I have never known any religion that didn't believe that their religion was the only true and right belief. 99.99 percent of all religions in the U.S. and abroad are profit motivated as are the critics that write about them. They all have a book, movie, or videos to sell. $$$$ These guys are making millions just hashing over ancient writings thousands of years old. All offer some incredible new insight into the same old garbage that's been spewed out for the last five thousand years. And now another.
To Andrew,....not sure if you are making fun of evolution. If you are, then here it goes. It's almost by definition that if many died and a few are left, then the one left are good survivors...it's just definition. Also evolution has a tremendous amount of evidences while Buddhism, describing the natural world, has almost no evidence.
This is because as Shakyamuni Buddha said, the most precious miraculous power (siddhi) a Buddha possesses is that his Dharma Śasana will live long and liberate infinite beings, unlike other dharmas that come and go and diminish. It’s the mark of genuine spiritual teaching & the fruit of Buddhahood. Namo Buddhaya!
Wright's book really drew me into Buddhism. I went much deeper into the religious side and mostly reject secular Buddhism except as a teaching tool these days, but I'll always be grateful for this book for helping push me in a good direction. Good talk, I enjoyed this.
@@whatsinaname7828: 'ism' = 'to study' so buddism is just fine and 'ist'= one of that group so buddhist seems to fit just fine too...of course a person may approach the dharma but that does not exactly make them the dharma so 'dharmsists' is quite a stretch but as the folks say; call me anythin 'cept late for dinner
I’ve had the same experience with my consciousness. Seeing the REALITY of everyone and everything. Like he said “no objective reality” when it comes speaking with certain people. Also, the separation of the senses is what plays a big part finding the consciousness. Once our body is taken care of, we can relax our senses and follow with full conscious. This is what I’ve experienced🙏
I've had similar experiences with anxiety and even once a migraine. It was like I playfully observed the exact shape of the 'migraine' and as soon as I saw it for exactly the form it took it literally vanished. Same with anxiety in my stomach, find the form/shape of anxiety and it just doesn't matter anymore, it just is what it is . Nothing. It untangles the illusion of discomfort. I'd say a year or two practicing mindfulness, bodyscans and yoga and you start to get major benefits of a lack of panic and fear and a vastly improved general state of mind. The trick is not to be too pleased with yourself when you make progress, as soon as you think 'I'm great I can do it! I'm a great meditater! !' The brief empowerment evaporates and it can take a lot more meditation to resume. And obviously don't get annoyed when it doesn't seem to work.
When we are mindful deeply in touch with the present moment our understanding of what is going on deepens and we begin to be filled with acceptance joy peace and love
Buddhism is always true.. to teach you to see the world in different ways. more refined..Christian can also practice Buddhism... just like yoga..and will make you a better Christian.
I came to Buddhism later in life, and partly as a result of living in SE Asia. I now consider myself Buddhist. I studied western philosophy formally quite a bit when I was younger, and have maintained a lifelong interest in that. For me, there are strong parallels between Buddhism and many thinkers whom I admire, particularly Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Heidegger. I don't want to push this too far, but for me having a background with all these sources has given me a level of understanding for which I'm grateful. There are multiple paths to greater understanding.
Great Book. As a long time practicing mediator I can say from experience he's correct. Meditation wakes us up from our Stupor. We start to see our reality more clearly and it's not always pleasant. We might be surprised to see what we have been up to. It doesn't mean we are going to change our habitual patterns and reactions it just means we start to see them and given the opportunity we can relate to them and work with them if we so choose. We real-eyes that what we have been doing might not have been healthy.
One thing that puzzles me is why you creatures hide be hind some imaginary "we", seemingly not realising that by using "we" or " our" you are saying *I*and my. Why are you in a stupor in the first place? What exactly do you mean by meditation to which Siddhartha referred or commended exactly how many times and when?
Reading this book changed my life in a very balanced way. I objectively view the world will not forget that I am the conscious force that permeates reality, specifically in my localized mass of cells which is called a body. Glad I stumbled upon this talk because I not the book worm type (I have mild ADHD so I'm sure you get the picture) but this book really captivated my attention and his writing style was like a conversation with a friend. Loved his humor and that is very evident in his conduct shown.
Jesus is the only way to heaven. He suffered and died on the cross because he loved you and wants you to be forgiven through him. The buddhist life ends in the devils mouth, just look at the buddha wheel of life.
I've been meditating for decades. I also think the Buddhist notion of impermanence and how to deal with it makes an awful lot of sense based on my own experience. But here's where my conflict lies, Buddhist cultures, at least as they manifest themselves nowadays seem to have static, passive populations. It's ironic that Wright is commenting on it being "right" in the heart of a culture that I guess is "wrong". Western Buddhism is rather schizoid. You realize that when you travel through the East. For me all Wright's book indicates is that it has entered the mainstream of American culture. Which means it will be ripped to pieces and marketed by a lot of carpet baggers. People like Deepak Chopra. Most Buddhists I know are upper middle-class greedheads with a patina of supposed bodhicitta. They tend to be MORE egocentric than less. There's a big Buddhist community where I live. It's more a social club for lawyers, accountants and other professionals. When meditation is taken up by those whose lives really are difficult, that being the working class, maybe I'll start to think the West's acceptance of Buddhism is something more than a fetish of the well educated and well off solipsistic professional.
Prattly Ponsarello have u looked into islam....or may be 4. Da west..tthat is out of question....we call 4 submition...hint...wat is submition...n y....
Prattly Ponsarello 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 well said! And tbh this Wright guy seems really obnoxious. I didn't get a warm feeling from the very first sight of him.... he looks kind of depressed... but in any case not someone I'd happily walk up to and start a conversation with..... I try not to be judgemental but I can't help the vibes I get from people.....
Can't you find similar hypocrisy among the supposed adherents of other religions? While we could talk about "most Buddhists" (assuming that your local community is representative) same as "most Christians", perhaps more serious practitioners are of more interest. In the West, most religions are dying, so it is significant that Buddhism is growing. Working classes everywhere tend to be more conservative, sticking to their local cultures and traditions, unlike educated classes with international contacts. Work by those like Wright is part of the dissemination process. To my knowledge, Buddhism lacks Christianity's active missionaries.
Jaana Swan I'm glad Robert Wright doesn't come across as "warm" -- I'm so tired of seeing Dalai Llama/Santa Claus types of people who you just suspect must either have a very easy life or are just too crazy/stupid to realize how hard life is... it's good seeing a "normal" "subway commuter" looking kind of person talk about mindfulness for a change! Oh, and, as Wright had cited: Fundamental Attribution Error, a cognitive bias (operant even in what I've just said, I realize).
The discontent that drives people to do things is perhaps somewhat quelled by Buddhist philosophy? Whereas the restless anxious westerner is in constant motion with no respite except from short lived consumer satisfactions.
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh explains Buddhist psychology in a very easy way. The four layers of consciousness. ....Abhidharma, Buddhism’s map of the mind, is sometimes treated as a topic of merely intellectual interest. In fact, says Thich Nhat Hanh, identifying the different elements of consciousness, and understanding how they interact, is essential to our practice of meditation. Zen Master Thich Nhat Hạnh writes: The Vietnamese Zen Master Thuong Chieu said, “When we understand how our mind works, our practice becomes easy.” To understand our minds, we need to understand our consciousness. The Buddha taught that consciousness is always continuing, like a stream of water. Consciousness has four layers. The four layers of consciousness are mind consciousness, sense consciousness, store consciousness, and manas. Mind consciousness is the first kind of consciousness. It uses up most of our energy. Mind consciousness is our “working” consciousness that makes judgments and plans; it is the part of our consciousness that worries and analyzes. When we speak of mind consciousness, we’re also speaking of body consciousness, because mind consciousness isn’t possible without the brain. Body and mind are simply two aspects of the same thing. Body without consciousness is not a real, live body. And consciousness can’t manifest itself without a body. It’s possible for us to train ourselves to remove the false distinction between brain and consciousness. We shouldn’t say that consciousness is born from the brain because the opposite is true: the brain is born from consciousness. The brain is only 2 percent of the body’s weight, but it consumes 20 percent of the body’s energy. So using mind consciousness is very expensive. Thinking, worrying, and planning takes a lot of energy. We can economize the energy by training our mind consciousness in the habit of mindfulness. Mindfulness keeps us in the present moment and allows our mind consciousness to relax and let go of the energy of worrying about the past or predicting the future. The second level of consciousness is sense consciousness, the consciousness that comes from our five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. We sometimes call these senses “gates,” or “doors,” because all objects of perception enter consciousness through our sensory contact with them. Sense consciousness always involves three elements: first, the sense organ (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, or body); second, the sense object itself (the object we’re smelling or the sound we’re hearing); and finally, our experience of what we are seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, or touching. The third layer of consciousness, store consciousness, is the deepest. There are many names for this kind of consciousness. Mahayana tradition calls this store consciousness, or alaya, in Sanskrit. The Theravada tradition uses the Pali word bhavanga to describe this consciousness. Bhavanga means constantly flowing, like a river. Store consciousness is also sometimes called root consciousness (mulavijñana in Sanskrit) or sarvabijaka, which means “the totality of the seeds.” In Vietnamese, we call store consciousness tang. Tang means to keep and preserve. These different names hint at the three aspects of store consciousness. The first meaning is of a place, a “store,” where all kinds of seeds and information are kept. The second meaning is suggested by the Vietnamese name because store consciousness doesn’t just take in all the information, it holds it and preserves it. The third meaning is suggested by bhavanga, the sense of processing and transforming. Store consciousness is like a museum. A museum can only be called a museum when there are things in it. When there is nothing in it, you can call it a building, but not a museum. The conservator is the one who is responsible for the museum. Her function is to keep the various objects preserved and not allow them to be stolen. But there must be things to be stored, things to be kept. Store consciousness refers to the storing and also to what is stored-that is, all the information from the past, from our ancestors, and all the information received from the other consciousnesses. In the Buddhist tradition, this information is stored as bija, seeds. Suppose this morning you hear a certain chant for the first time. Your ear and the music come together and provoke the manifestation of the mental formation called touch, which causes store consciousness to vibrate. That information, a new seed, falls into the store continuum. Store consciousness has the capacity to receive the seed and store it in its heart. Store consciousness preserves all the information it receives. But the function of store consciousness isn’t just to receive and store these seeds; its job is also to process this information. The work of processing on this level is not expensive. Store consciousness doesn’t spend as much energy as, for example, mind consciousness. Store consciousness can process this information without a lot of work on your part. So if you want to save your energy, don’t think too much, don’t plan too much, and don’t worry too much. Allow your store consciousness to do most of the processing. During the night if your room becomes cold but you continue to sleep, your body can sense the cold without the intervention of mind consciousness. Store consciousness may give the order to your arm to pull up the blanket without your even being aware of it. Store consciousness operates in the absence of mind consciousness. It can do a lot of things. It can do a lot of planning; it can make a lot of decisions without your knowing about it. When we go into a department store and look for a hat or a shirt, we have the impression, while looking at the items displayed, that we have free will and that, finances permitting, we are free to choose whatever we want. If the vendor asks us what we like, we can point to or verbalize the object of our desire. And we likely have the impression that we are free people at this moment, using our mind consciousness to select things that we like. But that is an illusion. Everything has been decided already in store consciousness. At that moment we are caught; we are not free people. Our sense of beauty, our sense of liking or disliking, has been decided very certainly and very discreetly on the level of store consciousness. It’s an illusion that we are free. The degree of freedom that our mind consciousness has is actually very small. Store consciousness dictates many of the things we do, because store consciousness continuously receives, embraces, maintains, processes, and makes many decisions without the participation of mind consciousness. But if we know the practice, we can influence our store consciousness; we can help influence how our store consciousness stores and processes information so as to make better decisions. We can influence it. Just like mind consciousness and sense consciousness, store consciousness consumes. When you are around a group of people, although you want to be yourself, you are consuming their ways, and you are consuming their store consciousness. Our consciousness is fed with other consciousnesses. The way we make decisions, our likes and dislikes, depending on the collective way of seeing things. You may not see something as beautiful, but if many people think that it’s beautiful, then slowly you may come to accept it as beautiful also because the individual consciousness is made up of collective consciousness. The value of the dollar is made up of the collective thinking of people, not just of objective economic elements. People’s fears, desires, and expectations make the dollar go up and go down. We are influenced by the collective ways of seeing and thinking. That’s why selecting the people you are around is very important. It’s very important to surround yourself with people who have loving-kindness, understanding, and compassion because day and night we are influenced by the collective consciousness. Store consciousness offers us enlightenment and transformation. This possibility is contained in its third meaning, its always-flowing nature. Store consciousness is like a garden where we can plant the seeds of flowers, fruits, and vegetables, and then flowers, fruits, and vegetables will grow. Mind consciousness is only a gardener. A gardener can help the land and take care of the land, but the gardener has to believe in the land, believe that it can offer us fruits, flowers, and vegetables. As practitioners, we can’t rely on our mind consciousness alone; we have to rely on our store consciousness as well. Decisions are being made down there. Suppose you type something on your computer and this information is stored on the hard drive. That hard drive is like store consciousness. Although the information doesn’t appear on the screen, it is still there. You only need to click and it will manifest. The bija, the seeds in store consciousness, are like the data you store on your computer. If you want to, you can click and help it appear on the screen of mind consciousness. Mind consciousness is like a screen and store consciousness is like the hard drive, because it can store a lot in it. Store consciousness has the capacity of storing, maintaining, and preserving information so that it can’t be erased. Unlike information on a hard drive, however, all the seeds are of an organic nature and they can be modified. The seed of hatred, for example, can be weakened and its energy can be transformed into the energy of compassion. The seed of love can be watered and strengthened. The nature of the information that’s being kept and processed by the store consciousness is always flowing and always changing. Love can be transformed into hate, and hate can be transformed back into love......Read on in the replies section.
