
  • January 10th From Thought to Destiny: the eBook
    From Thought to Destiny Traditional and Modern Understandings of Kamma click to download PDF
  • January 4th Religiosity in Buddhism (Part 2 of 2)
    Uposatha, New Moon, January 4 Last week I described religiosity as having an integral role in Buddhism, as the leaves and roots of the flower of Buddhism that thrive nurtured by the sun of Buddha, the water of Dharma and the Soil of Sangha, producing the strength to sustain the stem of Buddhist practice stretching […]
2010
  • December 28th Religiosity in Buddhism (Part 1 of 2).
    Uposatha Teaching, Last Quarter Moon, December 29 One common tendency of Western Buddhism is that we pick and choose: “I think meditation is useful, but I don’t believe in karma. I like the Buddha and all, but I don’t know why we need to bow at him all the time. I’ll wait ’til I’m enlightened, […]
  • December 21st From Thought to Destiny: Conclusion
    Uposatha Teaching: Full Moon, December 21, 2010. Index to Current Series “Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny” “Sow a thought, and you reap an act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit, and you reap a character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.” We now conclude […]
  • December 14th From Thought to Destiny: The Pragmatics of Destiny
    Uposatha Teaching: First Quarter, December 14, 2010. Index to Current Series “Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny” Nirvana is both the beginning and end of Buddhist practice. We begin with accepting the truth of the Buddha’s enlightenment. Even before we have an understanding of what this is, we accept that the Buddha […]
  • December 7th New Post: The Dharma of Linux
    A Buddhist Monk’s Reflections upon Installing Ubuntu on his Laptop Linux is a computer operating system, a competitor, with a small market share, of Microsoft Windows. Dharma is the Buddha’s teachings on the perfection of human character, in its three aspects of Serenity, Virtue and Wisdom. I’m a monk, and I pack a laptop, Dell […]
  • December 5th From Thought to Destiny: Nirvana, the Perfection of Character 2/2
    Uposatha Teaching: New Moon, December 6, 2010. Index to Current Series “Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny” Last week we began discussing Nirvana in two of its aspects, Imperturbability and Awakening, that is, the affective and cognitive aspects. This week we consider the the remaining aspects of Highest Virtue and of Liberation, […]
  • November 28th From Thought to Destiny: Nirvana, the Perfection of Character 1/2
    Uposatha Teaching: Last Quarter Moon, November 29, 2010. Index to Current Series “Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny” The final Destiny for those on the Buddhist Path is Nirvana. “Nirvana” itself means Unbinding or Extinguishing, and has been described as the End of Suffering; the End of Greed, Hate and Delusion; the […]
  • November 21st From Thought to Destiny: Perspectives on Rebirth
    Uposatha Teaching: Full Moon, November 21, 2010. Index to Current Series “Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny” Rebirth raises Western eyebrows. For those disposed to religious skepticism it may be a deal breaker. For others it may be an opportunity either to overhaul Buddhism or after all these years finally to reveal […]
  • November 18th Bearing Witness in Austin, Texas
    This recounts the experience of me and a group of fellow Engaged Buddhists and reflects on what it takes to be of benefit to Society. Politics as Usual. We normally think of a political process as dialectical in the West. We advocate the position that is Right, that accords with reality, that is compassionate, that […]
  • November 13th From Thought to Destiny: Rebirth and Karmic Spillage
    Uposatha Teaching: First Quarter, November 14, 2010. Index to Current Series “Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny” We have been considering the Buddha’s teachings on Rebirth for the last few weeks, including the pragmatic case for Rebirth and the scientific case for Rebirth. I want to consider this week a parallel phenomenon […]
  • November 5th From Thought to Destiny: Is Rebirth Verifiable?
    Uposatha Teaching: New Moon, November 6, 2010. Index to Current Series “Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny” For many Westerners, for instance, most educated Americans and many with upbringing in religions that reject the possibility of this phenomenon, rebirth as literally understood belongs in the same category as the efficacy of Tarot […]
  • October 29th From Thought to Destiny: The Pragmatics of Rebirth.
