(Advaita and non-dual approaches compared to Theravada)
CHAPTER ONE Pali and Theravada Buddhism, Vipassana and Mindfulness A Guide to Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation (Bhante Vimalaramsi and David C. Johnson)
“Another blend of Buddhism is a new age meditation style called Advaita and is based on thousands year old Vedanta practices. It is a Hindu-based ‘non-dual’ or a ‘philosophy of oneness’ practice. Famous proponents of this are Ramana Maharshi, Eckhart Tolle, and Adyashanti. The practice focuses on observing whatever arises in the present moment and not trying to control or analyze. Just allowing what is there and letting mind tranquilize and go deeper and follow it down to a level of oneness.’ This practice can be quite useful to a point. It certainly turns your practice to observing rather than ‘trying’ too hard to achieve a certain state or experience. You simply allow what is there, even to the point of inquiring ‘who is meditating’ and ‘what are you trying to achieve?’ This is the first step of letting go of the ‘controller.’ Adyashanti describes it as instead of controlling the meditation you ‘let go of the meditator!’ As one gets deeper and mind’s activity slows, it is explained you will eventually see the underlying ‘essence’ or ‘spirit’ referred to by Tolle as ‘the sacred’ or you will come to a state of ‘oneness,’ unchanging and blissful.
(The Heart-center, Stream, and the anatomy of awakening)
Anyone with a true experience of Nibbana would describe it as the Buddha did—as the Heart-release, which is the release, or unbinding, of citta (the true “mind,” or Mind, which is not a skandha, and which must be differentiated from vinnana and manas). The Four Jhanas are about the progressive descent of the Stream, or Sambhogakaya, into the true “base,” which is the Heart, or Tathagatagarbha (experienced via the Heart-center locus, located two-digits to the right of center of one’s chest). As the “base,” or Heart, begins to loosen, this precipitates the experiences of the Four Formless Attainments (or so-called higher, formless jhanas): the base of Infinite Space, the base of Infinite Consciousness, the base of Nothingness, and the base of Neither Perception nor Non-Perception.
(Critiques of neuroscience-based and secular Buddhism)
Buddha’s Brain (Rick Hanson) Hodgepodge Buddhist Pablum [My 1-star review of Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom by Rick Hanson.]
The authors briefly mention Spirit in the book, but instead of properly identifying it as the Bliss Body (Sambhogakaya), which flows into and out of the Heart-center, they improperly apotheosize the brain as the conduit to spiritual fulfillment.
The authors display their lack of depth when they write, “A reasonable working hypothesis is that the mind is what the brain does.” Anyone with any insight into esoteric spirituality knows this is hogwash. The seed tendencies (samskaras) of one’s thoughts are stored in one’s soul (located two digits to the right of the center of one’s chest, relative to the body). Hindus call this causal-body Heart-center “Hridayam” (distinct from the anahata heart chakra), and in Buddhism this Heart-Mind center is referred to as the “Tathagatagarbha.” The samskaras, or karmic seed tendencies, concatenate in the soul, and “sprout” as vasanas (impulses and desires) that “crystallize” in the brain as thoughts-forms.
“At some point, we all ask the same question” Who am I? And no one really knows the answer.” This is nonsense. As Maharshi and the Hindus make clear, one’s true identity, the Self (or Buddha-nature) is Sat-Cit-Ananda (Being-Consciousness-Bliss). The authors identify “taking refuge in the ground of being” as “an essential practice in the path of awakening,” but they don’t explain what this means. And if they knew what it means (little chance of that!), they would have to identify Being as ConsciousnessEnergy that intersects the meditator in the Heart-center, where the mind is undone, or transcended at its root, by Consciousness-Energy (or Heart-Shakti).
To summarize: This book is the very bottom of the Buddhist barrel. In fact, it is so putrid, it has rotted/fallen through the bottom of the barrel and is on its way down to Buddhist Hell, where it will be summarily disposed of in the Raging Fire of Eternal Samsara. All I can say is: good riddance!
Although I’m a huge fan of Rand’s Objectivism (see my five-star review of her Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology), as is Rosenberg, the problem with
Objectivists is that they are allergic to mysticism and thus incapable of differentiating mystical hokum from esoteric spirituality, the reality of which they reject. Although some Objectivists, such as Rosenberg, gravitate to Buddhism because they perceive it as atheistic, scientific, and non-mystical, in truth, it is none of these. Rather, it is ultra-mystical, pointing its adherents to an ineffable Reality that the Buddha termed Nirvana. But Rosenberg, a smug, flat intellectual, reduces Buddhism to his own shrunken level of understanding, and the result in this book is a perversion of genuine Buddhadharma.
