What Is Wrong with Mindfulness?

Could there be Wrong View and Wrong Intention as completely opposite of the Noble Eightfold Path?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCiRLwQEvhA&t=2139s

Most of us live life quite opposite of the Noble Eightfold Path.

Workings of Karma and Rebirth

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn2d3xGoJz4

Rebirth and Kamma, Lecture by Bhikkhu Bodhi, Dhamma, Karma, Dharma, Buddhism

The Law of Dependent Origination

 

Joseph Goldstein on Dependent Origination

Nirvana is far closer than what most of us believe. Nirvana is within us. The Buddha nature is already within us, within me.

It explains how a body is created out of the darkness called ignorance; a karmic entity that meets precisely to that of realm, form, location, timing, parents, and quality of body enters it, and it rears itself believing it owns that body-mind (namarupa) permanently, with a strong ego attached to it. Then it ends up going back to that same darkness called ignorance. It keeps repeating the cycle of these same 12 linking processes traversing about different realms (haven, human, animals, hell karmic planes) until it, IF EVER, finally understands there is NO SELF by breaking the link. 

The above is just my own understanding of things so I don't mislead anyone.

1. Ignorance (avidya,無明): The root cause of suffering, leading to the cycle of rebirth. 
2. Volitional Activities (sankhara,行): Actions and intentions arising from ignorance. 
3. Consciousness (vijnana,識): The mind that perceives and experiences. 
4. Name and Form (nama-rupa, 名色): The body and mind, arising from consciousness. 
5. Six Sense Bases (sadayatana, 六入): The six senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, mind). 
6. Contact (sparsa,觸,촉): The interaction between the senses and the external world. 
7. Feeling (vedana,受,수): The experience of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral sensations. 
8. Craving (tanha,愛): Attachment and desire arising from feeling. 
9. Clinging (upadana,取,취): Holding onto things, thoughts, and experiences. 
10. Existence (bhava,有): The cycle of rebirth and becoming. 
11. Birth (jati,生): The process of being reborn. 
12. Aging, Suffering, and Death (jara-marana,老死): The inevitable end of life.

1. Ignorance (avidya,無明): The root cause of suffering, leading to the cycle of rebirth. 

The word '無明' literally means 'no light'. It is understood in the Buddhist term, more specifically as ignorance of the Four Noble Truths.

Ignorance of the Four Noble Truths means not knowing about (1) what is suffering, (2) the causes of suffering, (3) the cessation of suffering, and (4) the path leading to the cessation of suffering (the Eightfold Path). 

It is easy to think that being ignorant is not a sin, but in fact, the greatest sins arise from being ignorant. We commit sins because we do not know; we commit evil deeds because we are ignorant of the law of causal effects of karmic consequences.

2. Volitional Activities (sankhara,行): Karma, Conditioned act (有爲,유위) and intentions arising from ignorance.

3. Consciousness (vijnana,識): The mind that perceives and experiences.

4. Name and Form (nama-rupa, 名色): The body and mind, arising from consciousness.

5. Six Sense Bases (sadayatana, 六入): The six senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, mind). 

The six sense bases or the six cognitive functions which are sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, body-sensing, and brain-processing. 

The six sense bases are: 

1. Eye and seeing 
2. Ear and hearing 
3. Nose and smelling 
4. Tongue and tasting 
5. Body and sensing 
6. Mind and cognizing

6. Contact (sparsa,觸,촉): The interaction between the senses and the external world.

7. Feeling (vedana,受,수): The experience of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral sensations. 

8. Craving (tanha,愛): Attachment and desire arising from feeling. 

Kama-tanha: Craving for sensual pleasures. 

Bhava-tanha: Craving for existence and attachment to a fixed (ego identity) versus impermanent self identity. 

Vibhava-tanha: Craving for non-existence or to avoid pain and suffering. 

9. Clinging (upadana,取,취): Holding onto things, thoughts, and experiences. 

Kāmupādāna: Clinging to sensual pleasures. 

Ditthupādāna: Clinging to views or beliefs. 

Silabbatupādāna: Clinging to rules and rituals. 

Attavādupādāna: Clinging to the idea of a self or ego. 

10, Existence (bhava,有): The cycle of rebirth and becoming.