    Uposatha Teaching: Last Quarter, October 31, 2010. Index to Current Series “Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny” “…, to downplay the doctrine of rebirth and explain the entire import of the Dharma as the amelioration of mental suffering through enhanced self-awareness is to deprive the Dhamma of those wider perspectives from which […]
  • October 22nd From Thought to Destiny: Buddhism with Beliefs.
    Uposatha Teaching: Full Moon, October 23, 2010. Index to Current Series “Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny” A visitor to Niels Bohr’s country cottage, noticing a horseshoe hanging on the wall, teasing the eminent scientist about this ancient superstition. ‘Can it be true that you, of all people, believe it will bring […]
  • October 16th From Thought to Destiny: Rebirth
    Uposatha Teaching: First Quarter, October 16, 2010. Index to Current Series “Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny” Destiny, as I will understand it here, deals with the long-term consequences of Karma. We have tracked Karma from Thought, to Act (Karma is, most properly your intentional actions, and this arises with varying degrees […]
  • October 8th From Thought to Destiny: The Law of Karma
    Uposatha Teaching: New Moon, October 8, 2010. Index to Current Series “Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny” “I am the owner of my actions, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, and have my actions as my arbitrator. Whatever I do, for good or for evil, to […]
  • October 6th New Essay Added
    I’ve added a new essay to this site. Sex, Sin and Buddhism (see all) A supplement to Sex, Sin and Zen by Brad Warner Brad Warner writes near the beginning of his recent book, Sex Sin and Zen: “I only really know Zen, myself, so that’s all I’m going to be addressing here,” which appears to […]
  • October 1st From Thought to Destiny: Character
    Uposatha Teaching: Last Quarter Moon, October 1, 2010. Index to Current Series “Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny” If one man conquer in battle, A thousand times thousand men, And if another conquer himself, He is the greatest of conquerors. Dhammapada 103. The defining verse of this series reads, “Sow a thought […]
  • September 23rd From Thought to Destiny: Habits in Context
    Uposatha Teaching: FullMoon, September 23, 2010. Index to Current Series “Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny” “Sow an act and reap a habit.” We read last week about this very comprehensible model of skill acquisition, that forms the basis of most Buddhist practice. Through repeated acts we develop habits; those habits reveal […]
  • September 16th From Thought to Destiny: Habits as Karma
    Uposatha Teaching: New Moon, September 16, 2010. Index to Current Series “Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny” “Whatever a monk keeps pursuing with his thinking & pondering, that becomes the inclination of his awareness. If a monk keeps pursuing thinking imbued with renunciation, abandoning thinking imbued with sensuality, his mind is bent […]
  • September 8th From Thought to Destiny: To Purify the Mind
    Uposatha Teaching: New Moon, September 8, 2010. Index to Current Series “Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny” Well-makers lead the water (wherever they like); Fletchers bend the arrow; carpenters bend a log of wood; Good people fashion themselves. Dhammapada 145 To review: Buddhism has not one system of ethics, … not two, […]
  • September 2nd From Thought to Destiny: To Do Good
    Uposatha Teaching: First Quarter Moon, September 2, 2010. Index to Current Series “Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny” Bad deeds, and deeds hurtful to ourselves, are easy to do; what is beneficial and good, that is very difficult to do. Dhammapada 163 We are considering the three systems of Buddhist ethics as […]
  • August 25th Does a Buddhist lose Ambition?
    Terasi asks: Would you talk about Buddhism and motivation please? Ever since I learned Buddhism few months ago (I am a newbie!) I’ve become more restrained, able to restrained anger, annoyance, craving to shop junks, etc. It’s wonderful, I am happier and calmer now. But then I wonder if all the stress on unruffled mind, […]
  • August 25th From Thought to Destiny: To Avoid Evil
    Uposatha Teaching: Full Moon, August 25, 2010. Index to Current Series “Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny” This mind of mine went formerly wandering about as it liked, as it listed, as it pleased; but I shall now hold it in thoroughly, as the rider who holds the hook holds in the […]
  • August 18th From Thought to Destiny: Action (Karma)
    Uposatha Teaching: First Quarter Moon, August 18, 2010. Index to Current Series “Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny” To avoid evil, To do good, To purify the mind. This is the advice of all Buddhas. Dhammapada, 183 In Buddhism it is in our deeds that the rubber meets the road. And deeds […]
  • August 16th Was Jesus a Buddhist Monk?