There can be no attainment of Nirvana without the jhanas, but Rosenberg not only doesn’t understand this, he doesn’t even understand Nirvana, which he mistakenly conflates with Satori. Moreover, the cognoscenti can only laugh at those such as Rosenberg and Hagen, who, pathetically, reduce Enlightenment to “seeing things as they are.” Rosenberg’s descriptions of meditation reflect his own limited experience and development. And the fact that his own practice employs a mantra and visualization reveals the beginner’s level he is at. I have no problem with spiritual neophytes, but when they assume the role of a pontificating teacher, as he does, it raises my hackles.
The Buddha did not teach dissolution of the self. He taught that no Self could be found in the Five Skandhas (or Aggregates). The Buddha would laugh at anyone “smuggling” self-esteem into his Dharma, and renaming it Dark Buddhism.
Analayo briefly considers satipatthana as “choiceless awareness,” but in contrast to the originator of the term, J. Krishnamurti, who presents it exclusive of an overlay of superfluous reductive contemplations, he (from my perspective) indulges in unnecessary complexification of the practice. He also employs the term “breakthrough,” but doesn’t grok what it really means, which is “cutting through spiritual materialism” to get to Spirit itself, which, unbeknownst to him, is the “Stream” that a “Stream-Winner” conducts into the Heart-center in order to attain what the Buddha called the “Heart-release,” which is tantamount to “cutting the Heart-knot” in Hindu Yoga.
(Jhanas as states of infused contemplation, not technique)
Focused and Fearless (Shaila Catherine) A Jhana Joke Book [My 2-star review of Focused and Fearless: A Meditator’s Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity by Shaila Catherine.]
The author’s ignorance and slipshod writing are made evident early in the book, when she describes the jhanas as “sublime states of mental absorption.” They are states of spiritual absorption, not mental ones. The author, laughably, reduces the jhanas to a simple system, rather than, properly, identifying them as progressive states of infused contemplation, engendered only by Initiation into the Stream (the Sambhogakaya, or Holy Spirit).
Unbeknownst to the author, the jhanas are not a “system,” but rather a progression of four (not eight) mystical states that are realized only by Grace, or Shaktipat, meaning the descent of Divine (Blessing) Power. The author’s descriptions of the jhanas are florid and flaccid. Here’s an example (of the first jhana): “The vibrational feeling of delight can be thrilling: intense ripples, waves, and excitement pervade the body. Tremendous energy is unleashed. The mind is keenly alert and focused, not drawn into the diverse range of sensory perceptions. Staying unified within a field of pure delight, this energy generates more focused energy, which further intensifies the distilling process of mind.”
“One of the fundamental instructions my teacher H.W.L. Poonja gave was to ‘follow the Ithought back to its source and stay there.’ Catch the I-thought and trace it to its root. Where did it arise? Where does it cease? What is its basis and support? Follow the ‘I-thought’ back and you will rest at ease—at home.” The author never specifies what “home” means, or where it is in relation to the body. It means the Heart-center (Hridayam, or Tathagatagarbha), and it is experienced two digits to the right of the center of one’s chest. When the spurious, self-contracting, Ithoughts are obviated, the true ‘I,’ the transcendental Self (or Buddha-Nature), shines forth (via the Heart-center) as the Heart, meaning awakened Mind, or pure Bright
(Heart-release and the equivalence of Buddhist and Hindu realization)
In the Buddha’s Words (Bhikku Bodhi) A Voluminous Collection of the Buddha’s Teachings [My 4-star review of In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon by Bhikku Bodhi.]
Anybody who journeys deep into the Buddha’s teachings knows that the Buddha denigrated women, labeling them stupid and full of passion and envy.
This is a serious omission, because the severing of the Heart-knot in Hindu yoga is concomitant with Self-realization; and astute metaphysicians would realize that the Heart-release that accompanies Buddhist Nirvana (the end of becoming) is no different than the Heart-cutting associated with Hindu Self-realization (permanent abidance in Being). For sheer quantity of the Buddha’s words, this volume cannot be beat, but in terms of quality, I rate it behind F.L. Woodward’s Some Sayings of the Buddha: According to the Pali Canon,” easily my favorite original Buddhism text.
