🧡 If you find benefit in my videos, consider supporting the channel by joining us on Patreon and get fun extras like exclusive videos, ad-free audio-only versions, and extensive show notes: www.patreon.com/dougsseculardharma 🙂 📙 You can find my book here: books2read.com/buddhisthandbook
Absolutely Doug! Go love a cockroach! It's so easy to adore a kitten but there aren't many (any?) TH-cam videos on cute cockroaches. And yet kittens, cockroaches, and we too are all here and have to share the space that is the earth. It's not only for the cutest of us and anyway, what exactly is cuteness? And why must we cling to it? And it is a learned skill to be able to set aside our prejudices and be equanimous to all. Learning to be equanimous is a long process, not an overnight procedure. I'm still a work in progress after 40 years of Buddhism and still have a long road ahead, but it's a work that's so worth undertaking. And then, bit by bit we acquire the truth of non-self, and an understanding and wisdom of what non-self really means.
Love your videos. And the Heart Sutra says so much, whether it's the long form, the chant or the 1 letter version. Part of the reason I love doing qigong and tai chi is that they combine stillness and movement, yin yang towards nonduality and emptiness (which is less than an empty void, but is everything). We're energy, energy is conserved, energy of different forms can dissipate/spread (think entropy). However, some skillful factors can cause that energy to be more coherent.
Thank you Doug from Chile. It’s Jorge Seguel. I’ve shared the video with our Sangha. It really helps understanding that emptiness is not “nothing”, it’s being empty of something in particular. In this case we investigate our experience and we discover that we and all phenomena are empty of that permanent and independent sense of self. Instead we find an impermanent sense of self that’s always changing, conditioned, interdependent, with no inherent essence and without the need of making comparisons that lead to self-categories (conceit). From that skillful sense of self we can go forward in the Eightfold Path to Freedom.
Always mindful, regard the world as empty, having removed any view in terms of self. This way one is above and beyond death. One who regards the world in this way isn't seen by Death's King. Sn 5.15
I would say it's best to lay down a foundation of basic Buddhist practices before contemplating on the complicated concept of non-self. Of course we should still acknowledge that the self is both impermanent and dependent on psychosomatic factors
I think reconciling these concepts was very much a "dance" as you had somewhat alluded to...for me, it really just took time and practice. Time and practice helped me come to a more integrative, holistic understanding of both emptiness and skillful self. I agree with the Buddha's approach: this is not something you'd want to get into with someone who is brand new to the dharma as it could result in the unskillful sense of being unmoored, as you say. Cultivating the four abodes has been critical along these lines as well. Great lecture, Doug!
Wonderful video as always! Excellent point about the brahmaviharas, especially upekkha. I often have to remind myself to extend metta, karuna, and mudita to all regardless of their station in life.
One of the things that has drawn me to Buddhism is the subtleness in it’s teachings. It is like the ideas are almost ethereal. They speak to your intuition rather than to your rational mind. even me just talking about it like this is probably the wrong approach.
Then Ven. Ananda went to the Blessed One and on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there he said to the Blessed One, "It is said that the world is empty, the world is empty, lord. In what respect is it said that the world is empty?" "Insofar as it is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self: Thus it is said, Ananda, that the world is empty. And what is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self? The eye is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self. Forms... Eye-consciousness... Eye-contact is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self. "The ear is empty... "The nose is empty... "The tongue is empty... "The body is empty... "The intellect is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self. Ideas... Intellect-consciousness... Intellect-contact is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self. Thus it is said that the world is empty." SN 35.85
The point of Buddhism: as far as your perception of "self" causes dukkha, don't attach to it. As far it doesn't cause dukkha, there's no problem about "feeling" there is a "self".
Example: there's no dukkha in the existence of "self" which we can train to learn new skills like mindfulness or whatever else like playing the piano. However, there is dukkha in comparing "oneself" with others. Don't attach to a self you can compare with other "selves".
While I agree that referencing the conventional self is more helpful than getting lost in the philosophical weeds, I disagree with the idea that you can identify anything as the self in Buddha-Dharma. When you die, the faculty of the mind by which you learned the piano will dissolve and identifying it as the self will cause suffering. Even the faculty by which you study and practice the dharma will dissolve. You will no longer be able to breath to practice anapana, nor will you be able to have positive thoughts towards others without a brain. Identifying anything as self causes suffering.
