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Helgoland – recommended by Geshe Namdak
https://www.waterstones.com/book/helgoland/carlo-rovelli/2928377053581
Hey Carla,
Thanks for joining the Skeptic’s Path online community! I’m intrigued to hear how you imagine applying these analytical meditations in a yoga setting? That sounds pretty cool… 🙂
It’s so cool to ‘hear’ from everyone around the world. Being able to connect with other Dharma friends has been my saving grace during lockdown (as well as having a regular practice based on the Basic Programme teachings). So thank you all for keeping me going during this wild moment in history!
Hi Sarah,
Regarding your point about dementia, I think this may be a challenge with translation. By awareness, I don’t think Dharmakirti is referring to cognitive faculties, such as memory or correct discernment. Rather, I understand this awareness to mean the mind’s basic capacity to apprehend an object. For example, somebody who has severe dementia might have trouble remembering things, but if you placed an apple in front of them they would still be able to see it (given their eyesight wasn’t impaired). Similarly, if you pricked their finger, they would still feel pain. So regardless of the condition of the body, that basic capacity of the mind to apprehend an object is never diminished.
Even the mind of somebody who is hallucinating still apprehends the hallucination. Similarly, if all our sense faculties go dormant the mind is still able to apprehend mental objects, so that fundamental knowing quality of the mind is always there.
Not sure if that makes sense?
Hi Diana,
Thank you for asking such a candid question which is no doubt on others’ minds. Just to add to the suggestions above about Ian Stevenson’s research, etc.:
Back when I started to become interested in Buddhism, the argument for the existence of past and future lives that opened me up to the possibility was the one given by His Holiness in his introduction to the Penguin edition of The Tibetan Book of the Dead. He infers rebirth by applying logical reasoning. As a Maths student, I found this method quite compelling.
After giving an explanation on the subtle mind and body (equally compelling), His Holiness concludes with the following: ‘Finally, then, when considering the interrelationship between mind, body and the environment at the subtle level, we know that material things are composed of cells, atoms and particles and that consciousness is composed of moments. That is to say that mind and matter have distinctly different natures and therefore have different substantial causes. Material things come into being based on other material things such as particles, atoms and cells and the mind comes into being based on a previous moment of mind […]’
Here, an assumption is made that the mind is not material. The only way that I was able to accept that assertion was by meditating on the mind, and seeing if I ran into a contradiction if I assumed the opposite. As a support for this contemplation, I found the lines of reasoning provided by Dharmakirti to be very powerful (Penguin Classics edition of Buddhist Scriptures, Chapter 21). Disclaimer: Dharmakirti’s writing is extremely intricate and I just gleaned the most superficial glimpse of his argument! Nonetheless, I got a lot out of it.
These are a couple of his verses that have always stuck with me:
‘Even if there is destruction of the material sense faculties one at a time, there is no destruction of awareness in the mind. But it is observed that when there is a disturbance of of that awareness of mind, the physical senses become impaired.
Therefore, something that is the support of the mind’s continuity, which support is dependent on the mind itself, is the cause of the sense faculties. Therefore, the sense faculties derive from the mind, not vice versa.’
Could this approach be useful at all?
All the best,
KamHi Laura!
If you are on the full certification pathway, you are required to attempt the quiz before the review session, but the answers themselves are not assessed. Please get in touch with Jackie if you have any other questions about the requirements. She can send you an up-to-date document that clearly outlines everything!
Hope that helps. 🙂
Greetings to all, from Wales, Germany, California and Denmark to Valencia, London and Rome! So great to see the global Sangha here. 🙂
Hi Alessia,
I totally relate to what your saying. Don’t give up! I often find connecting to my practice very hard. As I mentioned in class, a practical decision I have made is to practice every morning, even if it is an extremely brief session. Sometimes I feel like I am flying through the meditation, parroting the words, as you say. I feel like I was completely distracted during the entire session, and that it was a complete waste of time. The thing that convinces me that it wasn’t a waste of time is because I develop the habit, and it creates the cause for me to come try again the next morning. I have stopped trying to expect major results from my meditation, and ironically that seems to help them come faster.
Another thing that I find helpful is to not think of meditation so rigidly. It’s not just the time we’re sat formally on the cushion. It could be reading a text and contemplating it. Or walking in the park and reflecting on the ideas. And bringing in mindfulness/awareness/concentration means you can turn anything into meditation, like washing the dishes!
What do you think?
Thanks for bringing up this topic, Scott – it gave me some food for thought. I think self-awareness comes in degrees – and for me meditation is in part a process of gradually becoming more self-aware, if by that we mean developing a clear and realistic perception of yourself. I think I can confidently say practicing meditation has made me more self-aware on several levels: awareness of the stories and personal histories that go into forming my ‘identity’, awareness of the processes of the mind and body, etc. Sometimes it seems like a glimmer of self-awareness shows you how little you actually have, which makes me think that the percentage of truly self-aware people is probably even less than 15 percent!
This question reminds me of a practice that I heard Bob Thurman speak about in one of his talks, where you imagine yourself as the other person looking back at you when speaking to someone. Perhaps you know the name of this practice? I tried it for a little while and it was a very surreal experience – I could see the potential it had for improving relationships but it definitely was a bit destabilising, because you de-center your own perspective in your experience of the world. If that makes sense…
Hello Stephen. Thank you for a fascinating first session.
And hello to all the other students and meditators! I’m Kamlo, Spiritual Programme Coordinator at Jamyang Buddhist Centre London. That means I’ve had the privilege of working with Scott and Stephen in setting up the course. The reason why I was so enthusiastic to collaborate with Skeptic’s Path on this programme is that despite having heard many of these concepts before, I found the presentation given in the podcast very helpful in thinking about them from different angles.
So as a student I am looking forward to learning more and going on the journey over the next few weeks! 🙂