11. Birth (jati,生): The process of being reborn. 

12. Aging and Death (jara-marana,老死): The inevitable end of life.

The Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Paths* (사성제 & 팔정도)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpXpYfHMgjo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCiRLwQEvhA&t=2139s What Is Wrong with Mindfulness? | John Cianciosi

Four Noble Truths

The Buddha is said to have taught, "I have taught one thing and one thing only, dukkha and the cessation of dukkha,"

Dukkha (suffering) is an innate characteristic of transient existence; nothing is permanent, and that is suffering. The first truth, suffering, is an impermanent characteristic of existence in the realm of continuous rebirth, called samsara (wandering). The first noble truth is the right understanding that our life is impermanent, full of unavoidable sufferings, and it continues in the form of reincarnation. The two of many sufferings are one, you leaving someone you love; the other, meeting someone you hate.

Samudaya (cause of suffering): together with this transient world and its suffering, there is also thirst, craving for, and attachment to this transient, unsatisfactory existence. To end suffering, the four noble truths tell us, one needs to know how and why suffering arises. The second noble truth explains that suffering arises because of craving, desire, and attachment. Samudaya means "arising" and refers to the causes of suffering. At the bottom of these cravings, wants, and desires is the ever-present ego, the mistaken identity of oneself.

Nirodha (severance of suffering): the attachment to this transient world and its suffering can be severed or contained by the controlling or letting go of this craving. If the cause of suffering is desire and attachment to various transient things, then the way to end suffering is to eliminate such craving, desire, and attachment. Nirodha is a Sanskrit word that means "cessation" or "extinction". It is the third of the Four Noble Truths. 

The fourth truth, marga means "path" or "way." It means the way to extinguish suffering. Marga refers to the path to liberation, also known as awakening. The most well-known path is the Noble Eightfold Path, which is one of several paths described in the Sutta Pitaka. 

The Noble Eightfold Path is made up of eight steps: 

1. Right View (sammā diṭṭhi, S. samyag-dṛṣṭi)
2. Right Resolve (sammā saṅkappa, S. samyak-saṃkalpa)
3. Right Speech (sammā vācā, S. samyag-vāc)
4. Right Action (sammā kammanta, S. samyak-karmānta)
5. Right Livelihood (sammā ājīva, S. samyag-ājīva)
6. Right Effort (sammā vāyāma, S. samyag-vyāyāma)
7. Right Mindfulness (sammā sati, S. samyak-smṛti)
8. Right Concentration (sammā samādhi, S. samyak-samādhi)

The goal of the marga is to end suffering by uprooting ignorance. This is done by cultivating awareness and attention in the present moment, and by developing virtue and abandoning non-virtue.

In essence, the Eightfold Path is a practical guide for living a life of ethical conduct, mental discipline, and wisdom, ultimately leading to the cessation of suffering and the attainment of enlightenment. 

1. Right View

Sammā diṭṭhi, Right View, is a way to see reality as it is, without confusion or misunderstanding. It is a means to gain insight into the four noble truths. It is a way to see things in their true nature, without labels or names. It is a way to see the impermanence, selflessness, and inevitability of suffering.

2. Right Resolve

Right resolve, sammā saṅkappa, is the second step of the path, is the outcome of right understanding. These two comprise the wisdom spoken of in the context of the noble eightfold path. Right thought is the result of seeing things as they are. Thoughts are all important; for a man‘s words and acts have thoughts as their source. It is thoughts that are translated into speech and deed. The good or ill results of our words and actions depend solely on our thoughts, on the way we think. Hence the importance of learning to think straight instead of twisted.

3. Right Speech: samma vaca

"It is spoken at the right time. It is spoken in truth. It is spoken affectionately. It is spoken beneficially. It is spoken with a mind of good-will.".

4. Right Action

Samma kammanta is a Buddhist term that means "right action". It is one of the eight practices of the Noble Eightfold Path. 

No killing or injuring, no taking what is not given, no sexual misconduct, no material desires.

5. Right Livelihood

No trading in weapons, living beings (human trafficking for sexual exploitation, illegal adoption, organ harvesting, or other criminal purposes), liquor (drug trafficking), or poisons (murders via medical inducements, inventing and dispersing deadly viruses and problematic vaccines for profit), or financial or religious frauds abusing victims' trust and vulnerability. 

Choose your profession or, even more importantly, your employment wisely. Do not get involved in a usury or predatory lending business where you create or add more suffering to others. Do not be a law person or psychiatrist who protects criminals for profit or sends innocents to an insane asylum or to incarceration. Do not be medical doctors or health professionals whose primary professional objective is not curing but hurting their patients or victims for profits.

Do not become scientists of destruction or hate. Do not become politicians or government employees who betray public trust, people who elected them, and pay their salaries.