Store consciousness is also a victim. It’s an object of attachment; it’s not free. In-store consciousness there are elements of ignorance, delusion, anger, fear and these elements form a force of energy that clings, that want to possess. This is the fourth level of consciousness, called manas, which I like to translate as “cogitation.” Manas consciousness has at its root the belief in a separate self, the belief in a person. This consciousness, the feeling, and instinct called “I am,” is very deeply seated in store consciousness. It’s not a view taken up by mind consciousness. Deeply seated in the depths of store consciousness is this idea that there is a self that is separate from non-self elements. The function of manas is to cling to store consciousness as a separate self. Another way of thinking of manas is as Adana consciousness. Adana means “appropriation.” Imagine that a vine puts forth a shoot, and then the shoot turns back and embraces and encircles the trunk of the tree. This deep-seated delusion-the belief that there is a self is there in store consciousness as the result of ignorance and fear, and it gives rise to an energy that turns around and embraces store consciousness and makes it the only object of its love. Manas is always operating. It never lets go of store consciousness. It’s always embracing, always holding, or sticking to store consciousness. It believes store consciousness to be the object of its love. That’s why store consciousness isn’t free. There’s an illusion that store consciousness is “me,” is my beloved, so I can’t let it go. Day and night there’s a secret, deep cogitation that this is me, this is mine, and I have to do everything I can to grasp, to protect, to make it mine. Manas is born and rooted in store consciousness. It arises from store consciousness and it turns around and embraces store consciousness as its object: “You are my beloved, you are me.” The function of manas is to appropriate store consciousness as its own. Now we have the names of the four layers of consciousness, and we can see how they interact. Store consciousness is a process-always flowing, always present, never interrupted. But mind consciousness may be interrupted. For example, when we sleep without dreaming, mind consciousness is not operating. When we’re in a coma, mind consciousness stops working completely. And there are deep concentrations when mind consciousness completely stops operating-there’s no thinking, no planning, nothing-yet store consciousness continues to operate. Some neuroscientists use the term “background consciousness” to describe store consciousness. And the level of mind consciousness is what they call, simply, consciousness. Whether you’re awake or you’re asleep, whether you’re dreaming or not dreaming, the work of processing and storing information is continuously done by store consciousness, whether you want it to or not. There are times when sense consciousness operates in collaboration with store consciousness without going through the mind. It’s funny, but it happens very, very often. When you drive your car, you are able to avoid many accidents, even if your mind's consciousness is thinking of other things. You may not even be thinking of driving at all. And yet, most of the time at least, you don’t get into an accident. This is because the impressions and images provided by eye consciousness are received by store consciousness, and decisions are made without ever going through mind consciousness.
If you have to make a quick maneuver, it’s not your mind consciousness that does it. We don’t think, “Oh, there is an accident, therefore I have to quickly swerve to the right.” That instinct of self-defense comes from store consciousness. In the cold room at night, even though you’re not dreaming, and mind consciousness isn’t functioning, the feeling of cold still penetrates into the body at the level of sense consciousness, which makes a vibration on the level of store consciousness, and your body moves the blanket up to cover you. Whether we’re driving, manipulating a machine, or performing other tasks, many of us allow our sense consciousness to collaborate with store consciousness, which enables us to do many things without the intervention of mind consciousness. When we bring our mind consciousness into this work, then suddenly we may become aware of the mental formations that are arising. The word “formation” (samskara in Sanskrit) means something that manifests when many conditions come together. When we look at a flower, we can recognize many of the elements that have come together to make the flower manifest in that form. We know that without the rain there can be no water and the flower cannot manifest. And we see that the sunshine is also there. The earth, the compost, the gardener, time, space, and many elements came together to help this flower manifest. The flower doesn’t have a separate existence; it’s a formation. The sun, the moon, the mountain, and the river are all formations. Using the word “formation” reminds us that there is no separate core of existence in them. There is only a coming together of many, many conditions for something to manifest. As Buddhist practitioners, we can train ourselves to look at everything as a formation. We know that all formations are changing all the time. Impermanence is one of the marks of reality because everything changes. Formations that exist in consciousness are called mental formations. When there’s contact between a sense organ (eyes, ears, mouth, nose, body) and an object, sense consciousness arises. And at the moment your eyes first gaze on an object, or you first feel the wind on your skin, the first mental formation of contact manifests. Contact causes a vibration on the level of store consciousness. If the impression is weak, then the vibration stops, and the current of store consciousness recovers its tranquility; you continue to sleep or you continue with your activities because that impression created by touch has not been strong enough to draw the attention of mind consciousnesses. It’s like when a flying insect lands on the surface of the water and causes the water to ripple a little bit. After the insect flies off, the surface of the water becomes completely calm again. So although the mental formation manifests, although the current of the life continuum vibrates, there’s no awareness born in mind consciousness because the impression is too weak. Sometimes in Buddhist psychology, one speaks of forty-nine or fifty mental formations. In my tradition, we speak of fifty-one. Of the fifty-one mental formations, contact is the first, followed by the attention, feeling, perception, and volition. These five mental formations can take place very quickly, and their intensity, their depth, varies in each level of consciousness. When we speak of attention, for instance, we can see attention in the context of store consciousness, and we can see attention on the level of mind consciousness, and the intensity or the depth of attention is quite different on the two levels. The fifty-one mental formations are also called mental concomitants; that is, they are the very content of consciousness, the way the drops of water are the very content of the river. For example, anger is a mental formation. Mind consciousness can operate in such a way that anger can manifest in mind consciousness. In that moment, mind consciousness is filled with anger, and we may feel our mind consciousness is full of nothing but anger. But in fact, mind consciousness is not just anger, because later on compassion arises, and at that time, mind consciousness becomes compassion. Mind consciousness is, at various times, all fifty-one mental formations, be they positive, negative, or neutral. Without mental formations, there can’t be consciousness. It’s as if we’re discussing the formation of birds. The formation holds the birds together, and they fly beautifully in the sky. You don’t need someone to hold the birds and keep them flying in one formation. You don’t need a self to create the formation. The birds just do it. In a beehive, you don’t need someone who gives the order for this bee to go left and that bee to go right; they just communicate among one another and are a beehive. Among all the bees, every bee may have a different responsibility, but no bee claims to be the boss of all the bees, not even the queen. The queen is not the boss. Her function is simply to give birth to the eggs. If you have a good community, a good sangha, it’s like this beehive in which all the parts make up the whole, with no leader, no boss. When we say it’s raining, we mean that raining is taking place. You don’t need someone up above to perform the raining. It’s not that there is rain, and there is the one who causes the rain to fall. In fact, when you say the rain is falling, it’s very funny, because if it weren’t falling, it wouldn’t be rain. In our way of speaking, we’re used to having a subject and a verb. That’s why we need the word “it” when we say, “it rains.” “It” is the subject, the one who makes the rain possible. But, looking deeply, we don’t need a “rainer,” we just need the rain. Raining and the rain are the same. The formation of birds and the birds are the same-there’s no “self,” no boss involved. There’s a mental formation called vitarka, “thinking.” When we use the verb “to think” in English, we need a subject of the verb: I think, you think, he thinks. But, really, you don’t need a subject for a thought to be produced. Thinking without thinker-it’s absolutely possible. To think is to think about something. To perceive is to perceive something. The perceiver and the object that is perceived are one. When Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am,” his point was that if I think, there must be an “I” for thinking to be possible. When he made the declaration “I think,” he believed that he could demonstrate that the “I” exists. We have a strong habit of believing in a self. But, observing very deeply, we can see that a thought does not need a thinker to be possible. There is no thinker behind the thinking-there is just the thinking; that’s enough. Now, if Mr. Descartes were here, we might ask him, “Monsieur Descartes, you say, ‘You think, therefore you are.’ But what are you? You are your thinking. Thinking-that’s enough. Thinking manifests without the need of a self behind it.” Thinking without a thinker. Feeling without a feeler. What is our anger without our “self”? This is the object of our meditation. All the fifty-one mental formations take place and manifest without a self behind them that’s arranging for this to appear, and then for that to appear. Our mind consciousness is in the habit of basing itself on the idea of self, on manas. But we can meditate to be more aware of our store consciousness, where we keep the seeds of all those mental formations that are not currently manifesting in our mind. When we meditate, we practice looking deeply in order to bring light and clarity into our way of seeing things. When the vision of no-self is obtained, our delusion is removed. This is what we call transformation. In the Buddhist tradition, transformation is possible with deep understanding. The moment the vision of no-self is there, manas, the elusive notion of “I am,” disintegrates, and we find ourselves enjoying, in this very moment, freedom and happiness.
One one hand, absolutely. But you could equally write a book called “What Buddhism misses”. It has no official doctrine or practice which acknowledges developmental sequences, it focuses so much on growth states and not growth stages that it misses huge aspects of developmental unfolding
Great talk and I enjoyed the q and a and the perspectives the audience had. Thanks 😊 But I'm from Sri Lanka and buddhist monks and nuns definitely meditate :) Thanks
jairosoft, that is another way of saying. Now, put yourself in shoes of millions who has internal organ cancer or misplacement....looking at your family members tortured and then killed in front of you... is it suffering or unsatisfactioness?
Look at a terrorist who commits an act that biologically must involve extreme pain and suffering for an instant, but before (they had a mental state that seemed normal and purposeful) and supposedly afterwards (they hope to have gained ultimate satisfactoriness) their state of mind might be no different than that of a Buddhist monk who burns himself to death in protest. So unsatisfactoriness is not getting what one wants, or had expected which some times may sort of spirals out of control to effect future actions. But what should be the best strategy for preventing things from going worse? Not have positive expectations? That way if things go well then it's a bonus.
Buddhism is the most credible religion out there. It doesn't focus on supernaturalism, but practical teachings. There's no scrolls, altars, deities, etc. The Buddha gave practical advice. Outsiders have added this.
Turkish Guy The Buddha versus the 'Buddhism' of today are two different things. The Buddhism in the proper context isn't about idolatry, it's about enlightenment. One may use an image or item, but Buddhism, as the Buddha taught, doesn't worship such, as we define in the Western culture. Eastern religion uses the vocabulary different, than Western religious notions.
phengkimving2 Yes Buddhist did, but they don't represent the core of Buddhism. The Four Noble Truths, 5 precepts, and The Eightfold Path are the fundamental doctrines of Buddhism.
phengkimving2 Outside of the core of Buddhism, one is free to add doctrines, but worshipping idols or Gurus is attaching oneself to the entity. It hinders enlightenment.
Rk. Lalith2 wat about islam....have u looked Allah sw wat he say about these..matters...mainly bcoz it his creation...not budda..or anyone else...r u muslim....? May be u r n dont know wat n hu u really r?? Is worth wondering...reflecting on these rather..existential q..s
Buddhism is scientific, there’s many Dimensions and realms in our universe, meditation is the way to reach there, Buddhism is true, Islam on the other hand have many belives in god and miracles. But its not as close to reality as Buddhusm
42.26..the guy says Buddhism has stopped at certain point....we have to move forward to feel comfortable with our self....and he admit he meditate… though claims Buddhism is too much obsessed with self. .But my dear fellow guy, one of the key facts in Buddhism is selflessness..Ups.!!!.. Please don't go in to panic. When you achieve the habit of realising self is not really existing , You feel much comfortable with the label you think ' self' Buddhism apparently has not stopped in certain point and it is still progressive in big part of Asian continent and people around the world. Wow... grate you acknowledge you meditate. I have started to meditate some days ago and feel good about it.
44:20 also briefly mentioned is one can always have more "food". That's the crux of chronic obesity epidemic and rising healthcare costs. We're wired to seek out more food, particularly that tastes good. One of the side benefits of mindfulness meditation practice is that we'll have a better control over our impulse to eat more.
