Embedded Files
1～3月
Non-activity is the theme; nibbana's definition as resolution of sankhara
Non-activity is not about no activity; personal intention; feeling intimate and trusting regarding intention
Another definition for nibbana is the extinction of the three poisons
Sankhara as activity and not as compositeness
See clearly that suffering is the result of going against non-activity
The four establishings of mindfulness can be made to become connected
Neurotic tendencies as the body; the searches for contentment and pleasure as mental activities; the contented mind; conducing to release
The repeated contemplation over these meanings is about familiarizing and recognizing, and not about building up
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2025.01.11► [Q&A] 世间恶 与 圣默然／世間惡 與 聖默然
Mara's possession
Swayed by tendencies; not even swayed by sense of righteousness
Not avoidance; but mindful preservation and rest, being nourished by inner strength; not needing to fight for a thought/position is liberating
Defending oneself; eliciting reactions; vulnerability and guilt; image; dharma protectors; mara not interested in truth but in distraction; mental defilements not interested in truth, but in their own agendas
Biding time; entrust; let desirelessness guide your speech; being meek; treasure the Dhamma; see the irresolvability of views; see evil people as mental defilements; complaints
Superficially triumphant; the long game; the real battle; acknowledging and revering the inner immovability
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025.01.18► [Q&A] 意识毕竟非我／意識畢竟非我
The debate: was it you who were reborn? Or did you just inherit brain waves? The effect is the same;
consciousness is a continuum of influence-passing-down; due to those influences, the attention is funneled
through an apparatus
It is not that you're consciousness reborn; attention enters stranger's stream of consciousness; embedding into a
novel storyline
Consciousness, tired of it-always tracing for creating more origins, more destinations; always completing and
looking for new tasks; always alternating between high and low
Built in features: all thoughts reinforce individuality; all propensities in service of possessing, expanding,
maintaining an imagined core
Be alert about the passion delight, the familiarity, the excitation ... re consciousness
Not a negation of self-evident impressions and experiences, but that of the woven-ness, the neuroticism, the
tendencies, the identification ...
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2025.01.25► [Q&A] 经验的质地 如幻法的意识／經驗的質地 如幻法的意識
We're only reacting to mental phenomena; nature of mental phenomena; moments of arising and of resolution not differentiable; radical impermanence; circles in the sky
Only qualities, and no things
So-called things: how to trace their origins? How to describe their destination? Yet consciousness is obsessed with these
So-called things: is it on my (subjective end)? Is it on the other (objective) end? Yet consciousness is obsessed with these
So-called things: what is existence? What is non-existence? Yet consciousness is obsessed with these
Rest in this discernment: the analogies of the five aggregates; dream like; childhood encounter of the impermanence
contemplation and consciousness-only contemplation
The perception of all things being empty-non-abiding, non-graspable, not-a-thing; not for the philosophical stance
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2025.02.01► [Q&A] 平舍(捨) 平等 如
Equanimity in the formless; instead of being a visualization, more a resting in the natural texture
Content vs totality
Inseparability of sensory package in the present
Self representation completely and inextricably embedded in a holistic environment
Pattern seeking and dissolution of water colors
Radical equalness
Not pulling or pushing── another meaning
All reactions are not toward things
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2025.02.08► [Q&A] 决定基础：净除盖障／決定基礎：淨除蓋障
Is practice hard or easy? Set aside the meta-conclusion, and instead, focus on:
Do I have an caseful abiding right now? (e.g removal of hurriedness) is it doable? Is it good enough that it is sustainable?