Never commit any kind of fraud, because the frauds can only occur with betrayal of trusts of victims. There are no greater sins or crimes than frauds. Don't make a living by lying or deceiving others. Don't make any kind of living by adding more suffering to others.The karma retribution of such crimes will be most severe.

6. Right Effort

Right Effort, samma vayama, involves trying to prevent unwholesome states of mind, such as anger, jealousy, and craving. It also involves trying to get rid of these states of mind that have already arisen. 

7. Right Mindfulness 

Right Mindfulness is associated with becoming more attentive to our thoughts, emotions, feelings, speech, and behavior in meditation. Whatever we experience, we become more conscious of it and more attentive to it, so that we gain more insight into the workings of the mind and how the mind influences our actions in everyday life.

8. Right Concentration

Any singleness of mind equipped with these seven factors — right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, and right mindfulness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpXpYfHMgjo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCiRLwQEvhA&t=2139s

Karma and Rebirth in Buddhism - John Cianciosi

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idQiaajnFts&t=628s

Law of Dependent Origination

Karma is what you create.

gandhabba "stranger" + sperm + ovum ===> a baby

Hyon Gak Sunim

This will probably be the best one hour spent in your life.

https://youtu.be/aqCrEdXfQH4   

What Am I?

I advise you to just listen to the main lecture part of Hyon Gak Sunim from 7 minutes into the podcast to about 1 hour 8 minutes out of this 2-hour podcast. All other parts are just nonsensical and counterproductive questions from the audience and a musical introductory ceremony.

Currently an American monk active in Germany.

He is a German-American born into a Catholic family. His maternal family is said to be Irish. He went to a Catholic private high school and experienced spiritual wandering and eventually entered Yale University to major in philosophy and literature. At this time, he became fascinated by Arthur Schopenhauer and Romantic poets. Along with Mu Ryang and Chong An, he is a well-known foreign monk who converted to Korean Buddhism.

When he heard the news that his close cousin died in a car accident during his teenage years, he became aware of the issues of life and death and suffering. He attended Yale University, where his parents graduated, and participated in the student movement, studied philosophy, and went on an exchange program in Europe. 

Hyon Gak himself later recalled this time and said that he thought that there might have been a connection between Buddhism and Arthur Schopenhauer's later philosophy.

In 1989, he received an acceptance letter from Harvard University and worked at a Wall Street law firm to earn tuition, but he felt despair at the life of Wall Street, a typical materialistic society, and decided to commit suicide. 

However, he was about to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge when he met a beggar by chance and was reborn and changed his mind. Since he was planning to commit suicide anyway, he gave all his money to the beggar, and the beggar said, "Do you know what day it is today? Today is your birthday. You will understand when you think about what I said later." 

Hyon Gak said that he thought that perhaps the beggar was an incarnation of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva.

Later, while studying comparative philosophy at Harvard, his Japanese professor at the time recommended that he attend Seung-Sahn's lecture at Harvard, which led to his connection with Korean Buddhism. The next day, he visited the Cambridge Zen Center and began learning basics such as Zen meditation. 

He eventually took a leave of absence from Harvard and visited Korea in 1990 to practice in earnest. After a 90-day retreat at Shinwonsa Temple in Gyeryongsan Mountain (계룡산 신원사), he returned to Korea and continued his studies, but in 1992, Paul Münzen received an ordination ceremony with Seung-san right next to the body of the Sixth Patriarch Hui-neng, who is enshrined in the main hall of Nanhua Temple in Jogyesan Mountain, China, and officially became a monk. One unique fact here is that the ordination ceremony took place at Nanhua Temple in China.

In Korea, Hyeon Gak became famous in the late 1990s with the KBS Sunday Special 2-part series Manhaeng (만행) and soon became even more famous with the book he published, "Manhaeng (萬行) - From Harvard to Hwagyesa.".

He emphasizes the original nature of truth that is not confined by language and thoughts. Truth or enlightenment is something that can be experienced, not explained. The idea that all things are one and that we should not discriminate between them with our minds is also a concept he frequently mentions.

He believes that all religious teachings converge into one.

Jenner Furst

 https://youtu.be/cCn0OYE1Z8E

Why in the hell did Joe Biden give Anthony Fauci a preemptive pardon in the last minutes of his administration? That pardon alone speaks volumes about how badly the Biden administration was corrupted and in bed with pharmaceutical companies of the COVID-19 vaccine. And that also says a lot about so many people's lives destroyed by this one individual.