People sometimes think, “Oh, you Buddhists are so selfish. All you want is enlightenment,” as if enlightenment is some kind of corrupting, self-seeking, narcissistic endeavor. Well, it’s not.
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#Theravada
2 posts2 participants1 post today
Theory and Practice of Mantra in the Esoteric Theravāda Mahānikāya Tradition (A free, 15-page essay from 2010)
Tags: #Theravada #Kayagatasati #Cambodia
https://buddhistuniversity.net/content/essays/mantra-in-esoteric-theravada_castro-sanchez
The Open Buddhist University · Theory and Practice of Mantra in the Esoteric Theravāda Mahānikāya Traditionbody unfolds a set of correspondences between his/her 32 bodily formations, the 32 consonants of the Pāli syllabary giving origin to those bodily formations, the 32 contemplative mūlakammaṭṭhāna and the 32 marks of a Buddha’s body. The key factor linking those correspondences is mūla-kammaṭṭhāna
History and Practice (A free, 300-page book from 2005)
Tags: #Theravada #Cambodia
https://buddhistuniversity.net/content/monographs/cambodian-buddhism_harris-ian
The Open Buddhist UniversityCambodian Buddhism: History and PracticeTheravada Buddhism, once it had anchored itself in Cambodian soil, possessed a remarkable facility for assimilation and accretion.
Fertility Elements in South and Southeast Asian Buddhism (A free, 29-page article from 2000)
Tags: #Nature #Theravada #Animism
https://buddhistuniversity.net/content/articles/magician-as-environmentalist_harris-ian
The Open Buddhist University · Magician as Environmentalist: Fertility Elements in South and Southeast Asian BuddhismIn the course of the ritual, pardon is asked of the earth goddess, Nāng Thōranī, for despoiling her both in the collection of sand for the ceremony and during the agricultural season.
Reading Between the Lines in Late Classical and Early Middle Cambodia (13th–18th Centuries) (A free, 13-page article from 2013)
Tags: #Theravada #Nuns #Cambodia #Medieval
https://buddhistuniversity.net/content/articles/in-search-of-khmer-bhikkhuni_jacobsen-trude
The Open Buddhist University · In Search of the Khmer Bhikkhunī: Reading Between the Lines in Late Classical and Early Middle Cambodia (13th–18th Centuries)the inscriptions of the past refer often to a corpus of women as “nuns”. What are we to make of this?
BDG news: Buddhist Scholar, Teacher, and Practitioner Prof. David Dale Holmes Has Died Aged 84
Read here: https://tinyurl.com/3tnvb2tj
A Short Biography of the Venerable Ledi Sayadaw (A free, 12-page book from 2022)
Tags: #BurmeseBuddhism #Theravada
https://buddhistuniversity.net/content/monographs/short-biography-ledi-sayadaw_nyanissara-ashin
The Open Buddhist UniversityA Short Biography of the Venerable Ledi SayadawLedi Sayadaw was simultaneously a great teacher to his monks and lay disciples, a great Dhamma preacher to large segments of the Burmese population, a founder and organizer of many Buddhist lay organizations, a famous teacher and popularizer of meditation practice, especially Ānāpāna and Vipassanā, and a classical scholar-monk and author of classical work.
Two Novice Monks at a Monastery in Mandalay, Myanmar.
Photo Captured in 2009.
#photography #portrait #novicemonks #youngmonks #monks #Buddhism #religion #travelphotography #culture #mandalaymyanmar #mandalay #myanmar #robes #saffronrobes #theravada
Photo Captured in 2009.
#photography #portrait #novicemonks #youngmonks #monks #Buddhism #religion #travelphotography #culture #mandalaymyanmar #mandalay #myanmar #robes #saffronrobes #theravada
Today’s #DailySutta:
SN 22.60 Mahālisutta: With Mahāli
“What is the cause and reason for the corruption of sentient beings?…”
Read the sutta
https://daily.readingfaithfully.org/sn-22-60-mahalisutta-with-mahali/?=MDS
Get these by email
https://daily.readingfaithfully.org?=MSUDS
Replied in thread
@vjprema Bhante Sujato's translations, as well as 20% of the Wisdom Publications Bhikkhu Bodhi translations (arguably even better) of the Early Buddhist texts are free to read at:
https://suttacentral.net
I also did a 37-minute video presentation several years ago about the Early Buddhist Texts, explaining more context around about what you see in the chart below:
https://bhikkhu.ca/suttas/
(I apologize for the hissy audio in that older video - I'll do it over if I get enough requests)
#Buddhism #Buddha #Theravada
Replied in thread
@vjprema We have a saying for this in #Canada: "The juice ain't worth the squeeze". 
I find reading suttas/Dhamma ebooks is another burst again in high-quality information density. I do a lot of promoting of this with the people around me in my life.