59:25 this is a great question. It has been raised by many as the reason for why Buddhist/Hindu societies tend to be passive and don't make progress - because they accept things the way they are without judgment. First of all, it takes extreme practice to reach that state. Along the way, however, meditation makes see things the way they are. It helps us get to the root of the issues, which is what is needed to solve a lot of what ails the society now. In fact, the reason we are not able to solve social problems right now is that there isn't enough meditation. We just follow our tribal instincts and dig in as opposed to view issues for what they are. This is also related to 38:30 point about is there evil and 30:25 discussion about attribution error. There are evil actions but it should not be attributed as a permanent state to an individual except in extreme cases where their genetics make them so. So meditations helps us see "evil" in a non-judgmental way. This has implications for criminal justice reform (what is punishment) and how individual meditative practice can lead to social reform movements.
@@Knaeben I think that's just a misunderstanding and misperception of what meditation actually does to our brain. It doesn't make us passive. It makes us less reactive, which means we tend to think about the consequences of our actions before jumping into action. That's exactly what we need. We don't want to jump into action reactively, but rather think through and act. That has the effect of being perceived as slow and passive. But it's more effective in the long run to get the right results.
@@Knaeben real progress comes only after mind being settled... I mean so many things which we did in name of progress may not really needed or may be we can use it more properly.
I did his course at coursera and it was definetely interesting. The four noble truths are philosophically challenging and meditation really helped me a lot. I can just recommend that one. One thing he said reminded me at Charles Sanders Peirce. For all the philosophy interested folks "The fixation of belief" is a fascinating text about doubt, belief and different types of ways to deal with the change from doubt to belief. He was the founding father of pragmatism and I got the feeling he had a stronger "realistic" (Philosophically, both metaphysically and epistemologically) stance, than many of the modern pragmatists.
43:08 - absolutely! several steps beyond simple observation of one's self in a clinical way is the disappearance of self. In Buddhist and Hindu philosophy that's called Nirvana or Moksha or Liberation. At that point one is considered beyond "dukkah or sukah"/suffering/happiness. Since those attributes are associated with an individual self. Once the self disappears those adjectives become "N/A". This is the philosophy of Advaitha Vedanata in Hinduism - the closest one to Buddhist Madhyamika school of thought. Advaitha meaning non-dual - no self and universe (Brahman) or "other" distinction. That's hard to describe/imaging in a "rational" sense. That's the reason both Buddhist and Hindus emphasize practice. It's the "indescribable".
Nirvana or moksha actually means extinction of delusion... What remains after waking up is the true reality, which means we see things differently. Not in a way of seeing different spirits or light or sound but our perception and the way we look changes.
Hinduism is a fabricated religion made up of cursed gods and teachings. According to them Brahma is cursed by Shiva and so is their vedas. So if your Advaita derives from vedas you can only pretend to know Buddhist nibanna. Buddha saved hindus from all the cursed gods and false teachings.
Emptiness; You can also just break it down as you're experiencing life around you that reflect in you. Like i was walking the dog today, and a huge bug with big wings flew over to the other side of the street on the sidewalk. It's alive (haha), but the joy of seeing other living creatures around you is by far as awesome as a Disney movie, and actually 100% more most of the times. When i feel like i want to chase a bug around to find out what it is, what its eating or where its going.. that's either emptiness or craziness, haha
Emptiness as presence is a really nice way of thinking about it. Makes me think of fullness too. Appreciate this, because emptiness can feel cold and nihilistic.
I think the gentleman who suggested that it's time to "move beyond Buddhism" has somehow confused Buddhism with not much more than the study of psychology. If he understood Buddhism, then he wouldn't have made that suggestion because that next step of "moving beyond Buddhism" is in fact what the essence of Buddhism is - it is that transcendent nature we seek to achieve in our journey or enquiry of Buddhism.
I can't believe how he lightly glosses over non-self. It is much more central than the useful angles he elaborates. And it is well illuminated by modern psychology. Missed boat here.
The central question is not whether the Dhamma practice laid out in the Four Noble Truths and Eight-Fold Path is true. The subjective experience of liberation from attachment to impermanent illusions that condition the mind creating dukkha is available to anyone who spends the years needed to realize it via meditation. The question is really, "Is Dhamma practice useful from the perspective of civilization?" The number of people who ever hear about the possibility of a cure for dukkha and a path to liberation is a drop in the ocean. The number of these people who actually get established in practice on the path is a drop within this drop. Those who realize the fruit of practice is smaller still. Yet we are fast approaching a moment in history when our understanding of the biology and neural net conditioning of our evolved brains will allow us to potentially modify the conditioned responses of our brains using epigenetic and gene editing techniques and neural implants to achieve permanent equanimity not in 7 years or 7 months or 7 weeks or 7 days but in 7 hours or less. Should we pursue this goal as a society? What if we could eliminate all criminal harm including war, fraud, inhumanity, and neglect? Should everyone want to be happy? (An. Yes). The problem with this is that we have a view of humanity based on the illusion of the self. Dukkha is the cost that individual sentient organisms must pay for the immortality of their species through natural selection. If we are all happy, we will all happily go extinct. This doesn't mean that dhamma practice isn't true or beneficial for those of us who have come to the path. It just means that we must help those we can and not pretend that it ever could be a widespread solution to the dukkha we encounter in the world.
mindfulness is misleading translation of the word satipatthana. Satipatthana refers to withdrawing our attention from external things to internal. meaning we are looking within mind body, we are not looking outside but inside. this means we watch the process of thinking, feeling in body, emotional feelings and emotional reactions to emotions.
From Bouddhism I have learned that the ego wants desperately to exist and will lead us away from the pure awakened self (the Bouddha within us) There is a deeper truth that transcends the body, but the Bouddha asks us to respect this temporary vessel that is our body. Not using intoxicants or acting improperly sexually are examples. May all Bouddhists realize we are all part of the same Sangha. Peace and insight to you my brothers and sisters. Never stop walking down the path of spiritual exploration
44:20 great observation mentioned in passing - greediness is built into natural selection. Capitalism as we practice today is built on such greediness - grow customer, grow revenue, cut costs, squeeze margins, relentless pursuit of efficiency. If any one company grew beyond the rate of GDP, eventually it'll consume all resources of the planet. Then one might ask, where should we stop? Wouldn't that be an arbitrary line? At every step of the way corporations should "mindfully" ask whether the planet (with all of the stakeholders) are benefitting from the growth. If not, it's time to stop. Following the biases built into natural selection, our system is biased toward starting corporations. Not restricting them or stopping them when they grow beyond their usefulness to the society.
There is a book on kindle Heavy Thinking Cannot Fly which takes you into western Zen it backs up a lot of ideas here especially about mental clarity and peace
I was responding to a comment so I thought I would share my thoughts and open discussion. One of few main building blocks of Buddhist philosophy is that we shouldn't be fixing the world to heal our problems it is within the individual where the problem lies and inturn can choose to help change the world. To the point, Buddhism doesn't discriminate with whether you are poor, middle class or rich. So whatever life one has to live with it is the understanding one should have. My father once asked me what is worse of the two. If a poor man who steals whilst knowing why it's bad or just steals without thinking. So it's the same with a man who has a Ferrari he can choose to live life luxuriously if he wants but should have the knowledge with what such a lived life entails. They should know why they have such lives they should know what there actions breed but what separates a Buddhist to a practicing Buddhist is meditation, the actual process of healing your self. This should be the means to the end goal for all Buddhists but I understand your point, you see Buddhist who have fruitful lives but they seem hypocritical with how they choose to live them and the stark differences in eastern and western civilization. However this is where Buddhism to me is very beautiful. We do not have to do all this in our life now, the understanding of reincarnation makes us realise that we can achieve enlightened state over the course of many life times. Reading Buddha's teachings and criticising it through the way you see the world can create a strong understanding which leads to that journey to an enlightened state. Each life we learn incrementally taking steps to escaping suffering. It's why Buddhists are quite relaxed people with not alot of problems like you see in Buddhist lawyer and doctors who live lavish lifestyle and ego's but then at the same time what they do not have something I too am working on is the wisdom to also see that the suffering of our life's would also too have to be experienced, some who is truly sick of that repeated suffering in watching family get sick or living in poverty or the resultant of being constantly dissatisfied with materialistic ness that the drive people to take action to achieve enlightenment now by finding a good teacher and practicing meditation with them or even fast track and become monks. Buddhism gives the freedom to choose what life you choose to live. That's all it is freedom.
from my personal experience the district has had budhism around for a long time as i am getting older by the year... i was reminded of wasington d.c. by the abstract self importance of the speaker's opening statements. i have never read that the buddha would kill birds with stones so the words are just one man's opinion of moonlight.
Evil in this context is easy to explain. Evil is the lack of awareness. If awareness saves us and others from pain and suffering, not meditating, not working to expand one's awareness, not teaching this to others amounts to evil. In fact that for Kant and for Arendt "radical evil" is not caring about how what we do injures others, radical evil is "throwing them away" as we do with trash. Good and evil are thus the essential work of this tradition.
Evil= ignorance/unconsciousness. Though evil is a cultural abstract concept so it can't be absolutely defined. The buddha recognized that there are people who have ill will. People deceive because it's part of the social game. We all have a pivot to social status and we experience rewarding feelings when we beat rivals in the social game. Enlightenment philosophies like buddhism and stoicism are thus about transcending the social dominance hierarchy.
Good and bad or good and evil don’t exist outside of your judgement. The universe is neutral and ever changing. Things just happen. You put the judgement of good or evil based on how it makes you or a collective group feel.
Is there (arguably) non-overlapping magisteria between semitic (Western) and Eastern religious traditions? One is about a god existing, what the properties of this god are, and moral groundedness, whereas Eastern traditions are more about personal happiness. An intellectually honest monotheist would gladly admit their religion is not about happiness, it's about Sin, it's about what god needs. Happiness is not mentioned in the Shema Israel, the Nicene Creed, or the Shahada.
"Buddha" ; meaning is " beyond the interlect". The average human is associated and stuck in interlect. However much you try to give meaning through interlect sometimes it becomes something like , trying to describe the beauty of the plains beyond the mountains while standing on the foot hills on this side of the mountain. However, much u try to describe, from heresy, it is totally different to explaining something after seeing it with your own eyes and experiencing. This is where meditation helps immensely. It helps you to rise to the mountain summit. Once there, you start seeing the beauty of the plains and then it becomes something really, so easy . Realising the very basics, fundamentals, before getting in to deep water too is important. Please watch clips of " sadhguru " an Indian sage. Seys the same as buddha said. Good basics before venturing too deep. Hope this helps. Cheers !!!!
'Buddha' simply means 'The Awakened One'. Awakening has nothing to do with intellect or spiritual perspicacity or saintliness or virtue. Here 'awakening' simply means awakening to the ultimate reality that worldly phenomenon and indeed noumenon (what we cannot perceive) is 'empty' of a permanent 'self' or entity or tangiblehood or 'absoluteness'. All things, concepts, ideas, thoughts are fleeting, relative and subjective. There is no absolute beginning or ending, measurement, entity, time. Nothing is certain but death. Nothing is immutable other than the law of karma or cause and effect or action having reaction. Buddhism is about the awakening from a dream, that life is as real as experience is real as in a dream.
So you [Vince Cheok] agree that the interlect, I mean, the intellect is actually necessary to realizing or awakening to the ultimate reality. I suspect that sam999 might be suggesting that the intellect gets in the way, somehow. But the intellect, if properly applied, may be the key factor to attaining levels approaching enlightenment, or awakening to the ultimate reality, I venture to guess. I don't know, I am so un-awakened, practically asleep.
I have a problem with the distinction between "pragmatic" and "spiritual" tendencies because the notion of pragmatism can mean opposite things. Is pragmatism a way to optimize one's chances of success (money, fame, opportunities....which can lead to opportunism, domination, exploitation, submission etc.) by e.g. adding meditation to one's daily life, or the fact to act in the sense of ethical values (e.g. trying to participate in alternate ways of production, working, shopping, but also be helpfull etc.) ? In that second sense, isn't pragmatism "spiritual" in a way ? Can we disconnect "spirituality" from acts ? What's intersting in Buddha is that he clearly answers "no, you can't disconnect one's spirituality from one's way of living, his abbility to interfere with things in the sense of his values". So I don't like the word "pragmatic" because it can mean anything you want. Telling that someone is "pragmatic" in his approach of buddhism or whatever doesn't tell anything essential about his way to me.
Actually, a true Buddhist is opposed to left-wing political ideology, because it is about socialism, which is about aggressive force and theft, which are contrary to what the Buddha taught. Google the article "Buddhist Politics 501" for an elaboration of this.
