This is Part 2 of a two-part interview on Vedanā with Bhikkhu Anālayo. Read Part 1 of the Vedanā interview here. IJ: How does the craving that arises in dependence on vedanā lead to the view-forming process? And how can that process be worked with or transcended? BhA: Psychologists call it the Myside Bias, which means that I always assume that my views are correct and others’ are wrong. Any information that comes in I manipulate in such a way that it confirms that my views are right and … [Read more...]
Vedanā Part 1: Addressing Views and Clinging at the Source
Read Part 2 of this Interview. IJ: Bhante, thanks so much for being with us again to talk about the second satipaṭṭhāna. Maybe we can start with how to begin incorporating contemplation of vedanā into one's overall practice. Should time be set aside to work just with vedanā, or should it be slowly brought into one's primary practice? BhA: The way I usually teach is to first work through all the four satipaṭṭhānas, and then come to an undirected type of awareness. In this way one gradually … [Read more...]
Wheels of Fire: The Buddha’s Radical Teaching on Process
Ādittapariyāya Sutta: The Fire Sermon, SN 35.28 "Monks, the All is aflame. What All is aflame? The eye is aflame. Forms are aflame. Consciousness at the eye is aflame. Contact at the eye is aflame. And whatever there is that arises in dependence on contact at the eye—experienced as pleasure, pain or neither-pleasure-nor-pain—that too is aflame. Aflame with what? Aflame with the fire of passion, the fire of aversion, the fire of delusion. Aflame, I tell you, with birth, aging & death, with … [Read more...]