Advayavada Study Plan – week 22

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Dear friends,

This week (22) we further develop our very best attitude to carry out our objective.

The 4th Step on the Noble 8fold Path: samma-kammanta (samyak-karmanta): in Advayavada: our very best disposition or attitude; right behaviour (Arnold), right conduct (Burt, Conze, Eliot, Malalasekera, Rhys Davids), right action (Bahm, Bodhi, Ch’en, David-Neel, Fernando, Gethin, Guenther, Harvey, Horner, Humphreys, Keown, Khemo, Kornfield, Narada, Narasu, Nyanatiloka, Rahula, Saddhatissa, St Ruth, Stroup, Takakusu, Warder, Watts), appropriate action (Batchelor), right actions (Dhammananda, Dharmapala), right acting (Grimm); proper behaviour (Edwardes); correct action (Kloppenborg, Scheepers), the right deed (Melamed).

Kind regards,
John Willemsens
Advayavada Foundation
@advayavada

Advayavada Study Plan – week 21

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Dear friends,

This week (21) we again put our decision and objective in writing as precisely as possible.

The 3rd Step on the Noble Eightfold Path: samma-vacha (samyag-vac); in Advayavada: our very best enunciation or definition (as Karl Popper says, putting our ideas into words, or better, writing them down, makes an important difference, for in this way they become objective and criticizable); right discourse (Arnold), right speech (Bahm, Bodhi, Burt, Ch’en, Conze, David-Neel, Dhammananda, Dharmapala, Eliot, Fernando, Gethin, Guenther, Harvey, Horner, Humphreys, Keown, Khemo, Kornfield, Malalasekera, Narada, Narasu, Nyanatiloka, Rahula, Rhys Davids, Saddhatissa, St Ruth, Stroup, Takakusu, Warder, Watts), appropriate speech (Batchelor), right speaking (Grimm); proper language of definition (Edwardes); correct speech (Kloppenborg, Scheepers), the right word (Melamed).

Kind regards,
John Willemsens
Advayavada Foundation
@advayavada

Advayavada Study Plan – week 20

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Dear friends,

This week (20) we again take an appropriate and timely decision to adjust our course.

The 2nd step on the Noble Eightfold Path: samma-sankappa (samyak-samkalpa); in Advayavada: our very best resolution or determination; right purpose (Arnold, Burt, Horner), right resolve (Bahm, David-Neel, Keown), appropriate thought (Batchelor), right intentions (Bodhi, Conze), right intention (Ch’en, Gethin, Khemo, St Ruth, Warder), right thoughts (Dhammananda, Narada), right desires (Dharmapala), right aspirations (Dharmapala, Eliot, Malalasekera, Rhys Davids), right thought (Fernando, Rahula, Saddhatissa, Takakusu), right resolution (Grimm), right conception (Guenther), right directed thought (Harvey), right motives (Humphreys), right attitude (Kornfield), right attitude of mind (Stroup), right aspiration (Narasu), right mindedness (Nyanatiloka), right understanding (Watts); proper hopes (Edwardes); correct resolve (Kloppenborg), right resolving (Melamed), correct thinking (Scheepers)

Kind regards,
John Willemsens
Advayavada Foundation
@advayavada

Advayavada Study Plan – week 19

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Dear friends,

This week (19) we again honestly review and take stock of our personal situation.

The 1st step on the Noble Eightfold Path: samma-ditthi (samyag-dristi); in Advayavada: our very best comprehension or insight; right doctrine (Arnold), right view (Bahm, Bodhi, Ch’en, Gethin, Grimm, Guenther, Harvey, Horner, St Ruth, Takakusu, Watts), appropriate vision (Batchelor), right understanding (Burt, Dhammananda, Fernando, Humphreys, Keown, Kornfield, Narada, Nyanatiloka, Rahula, Saddhatissa, Stroup), right views (Conze, David-Neel, Dharmapala, Eliot, Malalasekera, Rhys Davids), right knowledge (Dharmapala, Khemo), right belief (Melamed, Narasu); proper views (Edwardes); correct insight (Kloppenborg), correct faith (Scheepers), right theory (Warder).

Kind regards,
John Willemsens
Advayavada Foundation
@advayavada

Advayavada Study Plan – week 18

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Dear friends,

This week (18) we again closely survey the 8fold path that eliminates the cause of suffering.

In Advayavada Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path is understood dynamically as an ongoing and fully autonomous, non-prescriptive, investigative and creative process of progressive insight, reflecting in human terms wondrous overall existence becoming over time, and is composed of (1) our very best (Pali: samma, Sanskrit: samyak) comprehension or insight followed by (2) our very best resolution or determination, (3) our very best enunciation or definition (of our intention), (4) our very best disposition or attitude, (5) our very best implementation or realization, (6) our very best effort or commitment, (7) our very best observation, reflection or evaluation and self-correction, and (8) our very best meditation or concentration towards an increasingly real experience of samadhi, which brings us to a yet better comprehension or insight, and so forth.