(Stream-entry, bliss as permanent, and what Ingram misses)
Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha (Daniel Ingram) “Hardcore,” Not “Deepcore,” Buddhism [My 3-star review of Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book by Daniel Ingram.] A fan of my Amazon reviews (which include numerous reviews of Buddhism books) sent me this spiritual text to review, because he (mistakenly) thought it might be on the level of Sri Ramana Maharshi’s and Adi Da’s Teachings.
Daniel Ingram, like me, has read tons of books across the Great Traditions and acquired boatloads of basic spiritual knowledge, but unlike me, he has not “cracked the cosmic code” and put it all together.
Ingram writes, “The first point is that about impermanence. Bliss, peace, happiness, as well as their counterparts pain, chaos, and misery, are all transient phenomena, subject to conditions, arising and passing like the weather.” Unbeknownst to Ingram, Bliss and peace are not “transient phenomena” for an EnLight-ened Buddha; they are unbroken experiences. Once the Heart-knot is severed (Gautama called this the “Heart-release”) and the Stream, or Dharmamegha (or Dharma Cloud), or Sambhogakaya (the Blissing/Blessing Light-Energy Body), “unites with” (or subsumes) the Alaya-vijnana in the Tathagatagarbha (tantamount to Hridayam in Hinduism), then the now-Awakened Buddha morphs into a Blessed One, meaning that he unbrokenly receives/conducts/radiates uncreated, hence nonphenomenal, Divine Blessing/Blissing Power.
Brahm also has a propensity for contradictions. For instance, he writes, “Thus in jhana not only is there no sense of time, but also there is no comprehension of what is going on.” But elsewhere he writes, “[Jhanas] are easy to recall with perfect retention. One comprehends the details of what happened in the jhana and one knows which of the jhanas it was.”
(Nirvana as permanent fourth jhana and the Self the Buddha did not deny)
Mindfulness in Plain English (Bhante Gunaratana) Vipassana Mind, Beginner’s Mind [My 4-star review of Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana.] I first read this book about twenty years, and because it was a beginner’s book while I was already a veteran meditator (who had taught Vipassana along with other meditation methods), it held little appeal for me.
I say that when the Heart-knot is cut by the Stream (which the Buddha called attaining “the Heart-release”), then Nirvana ensues, which is the fourth jhana (tantamount to Hindu yogic Turiya) made permanent, effortless, and unbroken (which is equivalent to Hindu yogic Turiyatita, or Sahaj Samadhi).
Some Sayings of the Buddha (F.L. Woodward) The Best Book of Buddha’s Teachings [My 5-star review of Some Sayings of the Buddha: According to the Pali Canon by F.L. Woodward. (Note: At the time I wrote this review I had not read Thanissaro Bhikku’s Wings to Awakening (see my 5-star review), which complements Some Sayings of the Buddha because it elegantly describes what the latter doesn’t: the Buddha’s teachings on Right Contemplation. Hence, while Some Sayings of the Buddha has the best version of the Buddha’s mindfulness (samma-sati) teachings, Wings to Awakening probably has the best on the Buddha’s jhana (samma-samadhi) teachings.]
and that Buddhist Nirvana (“the end of becoming”) is equivalent to the Hindu Self-realized State of Sahaj Samadhi (natural, effortless Awareness, or Being-ness).
There can be no En-Light-enment, no attainment of Nirvana, without becoming a Stream-winner and experiencing the jhanas, the profound samadhis (states of contemplative absorption) described by the Buddha.
Like Goenka, they mistakenly conflate the term “concentration” with “samadhi,” and misrepresent the Buddha’s Anatta teaching, wrongly insisting that it negates the reality of the Self. The Buddha did not deny the reality of the Self, the true, transcendental “I.” He simply taught that no Self could be found in the Five Skandhas (Grasping Groups).
When Goenka writes, “Having explored body and mind to the deepest level, one sees that there is no immutable core, no essence that remains independent of the processes, the laws of impermanence,” he displays his spiritual ignorance. A Stream-winner who seeks (and finds) wherefrom “I” thoughts arise will find the real “I,” the Self (or Buddha, or Christ).
(Evola on Pali Buddhism, tapas, and the warrior path)
The Doctrine of Awakening (Julius Evola) Deep-Core Pali Buddhism [My 4-star review of The Doctrine of Awakening: The Attainment of Self-Mastery According to Early Buddhist Texts by Julius Evola.] This is the second Julius Evola (1898-1974) book I have read (and reviewed), and I found it much better than the first, The Hermetic Tradition (see my two-star review).
At the beginning of the book, Evola sets the tone for this text by defining the term “ascesis” (asceticism) as really meaning “tapas,” which means “to be hot” or “to glow,” pertaining to “the idea of an intensive concentration, of glowing, almost of fire.”