@@joa8593Ok, if you are able to function "normally" without the feeling of a self, go for it. I can't, and for my part do not feel any dukkha as long as no harmful clinging is present.
Some of the things I think I've learned is one basically cannot extinguish phassa but be aware of it; basically phassa occurs, thought occurs. And then 5 skandhas are the cause and effect of one another. The body affects the mind; the mind affects the body. Vedana affects sanna, sankara etc and sanna affects vedana, sankara etc... I imagine a ball of aggregates rolling forward that one has to manage.
Doug, ive been watching your videos for about 2 months now so thank you for that. But i have a question to anyone reading this comment how do Buddhists think the world began?
Thanks for watching! As to the beginning of the world, like many Indian philosophical systems, Buddhism sees time as cyclical so without any apparent beginning. But there is a myth about the creation of our particular world which I discussed in an earlier video: th-cam.com/video/Vtt9q1V-kAo/w-d-xo.html
Good evening sir ! I came to know that meditation was there in hinduism before budha ! If it is true what's new thing budha searched for ? What he found which is not in hindu scriptures?
What was there at the Buddha's time we usually term "Vedic Brahmanism," in particular the beliefs and practices of the Upaniṣads. They seem to have included various mental absorptions. Whether they included the four jhānas is essentially unknown, this is an ongoing controversy that will probably never be solved satisfactorily. But at any rate the Buddha's understanding of the jhānas was specific to the Eightfold Path and so had its own nuance even if they preceded him. But more importantly perhaps, mindfulness meditation seems to be unique to the Buddha.
There are skillful thoughts, words and actions but there is no skillful self. Why? Because it is precisely from selflessness that these skillful means arise.
Good evening sir ! How to achieve enlightenment? Is it possible to reach it while continuing family life or we should leave everything, then focus on it ?
If all things are equally empty of inherent, permanent self-nature, either universal compassion and love is the natural outcome or nihilism is. Thus Nagarjuna often says emptiness is itself nothing more than a convention and empty and all things exist. I think the harder idea is cultivating with a self that doesn't exist. I think you're saying that the components that make up the conventional understanding of self do exist, but I don't feel like you quite thread this needle in an understandable way. Like you say "we're' able to cultivate skillful thoughts, but to most people one can't control thoughts without a thinker. The idea that thoughts are just a house of cards built on stimuli from our 5 (or 6) senses and karmic factors (like genetics) is foreign, as is the idea that by regulating behavior and training the mind the thoughts can be affected without any thinker to effect a change being necessary as a result.
@@fingerprint5511raft simile is a nice one. It says don't let the teaching itself become a burden. So don't let precepts lead to regret or discrimination, don't let philosophical games prevent practice, don't be sectarian, etc. Unlike in the Buddha's time though, people can access most of the teachings that are available online and they can't be selectively withheld. If somebody hears about anatta, they may think "the Arhats say people are just bags of pus, urine, and feces and the Buddha says that there is no self. Why should I care about what happens to anybody?" If one just says "don't worry about it" and can't explain that things do still exist and matter, weird things happen like they go crazy, according to the suttas they might even commit suicide (though more realistically, they'll convert back to Catholicism or some other religion which is certainly preferable).
Do keep in mind that the Buddha never says the self doesn't exist. Indeed, he denies this claim: th-cam.com/video/wUDnPy6ACG4/w-d-xo.html . He only says that there is nothing permanent or unchanging.