The Noble Eightfold Path in Advayavada Buddhism is fully personalized: it is firmly based on what we increasingly know about ourselves and our world, and trusting our own intentions, feelings and conscience. Adherence to the familiar Five Precepts (not to kill, not to steal, sexual restraint, not to lie, and refraining from alcohol and drugs) and a well-considered understanding of the Four Signs of Being and the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths suffice to start off on the Path at any time. Nirvana is, in Advayavada Buddhism, the total extinction of suffering as a result of our complete reconciliation with reality as it truly is.

Kind regards,
John Willemsens
Advayavada Foundation
@advayavada

Advayavada Study Plan – week 17

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Dear friends,

This week (17) we further deepen our understanding that ignorant craving is the real cause of suffering.

According to Advayavada Buddhism, it is indisputable that the Buddha did not believe in Brahman (God, transcendent and immutable Absolute) or in the atman or atta (soul, immortal self) and taught that man suffers because he does not understand and accept that all things in life are instead utterly changeable and transitory; if the Buddha had ever expressed belief in Brahman and the atman or atta, such a fact would have been unequivocally recorded in History. Man is prone to suffering (duhkha, dukkha) quite simply because he wrongly strives after and tries to hold on to things, concepts and situations which he believes to be permanent, but are not.

Man’s mistaken view of things is produced by a thirst or craving (called trishna in Sanskrit and tanha in Pali) which is in turn caused by his fundamental ignorance (avidya, avijja) of the true nature of reality. And this thirst or craving can easily take on a more unwholesome form: already as sensuous desire, ill-will, laziness, impatience or distrust will it seriously hinder any efforts to better his circumstances.

Kind regards,
John Willemsens
Advayavada Foundation
@advayavada

Advayavada Study Plan – week 16

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Dear friends,

This week (16) we again study the ubiquity of suffering (dukkha/duhkha) as thoroughly as possible.

duhkha (Skt.) undergoing suffering, sorrow; dissatisfaction; frustration, stress; pervasive unsatisfactoriness; gnawing unease; the existential distress nonliberated human beings are prone to, one of the three (in Advayavada Buddhism, four) signs or marks or basic facts of being (anitya, anatman, duhkha and pratipada); suffering in the sense of suffocation: ‘the state of the Infinite delusionally imprisoned in the finite, that manifests as human suffering’ (Kimura); in Advayavada Buddhism does not include emotional grief or physical pain; suffering is ‘not a permanent feature of reality’ and is ‘only admitted and entertained as a possible contingency in life as it is generally lived’ (B.C. Law); ‘basic frustration that reality does not conform to our innermost desires’ (Loy); the first noble truth.

Kind regards,
John Willemsens
Advayavada Foundation
@advayavada

Tao Te Tjing – vers 81

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Ware woorden zijn niet mooi;
mooie woorden zijn niet waar.
Een goed mens redetwist niet;
wie redetwist, is niet een goed mens.
Een wijs mens heeft weinig geleerdheid;
wie veel geleerdheid heeft, is niet een wijs mens.

De wijze vergaart niet voor zichzelf;
hoe meer hij voor anderen gebruikt,
hoe meer hij verkrijgt;
hoe meer hij aan anderen geeft,
hoe meer hij behoudt.
De Weg van de Hemel is anderen te begunstigen,
niet te schaden;
de weg van de wijze is te volbrengen
en niet te streven.

Tao Te Tjing – vers 80

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Moge het land klein blijven, met weinig mensen,
en zelfs als het een tienvoud of een
hondervoud aan gerei zou hebben,
dat het daar geen gebruik van maakt.
Mogen de mensen de dood ernstig opvatten
en niet ver van huis gaan.
Zelfs zouden er boten en wagens zijn,
dat ze die niet gebruiken;
zelfs zouden er harnassen en wapens zijn,
dat ze die niet tonen.
Mogen de mensen weer koorden knopen
en die in de plaats van schrift gebruiken.
Mogen ze van hun voedsel genieten,
hun kleding mooi maken,
tevreden met hun huizen zijn,
plezier beleven aan hun gebruiken.
En hoewel men de omliggende gemeenten ziet liggen
en men het kraaien van de hanen,
het blaffen van de honden kan horen,
mogen de mensen oud worden en sterven
zonder elkaar ooit te ontmoeten.

Tao Te Tjing – vers 79

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Vaak lijken oprechte woorden hun tegendeel;
wanneer je haat wil goedmaken, blijft er altijd haat achter;
dit kan nooit goed zijn.
Daarom houdt de wijze zich
aan het linkerdeel van een overeenkomst,
en beschuldigt de ander niet.
Deugdzame mensen waken over het linkerdeel
van een overeenkomst,
ondeugdzame mensen over de fouten van de ander.
Weet dat de Weg van de Hemel geen gunstelingen heeft;
hij is altijd bij de goeden.