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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.
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.
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.
AI Summary
Buddhist Book Reviews for Smarties by L. Ron Gardner Gardner presents key insights from the Advaita Vedanta tradition. The 10 passages above capture the essential teachings.
Core Themes:
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Key Passages: Highlights 1, 3, and 10 are particularly representative.
This entry was generated from Readwise highlights. Expand with additional context as appropriate.