    The neat separation many of us make in our minds between Eastern and Western religion and culture belies many common historical origins and interconnections. We forget the common origin of most of the languages of Europe and India, along with Persian, Armenian and Hittite. We forget how Alexander, a Greek/Macedonian extended an empire all the […]
  • August 10th From Thought to Destiny: Thought
    Uposatha Teaching: New Moon Day, August 10, 2010 All that we are is the result of thought, Thought is its master, it is produced by thought. If one speaks or acts, With corrupted thought, Then pain follows, As the wheel follows the foot of the ox. All that we are is the result of thought, […]
  • August 3rd From Thought to Destiny: Introduction
    Quarter Moon Teaching “Sow a thought, and you reap an act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit, and you reap a character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.” – anonymous This quote may have a Buddhist origin. No one seems to know where it came from, but various […]
  • July 26th The Goal of Buddhist Practice
    Quarter Moon Teaching This particular Uposatha Day is also the Day of the Full Moon. This particular Day of the Full Moon is also Dhamma Day, commemorating the Buddha’s first discourse, in which he first expounded The Noble Eightfold Path. Dhamma Day also marks the beginning of Vassa, the Rains Retreat. During Vassa for three […]
  • July 19th Beyond the Noble Eightfold Path
    Quarter Moon Teaching The Suttas recount the following conversation: As he was sitting there, Ven. Ananda said to the Blessed One, “This is half of the holy life, lord: admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie.” “Don’t say that, Ananda. Don’t say that. Admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie is actually the whole of the holy […]
  • July 18th Some Temporary ordinations.
    In Burma and in Thailand it is very common for a man, especially a young man, to ordain as a monk temporarily, often for just a few days. This constitutes a completely valid ordination, going through all the steps, including shaving the head and beginning to wear the robes. But in this case the intention […]
  • July 12th Noble Eightfold Path: the Big Picture
    Uposatha Day Teaching During each of the last eight Uposatha Days we have taken up a successive step on the Noble Eightfold Path, the Buddha’s checklist for Buddhist practice, the path to the Perfection of the Human Character. Each step has been described concisely, in fact too briefly to do full justice. But I hope […]
  • July 4th Noble Eightfold Path: Right Concentration
    Uposatha Day Teaching The Eighth and final Fold of the Eightfold Path is Right Concentration. Concentration in Pali or Sanskrit is samadhi, a familiar word in Buddhist vocabulary. A potter or other skilled craftsman also requires a degree of concentration and does his or her best work with concentration, in which the mind of the […]
  • July 1st New Essays
    I just posted a new essay, or actually a collection of essays at this site. Please see: Up to the Land of the Chopstick and Over to the Land of the Fork India. China America Future Also, you might want to check out my last essay: Science and Vinaya
  • June 26th Noble Eightfold Path: Right Mindfulness
    Uposatha Day Teaching for the Full Moon Right Mindfulness is perhaps the best known of the Eight Folds of the Noble Path. But few understand exactly what mindfulness is. Let’s look in on our master potter once again. There he is spinning a pot on the potters wheel, with his eyes fixed on his fingers, […]
  • June 18th Noble Eightfold Path: Right Effort
    An Uposatha Day teaching for the First Quarter Moon. We don’t like to think Buddhist practice takes effort. Buddhism abounds with metaphors that might suggest it doesn’t, some traditional images and some new marketing slogans such as being already enlightened, realizing your own nature. It is true that our characters are bursting with possibilities many […]
  • June 12th Uposatha Day Teaching