Guan Yin Citta is a Buddhist dharma door which has blossomed across the globe from Asian countries to Europe with around 10 million Buddhist believers and cultivators currently. It is a rightful and lawful Buddhist dharma door (even UN recognises on that), sheltered by the utmost Guan Yin Bodhisattva's all-encompassing mercy and love for sentient beings and Master Lu as the leading teacher. People cultivate by chanting Buddhist sutras and mantras, doing life liberations, making vows (e.g. becoming a vegetarian for the rest of their lives) and reading the book series "Bai Hua Fo Fa" to learn about Buddhist values and teachings. Many people who had cancer, mental illnesses, and all sorts of detrimental illnesses that were deemed incurable by doctors were cured. Many people who couldn't find their way out before have now found the ultimate truth and hope in life and have fully recovered from their past illnesses and karmic obstacles since cultivating under this dharma door. For more information, please kindly take a look: ebooks.xinlingfamen.info instagram.com/masterjunhonglu/ ruclips.net/video/FHfNvLkEg4A/видео.html guanyincitta.com/en/intro-to-guan-yin-citta-summary/
I'm quite shocked at Wright's statement at 46:44 that most Buddhists in Asia, many Buddhist monks in Asia, don't meditate. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's not a western stereotype at all people in the west thinks that Buddhist monks meditate. I would be quite interested to know if it's from Wright's own observation or did he get that notion by speaking to the Buddhist dharma or the Buddhist monks in Asia. Perhaps he's conflating the fact that most East Asians observe the Taoist tradition and because Taoism is equal parts folk religion and quasi religion that co-opts Buddhism into its diverse philosophy and because it is true that most Taoist adherents don't meditate, he therefore concludes (erroneously) that most/many "Buddhists" in Asia don't meditate? In fact, Wright's statement that Buddhists believe in deities almost certainly confirms that he's confused Daoism for Buddhism when he made the above statements. In East Asia, many are clear of the distinction between Daoism and Buddhism. But it's easy for a person not from the region with a passing knowledge or interest in Buddhism to confuse the two and conflate their practices. There's no shortage of videos on RUclips by Buddhist monks. I'd greatly encourage anyone who's interested to watch and learn from them. I'm starting to subscribe to Wright's RUclips channels (I've discovered him just today) as I like (and agree with) much of the diversity of topics he's talking about. But I have to respectfully say that I think his understanding of Buddhism is extremely rudimentary.
Is it possible that Buddhism is simply retraining your cognition and rewiring your brain? I don't think its spiritual at all, but more practical and physical? At least that's what I believe.
We lived million of years evolving in small groups where an alpha male ruled the group therefore never underestimate a alpha male HP, it works or a alpha female
Secular Buddhism is true. Also, check out Taoism, Stoicism and Existentialism. Its amazing how much overlap there is, how much resonance. No system has a sole claim to truth but many systems have approached ultimate Truth, Buddhism is one of those approaches.
In buddhism evil means unwholesome actions like killing ,stealing etc.usually we will hate the evil doer but real buddhist dont hate anyone.its an unwholesome act and we must try to stop it without hatred for the doer.🙂
@@Tony-qt4zv do not believe just because a book says so.take its teachings and see for yourself if it is true.if jesus died for our sins,then he would not have proclaimed:you reap what you sow.we are the owners of our own actions,no god can save us if we keep killing and harming others.🙂
@@tanjohnny6511 Do not believe just because your feelings tell you so. That's all buddhism and taoism are... feelings. Without proof it's just fiction. That's what the bible is for, it takes the spirituality of life and mixes it with the worlds history and science. buddhism is all feeling, there is no worldly proof that allows you to logically confirm that it is the truth. Again, Jesus is the only way to true peace in life. I hope you find love for the man who was willing to give his all for you.
@@Tony-qt4zv i believe jesus is a highly spiritual person but our salvation cannot be done by others we must put in the practice of kindness,love thy neighbour and compassion for all sentient beings.if jesus can save us just by believing him without doing good,he would not have preached "you reap what you have sowed"have a nice day.🙂
@@tanjohnny6511 You seem very misled on the preaching of Jesus. It's through his grace you are saved. You will have a sour realization of that when your time comes and you are standing on your own good works. The righteousness of man is like a tattered rag compared to the lord. I hope you see the demons have deceived you sooner rather than later.
Mindfulness was designed to be practiced by the uneducated. It is slow, but it works, and it is possible to give the instruction to large numbers of people. There are no questions to be asked of it. With Vipassana, "just do it" is the only answer. I understand Mr. Wright is trying to explain it to an audience...however such explanations give little insight, but perhaps they do convince. There are far more potent ways that were given, through the dialectic. But they require that you are capable of dialectic movement/thought. This is one reason why the selection of candidates was always rigorous...if you weren't capable of it, those methods would only confuse you. Or worse, they would increase your ignorance.
When any speaker says UH and UM eight times in the first minute, I click off,. As in the instant case. Too bad, because I really wanted to hear this lecture.
When I listened to the gentleman talking about transcending Buddhism into energy I thought "oh man I hope I dont sound like that when i'm trying to promote meditation/mindfullness" 😆 no hate for the guy hes probably managed to become a much better person from all this time spent developing his own style, but his question isnt calibrated well enough to be recieved by a large group of people. Its like going to a soup kitchen where homeless people are being given free food and saying, hey everyone, shouldnt we just transcend homelessness and poverty? Ahh yeah thatd be cool I guess, how bout you get to work on that and I'll heat up the next batch of pumkin soup.
Meditation is not Buddism, It just a part / tool for Buddism...Meditation have positive and negative ...Most people get it wrong . Biddisth all in Tripitaka
peeratan peeraind 03:27 (5 ชั่วโมงที่ผ่านมา) ถึง RUclips When you understand all nature, you can go throu suffering by understanding of how to . Meditation... if looking for happyness,it is the wrong way...... Budda taught how to get off from Suffering not looking for Happyness ...
Truth....the only absolute 'Truth' available to mankind, with apologies to Leo Tolstoy, is that everything changes...one day there will be no Buddhism...one day there will be no people...one day there will be no days!! Avoid True! Embrace the best of Buddhism -- the NOW!
Small point: Serving coffee at a Buddhist meditation retreat? Counterproductive. I don't think meditation on a particular subject is recommend. Again, counterproductive. This will exacerbate attachments and clinging.
Why look at Twitter at all, lol. Or Facebook? I guess its the same as utube but here i can listen to informations from the past history and actually learn things. Seems like an insane world
If ever a guy needed meditation ! Buddha outlined the human predicament, said there were 4 Noble Truths and defined the 8 fold Path. All concise, all clear, all easy to follow. Just what has this rambling political muddle got to do with Truth?
Bob Aldo he says the same thing in the book. Ok so not all monks meditate but many do, dependent upon their tradition and some do worship deities but not all.
The Chan Monks I practiced under did meditate AND they also believed in supernatural beings. From my perspective, their love and devotion to Amitabha Buddha is similar to Christians love and devotion to Jesus Christ.
Bob Aldo - see 閑星白 below - Buddhism is really, really big. There are some sects that eschew mindfulness and Brahmavihara meditation but perform chanting and deity practices. I hope you are now less uninformed.
Regarding the social psychology experiment he references about which line is longer, you can find out more here: ``On average, about one third (32%) of the participants who were placed in this situation went along and conformed with the clearly incorrect majority on the critical trials.`` www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html
Western world consider Budism as Tibatian version... But, that is not real Budhhas version of Budism.. It's call Mahayana Budism.. But The real Budism which tought by Budha is real ,pure Budism and that's call Theravada Budism.. That exist in few countries like, Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand . The So call Mayayan Budism is Mixed version of Buddha's teaching and Other Saints from Budism and Hindusm.. In ancient India there was a pure version of Hindusm existed and that is Saivism.. There is nothing that we can learn anything beyond what Saivsim teach us.. From cosmology to Self realization is Saivism.. Budha never learned this from any saints because by the Budhhas time, Saivsim was compressed to Southern part of India.. Saivsim is Not from Just one saints teaching.. It is acumalation of many enlightend masters teaching... One master can live may be let's say 100 years...but within this time it is hard to discover everything from cosmology to Self realization... But From one enlightened master...to another diciple get enlightment and that diciple then through his He then concentred into another diamention of cosmos and from that many Inner and outer siences was born... And most important thing is Why then Budha Created another religion..?? Only reason is..Budha is straight forward and he said Just Drop the Recycling of life and death again and again .. and just Get Nirwana.. But, How many of you need Nirwana right away ?? I don't thing anybody in this Seminar and not even the Speaker...They just want to learn Budism and trying to use it to meterial.gains... That's where many of these so call Budist expert went wrong... Budism is Absolutely good and Best to Get Nirvana.. But not for worldly things..
Didn't read the whole comment and I don't know much Mahayana Buddhism. But yes, you are right about Theravada Buddhism. To me, it is a Buddhist branch that teaches ways to attain Arahantship. It preserves all Buddha's true teaching. It teaches Vipassana meditation, Sannojananam or the 10 Fetters, for example, which can be practiced to get rid of all fault desires or wrong attachmenta. Also, it teaches a way to become a Boddhisattava as well.
True knowledge never dies. Look at how 2500 years old Buddhism thriving in modern scientific western world.
Yea thousands and thousands of mythologies died, but hey look at the a few that are left! They must be true!
I have never known any religion that didn't believe that their religion was the only true and right belief. 99.99 percent of all religions in the U.S. and abroad are profit motivated as are the critics that write about them. They all have a book, movie, or videos to sell. $$$$ These guys are making millions just hashing over ancient writings thousands of years old. All offer some incredible new insight into the same old garbage that's been spewed out for the last five thousand years. And now another.
To Andrew,....not sure if you are making fun of evolution. If you are, then here it goes. It's almost by definition that if many died and a few are left, then the one left are good survivors...it's just definition. Also evolution has a tremendous amount of evidences while Buddhism, describing the natural world, has almost no evidence.
This is because as Shakyamuni Buddha said, the most precious miraculous power (siddhi) a Buddha possesses is that his Dharma Śasana will live long and liberate infinite beings, unlike other dharmas that come and go and diminish. It’s the mark of genuine spiritual teaching & the fruit of Buddhahood. Namo Buddhaya!
And what is more remarkable is that none of its teachings had to be changed or modified. What was true then is still true today.
Wright's book really drew me into Buddhism. I went much deeper into the religious side and mostly reject secular Buddhism except as a teaching tool these days, but I'll always be grateful for this book for helping push me in a good direction. Good talk, I enjoyed this.
Namo Shakyamuni Buddha. How lucky we are to practicing the Dharma and to be Buddhists.
Absolutely. I m one of them. Thank you!
Indeed ! 🙏
Not Buddhist? How about Dharmasists?
@@whatsinaname7828: 'ism' = 'to study' so buddism is just fine and 'ist'= one of that group so buddhist seems to fit just fine too...of course a person may approach the dharma but that does not exactly make them the dharma so 'dharmsists' is quite a stretch but as the folks say; call me anythin 'cept late for dinner
Agree though I may not as devoted as you all I still try do the right things like he did.
"We don't see things how they are, we see things how we are." Dr. Joe Dispenza
correct. The world is just an interpretation of our own mind and not a reality
@@Aeturnist exactly
Kant*
Buddhism is an individual thing for me....and I enjoy learning by listening to various teachers and now I found Robert Wright!
Buddha has got to be the greatest teacher of all time.
Jesus is
Buddha was a good psychologist too!
@Alexander Leblanc well said
@@tihiandrew it's not a competition.Namaste!
I don’t believe his life history is well preserved. What we have just conjecture about him.
I’ve had the same experience with my consciousness. Seeing the REALITY of everyone and everything. Like he said “no objective reality” when it comes speaking with certain people. Also, the separation of the senses is what plays a big part finding the consciousness. Once our body is taken care of, we can relax our senses and follow with full conscious. This is what I’ve experienced🙏
Buddha learnt it all! Wouldn’t it have been amazing to have been on the same journey as one of his monks?
Yh 😀
In a real way, you are. 🙏
I've had similar experiences with anxiety and even once a migraine. It was like I playfully observed the exact shape of the 'migraine' and as soon as I saw it for exactly the form it took it literally vanished. Same with anxiety in my stomach, find the form/shape of anxiety and it just doesn't matter anymore, it just is what it is . Nothing. It untangles the illusion of discomfort. I'd say a year or two practicing mindfulness, bodyscans and yoga and you start to get major benefits of a lack of panic and fear and a vastly improved general state of mind. The trick is not to be too pleased with yourself when you make progress, as soon as you think 'I'm great I can do it! I'm a great meditater! !' The brief empowerment evaporates and it can take a lot more meditation to resume. And obviously don't get annoyed when it doesn't seem to work.
