A very interesting discussion. He listened very carefully to what you asked and replied in a compelling incisive and honest way. He does seem admirably humorous calm and peaceful in the face of life's challenges and a good deal more modest in relation to his assessment of where he currently is along the path to nirvana than some of your previous guests who have claimed to be much further along the way but whose demeanour from my possibly deluded perspective betrayed much less metacognitive awareness on their part. I liked this chap very much for his authenticity. I've been meditating on and off for maybe 5 years and so am very much a beginner. Before watching this I was feeling more drawn to the idea of secular Buddhism but I am definitely inspired to discover this man's writing following this discussion. Thanks very much for sharing. I thoroughly enjoy most of your discussions with all these interesting people.
Buddha's monks are forbidden to claim/clue any stage of enlightenment by monastic code of highest order. But It is okie for laymen to say anything as long as he isn't lying.
Love these videos very much! I recently was at a month long monastic retreat in Taiwan and saw a fellow participant reading a Robert Wright's face on the back of his book: "Why Buddhism is True". I found this channel before attending and watched a bit of it before learning the host's name and work at the retreat! I was surprised and humored to see his face at a place and time in which all internet use was not allowed. It was an interesting occurence to witness how Buddhist ideas (like any other) travel to people from different parts of the world.
I would like to see a three way discussion among Wright, Bhikkhu Bodhi, and Sam Harris on Buddhism, perhaps with Wright as the moderator to guide the discussion.
I am happy to hear the good Bhikkhu verify what I have found through seeing, looking, that the Pali cannon hold without elaboration or conflation the golden thread of enlightenment.
Thank you Robert Wright for conducting this interview - I enjoyed listening to it! I felt one of the major points this discussion could have included is ‘the three characteristics of existence.’ Nibbana is ultimately about gaining a penetrative understanding of the three characteristics, which is what enables one to “see things just as they are.” This also gradually cultivates wisdom and takes away ignorance and greed/hate.
Ad metta: Personaly I'm also a very hard case when it comes to metta meditation. The only instructions I found on this type of meditation that deviate from the traditional ordering are by Ajahn Brahm, perhaps because he is a westerner? The progression is the same, start easy (with someone you actually love or even an imaginary friend!) and once you are going, increase the circle/difficulty, but only once you are 'done' with your enemies, throw yourself in the fire of metta. The ultimate challenge so to speak. Does this make sense to anybody else, or is it just me?
Excellent talk. Thank you Robert and Bhante Bodhi. I believe this is the webpage with the 1981 lectures. bodhimonastery.org/the-buddhas-teaching-as-it-is.html
The irony of the western views of Buddhism is the deeply rooted belief in seeing is believing! There are so many different schools of the Buddhism , need it be? Absolutely no, all in all it is us, ourselves, that we are missing out in dealing with! Looking inward is the core, the “me” is the only one real obstacle. The Vipassana meditation might be helpful!
Bob, your videos are always very good, thank you! Have you ever considered including links to the supplemental material discussed (such as the lectures of Bhikku Bodhi, in this case) in the description below the video?
If a secular practitioner does not have imminent religious assumptions or beliefs/objects to meditate on - will not achieve enlightenment and release from bad karma and samsara? I see there is another video on this question. Will def watch to see if this attachment is still championed
Good discussion but did you have to end on the pontification of 45 minute cassettes that need to be flipped and may bleed from one side to the other? haha.
(secular) Nivvana (if one can call it that way)wouldn't be simple "bliss"experienced by a physical entity...Maybe an infinite radiance of creative energy...A state of liberation from Kamma and Samsara, achieved after many puriified reincarnations...