    Noble Eightfold Path: Right Livelihood We are now at the fifth fold of the Noble Eightfold Path, the Buddha’s master checklist for mastering the skill of life. The Ethical Conduct Group of the Noble Eightfold Path consists of Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood. We will finish the Ethical Conduct group with this post […]
  • June 3rd Uposatha Day Teaching
    Noble Eightfold Path: Right Action In the last episode we considered Right Speech, the first of the Ethical Conduct Group of the Noble Eightfold Path. Today we take up Right Action. The most common of the alternative formulations of Buddhist ethical conduct is the Five Precepts: Not to kill living beings. Not to take what […]
  • May 27th Uposatha Day Teaching
    Noble Eightfold Path: Right Speech To bring the new reader up to date, the Noble Eightfold Path is the Buddha’s master checklist on the path to the perfection of character. The eight folds fall into three groups or trainings, the Wisdom Group, the Ethical Conduct Group and the Cultivation of Mind Group. In the past […]
  • May 20th Uposatha Day Teaching
    Noble Eightfold Path: Right Resolve For new readers: Each quarter moon, on Uposatha Day, I am posting a short Buddhist teaching. The present posting is the third in the series on the Noble Eightfold Path, the Buddha’s master checklist for practice, the practice of perfecting character. We have been using the metaphor of the potter […]
  • May 13th Uposatha Day Teaching
    Noble Eightfold Path, Right View In order to craft a ceramic object a potter needs to understand his materials and tools: the varieties of clay, how much water to add to the clay, how the clay behaves under pressure, what conditions will cause a pot to crack or explode in the kiln, what happens to […]
  • May 6th Uposatha Day Teaching
    Noble Eightfold Path, Introduction Recall that every Uposatha Day, traditionally a day for connecting with Buddhist practice, I am posting a short teaching, and that today I begin a series of short teachings on the Noble Eightfold Path. Buddhism is about the Perfection of Character. The Noble Eightfold Path is the Buddha’s instructions or how […]
  • April 27th Uposatha Dhamma
    Uposatha, a Pali word,  is often translated as “Sabbath.” In Buddhist lands this traditionally follows the phases of the moon such that every time the moon is either full, empty (new), or half way in between (first or last quarter) we get an uposatha day. That is pretty cool in itself, but wait til you […]
  • April 20th Interview in the Austin American Statesman
    Buddhist monk says U.S. can benefit from example of monastic communities www.statesman.com When I visited with Venerable Cintita recently, I was eager to hear about his experience in Myanmar where he was ordained as a bhikkhu, or monk, last year. I’d known Cintita for years as Kojin, a priest … (more)
  • April 15th Announcing New Web Site
    I would like to officially announce my New Web Site as a home for various essays, some of which are reworked from postings from Burma to the present blog. It will also provide space for discussion and its own blog. Some of you have probably visited an earlier version of the site. Please note that […]
  • April 13th Still in Minnesota
    I may be in Minnesota until June! Recall that in the last episode I left Austin 13 days after returning from Burma in order to fill in for the resident monk, Ashin Nayaka, at the Burmese temple in Maplewood, MN. I would stay here about one month until Ashin Mahasadda Pandita Sayadaw of Baltimore, a […]
  • March 27th Cintita’s Ordination, March 10, 2009.
  • March 26th Burmese Government
    When Myanmar makes the international news it almost invariably is in the context of government oppression. In September, 2007, it was the Saffron Revolution, the brutally suppressed monks’ uprising. This last year it was the implications of John Yettaw’s intrusion into Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest. While I was in Myanmar I followed a […]
  • March 21st Minnesota Monk
    I have been asked to fill in at the Sitagu Dhamma Vihara in St. Paul, Minnesota for a month, and flew up here on Thursday. The monastery here plays a very active role in the life of the Burmese community. Frankly I’m surprised there are any Burmese in Minnesota at all; it’s gets so cold. […]