When we are mindful deeply in touch with the present moment our understanding of what is going on deepens and we begin to be filled with acceptance joy peace and love
Buddhism is always true.. to teach you to see the world in different ways. more refined..Christian can also practice Buddhism... just like yoga..and will make you a better Christian.
just finish this on Audible a well researched book got me back to Meditation.
I came to Buddhism later in life, and partly as a result of living in SE Asia. I now consider myself Buddhist. I studied western philosophy formally quite a bit when I was younger, and have maintained a lifelong interest in that. For me, there are strong parallels between Buddhism and many thinkers whom I admire, particularly Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Heidegger. I don't want to push this too far, but for me having a background with all these sources has given me a level of understanding for which I'm grateful. There are multiple paths to greater understanding.
Great Book. As a long time practicing mediator I can say from experience he's correct. Meditation wakes us up from our Stupor. We start to see our reality more clearly and it's not always pleasant. We might be surprised to see what we have been up to. It doesn't mean we are going to change our habitual patterns and reactions it just means we start to see them and given the opportunity we can relate to them and work with them if we so choose. We real-eyes that what we have been doing might not have been healthy.
One thing that puzzles me is why you creatures hide be hind some imaginary "we", seemingly not realising that by using "we" or " our" you are saying *I*and my. Why are you in a stupor in the first place?
What exactly do you mean by meditation to which Siddhartha referred or commended exactly how many times and when?
Reading this book changed my life in a very balanced way. I objectively view the world will not forget that I am the conscious force that permeates reality, specifically in my localized mass of cells which is called a body. Glad I stumbled upon this talk because I not the book worm type (I have mild ADHD so I'm sure you get the picture) but this book really captivated my attention and his writing style was like a conversation with a friend. Loved his humor and that is very evident in his conduct shown.
If there is a hereafter, the only man I love to meet is Sakyamuni Buddha for his great intellect & pure compassionate heart...
Jesus is the only way to heaven. He suffered and died on the cross because he loved you and wants you to be forgiven through him. The buddhist life ends in the devils mouth, just look at the buddha wheel of life.
It’s Jesus that went to hell, got slaughtered and cried in pain. , Buddha escaped into the Nibbana.
I love love love this book. It is so well written and covers so many interesting topics. On my all time favorite list.
Can you suggest books to read?
Practical Buddhism in the context of modern psychology - !
True
thank you thank you for the acknowledgement that most have no clue about the validity of climate change or most any other important complex topic
Robert Wright is just the best
Understanding the non-arising, non-passing nature is the true philosophy of Buddhism.
thanks from Bangladeshi Buddhist
I've been meditating for decades. I also think the Buddhist notion of impermanence and how to deal with it makes an awful lot of sense based on my own experience. But here's where my conflict lies, Buddhist cultures, at least as they manifest themselves nowadays seem to have static, passive populations. It's ironic that Wright is commenting on it being "right" in the heart of a culture that I guess is "wrong". Western Buddhism is rather schizoid. You realize that when you travel through the East.
For me all Wright's book indicates is that it has entered the mainstream of American culture. Which means it will be ripped to pieces and marketed by a lot of carpet baggers. People like Deepak Chopra.
Most Buddhists I know are upper middle-class greedheads with a patina of supposed bodhicitta. They tend to be MORE egocentric than less. There's a big Buddhist community where I live. It's more a social club for lawyers, accountants and other professionals.
When meditation is taken up by those whose lives really are difficult, that being the working class, maybe I'll start to think the West's acceptance of Buddhism is something more than a fetish of the well educated and well off solipsistic professional.
Prattly Ponsarello have u looked into islam....or may be 4. Da west..tthat is out of question....we call 4 submition...hint...wat is submition...n y....
Prattly Ponsarello 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 well said! And tbh this Wright guy seems really obnoxious. I didn't get a warm feeling from the very first sight of him.... he looks kind of depressed... but in any case not someone I'd happily walk up to and start a conversation with..... I try not to be judgemental but I can't help the vibes I get from people.....
Can't you find similar hypocrisy among the supposed adherents of other religions? While we could talk about "most Buddhists" (assuming that your local community is representative) same as "most Christians", perhaps more serious practitioners are of more interest. In the West, most religions are dying, so it is significant that Buddhism is growing. Working classes everywhere tend to be more conservative, sticking to their local cultures and traditions, unlike educated classes with international contacts. Work by those like Wright is part of the dissemination process. To my knowledge, Buddhism lacks Christianity's active missionaries.
Jaana Swan I'm glad Robert Wright doesn't come across as "warm" -- I'm so tired of seeing Dalai Llama/Santa Claus types of people who you just suspect must either have a very easy life or are just too crazy/stupid to realize how hard life is... it's good seeing a "normal" "subway commuter" looking kind of person talk about mindfulness for a change! Oh, and, as Wright had cited: Fundamental Attribution Error, a cognitive bias (operant even in what I've just said, I realize).
The discontent that drives people to do things is perhaps somewhat quelled by Buddhist philosophy? Whereas the restless anxious westerner is in constant motion with no respite except from short lived consumer satisfactions.
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh explains Buddhist psychology in a very easy way.
The four layers of consciousness.
....Abhidharma, Buddhism’s map of the mind, is sometimes treated as a topic of merely intellectual interest. In fact, says Thich Nhat Hanh, identifying the different elements of consciousness, and understanding how they interact, is essential to our practice of meditation.
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hạnh writes:
The Vietnamese Zen Master Thuong Chieu said, “When we understand how our mind works, our practice becomes easy.” To understand our minds, we need to understand our consciousness.
The Buddha taught that consciousness is always continuing, like a stream of water. Consciousness has four layers. The four layers of consciousness are mind consciousness, sense consciousness, store consciousness, and manas.
Mind consciousness is the first kind of consciousness. It uses up most of our energy. Mind consciousness is our “working” consciousness that makes judgments and plans; it is the part of our consciousness that worries and analyzes. When we speak of mind consciousness, we’re also speaking of body consciousness, because mind consciousness isn’t possible without the brain. Body and mind are simply two aspects of the same thing. Body without consciousness is not a real, live body. And consciousness can’t manifest itself without a body.
It’s possible for us to train ourselves to remove the false distinction between brain and consciousness. We shouldn’t say that consciousness is born from the brain because the opposite is true: the brain is born from consciousness. The brain is only 2 percent of the body’s weight, but it consumes 20 percent of the body’s energy. So using mind consciousness is very expensive. Thinking, worrying, and planning takes a lot of energy.
We can economize the energy by training our mind consciousness in the habit of mindfulness. Mindfulness keeps us in the present moment and allows our mind consciousness to relax and let go of the energy of worrying about the past or predicting the future.
The second level of consciousness is sense consciousness, the consciousness that comes from our five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. We sometimes call these senses “gates,” or “doors,” because all objects of perception enter consciousness through our sensory contact with them. Sense consciousness always involves three elements: first, the sense organ (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, or body); second, the sense object itself (the object we’re smelling or the sound we’re hearing); and finally, our experience of what we are seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, or touching.
The third layer of consciousness, store consciousness, is the deepest. There are many names for this kind of consciousness. Mahayana tradition calls this store consciousness, or alaya, in Sanskrit. The Theravada tradition uses the Pali word bhavanga to describe this consciousness. Bhavanga means constantly flowing, like a river. Store consciousness is also sometimes called root consciousness (mulavijñana in Sanskrit) or sarvabijaka, which means “the totality of the seeds.” In Vietnamese, we call store consciousness tang. Tang means to keep and preserve.
These different names hint at the three aspects of store consciousness. The first meaning is of a place, a “store,” where all kinds of seeds and information are kept. The second meaning is suggested by the Vietnamese name because store consciousness doesn’t just take in all the information, it holds it and preserves it. The third meaning is suggested by bhavanga, the sense of processing and transforming.
Store consciousness is like a museum. A museum can only be called a museum when there are things in it. When there is nothing in it, you can call it a building, but not a museum. The conservator is the one who is responsible for the museum. Her function is to keep the various objects preserved and not allow them to be stolen. But there must be things to be stored, things to be kept. Store consciousness refers to the storing and also to what is stored-that is, all the information from the past, from our ancestors, and all the information received from the other consciousnesses. In the Buddhist tradition, this information is stored as bija, seeds.
Suppose this morning you hear a certain chant for the first time. Your ear and the music come together and provoke the manifestation of the mental formation called touch, which causes store consciousness to vibrate. That information, a new seed, falls into the store continuum. Store consciousness has the capacity to receive the seed and store it in its heart. Store consciousness preserves all the information it receives. But the function of store consciousness isn’t just to receive and store these seeds; its job is also to process this information.
The work of processing on this level is not expensive. Store consciousness doesn’t spend as much energy as, for example, mind consciousness. Store consciousness can process this information without a lot of work on your part. So if you want to save your energy, don’t think too much, don’t plan too much, and don’t worry too much. Allow your store consciousness to do most of the processing.
During the night if your room becomes cold but you continue to sleep, your body can sense the cold without the intervention of mind consciousness. Store consciousness may give the order to your arm to pull up the blanket without your even being aware of it. Store consciousness operates in the absence of mind consciousness. It can do a lot of things. It can do a lot of planning; it can make a lot of decisions without your knowing about it.
When we go into a department store and look for a hat or a shirt, we have the impression, while looking at the items displayed, that we have free will and that, finances permitting, we are free to choose whatever we want. If the vendor asks us what we like, we can point to or verbalize the object of our desire. And we likely have the impression that we are free people at this moment, using our mind consciousness to select things that we like. But that is an illusion. Everything has been decided already in store consciousness. At that moment we are caught; we are not free people. Our sense of beauty, our sense of liking or disliking, has been decided very certainly and very discreetly on the level of store consciousness.
It’s an illusion that we are free. The degree of freedom that our mind consciousness has is actually very small. Store consciousness dictates many of the things we do, because store consciousness continuously receives, embraces, maintains, processes, and makes many decisions without the participation of mind consciousness. But if we know the practice, we can influence our store consciousness; we can help influence how our store consciousness stores and processes information so as to make better decisions. We can influence it.
Just like mind consciousness and sense consciousness, store consciousness consumes. When you are around a group of people, although you want to be yourself, you are consuming their ways, and you are consuming their store consciousness. Our consciousness is fed with other consciousnesses. The way we make decisions, our likes and dislikes, depending on the collective way of seeing things. You may not see something as beautiful, but if many people think that it’s beautiful, then slowly you may come to accept it as beautiful also because the individual consciousness is made up of collective consciousness.
The value of the dollar is made up of the collective thinking of people, not just of objective economic elements. People’s fears, desires, and expectations make the dollar go up and go down. We are influenced by the collective ways of seeing and thinking. That’s why selecting the people you are around is very important. It’s very important to surround yourself with people who have loving-kindness, understanding, and compassion because day and night we are influenced by the collective consciousness.
Store consciousness offers us enlightenment and transformation. This possibility is contained in its third meaning, its always-flowing nature. Store consciousness is like a garden where we can plant the seeds of flowers, fruits, and vegetables, and then flowers, fruits, and vegetables will grow. Mind consciousness is only a gardener. A gardener can help the land and take care of the land, but the gardener has to believe in the land, believe that it can offer us fruits, flowers, and vegetables. As practitioners, we can’t rely on our mind consciousness alone; we have to rely on our store consciousness as well. Decisions are being made down there.
Suppose you type something on your computer and this information is stored on the hard drive. That hard drive is like store consciousness. Although the information doesn’t appear on the screen, it is still there. You only need to click and it will manifest. The bija, the seeds in store consciousness, are like the data you store on your computer. If you want to, you can click and help it appear on the screen of mind consciousness. Mind consciousness is like a screen and store consciousness is like the hard drive, because it can store a lot in it. Store consciousness has the capacity of storing, maintaining, and preserving information so that it can’t be erased.
Unlike information on a hard drive, however, all the seeds are of an organic nature and they can be modified. The seed of hatred, for example, can be weakened and its energy can be transformed into the energy of compassion. The seed of love can be watered and strengthened. The nature of the information that’s being kept and processed by the store consciousness is always flowing and always changing. Love can be transformed into hate, and hate can be transformed back into love......Read on in the replies section.
Store consciousness is also a victim. It’s an object of attachment; it’s not free. In-store consciousness there are elements of ignorance, delusion, anger, fear and these elements form a force of energy that clings, that want to possess. This is the fourth level of consciousness, called manas, which I like to translate as “cogitation.” Manas consciousness has at its root the belief in a separate self, the belief in a person. This consciousness, the feeling, and instinct called “I am,” is very deeply seated in store consciousness. It’s not a view taken up by mind consciousness. Deeply seated in the depths of store consciousness is this idea that there is a self that is separate from non-self elements. The function of manas is to cling to store consciousness as a separate self.
