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The Noble Eightfold Path
The Noble Eightfold Path (ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo) is the core Buddhist framework that describes the path of practice toward Liberation from Suffering. It is divided into 3 sections: Wisdom, Action, and Meditation/Integration. The section on Wisdom (pañña) 1. Right (or Wise) View (sammā-diṭṭhi ) (2.28.17 on Suffering and 3.7.17 on Karma) 2. Right Intention (sammā-sankappa)…
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On the “mind-body connection” in yoga & meditation
Talk given at Haas Business School on Valentine’s day. They asked me to talk about the “mind-body connection” in yoga so I talked about how there’s really no such thing. How Descartes was wrong, etc. They were great.
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Self-judgment, karma and Selflessness (anattā)
How self-judgment is interwoven with the unfolding of Action and its Results, or kamma/karma, and the implications for our sense of self, leading to the subtle and difficult teaching of Selflessness, or anattā.
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The 3 Characteristics (tilakkhaṇa)
The 3 Characteristics or Marks (tilakkhaṇa) of all conditioned things. These three comprise the core insights that begin the path of Liberation from Suffering in the Theravāda tradition. 1. Impermanence, the constancy of Change (anicca) 2. Unsatisfactoriness, the first Noble Truth, Suffering (dukkha) 3. Selflessness, Emptiness of Independent Essence (anattā)
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Yama and Mara: Hindu and Buddhist personifications of Death, a hypothesis
Both Buddhism and Hinduism personify Death in the form of a deity. The two traditions’ imagination around this figure naturally has many overlaps, but I’m suddenly thinking about some that I can’t find any reference to in the scholarly literature. The correspondence is about the role of Death as Teacher, as appearing in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad,…