  • March 6th I think I’m back in the USA
    Evidence that I Am. I distinctly remember being on three different airplanes and in four different airports. I remember seeing my luggage in progressive stages of decay, at departure, at customs and on arrival. I even remember the plot of an in-flight movie, "2012." I look out the window and see the shrubby grey and […]
  • February 18th Welcome
    Welcome to Cintita’s Blog. You should be able to comment here. Say “hi” if you get here so I know the blog is working. Let me know if there are problems. Thanks, Cintita
  • February 7th Hanging out with Bhikkhus (and Bhikkhunis)
    An important aspect of the Buddhist tradition is the intercourse between monastics and lay people, which is a powerful devotional and ritualized practice that might be compared to a dance between lay and monastic partners. In the West it is hard to appreciate that this has been a cornerstone of Buddhist practice for 2600 years […]
  • January 31st Postcard from Burma
    CINTITA BACK IN THE STATES I will return to the USA in one month, leaving Yangon, Myanmar on March 2 and arriving in Austin March 3 at 11:35am. This time my flight will be through Taipei, rather than through Moscow. I will arrive on AA 1182 from Los Angeles. I am looking forward to being […]
  • January 29th The Third Refuge
    All Buddhists know the Three Refuges, which are…  (All Together!), “Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.” These are said to be the elements of Faith (saddha) in Buddhism. Many Western Buddhists do not like the word “Faith” when applied to Buddhism, because they think of blind faith, the requirement that you believe a bunch of stuff for […]
  • January 12th Postcard from Burma: Alms Rounds
    I have settled into life here in Yangon, Pali lessons with BhantePannyasiha, morning and evening walks in the neighborhood and the dogsthat greet me, the wonderful two meals each day at the SitaguMissionary Center, my afternoon classes on English pronunciation,study, reading, getting attacked by mosquitoes. With only 7 weeks leftin Myanmar and with in-room wireless […]
2009
  • December 28th Postcard from Burma
    Postcard from Burma On December 23 I left Sagaing and took the overnight bus to Yangon. Iwill live in Yangon for the next two months, until I return to Texas.Sitagu Sayadaw, my preceptor, had made arrangements for me to studywith Ashin Pannyasiha, a teacher at the Sitagu International BuddhistMissionary Center. Here is a picture of […]
  • December 26th Photos
    I haven't had many photos to show you. However, when someone inquired I found this site on the Web. There are some very good shots. Click on "Sagaing" for the area I have spent the most time. You probably won't find me in any of these photos, but let me know if you do. http://www.myanmars.net/myanmar-photo/ […]
  • December 20th Postcard from Burma
    Postcard from Burma Dog Update. Tiny Tim, the scrawny lame puppy I’ve been feeding, is still holding in there. He is not growing as fast as his siblings, but his lameness is gone. I was worried for a couple of days when there was no sign of him, but only of his two siblings. Village […]
  • December 5th Picky Eaters in the Land of the Fork.
    Picky Eaters in the Land of the Fork. The reception committee of the Springdale Buddhist Center and PingPong Club held a lavish banquette for its Buddhist members, andoffered the Whole Buddhist Fare, from Embodiment to Realization. Totheir great dismay, no one seemed to eat much. The committee (Bob,Carol and Skipper) realized some adaptation of the […]
  • December 4th Postcard from Burma
    Postcard from BurmaElectricity Update. Now that the Rainy Season is over we seem to haveelectricity only about half of the time. It has generally been out inthe early morning, most of the afternoon, and on and off, but mostlyon during the evening. With a good battery in my computer, arechargible flashlight and candles I am […]
  • November 23rd Mahayana/Theravada Finale: In the Land of the Fork.