Another way of thinking of manas is as Adana consciousness. Adana means “appropriation.” Imagine that a vine puts forth a shoot, and then the shoot turns back and embraces and encircles the trunk of the tree. This deep-seated delusion-the belief that there is a self is there in store consciousness as the result of ignorance and fear, and it gives rise to an energy that turns around and embraces store consciousness and makes it the only object of its love.
Manas is always operating. It never lets go of store consciousness. It’s always embracing, always holding, or sticking to store consciousness. It believes store consciousness to be the object of its love. That’s why store consciousness isn’t free. There’s an illusion that store consciousness is “me,” is my beloved, so I can’t let it go. Day and night there’s a secret, deep cogitation that this is me, this is mine, and I have to do everything I can to grasp, to protect, to make it mine. Manas is born and rooted in store consciousness. It arises from store consciousness and it turns around and embraces store consciousness as its object: “You are my beloved, you are me.” The function of manas is to appropriate store consciousness as its own.
Now we have the names of the four layers of consciousness, and we can see how they interact. Store consciousness is a process-always flowing, always present, never interrupted. But mind consciousness may be interrupted. For example, when we sleep without dreaming, mind consciousness is not operating. When we’re in a coma, mind consciousness stops working completely. And there are deep concentrations when mind consciousness completely stops operating-there’s no thinking, no planning, nothing-yet store consciousness continues to operate.
Some neuroscientists use the term “background consciousness” to describe store consciousness. And the level of mind consciousness is what they call, simply, consciousness. Whether you’re awake or you’re asleep, whether you’re dreaming or not dreaming, the work of processing and storing information is continuously done by store consciousness, whether you want it to or not.
There are times when sense consciousness operates in collaboration with store consciousness without going through the mind. It’s funny, but it happens very, very often. When you drive your car, you are able to avoid many accidents, even if your mind's consciousness is thinking of other things. You may not even be thinking of driving at all. And yet, most of the time at least, you don’t get into an accident. This is because the impressions and images provided by eye consciousness are received by store consciousness, and decisions are made without ever going through mind consciousness.
If you have to make a quick maneuver, it’s not your mind consciousness that does it. We don’t think, “Oh, there is an accident, therefore I have to quickly swerve to the right.” That instinct of self-defense comes from store consciousness.
In the cold room at night, even though you’re not dreaming, and mind consciousness isn’t functioning, the feeling of cold still penetrates into the body at the level of sense consciousness, which makes a vibration on the level of store consciousness, and your body moves the blanket up to cover you. Whether we’re driving, manipulating a machine, or performing other tasks, many of us allow our sense consciousness to collaborate with store consciousness, which enables us to do many things without the intervention of mind consciousness. When we bring our mind consciousness into this work, then suddenly we may become aware of the mental formations that are arising.
The word “formation” (samskara in Sanskrit) means something that manifests when many conditions come together. When we look at a flower, we can recognize many of the elements that have come together to make the flower manifest in that form. We know that without the rain there can be no water and the flower cannot manifest. And we see that the sunshine is also there. The earth, the compost, the gardener, time, space, and many elements came together to help this flower manifest. The flower doesn’t have a separate existence; it’s a formation. The sun, the moon, the mountain, and the river are all formations. Using the word “formation” reminds us that there is no separate core of existence in them. There is only a coming together of many, many conditions for something to manifest.
As Buddhist practitioners, we can train ourselves to look at everything as a formation. We know that all formations are changing all the time. Impermanence is one of the marks of reality because everything changes.
Formations that exist in consciousness are called mental formations. When there’s contact between a sense organ (eyes, ears, mouth, nose, body) and an object, sense consciousness arises. And at the moment your eyes first gaze on an object, or you first feel the wind on your skin, the first mental formation of contact manifests. Contact causes a vibration on the level of store consciousness.
If the impression is weak, then the vibration stops, and the current of store consciousness recovers its tranquility; you continue to sleep or you continue with your activities because that impression created by touch has not been strong enough to draw the attention of mind consciousnesses. It’s like when a flying insect lands on the surface of the water and causes the water to ripple a little bit. After the insect flies off, the surface of the water becomes completely calm again. So although the mental formation manifests, although the current of the life continuum vibrates, there’s no awareness born in mind consciousness because the impression is too weak.
Sometimes in Buddhist psychology, one speaks of forty-nine or fifty mental formations. In my tradition, we speak of fifty-one. Of the fifty-one mental formations, contact is the first, followed by the attention, feeling, perception, and volition. These five mental formations can take place very quickly, and their intensity, their depth, varies in each level of consciousness. When we speak of attention, for instance, we can see attention in the context of store consciousness, and we can see attention on the level of mind consciousness, and the intensity or the depth of attention is quite different on the two levels.
The fifty-one mental formations are also called mental concomitants; that is, they are the very content of consciousness, the way the drops of water are the very content of the river. For example, anger is a mental formation. Mind consciousness can operate in such a way that anger can manifest in mind consciousness. In that moment, mind consciousness is filled with anger, and we may feel our mind consciousness is full of nothing but anger. But in fact, mind consciousness is not just anger, because later on compassion arises, and at that time, mind consciousness becomes compassion. Mind consciousness is, at various times, all fifty-one mental formations, be they positive, negative, or neutral.
Without mental formations, there can’t be consciousness. It’s as if we’re discussing the formation of birds. The formation holds the birds together, and they fly beautifully in the sky. You don’t need someone to hold the birds and keep them flying in one formation. You don’t need a self to create the formation. The birds just do it. In a beehive, you don’t need someone who gives the order for this bee to go left and that bee to go right; they just communicate among one another and are a beehive. Among all the bees, every bee may have a different responsibility, but no bee claims to be the boss of all the bees, not even the queen. The queen is not the boss. Her function is simply to give birth to the eggs. If you have a good community, a good sangha, it’s like this beehive in which all the parts make up the whole, with no leader, no boss.
When we say it’s raining, we mean that raining is taking place. You don’t need someone up above to perform the raining. It’s not that there is rain, and there is the one who causes the rain to fall. In fact, when you say the rain is falling, it’s very funny, because if it weren’t falling, it wouldn’t be rain. In our way of speaking, we’re used to having a subject and a verb. That’s why we need the word “it” when we say, “it rains.” “It” is the subject, the one who makes the rain possible. But, looking deeply, we don’t need a “rainer,” we just need the rain. Raining and the rain are the same. The formation of birds and the birds are the same-there’s no “self,” no boss involved.
There’s a mental formation called vitarka, “thinking.” When we use the verb “to think” in English, we need a subject of the verb: I think, you think, he thinks. But, really, you don’t need a subject for a thought to be produced. Thinking without thinker-it’s absolutely possible. To think is to think about something. To perceive is to perceive something. The perceiver and the object that is perceived are one.
When Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am,” his point was that if I think, there must be an “I” for thinking to be possible. When he made the declaration “I think,” he believed that he could demonstrate that the “I” exists. We have a strong habit of believing in a self. But, observing very deeply, we can see that a thought does not need a thinker to be possible. There is no thinker behind the thinking-there is just the thinking; that’s enough.
Now, if Mr. Descartes were here, we might ask him, “Monsieur Descartes, you say, ‘You think, therefore you are.’ But what are you? You are your thinking. Thinking-that’s enough. Thinking manifests without the need of a self behind it.”
Thinking without a thinker. Feeling without a feeler. What is our anger without our “self”? This is the object of our meditation. All the fifty-one mental formations take place and manifest without a self behind them that’s arranging for this to appear, and then for that to appear. Our mind consciousness is in the habit of basing itself on the idea of self, on manas. But we can meditate to be more aware of our store consciousness, where we keep the seeds of all those mental formations that are not currently manifesting in our mind.
When we meditate, we practice looking deeply in order to bring light and clarity into our way of seeing things. When the vision of no-self is obtained, our delusion is removed. This is what we call transformation. In the Buddhist tradition, transformation is possible with deep understanding. The moment the vision of no-self is there, manas, the elusive notion of “I am,” disintegrates, and we find ourselves enjoying, in this very moment, freedom and happiness.
One one hand, absolutely. But you could equally write a book called “What Buddhism misses”. It has no official doctrine or practice which acknowledges developmental sequences, it focuses so much on growth states and not growth stages that it misses huge aspects of developmental unfolding
M McManus that’s a good point
What's the difference between a "growth state" and a "growth stage" in this context? Can you define those terms for clarity's sake?
Great talk and I enjoyed the q and a and the perspectives the audience had. Thanks 😊 But I'm from Sri Lanka and buddhist monks and nuns definitely meditate :) Thanks
Jesus is the only way to heaven. He suffered and died on the cross because he loved you and wants you to be forgiven through him
@@Tony-qt4zv okay cool, thankyou very much
Excellent points in QandA. Buddha didn't say life is suffering. Instead, there is unsatisfactoriness. Dukkha.
jairosoft, that is another way of saying. Now, put yourself in shoes of millions who has internal organ cancer or misplacement....looking at your family members tortured and then killed in front of you... is it suffering or unsatisfactioness?
Look at a terrorist who commits an act that biologically must involve extreme pain and suffering for an instant, but before (they had a mental state that seemed normal and purposeful) and supposedly afterwards (they hope to have gained ultimate satisfactoriness) their state of mind might be no different than that of a Buddhist monk who burns himself to death in protest. So unsatisfactoriness is not getting what one wants, or had expected which some times may sort of spirals out of control to effect future actions. But what should be the best strategy for preventing things from going worse? Not have positive expectations? That way if things go well then it's a bonus.
Dukkha is really Unhappiness or Sadness ... un unsatisfactoryness _/|\_
Dhruv Jolly Dukkha is etymologically read as " bumpy wheel axel " as " sukkha" meant " smooth wheel axel
Perhaps it can mean all of the above, it would not be the first time that a teaching of the Buddha has not had a one-to-one translation into English
Buddhism is the most credible religion out there. It doesn't focus on supernaturalism, but practical teachings. There's no scrolls, altars, deities, etc. The Buddha gave practical advice. Outsiders have added this.
KevZen2000 Buddhists do have altars. No altars is a WESTERN tradition
Turkish Guy The Buddha versus the 'Buddhism' of today are two different things. The Buddhism in the proper context isn't about idolatry, it's about enlightenment. One may use an image or item, but Buddhism, as the Buddha taught, doesn't worship such, as we define in the Western culture. Eastern religion uses the vocabulary different, than Western religious notions.
phengkimving2 Yes Buddhist did, but they don't represent the core of Buddhism. The Four Noble Truths, 5 precepts, and The Eightfold Path are the fundamental doctrines of Buddhism.
phengkimving2 Outside of the core of Buddhism, one is free to add doctrines, but worshipping idols or Gurus is attaching oneself to the entity. It hinders enlightenment.
KevZen2000 really...look again...
buddhism is path to how to understand world Thruth and how to living correctly get rid of sadness.
Rk. Lalith2 wat about islam....have u looked Allah sw wat he say about these..matters...mainly bcoz it his creation...not budda..or anyone else...r u muslim....? May be u r n dont know wat n hu u really r?? Is worth wondering...reflecting on these rather..existential q..s
Buddhism is scientific, there’s many Dimensions and realms in our universe, meditation is the way to reach there, Buddhism is true, Islam on the other hand have many belives in god and miracles. But its not as close to reality as Buddhusm
qaarul go read about Buddhism please, im sure u will love it
@@qaarulxiram4077 Going by the way you spell, I'll stick with Buddhism lol
@@qaarulxiram4077 we don't blv in fairytail.i mean seriously how can a book fly.?Quaran
42.26..the guy says Buddhism has stopped at certain point....we have to move forward to feel comfortable with our self....and he admit he meditate… though claims Buddhism is too much obsessed with self. .But my dear fellow guy, one of the key facts in Buddhism is selflessness..Ups.!!!.. Please don't go in to panic.
When you achieve the habit of realising self is not really existing , You feel much comfortable with the label you think ' self'
Buddhism apparently has not stopped in certain point and it is still progressive in big part of Asian continent and people around the world.
Wow... grate you acknowledge you meditate. I have started to meditate some days ago and feel good about it.
Brindly Mousten seems like he didn’t read the bit that says the self is also and illusion.
44:20 also briefly mentioned is one can always have more "food". That's the crux of chronic obesity epidemic and rising healthcare costs. We're wired to seek out more food, particularly that tastes good. One of the side benefits of mindfulness meditation practice is that we'll have a better control over our impulse to eat more.
Proud to be Buddha follower.
PRIDE is distinctly ANTI-Buddhist. So you're Proud, so maybe you're not much into Buddhism.
Peter J. Andros good point
There is no self. So who is proud? 😀
Buddha does not want follower.
Be your own light.