Hello Mario, Good kamma always supportive in the path to nibbhana but not to attain nibbhana. It causes positive results in day to day life. Results arisen by bad kamma harrazing the path to nibbana. According to my knowledge, when a person stops the foregoing force of kamma(good & bad), his sanasara is not creating another birth or result. When the force of kamma is disappeared, there is no reason to create another result. This unconditional state is called the nibbhana. In buddhist teachings state of nibbhana is compaired to the going out of the flame of an oil lamp. Oil is the reason(the kamma) to keep burning. When the oil is finished the flame is vanished. The interesting thing is there is no place where the flame goes. Similarly the person who completed his enlightenment will no longer exists. Good kamma and bad kamma both matter to extending the sansaara. If anybody wants to stop the burning of the flame, he has to understand the illusion created by the consciousness. To understand that, he has to look into his mind and train it. I wish you may have more opportunities to listening dhamma... ! (Sorry for my poor English)
Like Jesus and Mohammed, the Buddha was illiterate and did not write anything during his lifetime, or one of his disciples did not take contemporary notes which later became the Buddhist texts. Buddhism followed the oral traditions. In oral tradition, we cannot be sure that the original words were not changed. If you have played Telephone game as a kid where one child starts the game by thinking of a word or phrase and whispering it into the next child’s ear, which usually ends in fits of giggles as the message often becomes distorted and ridiculous. First Buddhist texts were written down several centuries later. So, how do these people talk about the Buddha's words when we cannot be sure that these words were spoken by the Buddha? Does pseudepigraphy mean anything to these Buddhidts? Have you ever met a person who has attained nirvana? How do you know if someone has achieved nirvana?
August 24th is my birthday. Perhaps as a birthday present Bhante is willing to give me an answer my question. Why is Buddhism not as popular as Christianity and Islam? Thank you in advance.
It is not reasonable. But that is not what I am really asking. I am asking the main cause of the Rohingya problem. The cause may be complicated and obscure. The cause may be from both side of the conflicting parties. But still we have to really find which one is the main cause. Perhaps the cause stems from Buddhist teaching, economic crisis, or Islamic teaching. Whatever it is I don't think people would be easily slaughter another people without deep emotional and long historical reasons. And we have to be really honest here. If the cause really comes from Buddhist teachings in which perhaps The Buddha himself taught his disciples to slaughter the enemies or perhaps because the ineffectiveness of Buddhist meditation, ritual, or behavioral conduct to prevent such violence from both sides then the prominent figures of Buddhism such as Bikhu Bodhi must admit this problem. But I don't feel that they want to take ownership of the problems. I myself would argue that the problems is caused by the necessity of coercive force to maintain order in society. The fact that Christianity, Islam, and Communism was very rapidly spread is because they didn't shy away from actively participating in war.
+VidPro Surabaya Same could be said about capitalism. I think it's fair to assume that any structure, whether religious, economic or otherwise, that has reached that degree of global success has not shied away from using force and coercion. That being said, it's not a full answer. Take Christianity. While it is true that it used force to reach the position it is in today, force alone doesn't account for its success, particularly in its early stages when it gained popularity throughout Greece and then the Roman empire. Hard to say what drove it. Of course, Buddhism has a history of violence of its own. I think the issue isn't force per se. It's more about proselytism. Christianity and Islam both lay heavy emphasis on converting others. Faiths like Buddhism or Judaism do not. I suppose the question is why that might be. I don't think there's a simple answer to that. As for the rohingya, I think it has to do with ethnic groups and xenophobia. Religion is just another marker that identifies you as a member of one ethnic group or another. I think what you find with this type of thing is that it doesn't really matter what happened in the past. Similar slaughters have occurred when the past grievance was entirely fictional. More often than not, something did happen but got extremely distorted through years of people harboring bitterness and resentment. Look at Shia and Sunni. 1500 years later and still fighting over whether it was Ali or Abu Bakr who was meant to take over after Muhammad. Does it even matter at this point? The violence then compounds, each group perpetuating past grievances and giving the other group new grievances that they can point to to keep the cycle of violence going. I saw a documentary recently about rohingya single mothers. They got raped by Burmese soldiers and their husbands left them when they learned the child was the product of rape. They're on their own, caring for a being that deserves and needs caring, but is also a constant reminder of the violation they experienced. Imagine being in that position. Whatever the rohingya did or didn't do decades ago, I'm pretty sure nothing could warrant that. All they've done is give the rohingya a new specific reason to harbor hatred, a new reason to then be violent in turn against Burmese Buddhists. That's how cycles of violence start. It's not how they end.