    Mahayana/Theravada Finale: In the Land of the Fork. This is the last in the series on Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism. I'msorry I have not been able to say much about Vajrayana or TibetanBuddhism, because I know little about it. Although it is normallyclassed as a branch of Mahayana, it has its own unique properties aswell. […]
  • November 22nd Postcard from Burma
    Postcard from Burma Well, it's been a quiet month at Sitagu Buddhist Academy. SitaguSayadaw was away for about a month, and returned yesterday for about aweek. He is a busy guy. He will be back in Austin, Texas sometime inDecember, then again in March, when I will also be returning toAustin. I have no idea […]
  • November 2nd Postcard from Burma
    Postcard from Burma Kathina Day.Last week was Kathina Day, a time when lay people make donations ofrobes to monks. Not that they don't at other occasions throughout theyear. Kathina Day is always scheduled after the Rains Retreat (Vassa)has ended. The original tradition, as described in the Vinaya,involved a lot more work for the monks. In […]
  • October 12th Mahayana/Theravada 4: The Authentic Teachings
    Mahayana/Theravada 4: The Authentic Teachings If you poll the followers of the various schools with the question,"Which is the True Buddhism?" you will probably find a very consistentanswer: "Ours Is!" Zen, for instance, is traditionally held to be a special transmissionindependent of words and letters that was kept under wraps in India,but can be traced […]
  • October 11th Postcard from Burma
    Invitation Day. The vassa, or rains retreat, ended on the last full moon day, October3. The tradition as defined by the Buddha is to stay put at amonastery for three months during the rainy season, rather than totravel from monastery to monastery. On the last day of the retreat,is Invitation Day. On virtually every full […]
  • October 1st Postcard from Burma
    MEALTIME The monks at Sitagu eat in the dining hall, generally around 5:40amthen again around 10:45. Since our vows do not permit us to eat afternoon, except for certain things considered medicinal, we have tofinish eating our second meal by then. Someone hits a big belloutside with a mallet to tell us that it is […]
  • September 22nd Bhikkhu Cintita Joins the Ranks of the Newly Old
    On September 27 I will turn 60! In Buddhism we have this Self thing,or rather don't have it. To be a Self requires the view that there issomething in or around this body that is unchanging, besides a SocialSecurity Number. That unchanging Self is what is known in Buddhism as"a mental formation," which in my […]
  • September 14th Postcard from Burma
    “The Alley” The Guest House where I live is situated along the South side of the Sitagu grounds, actually just outside the monastery fence, but inside an outer wall that also encloses within its perimeter housing for staff, a small lumber yard, and other infrastructure facilities. Behind the Guest House, in the direction my back […]
  • September 2nd Another Postcard from Burma
    Postcard from Burma (Think of these postcards as very big, or as the writing on them as very small.) Wigglet is in heat. I’ve described Wigglet is “my dog,” though she now bounces between my place and that of Petra, the German woman who is living in the guesthouse about ten apartments down. It turns […]
  • August 25th Postcard from Burma
    Postcard from Burma We are finally getting some rain here in Sagaing. This is the Rainy Season, one of three official four-month seasons, the others being the hot season and the cold season. (The Burmese do not recognize, or even seem to know about, our four three-month seasons.) We are also observing Vassa here at […]
  • August 7th Mahayana/Theravada IV: The Cultural Dimension.
    Mahayana/Theravada  IV: The Cultural Dimension.   Many good Theravada Buddhists in Myanmar seem to feel that there is something mistaken in Mahayana Buddhism. There are differences, as I’ve described, including doctrinal differences that can be traced to ancient India and differences in style and garb. I would like to suggest that these differences are not […]
  • July 28th Two Sides to Any Story
    Sitagu International Buddhist Academy is square, with a 620-foot wall running along each of the four sides. I live in the Guest House, which runs the entire length of the South wall, just on the outside of the monastery proper. The Guest House has 32 rooms, all in a long row, used mostly for lay […]
  • July 23rd Some pictures of me in my red Theravadan robe
    I no longer look like that guy with the cat. Here I am sitting under a bohdi tree.
  • July 20th Mahayana/Theravada III: The Great Schism
    Mahayana/Theravada III: The Great Schism.   The Buddha was very concerned with schism in the sangha. He defined schism very clearly, warned about its arising in no uncertain terms, and put many policies and procedure in place to avoid. The sangha here is understood as the community of monks and nuns, and the Buddha is […]
  • July 17th Mahayana/Theravada II: The Pa Auk Tawya Encounter
    Theravada/Mahayana II: The Pa Auk Tawya Encounter   This Spring I spent almost two months at the Pa Auk Tawya meditation center in Mon State, with about four hundred other monks. This is, of course, a Theravada monastery, and it has a very famous Burmese abbot, who teaches a particular and very systematic method of […]
  • July 1st Pictures!
