Natural Law

With the recent investigation of mindfulness and how Kabat-Zinn has got mindfulness into science, I have been looking at how Matriellez might get Buddhism in the mainstream - without calling it such. Much of this has been discussed on the mindfulness meditation page. I have recently restarted the Mandtao blog about what is knowledge and …

Phassa – The Conditioning Moment

On the mindfulness meditation page, I have described a thought process summarised as This is a limited version of a much more profound teaching paticcasamuppada discussed by Ajaan Buddhadasa on p10 of Idappaccayata – download here. Here are the detailed stages he uses in his discussion of dependent origination (paticcasamuppada):- “Then he realized that it …

Mindfulness – a Brianblog

30 seconds on mindfulness meditation:- Mindfulness meditation can help agitated minds including teenagers. Mindfulness is a tool and its usefulness is limited by the framework in which it is taught – helps corporations repress, helped the Buddha to enlightenment. Coercive teaching methodologies, even with the best of intentions, can add to mental agitation. A quiet …

Kabat-Zinn and Sunnata

For me sunnata is most easily understood through the Buddhadasa systems:- If we remove attachment to the 5 khandas, if we remove the I and mine from the 5 khandas, then we can experience sunnata, the fundamental Gaia, the life force that is Nature. In terms of the Buddhadasa systems, removing attachment to the 5 …

The Agitated Mind of Sankhara

Sankhara is one of the 5 khandas that is included in the psyche part of the Buddhadasa model:- Sankhara is most important in considering the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation especially as to whether to introduce it into schools. Sankhara is often translated as mental operations, so let me describe in part these mental operations with …

Mindfulness is a Loose Cannon

Firstly I want to be upbeat about mindfulness meditation, it is useful. I want to encourage everybody to use it but we have to be mindful of mindfulness meditation – aaaggh. Now the question of mindfulness meditation arises in the west and not in the east as meditation has been considered within eastern cultures a …

Kabat-Zinn limitations

I am not sure I can ever get a grip on what Kabat-Zinn and his mindfulness meditation actually mean. It is difficult to understand it in terms of Buddhism with all its proliferations, but once academia has been let loose on it it has become a mental free-for-all. Let me begin with Buddhadasa’s 4-system model:- …

Wise Relationship

Case Study, David:- In the 80s a white man went to a majority-black school. At this school black delinquents daily stole his “dinner money” under threat of violence. He could not turn to the teachers because liberal teachers colluded with an education authority who were avoiding recognising that such violence occurred. The liberal teachers did …

Mindfulness in Schools

I am always pleased when there is talk of introducing mindfulness in schools but it can be seen as a bandwagon for those advocating it – part of the non-mainstream careerism that abounds in education. Mindfulness as a concept was "originally" raised by the Buddha (as discussed in Samyutta Nikaya 45). The mindfulness peddled in …