It is sad and shameful that such atrocities still happen nowadays in modern era. But as I ponder and ponder about nationalism I find that most nations are based on common race, religion, or language, in which religion is usually the strongest foundation of all three. Nigeria is perhaps the only exception, in which there are 49% Christians and 48% Muslims. There are reason why there are majorities and minorities in almost every country. It is simply that most people cannot live with different people peacefully. So, perhaps nationalism is the ideological descent of religion. And when I think about passport and VISA I find it strange that within a country people can move freely whereas beyond their own country people need VISA and can only stay for a limited time. It is as if people for another country are already criminals or have crime records so that a country cannot trust them just to pay a visit. Meanwhile the real criminals who have been jailed for certain period and have been released, as long as they are of the same nationality still can move freely to another place within their country as if the ex-criminal will never do any bad things ever again. So, yes this kind of irrationality is still a deep part of human psyche. Finally, when I think about judicial system I find it strange that people need police, prosecutor, and judge to deliver justice to them. What if the judicial system itself is unjust or the police, the prosecutor, and the judge themselves are unjust. Who can judge the judicial system? What if the judicial institution is so corrupt? Then who would deliver justice? As far as I know if the perpetrators are the law enforcers people will usually accept the unfortunate situation and move on. Look at the 5 permanent members of United Nations security council. They have veto power to cancel out any decisions that has been made collectively by other nations. In the end of the day might makes right.
At one point I called myself a secular Buddhist. But over time I became disaffected with this label. Both because my experience and practice does not fit the description, and also because I became uncomfortable with what it seems to describe. At first it seemed to me to describe people who seek to emulate the Buddha and want to better understand the dharma, yet do not worship Buddha or observe explicitly religious practice. However I came to understand that in every realm of faith there are those who follow a religious path and those who follow a path of practice, and there is a spectrum of those in between. We see this in Islam, Christianity and Hinduism. I am a religious Buddhist, I just do not feel comfortable burning incense before a statue. Though I do meditate, study the Pali canon and contemplate images, mandalas etc. This probably is better described that I am a religious, but not cultural Buddhist. I also have to agree that some secular Buddhists are disrespecting Buddhism. When I first heard this said I thought it was overzealousness. But I've since come to the opinion that treating Buddhism like a buffet and only using the meditation practice to facilitate your career, while ignoring the ethics and philosophy which accompany it, is too ego centered to be considered 'Buddhist'. Similar to how Yoga exists in the west divorced of it's Hindu trappings.
I can’t watch this. It makes me so uncomfortable. You speak with such a speed and lack of respect. I can’t tell if you’re pretentious/contemptuous/narcissistic, or anxious/nervous, but Bodhi deserves a bit more respect, and less pretension, than this.
Please get someone on to tear down engaged Buddhism please. These lunatics wanna take Buddhism to street and protest when they haven't taken a hard look at themselves
.. and some have. ("Speak for yourself, Miles Standish.") I do not think you have, by your words and tone. you sound a lot like the Trumpers as a Russian bot, as a matter of fact. better move out of that glass house, Friend.
Sorry not a Trumper. The far left are more akin to Trumpers. Russian Bots hahahaha really? Grow up and stop blaming boogeyman like Russian Bots or Trump supporters
MultiAdamowski .....Well sometimes people of a high caliber don’t participate in making “silly” claims about “Enlightenment “ since they have walked the path themselves and know the terrain, they refrain from making claims that are besides the point......because when you take a closer look....you begin to see clearly that “There Is No Such Thing As Enlightened Beings - There Is Only Enlightened Activities”........that being said Bhikkhu Bodhi will be remembered for generations to come for his superbly outstanding scholarship and translating The Pali Cannon in a modern vernacular that unleashes the vastness of what The Buddha left us for future consideration.
