Dharma PhD
4y ago
One practitioner’s four(ish)-year journey to become a professional in Mindfulness and Secular Buddhism, without getting all mysterious and solemn about it.
Greetings, Friendlies!
This month’s homework for the @BodhiCollege CPP is MN 122, The Longer/Greater Discourse on Emptiness.
As previously, I’ve compiled a spreadsheet comparing translations between Sujato, Ñanamoli, and Ṭhānissaro: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J23pjMQkIRkus0LOthLGtHriaZA6Pq4UTwjVaD0umlo/. Exciting stuff.
Structure
The sutta is not divided into chapters but seems to discuss 9(ish) different things:
Mendicants should not allow themselves to be caught up in socializing.
Perseverance when the mind is troubled in meditation.
Awareness in different postures.
Awareness when speaking and thinking.
Awareness of susceptibility to the Five Chords of Sense Pleasure (Kāmaguṇa).
Observing the Five Aggregates (Khandhas) rise and fall and the resultant Anattā.
When to follow after a teacher.
The undoing of teachers (ācariya), students (antevāsī), and “those who live the holy life” (brahmacārī) (ie, disciples of Gotama?).
Treating teachers and disciples as friends.
My Thoughts
This new 250 word limit really muzzles my commentarial propensities.
One thing that surprised me was my assenting to the list of things to talk/think or avoid talking/thinking about. I don’t believe we should never talk about these things, only that we should do it with intentionality. At a house party recently (those are a thing again?!?) I watched how unintentional focus on these topics was unpleasant. And seems to me that, for some people, it is harmful to mental health.
Also I particularly like the bit at the end, about how he, Gotama, would not “Mollycoddle” Ānanda. “I shall not mollycoddle you like a potter with their damp, unfired pots. I shall speak, correcting you again and again, pressing you again and again. The core will stand the test.” (Sujato’s translation)
249 words!