@@DougsDharma This is another needle I think you thread strangely, though I know Thanissaro Bikkhu shares this (uncommon, contrary to both Therevada and Mahayana doctrine, and mostly rejected by other translators) view. If "self" is a process as you explain, a changing thing made up of the skandas, then it ends upon death when the skandas dissolve and this is annihilationism. The Buddha was clear this is not his teaching. The Buddha does in fact say none of the skandas is the self and furthermore that nothing outside of these is the self (i.e. nothing 'unperceived' like Jiva or Atma is hiding somewhere). He says to Ananda "the world is empty of the self". The nonexistence of a self doesn't mean we don't exist, nor does it mean there is no consequence in this or the next life of our actions like Kassapans taught. The Milindapanha has a passage that explains: a chariot exists, yet no part can be found that is the chariot. The wheels, when removed are not the chariot and the chariot remains a chariot even when the wheels are taken off. When the wheels are removed for replacement, the chariot remains. When the wheels are removed for disposal, the chariot arbitrarily ceases to be, yet nothing is different about the change in the components between the two. Even all the parts put together if not called 'chariot' is not a chariot. 'Chariot' is simply an imaginary lable given to a conglomeration of parts constructed by culture, but when wheels are rolled down a road, that doesn't mean it doesn't leave tracks and kick up dirt. Thinking there is only the duality of the eternal self and the annihilation of the self when the skandas come apart are both born from essentially a western Cartesian or Abrahamic view of the self. No such duality exists because there is nothing to begin with to be annihilated or to exist eternally.
![[UNCUT] The Loyal Pin ปิ่นภักดิ์ EP.4 (4/4)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/d3l5rxl5CVo/mqdefault.jpg)
🧡 If you find benefit in my videos, consider supporting the channel by joining us on Patreon and get fun extras like exclusive videos, ad-free audio-only versions, and extensive show notes: www.patreon.com/dougsseculardharma 🙂
📙 You can find my book here: books2read.com/buddhisthandbook
Absolutely Doug! Go love a cockroach! It's so easy to adore a kitten but there aren't many (any?) TH-cam videos on cute cockroaches. And yet kittens, cockroaches, and we too are all here and have to share the space that is the earth. It's not only for the cutest of us and anyway, what exactly is cuteness? And why must we cling to it? And it is a learned skill to be able to set aside our prejudices and be equanimous to all. Learning to be equanimous is a long process, not an overnight procedure. I'm still a work in progress after 40 years of Buddhism and still have a long road ahead, but it's a work that's so worth undertaking. And then, bit by bit we acquire the truth of non-self, and an understanding and wisdom of what non-self really means.
Yes! Though I have trouble with cockroaches too ... 😄
Anattā, the key that unlocks the door to awakening. 🙏🏼
🙏
• Good Dharma channel
• Better Dharma channel
• Doug's Dharma (channel)
It's that simple! 🐱🙏
😄😄
😂 totally agree! ❤
Love your videos.
And the Heart Sutra says so much, whether it's the long form, the chant or the 1 letter version.
Part of the reason I love doing qigong and tai chi is that they combine stillness and movement, yin yang towards nonduality and emptiness (which is less than an empty void, but is everything).
We're energy, energy is conserved, energy of different forms can dissipate/spread (think entropy). However, some skillful factors can cause that energy to be more coherent.
Now this is a good one. I found nothing to complain about, and you know how much I like to complain, especially about Anatta related topics.
Glad you enjoyed it. 🙏
Thank you Doug from Chile. It’s Jorge Seguel. I’ve shared the video with our Sangha. It really helps understanding that emptiness is not “nothing”, it’s being empty of something in particular. In this case we investigate our experience and we discover that we and all phenomena are empty of that permanent and independent sense of self. Instead we find an impermanent sense of self that’s always changing, conditioned, interdependent, with no inherent essence and without the need of making comparisons that lead to self-categories (conceit).
From that skillful sense of self we can go forward in the Eightfold Path to Freedom.
Great, well said Jorge! And thanks for the question.
I think this is really positive teaching in that it shows you can change and be a better person no matter your present situation.
Your way of presenting a delivering dharma to us is extremely impressive. You truly have a Vajra tongue.
🙏
Always mindful,
regard the world as
empty,
having removed any view
in terms of self.
This way
one is above and beyond death.
One who regards the world
in this way
isn't seen by Death's King. Sn 5.15
I would say it's best to lay down a foundation of basic Buddhist practices before contemplating on the complicated concept of non-self. Of course we should still acknowledge that the self is both impermanent and dependent on psychosomatic factors
Yes, I agree. For many, non self is difficult and best left for later.