1. It there's no such thing as englightened beings then Buddha was a liar. 2. Do you call Buddha silly? 3. Either bhante is a liar (cos he says he's not had any "transcendental" experience) or he is making claims about something he hasn't experienced. In either case he doesn't deserve much reverence.
MultiAdamowski ...you simple boy.....take good care of yourself......don’t get to stuck in “language”....remember context and meaning are more important than being mean and cruel.......”Things Are Not What They Appear To Be Nor is It Otherwise”.........reading between the lines is a skill that may come to you if you are able to come to terms with the notion....that you don’t really know what is the realization of another being?
![Buddhist Ethics | Robert Wright & Bhikkhu Bodhi [The Wright Show]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/8604BKQXpWw/mqdefault.jpg)
![Buddhist Ethics | Robert Wright & Bhikkhu Bodhi [The Wright Show]](/img/tr.png)
![Robert Wright & Bhikkhu Bodhi [The Wright Show] (full conversation)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GgP_B-6W35I/mqdefault.jpg)
![Buddhism and War | Robert Wright & Bhikkhu Bodhi [The Wright Show]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/J8lUxfigvV4/mqdefault.jpg)
A very interesting discussion. He listened very carefully to what you asked and replied in a compelling incisive and honest way. He does seem admirably humorous calm and peaceful in the face of life's challenges and a good deal more modest in relation to his assessment of where he currently is along the path to nirvana than some of your previous guests who have claimed to be much further along the way but whose demeanour from my possibly deluded perspective betrayed much less metacognitive awareness on their part. I liked this chap very much for his authenticity. I've been meditating on and off for maybe 5 years and so am very much a beginner. Before watching this I was feeling more drawn to the idea of secular Buddhism but I am definitely inspired to discover this man's writing following this discussion. Thanks very much for sharing. I thoroughly enjoy most of your discussions with all these interesting people.
Buddha's monks are forbidden to claim/clue any stage of enlightenment by monastic code of highest order. But It is okie for laymen to say anything as long as he isn't lying.
Thank you Robert and Bikkhu Bodhi for the demanding level and the mutual attentiveness of this refreshing conversation
what a lovely, gentle, modest fella. thanks for this.
@宇智波佐助 state specifically why you believe it is a trap in this case
True men of the noble.
Love these videos very much!
I recently was at a month long monastic retreat in Taiwan and saw a fellow participant reading a Robert Wright's face on the back of his book: "Why Buddhism is True". I found this channel before attending and watched a bit of it before learning the host's name and work at the retreat! I was surprised and humored to see his face at a place and time in which all internet use was not allowed. It was an interesting occurence to witness how Buddhist ideas (like any other) travel to people from different parts of the world.
Notice how he said that he did not "want to say" that he had any transcendental experiences while meditating and not that he did not have any.
This is how the men of knowledge converse with each other. Really good questions and answers.
love robert wright's buddhism videos. he has a healthy skepticism when talking to these people. and he's amusing, too
I did a course in Coursera delivered by Robert Wright in 2013, and since then, he keep appearing around!
I would like to see a three way discussion among Wright, Bhikkhu Bodhi, and Sam Harris on Buddhism, perhaps with Wright as the moderator to guide the discussion.
I am happy to hear the good Bhikkhu verify what I have found through seeing, looking, that the Pali cannon hold without elaboration or conflation the golden thread of enlightenment.
Wow! There's so much more than meets the eye!
Wonderful.
Thank you for sharing
May all be well and happy
Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu 🙏🙏🙏
Thank you Robert Wright for conducting this interview - I enjoyed listening to it!
I felt one of the major points this discussion could have included is ‘the three characteristics of existence.’ Nibbana is ultimately about gaining a penetrative understanding of the three characteristics, which is what enables one to “see things just as they are.” This also gradually cultivates wisdom and takes away ignorance and greed/hate.
