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korginator | 2 years ago

In a discussion about what monks know about focus, I too find it strange that other schools and practices are ignored. The core of the Buddhist practice is about cultivating the mind for insight and clarity. In the linked article, I find the reasons offered by Nestorus to engage in reading rather specious and elementary, hardly scratching the surface of a vast and well practised domain.

His first point - that reading helps avoid toxic thoughts - is avoiding instead of getting to the root of the problem and fixing it. His third and "most mysterious" reason for immersive reading - that it deepens our understanding of the reading material because our minds are changing - is how education works in the first place.

The basic Buddhist teachings and practices even for lay people cover this vast domain concisely, with clear prescriptions to practice and try it out for ourselves, iterate and progress. In fact, the very first of the seven factors of awakening that we're advised to cultivate is mindfulness which underlies everything else. This commentary [1] provides an overview.

The practices are covered in more detail in one of the core teachings, MN10 - Satipatthana Sutta [2]. While reading/listening/remembering are valued as aids (it's called suta-mayā pañña - knowledge based on learning), pretty much every Buddhist monk and practising upāsaka / upāsika (layperson) are taught to practice the techniques and realise this clarity, focus, mindfulness, etc., for themselves. The instruction mentioned above - MN10 - instructs you on attention and mindfulness wherever you are and whatever you're doing, in the section on clear comprehension - you're cultivating the skill (bhāvana) where you're clear about what you're doing, why you're doing it, the consequences of your actions, etc., whether you're defecating, urinating, reading, lying down to sleep, whatever - a constant practice of mindfulness and a full-time job.

[1] https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/piyadassi/wheel0...

[2] https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/soma/wayof.html

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fuzztester|1 year ago

>Satipatthana Sutta

I read some paragraphs of that link, and was interested to see that in a lot of places, there is a lot of repetition of the words and phrases, with appropriate variations.

I am guessing that it was a technique that was used to reinforce the learning by the listener, similar to how the Vedas and other ancient Indian scriptures were passed on by making the student repeat them a number of times and memorize them, because they were no modern things like books, and maybe even palm leaf manuscripts came sometime later. That's what I've heard, anyway, from parents and relatives.

fuzztester|1 year ago

And, good reference, thanks for sharing.