I think reconciling these concepts was very much a "dance" as you had somewhat alluded to...for me, it really just took time and practice. Time and practice helped me come to a more integrative, holistic understanding of both emptiness and skillful self. I agree with the Buddha's approach: this is not something you'd want to get into with someone who is brand new to the dharma as it could result in the unskillful sense of being unmoored, as you say. Cultivating the four abodes has been critical along these lines as well. Great lecture, Doug!
🙏😊
Wonderful video as always! Excellent point about the brahmaviharas, especially upekkha. I often have to remind myself to extend metta, karuna, and mudita to all regardless of their station in life.
🙏😊
One of the things that has drawn me to Buddhism is the subtleness in it’s teachings. It is like the ideas are almost ethereal. They speak to your intuition rather than to your rational mind. even me just talking about it like this is probably the wrong approach.
🙏😊
This one was really good. Thanks for posting
Thanks for watching and commenting! 🙏
Then Ven. Ananda went to the Blessed One and on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there he said to the Blessed One, "It is said that the world is empty, the world is empty, lord. In what respect is it said that the world is empty?"
"Insofar as it is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self: Thus it is said, Ananda, that the world is empty. And what is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self? The eye is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self. Forms... Eye-consciousness... Eye-contact is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self.
"The ear is empty...
"The nose is empty...
"The tongue is empty...
"The body is empty...
"The intellect is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self. Ideas... Intellect-consciousness... Intellect-contact is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self. Thus it is said that the world is empty." SN 35.85
The point of Buddhism: as far as your perception of "self" causes dukkha, don't attach to it.
As far it doesn't cause dukkha, there's no problem about "feeling" there is a "self".
Example: there's no dukkha in the existence of "self" which we can train to learn new skills like mindfulness or whatever else like playing the piano.
However, there is dukkha in comparing "oneself" with others. Don't attach to a self you can compare with other "selves".
Actually that's the point of the 1st Noble Truth. View everything through the lense of dukkha and don't attach to whatever causes dukkha.
While I agree that referencing the conventional self is more helpful than getting lost in the philosophical weeds, I disagree with the idea that you can identify anything as the self in Buddha-Dharma.
When you die, the faculty of the mind by which you learned the piano will dissolve and identifying it as the self will cause suffering. Even the faculty by which you study and practice the dharma will dissolve. You will no longer be able to breath to practice anapana, nor will you be able to have positive thoughts towards others without a brain. Identifying anything as self causes suffering.
@@joa8593Ok, if you are able to function "normally" without the feeling of a self, go for it. I can't, and for my part do not feel any dukkha as long as no harmful clinging is present.
Some of the things I think I've learned is one basically cannot extinguish phassa but be aware of it; basically phassa occurs, thought occurs. And then 5 skandhas are the cause and effect of one another. The body affects the mind; the mind affects the body. Vedana affects sanna, sankara etc and sanna affects vedana, sankara etc... I imagine a ball of aggregates rolling forward that one has to manage.
That's right, it's a mass of causal processes.
You are worthy. If you have any doubt you ask god
Very interesting thanks 👍
Glad you enjoyed it!
To much deprecation of the self is to an attachment to self, one that is not skillful.
Yes, we can manifest attachment through strong rejection as well.
Getting beyond the illusion of self is difficult. Could you cover the skandhas?
I've done a number of videos on the aggregates. See for example: th-cam.com/video/2YB34dspSq8/w-d-xo.html
Doug, ive been watching your videos for about 2 months now so thank you for that. But i have a question to anyone reading this comment how do Buddhists think the world began?
Thanks for watching! As to the beginning of the world, like many Indian philosophical systems, Buddhism sees time as cyclical so without any apparent beginning. But there is a myth about the creation of our particular world which I discussed in an earlier video: th-cam.com/video/Vtt9q1V-kAo/w-d-xo.html
@DougsDharma thank you for this. I'll be sure to watch it when I get back from work 👍
Good evening sir ! I came to know that meditation was there in hinduism before budha ! If it is true what's new thing budha searched for ? What he found which is not in hindu scriptures?