Modern, politically correct Buddhism books ignore the Buddha’s damning assessment of both the common crowd (“heaps of rubbish”) and women (“insatiable with respect two things: sex and motherhood”), but not Evola, who also shoots down the common idea of the Buddha as a pacifist. The Buddha, a member of the warrior caste, likened spiritual life to warfare, and Evola, an unabashed fan of the Ariyan warrior mentality, repeatedly quotes the Buddha, so as to emphasize the theme of sadhana as warfare. Here are a couple of the quotes: “Summon the will, arm the spirit, bravely struggle, fight, do battle.” “Better to die fighting than to live as one vanquished.”
The dry path is the path of Vipassana and Jnana Yoga (the practice of neti-neti), and the wet path is that of “irradiant contemplations,” of being “bathed with inner bathing” which results in “limitless redemption of the mind.”
Evola depicts Nirvana as “beyond being and becoming.” Unbeknownst to Evola, Nirvana is not beyond Being; it is Being, and this Be-ing is equivalent to Hindu Sat-Cit-Ananda.
The Experience of Samadhi (Richard Shankman) Best of a Bad Bunch [My 3-star review of The Experience of Samadhi: An In-depth Exploration of Buddhist Meditation by Richard Shankman.]
For example, Shankman (just a single time) describes samadhi as the mind “resting in the current of nonclinging,” but he doesn’t explain what this means. There is no current of nonclinging. There is, however, a continuous current of spiritual energy (the Stream, or Sambhogakaya, or Shakti), which a Stream-winner awakens to in Samadhi—but Shankman has nothing to say about this.
(Nirvana as Being, not mere present-moment living)
The Heart of Buddha’s Teachings (Thich Nhat Hanh) An Overrated Text by an Overrated Teacher [My 3-star review of The Heart of Buddha’s Teachings: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation by Thich Nhat Hanh.] When I review a book, I like to get a feel for the author, his karma and leitmotif. As an ex-professional astrologer, I simply look in my Ephemeris, and I’ve quickly got the person pegged.
Anyway, here’s my definition of Nirvana: the end of becoming, which equals Being (ConsciousnessEnergy). And the ground (or womb) of Being—where Nirvana is realized—is in the Tathagatagarba (the Heart-center, which, in an advanced yogi, is “felt” just to the right of the center of one’s chest), where the outflow of the samskaras (the psychical seed tendencies that ordinarily “crystallize” into thought-forms in the brain) are irradiated (and thus rendered “dried up,” or “impotent”) by the inpouring Divine Light-Energy, the Sambhogakaya (the Spirit Body), which unites with the immanent Dharmakaya (the Reality Body, Awareness Itself) in the Heart-center, effecting what the Buddha called the “Heart-release,” Nirvana. Jesus taught the same thing as Buddha. He said to worship God in Truth (the Dharmakaya) and Spirit (the Sambhogakaya) in order to awaken to the Kingdom of Heaven within (Nirvana).
To summarize: Thich Nhat Hanh is a great man whom I deeply admire, but I cannot, in good conscience, give this book more than three stars; it just isn’t that good.
“The whole point of Buddhism may be summarized as living in the present.” Wrong. The whole point of Buddhism is entering Nirvana, the Unmanifest.
(The wings to awakening and the fourth jhana’s radiant awareness)
The Wings to Awakening (Thanissaro Bhikku) A Buddhadharma Bargain [My 5-star review of The Wings to Awakening: An Anthology from the Pali Canon by Thanissaro Bhikku.] Several months ago, in my
“And what is painful practice with quick intuition? There is the case where a certain individual is normally of an intensely passionate… aversive… deluded nature. He perpetually experiences pain & distress born of delusion. His five faculties… are present in an acute form. Because of their acuity, he attains quickly the immediacy that leads to the ending of the effluents. This is called painful practice with quick intuition.” (As this excerpt makes clear, the state of “immediacy,” living in the Now, can quickly be attained even by a very passionate, deluded individual. The important implication is that one does not have to first become “pure” in order to Be.)
The similes used to illustrate the various levels of jhana repeatedly make mention of ‘expansion,’ ‘suffusing,’ ‘stretching,’ and ‘filling,’ culminating in the fourth [and final] jhana where one’s body is filled with a bright sense of awareness… What remains is simply a sense of the mind itself, corresponding to the level of the fourth jhana, in which the body is filled from head to toe with a single sense of bright, radiant awareness.”