Advayavada Study Plan - week 13

Friends,

In Advayavada Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path is interpreted dynamically as an ongoing and autonomous, non-prescriptive, investigative and creative process of progressive insight reflecting in human terms overall existence advancing over time.

By following the Noble Eightfold Path thus you get in tune with wondrous overall existence advancing over time; sorrow, doubt and remorse immediately start disappearing; and your life at once gathers new impetus.

Last week's subject was the Seventh Step on the Noble Eightfold Path: our very best (samyak, samma) observation, evaluation and self-correction of our efforts.

This week's ASP subject is the Eighth Step on the Noble Eightfold Path: our very best (samyak, samma) meditation or concentration towards an increasingly real experience of samadhi.

samadhi = total concentration (of the mind, cf. enstasy); non-dualistic state of consciousness in which the experiencing subject becomes one with the experienced object; total absortion in the object of meditation; transcendence of the relationship between mind and object; merging of subject and object; to contemplate the world without any perception of objects; suspension of judgement; satori; bodhi; rigpa; realization of the sameness of the part and the whole, of the identity of form and emptiness, of samsara and nirvana, of the immediate and the ultimate; mystic oneness; perfect attunement with wondrous overall existence; oceanic feeling; wonder, awe, rapture; essential purity; deep love and compassion; awareness of our common ground.

The purpose of the ASP is that we study and discuss the meaning and implications of the weekly subject particularly in the context of whatever we ourselves are presently doing or are concerned with, or about, such as our health, relationships, work, study, and our place and responsibilities in the group, sangha, society at large, etc.

Tip: Write down this week's subject (e.g. 'meditation week') in your pocket
diary!

John Willemsens,
Advayavada Foundation.
<http://www.euronet.nl/~advaya/index.htm>