#Buddhism #Buddha #Theravada
BDG news: Two Dead After Fire at New York City Buddhist Temple
Read here: https://tinyurl.com/mvhec997
Women and the Bodhisatta Path in Theravāda Buddhism (A free, 19-page article from 2011)
Tags: #Theravada #Bodhisattva #Buddha
https://buddhistuniversity.net/content/articles/women-and-bodhisatta-path_appleton
The Open Buddhist University · In the Footsteps of the Buddha?: Women and the Bodhisatta Path in Theravāda BuddhismThat women cannot be bodhisattas was not a carefully considered doctrine designed to exclude women. It did, however, result in a great inequality, despite widespread recognition that women were capable of achieving arahatship. If one’s sex is no obstacle to arahatship, and this is the mainstream goal of Theravāda, does it even matter that a tradition developed declaring women unable to be bodhisattas?
The Four Protective Meditations (A free, 6-page canonical work translation from 2006)
Tags: #Theravada #Motivation #MonkLife
https://buddhistuniversity.net/content/canon/caturarakkha
The Open Buddhist University · Caturārakkhā Bhāvanā: The Four Protective MeditationsA late Pāli text that has been extremely influential on the (especially monastic) meditation practices of the Theravāda world, visible especially in Sri Lanka and Thailand today.
New Pāli Inscriptions from South-East Asia (A free, 35-page article from 1997)
Tags: #Theravada #ThaiBuddhism
https://buddhistuniversity.net/content/articles/new-pali-inscriptions_skilling
The Open Buddhist University · New Pāli Inscriptions from South-East AsiaA brief survey of some Pāli inscriptions found in Thailand in the 1980s giving a look at the archeological evidence for medieval Theravāda Buddhism.
Replied in thread
@IPXFong
Not a lot of that, no! #Theravada school is very strict about sense pleasures and that usually means no wealth to accumulate and fight over. Coming to the West, Dipa Ma's students have had to face the capitalist dharma conundrum. Look at me I'm a best selling book author oh that's a big speaking fee now I'm on the board of thisthat multi-million dollar center -- pride is a pit, that and seeking ecstasy. Meditation doesn't end being human. Spirit Rock in CA has done massive work in ethics for Buddhists btw. Pretty much if a meditation center or teacher doesn't lead with ethics and lists of boundaries I'd stay far away.
*Pāramī* and the Localisation of Buddhism and Monarchy in Cambodia (A free, 23-page article from 2017)
Tags: #Theravada #Cambodia
https://buddhistuniversity.net/content/articles/khmer-potent-places-parami-and_guillou-anne-yvonne
The Open Buddhist University · Khmer Potent Places: Pāramī and the Localisation of Buddhism and Monarchy in CambodiaCambodia is strewn with places of national, local or, most frequently, village importance, considered as potent places, that is to say, places that are said to have agency and a positive or negative power of interaction with human beings. This paper emphasises the constituent principles of potency using case studies based on ethnographic research conducted between 2007 and 2015 in Pursat province, western Cambodia.
Buddhism in Muslim Indonesia (A free, 34-page article from 2013)
Tags: #Indonesia #Theravada
https://buddhistuniversity.net/content/articles/buddhism-in-muslim-indonesia_steenbrink-karel
The Open Buddhist University · Buddhism in Muslim IndonesiaThis article presents an overview of various ways in which Buddhists and Muslims have lived together in Indonesia since the arrival of Islam about 1200. It tells how Buddhism has slowly disappeared and become a religion for mainly the Chinese who, until the late 19th century, have often converted to Islam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXDCEFtQ-M4
(The video format is different, which isn't agreeing with Mastodon; you'll have to click through to go to Youtube to watch!)
Daily dose of #dharma from one of my favorite teachers ever, Robina Courtin, a Gelug nun.
I started doing this yesterday, adding it to my morning chanting/yoga practice. I found it very powerful. It isn't easy for me to speak kindly to myself; I teared up the first time I tried. But the effect it had on my mind was profound, and this morning I found it easier to start.
As a #PureLand Buddhist, I rely on the compassion of #Amitabha / #Amida #Buddha. That concept is a whole other subject in itself, which will seem foreign if your understanding of #Buddhism is primarily from #Theravada sources versus #Mahayana. The basic idea is that I ask Amitabha for help with my practice, instead of it being something I cultivate within myself, off my own back.
Today I told myself that, among other things, if a Buddha can see good qualities in me and decides that I am deserving of his compassion, then it must be true that I am indeed worthy of kindness and respect. Who am I to assume that my perspective as an addled, ordinary being, is more accurate than that of an enlightened Buddha?
I had never framed this thought as such before. Thinking it through today felt like I had unlocked a deeper truth.
Namu Amida Butsu. 