Ad metta: Personaly I'm also a very hard case when it comes to metta meditation. The only instructions I found on this type of meditation that deviate from the traditional ordering are by Ajahn Brahm, perhaps because he is a westerner? The progression is the same, start easy (with someone you actually love or even an imaginary friend!) and once you are going, increase the circle/difficulty, but only once you are 'done' with your enemies, throw yourself in the fire of metta. The ultimate challenge so to speak.
Does this make sense to anybody else, or is it just me?
Excellent talk. Thank you Robert and Bhante Bodhi. I believe this is the webpage with the 1981 lectures.
bodhimonastery.org/the-buddhas-teaching-as-it-is.html
Thanks for posting the link!
Thank you.
The irony of the western views of Buddhism is the deeply rooted belief in seeing is believing! There are so many different schools of the Buddhism , need it be? Absolutely no, all in all it is us, ourselves, that we are missing out in dealing with! Looking inward is the core, the “me” is the only one real obstacle. The Vipassana meditation might be helpful!
Bob, your videos are always very good, thank you! Have you ever considered including links to the supplemental material discussed (such as the lectures of Bhikku Bodhi, in this case) in the description below the video?
The link to the "original" MeaningofLife.tv page is always included, in this case that link is meaningoflife.tv/videos/40810
If a secular practitioner does not have imminent religious assumptions or beliefs/objects to meditate on - will not achieve enlightenment and release from bad karma and samsara? I see there is another video on this question. Will def watch to see if this attachment is still championed
Meditation, New Age method of escaping reality minus classical religions, drugs.
Good discussion but did you have to end on the pontification of 45 minute cassettes that need to be flipped and may bleed from one side to the other? haha.
(secular) Nivvana (if one can call it that way)wouldn't be simple "bliss"experienced by a physical entity...Maybe an infinite radiance of creative energy...A state of liberation from Kamma and Samsara, achieved after many puriified reincarnations...
bodhi seems/sounds more grounded than some others. also chronic pain relateability
22:25 monks have a rule to not talk about attainments with lay people
(For the sake of argument ) How Good Kamma can lead to Nivvana ,IF Nivvana is not linked to dependent origination...?
Hello Mario,
Good kamma always supportive in the path to nibbhana but not to attain nibbhana. It causes positive results in day to day life. Results arisen by bad kamma harrazing the path to nibbana. According to my knowledge, when a person stops the foregoing force of kamma(good & bad), his sanasara is not creating another birth or result. When the force of kamma is disappeared, there is no reason to create another result. This unconditional state is called the nibbhana.
In buddhist teachings state of nibbhana is compaired to the going out of the flame of an oil lamp. Oil is the reason(the kamma) to keep burning. When the oil is finished the flame is vanished. The interesting thing is there is no place where the flame goes. Similarly the person who completed his enlightenment will no longer exists.
Good kamma and bad kamma both matter to extending the sansaara. If anybody wants to stop the burning of the flame, he has to understand the illusion created by the consciousness. To understand that, he has to look into his mind and train it.
I wish you may have more opportunities to listening dhamma... !
(Sorry for my poor English)
Anyone have a link to the paper mentioned in the discussion?
here's the lecture version: lecture2go.uni-hamburg.de/l2go/-/get/v/23252
Sadhu sadhu sadhu
Wonderful discussion of Dhamma Talk 🙏🙏🙏! Thank you both.
Like Jesus and Mohammed, the Buddha was illiterate and did not write anything during his lifetime, or one of his disciples did not take contemporary notes which later became the Buddhist texts. Buddhism followed the oral traditions. In oral tradition, we cannot be sure that the original words were not changed. If you have played Telephone game as a kid where one child starts the game by thinking of a word or phrase and whispering it into the next child’s ear, which usually ends in fits of giggles as the message often becomes distorted and ridiculous. First Buddhist texts were written down several centuries later. So, how do these people talk about the Buddha's words when we cannot be sure that these words were spoken by the Buddha? Does pseudepigraphy mean anything to these Buddhidts? Have you ever met a person who has attained nirvana? How do you know if someone has achieved nirvana?