@@peterj.andros3996 Not particularly. I would read more on "Right view" of the Eightfold path ;-)
His comments on perceived essence and cognitive bias are bang on.
Does anyone else feel that the questions held some presuppositions? The talk was great though!
Namo Buddhaya .greetings and blessings from sri Lanka
🙏🏼
I am also..😄❤🇱🇰🇱🇰🇱🇰
59:25 this is a great question. It has been raised by many as the reason for why Buddhist/Hindu societies tend to be passive and don't make progress - because they accept things the way they are without judgment. First of all, it takes extreme practice to reach that state. Along the way, however, meditation makes see things the way they are. It helps us get to the root of the issues, which is what is needed to solve a lot of what ails the society now. In fact, the reason we are not able to solve social problems right now is that there isn't enough meditation. We just follow our tribal instincts and dig in as opposed to view issues for what they are.
This is also related to 38:30 point about is there evil and 30:25 discussion about attribution error. There are evil actions but it should not be attributed as a permanent state to an individual except in extreme cases where their genetics make them so. So meditations helps us see "evil" in a non-judgmental way. This has implications for criminal justice reform (what is punishment) and how individual meditative practice can lead to social reform movements.
The passivity and lack of progress is something I wonder about.
@@Knaeben I think that's just a misunderstanding and misperception of what meditation actually does to our brain. It doesn't make us passive. It makes us less reactive, which means we tend to think about the consequences of our actions before jumping into action. That's exactly what we need. We don't want to jump into action reactively, but rather think through and act. That has the effect of being perceived as slow and passive. But it's more effective in the long run to get the right results.
@@Knaeben real progress comes only after mind being settled... I mean so many things which we did in name of progress may not really needed or may be we can use it more properly.
Buddha is one of the great teacher of all time not only buddha india ia the land of thousands of buddha.
I did his course at coursera and it was definetely interesting. The four noble truths are philosophically challenging and meditation really helped me a lot. I can just recommend that one. One thing he said reminded me at Charles Sanders Peirce. For all the philosophy interested folks "The fixation of belief" is a fascinating text about doubt, belief and different types of ways to deal with the change from doubt to belief. He was the founding father of pragmatism and I got the feeling he had a stronger "realistic" (Philosophically, both metaphysically and epistemologically) stance, than many of the modern pragmatists.
It seems to escape going through this again,one must meditate and cling to naught.But ,under the table they have their fingers crossed.
Realizing that is something to practice with.
Engaging speaker. Good opening and intelligent discussion.
43:08 - absolutely! several steps beyond simple observation of one's self in a clinical way is the disappearance of self. In Buddhist and Hindu philosophy that's called Nirvana or Moksha or Liberation. At that point one is considered beyond "dukkah or sukah"/suffering/happiness. Since those attributes are associated with an individual self. Once the self disappears those adjectives become "N/A". This is the philosophy of Advaitha Vedanata in Hinduism - the closest one to Buddhist Madhyamika school of thought. Advaitha meaning non-dual - no self and universe (Brahman) or "other" distinction. That's hard to describe/imaging in a "rational" sense. That's the reason both Buddhist and Hindus emphasize practice. It's the "indescribable".
Beyond...but not without. :-)
Nirvana or moksha actually means extinction of delusion...
What remains after waking up is the true reality, which means we see things differently.
Not in a way of seeing different spirits or light or sound but our perception and the way we look changes.
Dont mix buddhism with hindu its totally different
Hinduism is a fabricated religion made up of cursed gods and teachings. According to them Brahma is cursed by Shiva and so is their vedas.
So if your Advaita derives from vedas you can only pretend to know Buddhist nibanna.
Buddha saved hindus from all the cursed gods and false teachings.
Wright is so cool and smart, great event.
I recommend you Lotus Sutra.
Emptiness; You can also just break it down as you're experiencing life around you that reflect in you. Like i was walking the dog today, and a huge bug with big wings flew over to the other side of the street on the sidewalk. It's alive (haha), but the joy of seeing other living creatures around you is by far as awesome as a Disney movie, and actually 100% more most of the times. When i feel like i want to chase a bug around to find out what it is, what its eating or where its going.. that's either emptiness or craziness, haha
Emptiness as presence is a really nice way of thinking about it. Makes me think of fullness too. Appreciate this, because emptiness can feel cold and nihilistic.
I think the gentleman who suggested that it's time to "move beyond Buddhism" has somehow confused Buddhism with not much more than the study of psychology.
If he understood Buddhism, then he wouldn't have made that suggestion because that next step of "moving beyond Buddhism" is in fact what the essence of Buddhism is - it is that transcendent nature we seek to achieve in our journey or enquiry of Buddhism.
I can't believe how he lightly glosses over non-self. It is much more central than the useful angles he elaborates. And it is well illuminated by modern psychology. Missed boat here.
The central question is not whether the Dhamma practice laid out in the Four Noble Truths and Eight-Fold Path is true. The subjective experience of liberation from attachment to impermanent illusions that condition the mind creating dukkha is available to anyone who spends the years needed to realize it via meditation. The question is really, "Is Dhamma practice useful from the perspective of civilization?" The number of people who ever hear about the possibility of a cure for dukkha and a path to liberation is a drop in the ocean. The number of these people who actually get established in practice on the path is a drop within this drop. Those who realize the fruit of practice is smaller still.
Yet we are fast approaching a moment in history when our understanding of the biology and neural net conditioning of our evolved brains will allow us to potentially modify the conditioned responses of our brains using epigenetic and gene editing techniques and neural implants to achieve permanent equanimity not in 7 years or 7 months or 7 weeks or 7 days but in 7 hours or less. Should we pursue this goal as a society? What if we could eliminate all criminal harm including war, fraud, inhumanity, and neglect? Should everyone want to be happy? (An. Yes).
The problem with this is that we have a view of humanity based on the illusion of the self. Dukkha is the cost that individual sentient organisms must pay for the immortality of their species through natural selection. If we are all happy, we will all happily go extinct. This doesn't mean that dhamma practice isn't true or beneficial for those of us who have come to the path. It just means that we must help those we can and not pretend that it ever could be a widespread solution to the dukkha we encounter in the world.
Phenomenal ice breaker
Emptiness .. the absence of opinion..no questions.
mindfulness is misleading translation of the word satipatthana. Satipatthana refers to withdrawing our attention from external things to internal. meaning we are looking within mind body, we are not looking outside but inside. this means we watch the process of thinking, feeling in body, emotional feelings and emotional reactions to emotions.
No! You are wrong. It can be placed either internally or externally.
From Bouddhism I have learned that the ego wants desperately to exist and will lead us away from the pure awakened self (the Bouddha within us) There is a deeper truth that transcends the body, but the Bouddha asks us to respect this temporary vessel that is our body. Not using intoxicants or acting improperly sexually are examples. May all Bouddhists realize we are all part of the same Sangha. Peace and insight to you my brothers and sisters. Never stop walking down the path of spiritual exploration
44:20 great observation mentioned in passing - greediness is built into natural selection. Capitalism as we practice today is built on such greediness - grow customer, grow revenue, cut costs, squeeze margins, relentless pursuit of efficiency. If any one company grew beyond the rate of GDP, eventually it'll consume all resources of the planet. Then one might ask, where should we stop? Wouldn't that be an arbitrary line? At every step of the way corporations should "mindfully" ask whether the planet (with all of the stakeholders) are benefitting from the growth. If not, it's time to stop. Following the biases built into natural selection, our system is biased toward starting corporations. Not restricting them or stopping them when they grow beyond their usefulness to the society.
There is a book on kindle Heavy Thinking Cannot Fly which takes you into western Zen it backs up a lot of ideas here especially about mental clarity and peace
Human thought is a kind of energy that no one can control
I was responding to a comment so I thought I would share my thoughts and open discussion.
One of few main building blocks of Buddhist philosophy is that we shouldn't be fixing the world to heal our problems it is within the individual where the problem lies and inturn can choose to help change the world.
To the point, Buddhism doesn't discriminate with whether you are poor, middle class or rich. So whatever life one has to live with it is the understanding one should have. My father once asked me what is worse of the two. If a poor man who steals whilst knowing why it's bad or just steals without thinking. So it's the same with a man who has a Ferrari he can choose to live life luxuriously if he wants but should have the knowledge with what such a lived life entails.
They should know why they have such lives they should know what there actions breed but what separates a Buddhist to a practicing Buddhist is meditation, the actual process of healing your self. This should be the means to the end goal for all Buddhists but I understand your point, you see Buddhist who have fruitful lives but they seem hypocritical with how they choose to live them and the stark differences in eastern and western civilization. However this is where Buddhism to me is very beautiful.
We do not have to do all this in our life now, the understanding of reincarnation makes us realise that we can achieve enlightened state over the course of many life times. Reading Buddha's teachings and criticising it through the way you see the world can create a strong understanding which leads to that journey to an enlightened state. Each life we learn incrementally taking steps to escaping suffering. It's why Buddhists are quite relaxed people with not alot of problems like you see in Buddhist lawyer and doctors who live lavish lifestyle and ego's but then at the same time what they do not have something I too am working on is the wisdom to also see that the suffering of our life's would also too have to be experienced, some who is truly sick of that repeated suffering in watching family get sick or living in poverty or the resultant of being constantly dissatisfied with materialistic ness that the drive people to take action to achieve enlightenment now by finding a good teacher and practicing meditation with them or even fast track and become monks.
Buddhism gives the freedom to choose what life you choose to live. That's all it is freedom.
from my personal experience the district has had budhism around for a long time as i am getting older by the year... i was reminded of wasington d.c. by the abstract self importance of the speaker's opening statements. i have never read that the buddha would kill birds with stones so the words are just one man's opinion of moonlight.
Excellent mind, excellent writer, not so excellent speaker
Jesus is the only way to heaven. He suffered and died on the cross because he loved you and wants you to be forgiven through him.
Evil in this context is easy to explain. Evil is the lack of awareness. If awareness saves us and others from pain and suffering, not meditating, not working to expand one's awareness, not teaching this to others amounts to evil. In fact that for Kant and for Arendt "radical evil" is not caring about how what we do injures others, radical evil is "throwing them away" as we do with trash. Good and evil are thus the essential work of this tradition.
Evil= ignorance/unconsciousness. Though evil is a cultural abstract concept so it can't be absolutely defined. The buddha recognized that there are people who have ill will. People deceive because it's part of the social game. We all have a pivot to social status and we experience rewarding feelings when we beat rivals in the social game. Enlightenment philosophies like buddhism and stoicism are thus about transcending the social dominance hierarchy.
I'll go with Stoicism, thanks.
Have you read Charles Allen books on Buddhism and Indian history 🤔
Good and bad or good and evil don’t exist outside of your judgement. The universe is neutral and ever changing. Things just happen. You put the judgement of good or evil based on how it makes you or a collective group feel.
Is there (arguably) non-overlapping magisteria between semitic (Western) and Eastern religious traditions? One is about a god existing, what the properties of this god are, and moral groundedness, whereas Eastern traditions are more about personal happiness. An intellectually honest monotheist would gladly admit their religion is not about happiness, it's about Sin, it's about what god needs. Happiness is not mentioned in the Shema Israel, the Nicene Creed, or the Shahada.
"Buddha" ; meaning is " beyond the interlect". The average human is associated and stuck in interlect. However much you try to give meaning through interlect sometimes it becomes something like , trying to describe the beauty of the plains beyond the mountains while standing on the foot hills on this side of the mountain. However, much u try to describe, from heresy, it is totally different to explaining something after seeing it with your own eyes and experiencing. This is where meditation helps immensely. It helps you to rise to the mountain summit. Once there, you start seeing the beauty of the plains and then it becomes something really, so easy . Realising the very basics, fundamentals, before getting in to deep water too is important. Please watch clips of " sadhguru " an Indian sage. Seys the same as buddha said. Good basics before venturing too deep. Hope this helps. Cheers !!!!
What is interlect?
'Buddha' simply means 'The Awakened One'. Awakening has nothing to do with intellect or spiritual perspicacity or saintliness or virtue. Here 'awakening' simply means awakening to the ultimate reality that worldly phenomenon and indeed noumenon (what we cannot perceive) is 'empty' of a permanent 'self' or entity or tangiblehood or 'absoluteness'. All things, concepts, ideas, thoughts are fleeting, relative and subjective. There is no absolute beginning or ending, measurement, entity, time. Nothing is certain but death. Nothing is immutable other than the law of karma or cause and effect or action having reaction. Buddhism is about the awakening from a dream, that life is as real as experience is real as in a dream.
So you [Vince Cheok] agree that the interlect, I mean, the intellect is actually necessary to realizing or awakening to the ultimate reality. I suspect that sam999 might be suggesting that the intellect gets in the way, somehow. But the intellect, if properly applied, may be the key factor to attaining levels approaching enlightenment, or awakening to the ultimate reality, I venture to guess. I don't know, I am so un-awakened, practically asleep.