A good swimmer; a happy fish
A paradox: mind is insubstantial; yet mental suffering is the most compelling
Strive to be thorough-going in the removal of hindrances
Be heedful also means realizing that hindrances could be subtle
When righted, don't take naturalness for granted; familiarize the unwavering equanimity
Instances of hindrances: mental images beckoning; complaints and impatience; hurriedness; longing; nostalgia; remorse; doubts; worry
First jhana is seclusion pleasure, and not about how to manipulate concentration
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2025.02.15► [Q&A] 诸行止息 极简解说／諸行止息 極簡解說
Stupid vs discerning kind of peace
Peace experienced as a mitigation/pactification of sankharas, rather than just a indeterminate state
Peace experienced as a benefit of craving-reduction; making the stress of craving all the more obvious
Plain spoken sankhara; doing nothing; seeing the tiredness of having to do something
Difference between ordinary worldlings and the supramundane; the former is passionate about building up activities
Difference between heedlessness and doing nothing; the subtle reactions and struggles
Duties vs subliminal struggles
Buddhist moral standards
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2025.02.22► [Q&A] “我是觉知”的 味 与 患／“我是覺知”的 味 與 患
(when physically secluded, relaxed, and devoid of need to control) Sense of being, of openness, of inclusivity, of self
The allures of "I am awareness": extraction and seclusion from contents; what objects are there that offer better proximity and intimacy? Due to the proximity, the mind does not hanker and look for something better
The dangers: even the sense of being is pieced together from instances of impressions, attentions, mental movements; this sense of being comes and goes, as in sleep and wakefulness, and as in mindfulness and lack thereof; when it is reveled, when it is leaned on, when it gives your sense of agency, function, and self, it is still dukkha
C.f. gradual pacifications of sankharas; the need for right view and appropriate attention
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2025.03.01► [Q&A] 最长 七年／最長 七年
Assurance of finite time until attainments; endowed with right view
Craving; love of craving is love of stress and prolonged hunger
Urge to scratch
Alertness and the minute instances
More instantaneous way to release
The efficiency is seen clearly on the one hand; the inefficiency is seen clearly on the other hand
The mental sankharas behind just the physical impact/itch, which is tolerable; mental sankharas include: feeling of missing out; focusing on allure; impatience with discomfort ...
Notice the failure phase, and continue to apply awareness here
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Mind: always feels like missing something; having everything, then taken away; having everything, then become bored
Stress is the busy and futile attempt at owning the unownable mind
Sense of inadequacy; excuses ... they're only a problem when appropriated
How is the mind different than nature, if all is experiential?
Don't even bother to know if it's nature, God, awareness ... being uninterested
No ownership; see through its insidious seductive nature
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2025.03.15► [Q&A] 担心 揪心 费心 关心／擔心 揪心 費心 關心
Freedom from rites and rituals
Allowing oneself to be intoxicated in another's company
Friends or foe; formless yet most compelling
Sensations vs perceptions
Stay with it; momentum of samadhi; quality living
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“I”built from “mine”; the example of gender identity
an identity is fabricated or determined by perceived ownership
Five aggregates are not about building blocks
Real meaning of anicca, dukkha, anatta
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2025.03.29► [Q&A] 非我想捷径─无所有／非我想捷徑─無所有
Uncontrollability of life and the focus on appropriate attention
Not self is not mereological reductionism
Where are experiences deposited? Only in imagination; and even this imagination is experienced in the now; the extent of present enjoyment
The posture/attitude of a hoarder; no basis for pride, guilt, anxiety ...
This doesn't mean that we suppress the impulse for change; but rather, see that even that impulse cannot be hoarded
The so-called existence is only just this flux; even the so-called states of jhanas and nibbana
Right View without exceptions
4～6月
You can still succeed without optimizing attention; but it would make your practice many times more potent
Instantaneity: no distance to traverse; laying back and there you are; dimensions and multiplicity can be noticed here; see how far you need to travel to be here
Equality: discrimination is useful, but on this occasion, look at how experiential texture is the same wherever you direct your attention; however good or bad
Effortlessness: Do you have to try to be open? Do you have to try to control things? Does effort increase awareness? If so, what notices that increase?