What was there at the Buddha's time we usually term "Vedic Brahmanism," in particular the beliefs and practices of the Upaniṣads. They seem to have included various mental absorptions. Whether they included the four jhānas is essentially unknown, this is an ongoing controversy that will probably never be solved satisfactorily. But at any rate the Buddha's understanding of the jhānas was specific to the Eightfold Path and so had its own nuance even if they preceded him. But more importantly perhaps, mindfulness meditation seems to be unique to the Buddha.
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
😊😊😊
There are skillful thoughts, words and actions but there is no skillful self. Why? Because it is precisely from selflessness that these skillful means arise.
True, there is no permanent, unchanging skillful self.
Good evening sir ! How to achieve enlightenment? Is it possible to reach it while continuing family life or we should leave everything, then focus on it ?
I've done lots and lots of videos on these topics. There aren't any easy answers though! Just keep practicing, that's the most important thing.
Yellow, yellow.
If all things are equally empty of inherent, permanent self-nature, either universal compassion and love is the natural outcome or nihilism is. Thus Nagarjuna often says emptiness is itself nothing more than a convention and empty and all things exist.
I think the harder idea is cultivating with a self that doesn't exist. I think you're saying that the components that make up the conventional understanding of self do exist, but I don't feel like you quite thread this needle in an understandable way. Like you say "we're' able to cultivate skillful thoughts, but to most people one can't control thoughts without a thinker. The idea that thoughts are just a house of cards built on stimuli from our 5 (or 6) senses and karmic factors (like genetics) is foreign, as is the idea that by regulating behavior and training the mind the thoughts can be affected without any thinker to effect a change being necessary as a result.
The Raft simile, Alagaddupama Sutta, read that, that is what Doug is talking about ultimately 🙏🏻
@@fingerprint5511raft simile is a nice one. It says don't let the teaching itself become a burden. So don't let precepts lead to regret or discrimination, don't let philosophical games prevent practice, don't be sectarian, etc.
Unlike in the Buddha's time though, people can access most of the teachings that are available online and they can't be selectively withheld. If somebody hears about anatta, they may think "the Arhats say people are just bags of pus, urine, and feces and the Buddha says that there is no self. Why should I care about what happens to anybody?" If one just says "don't worry about it" and can't explain that things do still exist and matter, weird things happen like they go crazy, according to the suttas they might even commit suicide (though more realistically, they'll convert back to Catholicism or some other religion which is certainly preferable).
Do keep in mind that the Buddha never says the self doesn't exist. Indeed, he denies this claim: th-cam.com/video/wUDnPy6ACG4/w-d-xo.html . He only says that there is nothing permanent or unchanging.
@@DougsDharma This is another needle I think you thread strangely, though I know Thanissaro Bikkhu shares this (uncommon, contrary to both Therevada and Mahayana doctrine, and mostly rejected by other translators) view.
If "self" is a process as you explain, a changing thing made up of the skandas, then it ends upon death when the skandas dissolve and this is annihilationism. The Buddha was clear this is not his teaching.
The Buddha does in fact say none of the skandas is the self and furthermore that nothing outside of these is the self (i.e. nothing 'unperceived' like Jiva or Atma is hiding somewhere). He says to Ananda "the world is empty of the self".
The nonexistence of a self doesn't mean we don't exist, nor does it mean there is no consequence in this or the next life of our actions like Kassapans taught. The Milindapanha has a passage that explains: a chariot exists, yet no part can be found that is the chariot. The wheels, when removed are not the chariot and the chariot remains a chariot even when the wheels are taken off. When the wheels are removed for replacement, the chariot remains. When the wheels are removed for disposal, the chariot arbitrarily ceases to be, yet nothing is different about the change in the components between the two. Even all the parts put together if not called 'chariot' is not a chariot. 'Chariot' is simply an imaginary lable given to a conglomeration of parts constructed by culture, but when wheels are rolled down a road, that doesn't mean it doesn't leave tracks and kick up dirt.
Thinking there is only the duality of the eternal self and the annihilation of the self when the skandas come apart are both born from essentially a western Cartesian or Abrahamic view of the self. No such duality exists because there is nothing to begin with to be annihilated or to exist eternally.
@@joa8593 Self is always conventional. It is not literally identical to the aggregates.