Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy
1. The Meaning of the Term Zen The designation of this school of the Buddha-Way as Zen, which means sitting meditation, is derived from a transliteration of the Chinese word Chán. Because the Chinese term is in turn a transliteration of the Sanskrit term dhyāna, however, Zen owes its historical origin to early Indian Buddhism, where a deepened state of meditation, called samādhi, was singled out as one of the three components of study a Buddhist was required to master, the other two being an observation of ethical precepts (sīla) and an embodiment of nondiscriminatory wisdom (prajñā). Meditation was picked as the name for this school because the historical Buddha achieved enlightenment (nirvāna) through the practice of meditation. In the context of Zen Buddhism, the perfection of nondiscriminatory wisdom (Jpn.: hannya haramitsu; Skrt.: prajñāpāramitā) designates practical, experiential knowledge. 2. 3. 3.1 The Adjustment of the Body 3.2 The Adjustment of Breathing 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Mindfulness In Plain English
A PDF preview from the 20th edition - Click Here Special Offer - 20% Off the latest edition / The 20th Anniversary Edition - eBook or paperback / See Below "Mindfulness in Plain English" has been on UrbanDharma.org a while now for free download, but the edition I posted years ago was the first edition and is now rather dated. Over the last few months I have been in contact with the publisher at Wisdom Publications about M.I.P.E... I have come to understand any money that would have gone to Wisdom Publications (a non-profit publisher of Buddhist books) and the author Ven. Henepola Gunaratana to support his Buddhist Center the Bhavana Society, is forever lost. I think supporting both Wisdom Publications and Ven. " Wisdom Publications and UrbanDharma.org have joined forces to offer a 20% discount code - UDMIP- on the New Edition of "Mindfulness in Plain English" which can be applied to both the 'paperback and eBook' version at check out, on the Wisdom Publications website... Peace...
Why do we cry? | neuroecology
I was recently reading an article on the psychology of why we cry (via): In a study published in 2000, Vingerhoets and a team of researchers found that adults, unlike children, rarely cry in public. They wait until they’re in the privacy of their homes—when they are alone or, at most, in the company of one other adult. On the face of it, the “crying-as-communication” hypothesis does not fully hold up, and it certainly doesn’t explain why we cry when we’re alone, or in an airplane surrounded by strangers we have no connection to…In the same 2000 study, Vingerhoet’s team also discovered that, in adults, crying is most likely to follow a few specific antecedents. When asked to choose from a wide range of reasons for recent spells of crying, participants in the study chose “separation” or “rejection” far more often than other options, which included things like “pain and injury” and “criticism.” Although biological reasons have been proposed, they often seem a bit silly to me. Reference
Qualia
In philosophy, qualia (/ˈkwɑːliə/ or /ˈkweɪliə/; singular form: quale) are what some consider to be individual instances of subjective, conscious experience. The term "qualia" derives from the Latin neuter plural form (qualia) of the Latin adjective quālis (Latin pronunciation: [ˈkʷaːlɪs]) meaning "of what sort" or "of what kind"). Examples of qualia include the pain of a headache, the taste of wine, or the perceived redness of an evening sky. As qualitative characters of sensation, qualia stand in contrast to "propositional attitudes".[1] Daniel Dennett (b. 1942), American philosopher and cognitive scientist, regards qualia as "an unfamiliar term for something that could not be more familiar to each of us: the ways things seem to us".[2] Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961), the famous physicist, had this counter-materialist take: The sensation of color cannot be accounted for by the physicist's objective picture of light-waves. Definitions[edit] Arguments for the existence of qualia[edit] E. J.
Vipassana Meditation Website
Evangelion: A Psychological Study
Collective consciousness
Theravada
Theravāda (Sanskrit: स्थविरवाद) is a branch of Buddhism that uses the teaching of the Pāli Canon, a collection of the oldest recorded Buddhist texts, as its doctrinal core, but also includes a rich diversity of traditions and practices that have developed over its long history of interactions with various cultures and communities. It is the dominant form of religion in Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Burma, and is practiced by minority groups in Vietnam, Bangladesh, and China. In addition, the diaspora of all of these groups as well as converts around the world practice Theravāda Buddhism. Adherents[edit] Theravāda Buddhism is followed by various countries and people around the globe, and are: Today, Theravāda Buddhists, otherwise known as Theravadins, number over 150 million worldwide, and during the past few decades Theravāda Buddhism has begun to take root in the West[a] and in the Buddhist revival in India. History[edit] Origins[edit] Transmission to Sri Lanka[edit] [edit] [edit]
Is Consciousness Universal?
For every inside there is an outside, and for every outside there is an inside; though they are different, they go together. —Alan Watts, Man, Nature, and the Nature of Man, 1991 I grew up in a devout and practicing Roman Catholic family with Purzel, a fearless and high-energy dachshund. He, as with all the other, much larger dogs that subsequently accompanied me through life, showed plenty of affection, curiosity, playfulness, aggression, anger, shame and fear. Yet my church teaches that whereas animals, as God's creatures, ought to be treated well, they do not possess an immortal soul. It was only later, at university, that I became acquainted with Buddhism and its emphasis on the universal nature of mind. As a natural scientist, I find a version of panpsychism modified for the 21st century to be the single most elegant and parsimonious explanation for the universe I find myself in. We Are All Nature's Children
Magic Mushrooms Expand Your Mind And Amplify Your Brain’s Dreaming Areas. Here’s How
Psychedelic drugs alter consciousness in a profound and novel way that increases the breadth and fluency of cognition. However, until recently, we were unable to offer an explanation for how the brain was altered to account for these effects. In a new study, published in Human Brain Mapping, we scanned the brains of volunteers who had been injected with psilocybin – the chemical found in magic mushrooms which gives a psychedelic experience – and a control group who hadn’t, and discovered two key things: that psilocybin increased the amplitude (or “volume”) of activity in regions of the brain that are reliably activated during dream sleep and form part of the brain’s ancient emotion system; and that psychedelics facilitate a state of “expanded” consciousness – meaning that the breath of associations made by the brain and the ease by which they are visited is enhanced under the drugs. Ego and emotion This finding of a similar pattern to dream activity is intriguing. Building a picture
How to Explain Complex Ideas (Like Tech) to Those Who Don’t Understand