Wonderful stuff from Wright as always.
Lesson #1 Grasshopper....Confucius say, he who claims to be helping his fellow human...should never charge money for it!
Namo Buddhaya, Namo Tassa. Buddhism is true
I have a problem with the distinction between "pragmatic" and "spiritual" tendencies because the notion of pragmatism can mean opposite things. Is pragmatism a way to optimize one's chances of success (money, fame, opportunities....which can lead to opportunism, domination, exploitation, submission etc.) by e.g. adding meditation to one's daily life, or the fact to act in the sense of ethical values (e.g. trying to participate in alternate ways of production, working, shopping, but also be helpfull etc.) ? In that second sense, isn't pragmatism "spiritual" in a way ? Can we disconnect "spirituality" from acts ? What's intersting in Buddha is that he clearly answers "no, you can't disconnect one's spirituality from one's way of living, his abbility to interfere with things in the sense of his values". So I don't like the word "pragmatic" because it can mean anything you want. Telling that someone is "pragmatic" in his approach of buddhism or whatever doesn't tell anything essential about his way to me.
9 percent Hindu has deteriorated the real indian philosophy and culture, and they are still doing that... Anyway a big thanks to you sir...
True
Buddhadhamma based on real for example we were suffering because great,hatred and delusion attachment leads clinging
I enjoyed Robert Wright's sense of humor. I liked, "...after my nap."
Imagining a "Buddhists for Trump" PAC is the best laugh I've had in a minute.I have yet to meet one lol.
Actually, a true Buddhist is opposed to left-wing political ideology, because it is about socialism, which is about aggressive force and theft, which are contrary to what the Buddha taught. Google the article "Buddhist Politics 501" for an elaboration of this.
@@l.rongardner2150 You are dead right! Buddhism is opposed to leftist ideologies of socialism and communism.
Guan Yin Citta is a Buddhist dharma door which has blossomed across the globe from Asian countries to Europe with around 10 million Buddhist believers and cultivators currently. It is a rightful and lawful Buddhist dharma door (even UN recognises on that), sheltered by the utmost Guan Yin Bodhisattva's all-encompassing mercy and love for sentient beings and Master Lu as the leading teacher. People cultivate by chanting Buddhist sutras and mantras, doing life liberations, making vows (e.g. becoming a vegetarian for the rest of their lives) and reading the book series "Bai Hua Fo Fa" to learn about Buddhist values and teachings. Many people who had cancer, mental illnesses, and all sorts of detrimental illnesses that were deemed incurable by doctors were cured. Many people who couldn't find their way out before have now found the ultimate truth and hope in life and have fully recovered from their past illnesses and karmic obstacles since cultivating under this dharma door. For more information, please kindly take a look:
ebooks.xinlingfamen.info
instagram.com/masterjunhonglu/
ruclips.net/video/FHfNvLkEg4A/видео.html
guanyincitta.com/en/intro-to-guan-yin-citta-summary/
To anyone who finds it painful when a speaker ends EVERY sentence with '...urm....'- you may want to give this one a miss ;)
I think there’s a need for comparative study on Advait Vedanta and Buddhism. Is there any scholarly articles. Please share.
What a beautifully done talk and QA session, amazing!
There are these nice reads on meditation... Practical meditation and The way and goal of Rayoga... These are from 'omshantistore'.
Interesting, thanks.
I'm quite shocked at Wright's statement at 46:44 that most Buddhists in Asia, many Buddhist monks in Asia, don't meditate. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's not a western stereotype at all people in the west thinks that Buddhist monks meditate. I would be quite interested to know if it's from Wright's own observation or did he get that notion by speaking to the Buddhist dharma or the Buddhist monks in Asia. Perhaps he's conflating the fact that most East Asians observe the Taoist tradition and because Taoism is equal parts folk religion and quasi religion that co-opts Buddhism into its diverse philosophy and because it is true that most Taoist adherents don't meditate, he therefore concludes (erroneously) that most/many "Buddhists" in Asia don't meditate? In fact, Wright's statement that Buddhists believe in deities almost certainly confirms that he's confused Daoism for Buddhism when he made the above statements. In East Asia, many are clear of the distinction between Daoism and Buddhism. But it's easy for a person not from the region with a passing knowledge or interest in Buddhism to confuse the two and conflate their practices.
There's no shortage of videos on RUclips by Buddhist monks. I'd greatly encourage anyone who's interested to watch and learn from them.
I'm starting to subscribe to Wright's RUclips channels (I've discovered him just today) as I like (and agree with) much of the diversity of topics he's talking about. But I have to respectfully say that I think his understanding of Buddhism is extremely rudimentary.
I don’t think the Buddha cares much whether we think Buddhism is true or indeed whether it is true.
I would suggest Buddha cared quite a bit. That is why he devoted his life to teaching the dharma.
Is it possible that Buddhism is simply retraining your cognition and rewiring your brain? I don't think its spiritual at all, but more practical and physical? At least that's what I believe.
We lived million of years evolving in small groups where an alpha male ruled the group therefore never underestimate a alpha male HP, it works or a alpha female
Buddhism does nothing to solve problem of suffering, merely provides therapy while humans stumble through this veil of tears.
You're wrong.
Secular Buddhism is true. Also, check out Taoism, Stoicism and Existentialism. Its amazing how much overlap there is, how much resonance. No system has a sole claim to truth but many systems have approached ultimate Truth, Buddhism is one of those approaches.
I m Buddhist ...
Where are you from ? Are you Theravada Buddhist ?
Every one is born Buddhist until got influenced.
In buddhism evil means unwholesome actions like killing ,stealing etc.usually we will hate the evil doer but real buddhist dont hate anyone.its an unwholesome act and we must try to stop it without hatred for the doer.🙂
Jesus is the only way to heaven. He suffered and died out of love for you so you may be forgiven through repentance and faith through the son.
@@Tony-qt4zv do not believe just because a book says so.take its teachings and see for yourself if it is true.if jesus died for our sins,then he would not have proclaimed:you reap what you sow.we are the owners of our own actions,no god can save us if we keep killing and harming others.🙂
@@tanjohnny6511 Do not believe just because your feelings tell you so. That's all buddhism and taoism are... feelings. Without proof it's just fiction. That's what the bible is for, it takes the spirituality of life and mixes it with the worlds history and science. buddhism is all feeling, there is no worldly proof that allows you to logically confirm that it is the truth. Again, Jesus is the only way to true peace in life. I hope you find love for the man who was willing to give his all for you.
@@Tony-qt4zv i believe jesus is a highly spiritual person but our salvation cannot be done by others we must put in the practice of kindness,love thy neighbour and compassion for all sentient beings.if jesus can save us just by believing him without doing good,he would not have preached "you reap what you have sowed"have a nice day.🙂
@@tanjohnny6511 You seem very misled on the preaching of Jesus. It's through his grace you are saved. You will have a sour realization of that when your time comes and you are standing on your own good works. The righteousness of man is like a tattered rag compared to the lord. I hope you see the demons have deceived you sooner rather than later.
Mindfulness was designed to be practiced by the uneducated. It is slow, but it works, and it is possible to give the instruction to large numbers of people. There are no questions to be asked of it. With Vipassana, "just do it" is the only answer. I understand Mr. Wright is trying to explain it to an audience...however such explanations give little insight, but perhaps they do convince.
There are far more potent ways that were given, through the dialectic. But they require that you are capable of dialectic movement/thought. This is one reason why the selection of candidates was always rigorous...if you weren't capable of it, those methods would only confuse you. Or worse, they would increase your ignorance.
When any speaker says UH and UM eight times in the first minute, I click off,. As in the instant case. Too bad, because I really wanted to hear this lecture.
So why? Lol I guess I need to buy the book! Lol
Anyone knows Buddhist Economy?
I believe the Nobel Laureate Prof. Amartya Sen says that when Buddhism was alive in the Indian society, the GDP grew by 21%. Need more info though
When I listened to the gentleman talking about transcending Buddhism into energy I thought "oh man I hope I dont sound like that when i'm trying to promote meditation/mindfullness"
😆 no hate for the guy hes probably managed to become a much better person from all this time spent developing his own style, but his question isnt calibrated well enough to be recieved by a large group of people. Its like going to a soup kitchen where homeless people are being given free food and saying, hey everyone, shouldnt we just transcend homelessness and poverty? Ahh yeah thatd be cool I guess, how bout you get to work on that and I'll heat up the next batch of pumkin soup.
Meditation is not Buddism, It just a part / tool for Buddism...Meditation have positive and negative ...Most people get it wrong . Biddisth all in Tripitaka
Thank you for your comment.. What then best defines buhdism?
peeratan peeraind
03:27 (5 ชั่วโมงที่ผ่านมา)
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When you understand all nature, you can go throu suffering by understanding of how to . Meditation... if looking for happyness,it is the wrong way...... Budda taught how to get off from Suffering not looking for Happyness ...
Truth....the only absolute 'Truth' available to mankind, with apologies to Leo Tolstoy, is that everything changes...one day there will be no Buddhism...one day there will be no people...one day there will be no days!! Avoid True! Embrace the best of Buddhism -- the NOW!
Small point: Serving coffee at a Buddhist meditation retreat? Counterproductive. I don't think meditation on a particular subject is recommend. Again, counterproductive. This will exacerbate attachments and clinging.
Why look at Twitter at all, lol. Or Facebook? I guess its the same as utube but here i can listen to informations from the past history and actually learn things. Seems like an insane world
If ever a guy needed meditation ! Buddha outlined the human predicament, said there were 4 Noble Truths and defined the 8 fold Path. All concise, all clear, all easy to follow. Just what has this rambling political muddle got to do with Truth?
Robert Gore it’s about the money.... talk one hour sound like you know wat u talking about and sell books.
"Buddhist monks in asia don't meditate, but believe in deities?" That is an utterly uninformed statement - inane even. .
Bob Aldo he says the same thing in the book. Ok so not all monks meditate but many do, dependent upon their tradition and some do worship deities but not all.
The Chan Monks I practiced under did meditate AND they also believed in supernatural beings. From my perspective, their love and devotion to Amitabha Buddha is similar to Christians love and devotion to Jesus Christ.
@@wayneconner2394 Buddhism is vast.
@@user-Void-Star I agree.
Bob Aldo - see 閑星白
below - Buddhism is really, really big. There are some sects that eschew mindfulness and Brahmavihara meditation but perform chanting and deity practices. I hope you are now less uninformed.
I am also so surprise out of all the you tube programs about Buddha Dharma why people watch this program, may be the heading.
Yes, but we can still have infinite growth in a finite world!
DOUBT THAT
Aggañña Sutta tell how this world was created... May be there is something to think in that too
Regarding the social psychology experiment he references about which line is longer, you can find out more here:
``On average, about one third (32%) of the participants who were placed in this situation went along and conformed with the clearly incorrect majority on the critical trials.``
www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html
Western world consider Budism as Tibatian version...
But, that is not real Budhhas version of Budism..
It's call Mahayana Budism..
But The real Budism which tought by Budha is real ,pure Budism and that's call Theravada Budism..
That exist in few countries like, Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand .
The So call Mayayan Budism is Mixed version of Buddha's teaching and Other Saints from Budism and Hindusm..
In ancient India there was a pure version of Hindusm existed and that is Saivism..
There is nothing that we can learn anything beyond what Saivsim teach us..
From cosmology to Self realization is Saivism..
Budha never learned this from any saints because by the Budhhas time, Saivsim was compressed to Southern part of India..
Saivsim is Not from Just one saints teaching..
It is acumalation of many enlightend masters teaching...
One master can live may be let's say 100 years...but within this time it is hard to discover everything from cosmology to Self realization...
But From one enlightened master...to another diciple get enlightment and that diciple then through his He then concentred into another diamention of cosmos and from that many Inner and outer siences was born...
And most important thing is Why then Budha Created another religion..??
Only reason is..Budha is straight forward and he said Just Drop the Recycling of life and death again and again .. and just Get Nirwana..
But, How many of you need Nirwana right away ??
I don't thing anybody in this Seminar and not even the Speaker...They just want to learn Budism and trying to use it to meterial.gains...
That's where many of these so call Budist expert went wrong...
Budism is Absolutely good and Best to Get Nirvana..
But not for worldly things..
Didn't read the whole comment and I don't know much Mahayana Buddhism. But yes, you are right about Theravada Buddhism. To me, it is a Buddhist branch that teaches ways to attain Arahantship. It preserves all Buddha's true teaching. It teaches Vipassana meditation, Sannojananam or the 10 Fetters, for example, which can be practiced to get rid of all fault desires or wrong attachmenta. Also, it teaches a way to become a Boddhisattava as well.