Advayavada Study Plan - week 16

Friends,

In Advayavada Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path 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.

Adherence to the familiar Five Precepts and a well-considered understanding of the Four Signs of Being and the Four Noble Truths suffice to start off on the Path at any time. Nirvana means, in Advayavada Buddhism, the total extinction of existential suffering (duhkha, dukkha) by becoming one with the universal process of change and progress.

The Noble Eightfold Path in Advayavada Buddhism is fully personalized: it is firmly based on what we increasingly know about ourselves and our world, and trusting our own intentions, feelings and conscience.

The Path or Middle Way we follow is (1) that of our very best (samyak, samma) comprehension or insight followed by (2) our very best resolution or determination, (3) our very best enunciation or definition of our intention, (4) our very best disposition or attitude, (5) our very best implementation or realization, (6) our very best effort or commitment, (7) our very best observation, reflection or evaluation and self-correction, and (8) our very best meditation or concentration towards an increasingly real experience of samadhi, which brings us to (1) a yet better comprehension or insight, and so forth.

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

Last week's preliminary ASP subject was the Second Sign of Being, the second fact of life: anatman, the selflessness of everything, and therefore the transitoriness and finitude of all individual existents, including ourselves.

This week's preliminary ASP subject is again the ubiquity of suffering (duhkha, dukkha) in the world, which is simultaneously the Third Sign of Being (fact of life) and the First Noble Truth of Buddhism.

According to Advayavada Buddhism, it is indisputable that the Buddha did not believe in Brahman (God, a transcendent and immutable Absolute) or in the atman or atta (soul, immortal self) and taught that human beings suffer because they do not understand and accept that all things in life are instead utterly changeable and transitory. They are prone to suffering (duhkha, dukkha) quite simply because they wrongly strive after and try to hold on to things, concepts and situations which they believe to be permanent, but are not.

In Advayavada Buddhism, the concept of duhkha does not include emotional grief nor physical pain. It refers solely to the existential suffering, angst and regret non-enlightened human beings are prone to - the enlightened person accepts with understanding and compassion the grief and pain which are part and parcel of human existence; equanimity does not mean insensitivity to our own feelings and those of others.

The purpose of the ASP is that we study (and debate in the group, family circle and/or with good friends) the meaning and implications of the recurring 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 family, group, sangha, society at large, etc.

Tip: Write down this week's subject ("duhkha is existential suffering") in your pocket diary.

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

Advayavada Study Plan - week 15

Friends,

In Advayavada Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path 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.

Adherence to the familiar Five Precepts and a well-considered understanding of the Four Signs of Being and the Four Noble Truths suffice to start off on the Path at any time. Nirvana means, in Advayavada Buddhism, the total extinction of existential suffering (duhkha, dukkha) by becoming one with the universal process of change and progress.

The Noble Eightfold Path in Advayavada Buddhism is fully personalized: it is firmly based on what we increasingly know about ourselves and our world, and trusting our own intentions, feelings and conscience.

The Path or Middle Way we follow is (1) that of our very best (samyak, samma) comprehension or insight followed by (2) our very best resolution or determination, (3) our very best enunciation or definition of our intention, (4) our very best disposition or attitude, (5) our very best implementation or realization, (6) our very best effort or commitment, (7) our very best observation, reflection or evaluation and self-correction, and (8) our very best meditation or concentration towards an increasingly real experience of samadhi, which brings us to (1) a yet better comprehension or insight, and so forth.

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

Last week's preliminary ASP subject was the First Sign of Being, i.e. the first fact of life: omnia mutantur, everything changes, the impermanence and changeability of everything, of all existents, including ourselves.

This week's preliminary subject is again the Second Sign of Being, the second fact of life: anatman, the selflessness of everything, and therefore the finitude or transitoriness of all individual existents, including ourselves.

It is important to grasp how everything originates in conditions and causes, and to see that everything, including ourselves, depends on everything else and has no permanent self-existence, that all things are interdependent and individually finite.

The purpose of the ASP is that we study (and debate in the group, family circle and/or with good friends) the meaning and implications of the recurring 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 family, group, sangha, society at large, etc.

Tip: Write down this week's subject ("things have no self-existence!") in your pocket diary.

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

Advayavada Study Plan - week 14

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.

Adherence to the familiar Five Precepts and a well-considered understanding of the Four Signs of Being and the Four Noble Truths suffice to start off on the Path at any time. Nirvana means, in Advayavada Buddhism, the total extinction of existential suffering (duhkha, dukkha) by becoming one with the universal process of change and progress.

The Noble Eightfold Path in Advayavada Buddhism is fully personalized: it is firmly based on what we increasingly know about ourselves and our world, and trusting our own intentions, feelings and conscience.

The Path we folow is (1) that of our very best (samyak, samma) comprehension or insight followed by (2) our very best resolution or determination, (3) our very best enunciation or definition of our intention, (4) our very best disposition or attitude, (5) our very best implementation or realization, (6) our very best effort or commitment, (7) our very best observation, reflection or evaluation and self-correction, and (8) our very best meditation or concentration towards an increasingly real experience of samadhi, which brings us to (1) a yet better comprehension or insight, and so forth.

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

Last week's ASP subject was the Eighth Step on the Noble Eighfold Path: our very best (samyak, samma) meditation or concentration towards an increasingly real experience of samadhi (cf. enstasy).

This week's preliminary ASP subject is again the First Sign of Being, i.e. the first fact of life: omnia mutantur, everything changes, the impermanence and changeability of everything, of all existents, including ourselves.

Actual and potential change are certainly the most important aspect of the universal dynamic principle of existence, of pratityasamutpada, interdependent origination, which means that 'all causes are effects and all effects are causes'.

The purpose of the ASP is that we study (and debate in the group, family circle and/or with good friends) the meaning and implications of the recurring 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 family, group, sangha, society at large, etc.

Tip: Write down this week's subject ("everything changes all the time!") in your pocket diary.

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

The Ethical Advantage of the Theory of Emptiness

So what is the distinctive advantage of the Madhyamaka theory of emptiness for establishing the ethical ideal of the bodhisattva? There is much to be said about this question as well as others arising in the same context, but the basis of such answers in Nagarjuna's writings on Madhyamaka is at best implicit. The examination of these issues becomes considerably more interesting when we take into account later Madhyamaka texts which address questions dealing with the distinctive consequences for ethics explicitly and in greater detail. We can imagine a variety of reasons why we find so little discussion of these matters in Nagarjuna's works. One obvious possibility is that the respective text or texts were lost relatively early in the tradition. Alternatively Nagarjuna's focus of interest when developing the Madhyamaka approach may have been a set of metaphysical and epistemological questions, and its ethical dimensions may have been explored in detail only by later writers. A final possibility is that discussions of the point where the perfections of wisdom and compassion join may have been regarded as too advanced to be put down in writing and were transmitted only orally. Whatever the explanation, the fact remains that the investigation of Madhyamaka ethics will find a more extensive set of data in later writers than in what is preserved in Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka. (from Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka, A Philosophical Introduction, by Jan Westerhoff, Oxford 2009)