On this basis, look at un-ownability
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2025.04.12► [Q&A] 禅那不由操弄技巧而产生／禪那不由操弄技巧而產生
Renunciant values and not concentration is the gateway to jhana; a mendicant is someone who doesn't own anything
The happiness of aligning with un-ownability; surrendering of activities-no frenzy of control and wants and worries
Absence of pleasure is pain? Enjoyment of absence; no bombardment; Absence of build-up is boring? Enjoyment of letting go
absence of the unownable is not the same as absence of inner peace; that which is intrinsic cannot be disowned ... that which is extrinsic can never be owned
Pain is pacified and not diverted by pleasure
Highest happiness is cessation of feeling (subjective and objective cessation); increasing reliance on equanimity constitutes jhanic progression
Why do people become depressed in the experience of the absence? Bombardment of boredom; The hindrances; resistance to un-ownability
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2025.04.19► [Q&A] 入定？你是定入了甚麽主题
Satipatthana is the theme of jhanas, and not jhanic nimittas
Satipatthana is about a range of suitable and contextual activities, but can potentially settle into a single theme
The transformative effect of samadhi; the meaning of unification of mind
Using the example of surrendering mind
It's not so much about strongly seizing hold of the topic, then it is about quieting the mind and settling into it
The nimitta could be: unownable nature of mind; the owning clinging activities; the exertion behind owning; the thirst-worry-weariness of trying to own (drawback of that attitude); the drawbacks of mind; the pacification of owning-clinging activities; the natural peace that does not come from owning; being still in awareness ...
In the same way, knowing one noble truth helps you know all the noble truths
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2025.04.26► [Q&A] 資糧位 見道位 行道位
Forbearance and non-greediness for pleasure as prerequisite; simplicity; earnestness ... a non-exhaustive list of qualities that better the odds; but these qualities never have to reach the level of the so-called perfections
intermediate prerequisites: deep relaxation; trust and conviction; surrender-in non-doership, non-control, not-self nature, stream entry ... the mind easily quiets down; the mind is not at a loss for ownerlessness, meaninglessness, surrender of control, lack of happiness in the world ...
The next step is to purify equanimity, by making peace easy, immediate, accessible; to the point where all sankharas are pacified
Examples of boundless consciousness, of abiding in I am, etc. They are unified in how they may help equanimity more immediate, less fabricated, easily accessed ...
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2025.05.03► [Q&A] 直白解说 禅那中的 喜
Piti translated as happiness leads to false expectation
Value meaning
We don't necessarily just go for maximal pleasure; taking on pain voluntarily; the shielding effect of meaning
Cleaning the toilet vs hollow pleasure; one leading to mental fortitude, and the other to listlessness and vulnerability to temptations
Why the Dharma produces piti
When dedicated to value meaning, torpor is overcome
"with mind gladdened ... " the formula re-read; When the mind is inspired by value meaning ...
Using the verse on burden as example: recitation and investigation lead to comprehension and conative-emotive assent to the value meaning...
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【※5月10、14日暫停兩次】
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2025.05.24► [Q&A] 諸行漸次止息 與 斷我見
The unique human introspective capacity; Gradual pacification is gradual relinquishing of stationing
Personal perspectives: inside the body, inside a calmed body, as space, as consciousness, as not a thing, as neither perception ...
AN5.28 standing person looking at sitting person ...
Each successive perspective is more empty of sankharas; ... is more capable, though not necessary, of penetrating non-dwelling/cessation
Every one of these perspective could be samsaric or utilitarian
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Silent treatment and physical seclusion vs dismissive remarks
Your external attitude belies your attitude toward thoughts
The goal is not mental blankness; it is to notice thought as a paradigmatic sankhara
Thought is not just a sound; it is a swaying force, an infectious compulsion, a pulling into a position
Look at conceit as a swaying force ... a pulling into a position ...
Look at whether the unresponsiveness is due to any control, or a relaxed settling into rest; "see renunciation as rest"; the literal meaning of samvega(weariness/laziness to respond)
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2025.06.07► [Q&A] 没有道德高位的出离(離)
Mental defilements as chenlao
Debates on right dhamma vs wrong dhamma; what about just the more easeful Dhamma
"What's more easeful" instead of moral reproach as a criterion for renunciation
The problem with sensual obsession; the slavery of addiction; when looking forward, the strain prevents present enjoyment
"See renunciation as rest"
Either enjoy, or forbear, in peace and rest
The wisdom in seeing what's more easeful as opposed to what's more easy
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Analogy of the mirror
Content of awareness vis-à-vis "who am I?"; perception as content
Consciousness, as opposed to awareness, is always framed and deliminted; e.g, visual consciousness,
personality consciousness ...