    The following link will take you to some pictures from the Burma pilgrimage. Scott, who took the pictures, may already have posted them to the blog, in which case I apologize for the second posting. http://picasaweb.google.com/conn.sr/Burma1?feat=email Notice, that although Scott uses my new name (U Cintita) in the captions, he in fact returned to Texas […]
  • June 30th Postcard from Burma
    Classes are in full swing at Sitagu International Buddhist Academy (SIBA). The place is full of resident monks, and monks and nuns from the densely monastic environs come to SIBA to attend classes as well. My schedule is much as it has been, with a heavy emphasis on study. I generally meditate for an hour […]
  • June 26th
    At a temple near Mandalay
  • June 26th
    Hi. I’ve set up a google gallery of some photos from our tour of Myanmar.  This is the site: http://picasaweb.google.com/conn.sr I have been subject to sloth and torpor getting this up.  But here it is, and I will be adding to it. Peace, harmony, and metta, Scott
  • June 23rd Mahayana/Theravada I
    In my recent bhikkhu ordination I've crossed the divide between the two major modern branches of Buddhism, Mahayana and Theravada. This was anticipated in the name of this blog: "Bhante" is the Theravada title for a monk or nun, and "Dogen" is a reference to the founder of Japanese Soto Zen Mahayana Buddhism. It feels […]
  • June 13th Languages
    Languages   A priority for the next months is learning Pali language. At the same time I am a rare resource for this “English-media” institution: a native speaker of English and a trained linguist; teaching English will be an important task for me. Still the language most spoken here is Burmese, and among foreign students […]
  • June 8th Pictures from Myanmar
    This link should take you to some pictures that have been posted ofthe pilgrimage tour to Myanmar: http://manatphyan77.blogspot.com/ I cannot actually visit the site from here to give you any tips fornavigating the site. I think there may be a massive number of pictureshere. I should appear in a good percentage of them, especially group […]
  • June 6th Burmese Miracle Stories
    Outside of us monks, two things that help sustain Buddhist faith hereare (1) really big buddhas and pagodas, and (2) miracle stories. Bothare exemplified in Kyaik Tiyo, Golden Rock, Pagoda. This is the lastsite the pilgrimage group visited before dropping me off at Pa AukTawya Meditation Center on March 18. The miracle of Kyaik Tiyo […]
  • June 2nd
    Ashin Cintita before an image of the Buddha made of bamboo covered in gold.
  • May 27th The Bhikkhu’s Robes: a Short Introduction
    There is a steep curve for the new bhikkhu who comes from a land that provides little opportunity to observe the attire, deportment and activities of Buddhist monks. Shucks, I never even saw monks on alms round until I came to Myanmar. In this short essay, I would like to highlight The Robes of the […]
  • May 24th Life in Sagaing Hills
    I arrived here at the Sitagu International Buddhist Academy, my home base, once again on May 12, and have now settled into a routine I can report to you. The Academy is still closed for the hot season, until the third week in June. It is very hard to acquire any information about the schedule […]
  • May 23rd Pa Auk Tawya: Contacts
    I know there are a lot of readers who do meditation retreats. I would highly recommend Pa Auk Tawya to readers who may be considering a retreat on the basis of my experience, though my experience is limited to the monks' wing. The center in Myanmar is certainly used to handling foreigners, and also can […]
  • May 20th Pa Auk Tawya: Surroundings
    Pa Auk Tawya Meditation Center covers a large range of forest (maybe it's classified as jungle).  After being there seven and a half weeks, I was surprised driving out at how much there is of it: the lay sector and the nuns' sector in addition to the monks' sector in which I was housed, plus […]
  • May 16th Pa Auk Tawya: Practice
    Life at PAT is very familiar for someone who has been to Tassjara Zen Mountain Center and has done Zen sesshins. Life is centered around meditation practice with emphasis on silence and minimal social interaction. Some differences exist as well: First Tassajara is more self-sustaining, with monks keeping things running and doing the cooking. At […]
  • May 14th Pa Auk Tawya Meditation Center: Alms Rounds Part II
    (Electricity came back on again, this is a daily occurrence anywhere in Myanmar.) Bhikkhus line up for alms in order of seniority, that is, how long since ordination, with bhikkhus before samaneras (novices). This would generally put me way down the line. However at Pa Auk Tawya they conventionally put foreigners ahead of Burmese. They […]
  • May 14th Pa Auk Tawya Meditation Center: Alms Rounds