August 24th is my birthday. Perhaps as a birthday present Bhante is willing to give me an answer my question. Why is Buddhism not as popular as Christianity and Islam? Thank you in advance.
Thank you Trey Gordon. It seems that is what happened in Myanmar. Rohingya wanted to spread their religion through force.
Yeah NOW they are being slaughtered. But what DID they do decades before that happen? What makes them being slaughtered?
It is not reasonable. But that is not what I am really asking. I am asking the main cause of the Rohingya problem. The cause may be complicated and obscure. The cause may be from both side of the conflicting parties. But still we have to really find which one is the main cause. Perhaps the cause stems from Buddhist teaching, economic crisis, or Islamic teaching. Whatever it is I don't think people would be easily slaughter another people without deep emotional and long historical reasons. And we have to be really honest here. If the cause really comes from Buddhist teachings in which perhaps The Buddha himself taught his disciples to slaughter the enemies or perhaps because the ineffectiveness of Buddhist meditation, ritual, or behavioral conduct to prevent such violence from both sides then the prominent figures of Buddhism such as Bikhu Bodhi must admit this problem. But I don't feel that they want to take ownership of the problems. I myself would argue that the problems is caused by the necessity of coercive force to maintain order in society. The fact that Christianity, Islam, and Communism was very rapidly spread is because they didn't shy away from actively participating in war.
+VidPro Surabaya Same could be said about capitalism. I think it's fair to assume that any structure, whether religious, economic or otherwise, that has reached that degree of global success has not shied away from using force and coercion. That being said, it's not a full answer. Take Christianity. While it is true that it used force to reach the position it is in today, force alone doesn't account for its success, particularly in its early stages when it gained popularity throughout Greece and then the Roman empire. Hard to say what drove it. Of course, Buddhism has a history of violence of its own. I think the issue isn't force per se. It's more about proselytism. Christianity and Islam both lay heavy emphasis on converting others. Faiths like Buddhism or Judaism do not. I suppose the question is why that might be. I don't think there's a simple answer to that.
As for the rohingya, I think it has to do with ethnic groups and xenophobia. Religion is just another marker that identifies you as a member of one ethnic group or another. I think what you find with this type of thing is that it doesn't really matter what happened in the past. Similar slaughters have occurred when the past grievance was entirely fictional. More often than not, something did happen but got extremely distorted through years of people harboring bitterness and resentment. Look at Shia and Sunni. 1500 years later and still fighting over whether it was Ali or Abu Bakr who was meant to take over after Muhammad. Does it even matter at this point? The violence then compounds, each group perpetuating past grievances and giving the other group new grievances that they can point to to keep the cycle of violence going. I saw a documentary recently about rohingya single mothers. They got raped by Burmese soldiers and their husbands left them when they learned the child was the product of rape. They're on their own, caring for a being that deserves and needs caring, but is also a constant reminder of the violation they experienced. Imagine being in that position. Whatever the rohingya did or didn't do decades ago, I'm pretty sure nothing could warrant that. All they've done is give the rohingya a new specific reason to harbor hatred, a new reason to then be violent in turn against Burmese Buddhists. That's how cycles of violence start. It's not how they end.
It is sad and shameful that such atrocities still happen nowadays in modern era. But as I ponder and ponder about nationalism I find that most nations are based on common race, religion, or language, in which religion is usually the strongest foundation of all three. Nigeria is perhaps the only exception, in which there are 49% Christians and 48% Muslims. There are reason why there are majorities and minorities in almost every country. It is simply that most people cannot live with different people peacefully. So, perhaps nationalism is the ideological descent of religion.
And when I think about passport and VISA I find it strange that within a country people can move freely whereas beyond their own country people need VISA and can only stay for a limited time. It is as if people for another country are already criminals or have crime records so that a country cannot trust them just to pay a visit. Meanwhile the real criminals who have been jailed for certain period and have been released, as long as they are of the same nationality still can move freely to another place within their country as if the ex-criminal will never do any bad things ever again. So, yes this kind of irrationality is still a deep part of human psyche.