Selfing as neurotic insistence on a perspective, a contraction around a movement; what's wrong with it is not the content, but the generation of suffering
The quest for that which is beyond content; but it's not that contents are bad and awareness is good; the
understanding of selfing in reference to and delighting in content, vs the removal of content
The "signless deliverance" as the eradicating of selfing and delight in reference to content; the "non-
perceptual" as the removal of content
This is why the Tathaagata after death is not even describable as non-perception/sleep-like
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2025.06.21► [Q&A] 諸行──非我的疲勞世界
Sankhara as that which is formed and that which is forming: habits, predispositions, and intentions-they influence each other
Busy-ness and reactivity as not self; ignorance conditions sankharas
Do bees have free will? Does it matter?
Tiredness, weariness toward sankharas; rest in, and inclination toward non-activity
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2025.06.28► [Q&A] 我 与 无我 俱离／我 與 無我 俱離
Philosphical positions; Dharma seal and dogmas; the "correct position" that signifies Awakening?
The futility of debates over impermanence/permanence, self/no-self; internalization of ideas vs the quieting of ideas
Insistence on perspectives is really a sign of fear, weakness, defensiveness ...
Selfing as contraction, as neuroticism
"there is this"; there is no division in "there is this"; when there's that neuroticism present in “ this ”
not merely a sankharic perception, but a cessation of contraction/busy-ness/reactivity ...; selfing is preoccupatiion/jiujie
7～9月
2025.07.05► [Q&A] 静默中面对念头的召唤 ／靜默中面對念頭的召喚
One of the best gauges for discipline is silence/non-reactivity
The epithet Shakyamuni; the word gregariousness
Self-identification as responsiveness to compulsion
The endurance to not respond, to patient equanimity
This discipline translates to abiding in not-self-ness; that which is busy and reactive is not self
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2025.07.12► [Q&A] 法的滋味所薰染的价值观／法的滋味所薰染的價值觀
Truth, beauty, goodness-not about morality or convention, but about conforming to the nature of awareness; the way the Buddhist culture/values are formed
The Buddha was neither a moralist nor a humanitarian
When you work for something with agenda, the sort of reward begotten is somehow always
unsatisfying; something about motiveless giving ...
Perhaps it has to do with how contentment is crucial to true happiness; perhaps it's effortlessness that brings out authenticity; perhaps it's steering away from an additional layer of distortion
That which is forced is fabricated; that which is fabricated is impermanent, stressful, and not self
There will be preferences in life, but doing away with fixation, need for control, and insecurity ...
The Dharma is full of such flavors
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2025.07.19► [Q&A] 身行与我见／身行與我見
Why cessation of bodily fabrication is liberation
Bodily fabrication is what constructs personality view
Fear of death
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2025.07.26► [Q&A] 直白解说禅那中的乐／直白解說禪那中的樂
People can sacrifice superficial happiness for meaning ... in the same way, people can forgo superficial pleasure for freedom from agitation, weariness ...
There is only the need to abate pain; jhana is based on right view
Look at the way contentment quiets the mind; the so-called samadhi is not concentration, but about a gratified mind not willing to make unnecessary movement
Understand Samatha as abatement of craving, rather than as mental control
Familiarizing with peace and contentment is familiarizing with seclusion, disenchantment, dispassion ...
When you can't be content, then something artificial is needed, such as the perception of gratitude.
The training in samadhi has a lot to do with learning to lull the mind and keeping it well fed, until it surrenders and dissolves; the greatest bliss is the dissolution of craving
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2025.08.02► [Q&A] 想 如 阳(陽)熖 鹿渴
The narrow and broad meaning of sign
Nimitta is like mirage; it cannot withstand scrutiny
Nimitta as "it feels like ... "; you're not trying to get a feeling of self-less-ness, but to see clearly "it feels as if there's self and others"
Penetrating the belief in substantiality, in allure, in duality, in distance, in safety ...