    The monks were offered two meals a day, at about 5:45 AM, and shortly after 10:00 AM. Monks, of course, cannot eat after noon, except for certain things that have medicine or tonic status. In the traditional alms round (pindapata, which colorfully means "dropping a lump [of something into the alms bowl]" monks leave the […]
  • May 11th Pa Auk Tawya Meditation Center
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  • May 10th Cintita Back On Line
    Readers of this blog my despair of not receiving postings from me since early March. I decided to enter Pa Auk Tawya meditation center on March 18, from which I emerged 52 days later, on May 9. I write from Sitagu Center in Yangon and will be back in Sagaing in about two days, where […]
  • March 16th Wearing the Robes
    Our group has been doing some more traveling, me sporting my new robes, before most of us (not me) return to the USA on March 20. The monks' robes carry a deep symbolic significance in Burma. People pay respect through bowing, often three times all the way floor, and these are often complete strangers acting […]
  • March 11th Bhante Cindita
    Theravada ordination happens in two stages: (1) novice ordination, (2) higher ordination. Most typically novice ordination is undertaken by youngsters under the age of 20 and full ordination occurs at the age of 20. However after the age of 20 (like me) both can happen in quick succession, at least in the Burmese connection.   […]
  • March 9th Big Theravada Conference
    March 5-8 I attended the 2nd conference of the Association of Theravada Buddhist Universities here at SIBA in Sagaing Hills. This was very much like many of the academic conferences I used to attend in the United States is format and feeling, bringing together a huge international set of scholars for general sessions and simultaneous […]
  • March 3rd English Lessons
    The upcoming conference of the International Association of Theravada Buddhist Universities is almost underway here in Sagaing Hills. Many of the about three hundred visitors are beginning to arrive. Bhante Gunaratana of the Bhavana Society and author of Mindfulness in Plain English arrived yesterday. Originally only about 100 delegates were expected, preparations have gotten very […]
  • February 27th Peculiarities of the Burmese
    Our itinerent group has taken two more trips since the last posting without enough time between for me to get a post off. The first was to Taunggyi and Lake Inwa in Shan State. Shan State seems to be the most prosperous in Burma and Taunggyi is very clean. In Burma a vacation trip is […]
  • February 16th Buddhism in Burma
    'Sattvas, I'm back at Sagaing Hills for a couple of days, which will be my home base  I feel at home here because in a lot of ways it reminds me of Marin County in California, where I grew up, only not so upscale. Sagaing Hills is very hill, often with very steep hills, and […]
  • February 12th Travels
    Our group (3 monks, 3 lay and me), ison a pilgimage to Buddhist pagodas and monsteries, but we've also had the opportunity to visit some parks and look around some cities and towns. The Sitagu organization, a network of monasteries and public service establishments, all founded by Ashin Nyanissara, has taken us under its wing, […]
  • February 7th I’m Here!
    I arrived in Burma the day before yesterday. We flew from Yongon (Rangoon) to Mandalay the first day and attended part of an enormous Buddhist conference at a temple in Mandalay. We've been visiting quite a few temples, and even and hospital and a hospice. Things are very interesting here, the people are incredibly friendly […]
  • January 27th Contact Information while Kojin is in Burma
    ‘Sattvas, I will leave for Burma in one week. There is still some time to ask tohave tea with me before I go. I will foreseeably be in Burma for a year or more, primarily at the SitaguInternational Buddhist Academy in Sagaing Hills near Mandalay,a small monastic college. Unfortunately there is no internationalpostal service to/from […]
  • January 25th Pilgrimage
    This is the announcement of the pilgrimage at the beginning of my stayin Burma, from Sitagu Vihara (Burmese temple in Austin). The other sixparticipants will return to the USA on March 20, while I stay on atthe Sitagu International Buddhist Academy near Mandalay. Feb 3, 2009 to ?, Burma (Myanmar Trip), Austin Pilgrimage Group1. Sayadaw […]
  • January 20th Leaving Austin Zen Center
    AZC Sangha Members, People have been asking if I am leaving AZC. The answer is yes … and no. I’ve recently made some fairly radical decisions about my practice career, that I very quickly communicated to a number of people. As these things happen, a wider group of people have then heard about my decisions […]
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