Finally, when I think about judicial system I find it strange that people need police, prosecutor, and judge to deliver justice to them. What if the judicial system itself is unjust or the police, the prosecutor, and the judge themselves are unjust. Who can judge the judicial system? What if the judicial institution is so corrupt? Then who would deliver justice? As far as I know if the perpetrators are the law enforcers people will usually accept the unfortunate situation and move on. Look at the 5 permanent members of United Nations security council. They have veto power to cancel out any decisions that has been made collectively by other nations. In the end of the day might makes right.
At one point I called myself a secular Buddhist. But over time I became disaffected with this label. Both because my experience and practice does not fit the description, and also because I became uncomfortable with what it seems to describe.
At first it seemed to me to describe people who seek to emulate the Buddha and want to better understand the dharma, yet do not worship Buddha or observe explicitly religious practice. However I came to understand that in every realm of faith there are those who follow a religious path and those who follow a path of practice, and there is a spectrum of those in between. We see this in Islam, Christianity and Hinduism.
I am a religious Buddhist, I just do not feel comfortable burning incense before a statue. Though I do meditate, study the Pali canon and contemplate images, mandalas etc. This probably is better described that I am a religious, but not cultural Buddhist.
I also have to agree that some secular Buddhists are disrespecting Buddhism. When I first heard this said I thought it was overzealousness. But I've since come to the opinion that treating Buddhism like a buffet and only using the meditation practice to facilitate your career, while ignoring the ethics and philosophy which accompany it, is too ego centered to be considered 'Buddhist'. Similar to how Yoga exists in the west divorced of it's Hindu trappings.
Well apprehended. I very much concur with your assessment.
I can’t watch this. It makes me so uncomfortable.
You speak with such a speed and lack of respect. I can’t tell if you’re pretentious/contemptuous/narcissistic, or anxious/nervous, but Bodhi deserves a bit more respect, and less pretension, than this.
Please get someone on to tear down engaged Buddhism please. These lunatics wanna take Buddhism to street and protest when they haven't taken a hard look at themselves
.. and some have. ("Speak for yourself, Miles Standish.") I do not think you have, by your words and tone. you sound a lot like the Trumpers as a Russian bot, as a matter of fact. better move out of that glass house, Friend.
Sorry not a Trumper. The far left are more akin to Trumpers. Russian Bots hahahaha really? Grow up and stop blaming boogeyman like Russian Bots or Trump supporters
Noah Levine supported engaged Buddhism and look where he is now, busted for feeling up his students sooooooooooo
He has no realisation, but he knows who can attain it. So egotic.
MultiAdamowski really?
yes
MultiAdamowski .....Well sometimes people of a high caliber don’t participate in making “silly” claims about “Enlightenment “ since they have walked the path themselves and know the terrain, they refrain from making claims that are besides the point......because when you take a closer look....you begin to see clearly that “There Is No Such Thing As Enlightened Beings - There Is Only Enlightened Activities”........that being said Bhikkhu Bodhi will be remembered for generations to come for his superbly outstanding scholarship and translating The Pali Cannon in a modern vernacular that unleashes the vastness of what The Buddha left us for future consideration.
1. It there's no such thing as englightened beings then Buddha was a liar. 2. Do you call Buddha silly? 3. Either bhante is a liar (cos he says he's not had any "transcendental" experience) or he is making claims about something he hasn't experienced. In either case he doesn't deserve much reverence.
MultiAdamowski ...you simple boy.....take good care of yourself......don’t get to stuck in “language”....remember context and meaning are more important than being mean and cruel.......”Things Are Not What They Appear To Be Nor is It Otherwise”.........reading between the lines is a skill that may come to you if you are able to come to terms with the notion....that you don’t really know what is the realization of another being?
Cassette tracks so close together some pickup from both.