Belief as a fundamental force behind craving; belief as linking with contents, riding along in them, and being stirred by them
Being aware of as is, even if the "as is" feels like "substantial, self, mine ... "
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2025.08.09► [Q&A] 识缘名色 名色缘六入／識緣名色 名色緣六入
Consciousness is that which continues to hold together the seeming pattern of an individual; name-form is the body-mind that consciousness identifies with; the six sense media is the interaction with the world
The built-in mechanism for preservation in consciousness; the invested conviction in having come from somewhere and going somewhere; stream entry and the eradication of existential doubts
An individual is precisely name-form; but this individual is an idea that is maintained via repeated reminders; satipatthana is also repeated reminders
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2025.08.16► [Q&A] 触缘受 受缘爱／觸緣受 受緣愛
Not choices, but habits
Name-form as the experience of being an individual, based on which there is tanha, consisting of three types
In short, tanha is the reminiscing, yearning for, delighting in, excitation about ... being an individual
Either pacify tanha, or develop disenchantment toward this process
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2025.08.23► [Q&A] 愛緣取…有…生…如是純大苦聚
愛取有生老病死憂悲惱苦
Unexamined habits
Taking up a position, vs being aware of a perspective
Clinging-fixating on an object with concern, tightness, delight...; Non-clinging-allowing that which is ungraspable pass unobstructedly
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2025.08.30► [Q&A] 诸行止息中的关键误会／諸行止息中的關鍵誤會
The missed assumption in pedagogy
Unification of the mind; this is usually what I mean by ruding/samadhi; possible but not required for every level of samadhi, abiding in a place doesn't always entail samadhi
The abiding place is usually a dynamic range, informed by a satipatthana topic
The possible presence of vitakka and related activities
The examples of wilderness perception
The example of jhana-taking dispassion to be the only common denominator, then expand from there (eg, focusing on the enjoying it, deepening the dispassion, tweaking the insight...)
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2025.09.06► [Q&A] 诸行止息的简白解说／諸行止息的簡白解說
Sankhara explained
What is nibbana? Not any of the abstract states
Effortlessness vs literal non-movement; suffering is friction; the kind of action that is struggle, insistence, control, impulsivity ...; selfing is such an example
Practice, very hard and very easy; why can't we just stop everything, throw away everything?
The different prerequisites leading to effortlessness/resolution of sankharas: seclusion, dispassion, natural abiding ...
The pared down path is about: awareness of sankhara/resolution of sankhara
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2025.09.13► [Q&A] 纪律与无为／紀律與無為
Once the gross distortion is softened, the path becomes expeditious; effortlessness not a quantitative absolute; deer park sermon; the stress of being someone, making decisions ...
The natural welling up of energy; friction instantaneously resolved; the example of instilling ideas for forgiving vs instant resolution; wisdom is about pinpointing the unnecessary exertion
The break in the vicious cycle; examined habit
If you can't control the impulse behind slandering, gossiping, quarreling, distorting ...
What people take to be rest is actually dawdling intermixed with agitation
Only alertness and fear of wrong doing can really help with sensitivity toward sankharas
Train yourself so that discipline does not mean extra exertion
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2025.09.20► [Q&A] 趋向初禅的活动场域─导引／趨向初禪的活動場域─導引
•Thinking, observing, contrasting, familiarizing, settling, building confidence……
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Contraction in the head
Fleeting sensations, images, thoughts ...
What about the witness itself? Can you say anything about it?
Do you have to do anything to remain the changeless, transparent, open, formless ...?
When you say you're attached, what are the sensations, images, thoughts ...?
Avatar; the interested gaze; pattern reminder; these reaffirming activities are sankharas
Relaxing the self-reminder and the gaze; relaxing the neuroticism of self reminder
What does the body feels like when it has a carrier or resident? What of it when there is none?
The eradication of personality view lies in: a reversal in the reliance, from sankharic phenomena to inner peace
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