POPULARITY
This is a reading of a talk given to a group of lay practitioners on the topic of samadhi at Hampstead Vihara, London in the late 1970s. It is designed to be listened to as a guided meditation. The Pali/Sanskrit word samādhi, usually translated as “concentration,” is made up of three parts, a verbal root and two prefixes (sam+ā+dhi). The last part, dhi, is a noun form derived from the verbal root dhā, meaning “to put or place.” The prefix ā gives direction and suggests “placing upon,” and the prefix sam means “gathering or bringing together.” When combined and used in a Buddhist context, these elements add up to the sense of “unifying the mind and placing its awareness upon a particular object.” Traditional sources also emphasize that the mind focuses on a single (eka) point (agga), and “one-pointedness” (Pali, ekaggatā; Skt. ekāgratā) is another common way of defining samādhi (Andrew Olendzki). Ajahn Chah was a Thai Buddhist monk and meditation Master. He was an influential teacher of the Buddhadhamma and a founder of two major monasteries in the Thai Forest Tradition. He was reputed to be an Arahant.
Reading a Pali sutta: the Bamboo Acrobat. Text used: Sedaka Sutta: The Bamboo Acrobat, translated by Andrew Olendzki.
Andrew Olendzki is a Buddhist scholar of the Pali canon, the original, authentic teachings of the Buddha that have been passed down for centuries. He even speaks Pali, the ancient Indian language the Buddha spoke and taught in. Olendzki started the Integrated Dharma Institute as a way to bring these teachings to the masses.
The destructiveness of ill-will, towards others and towards oneself. Texts quoted: Karaniya Metta Sutta: The Buddha's Words on Loving-Kindness (Sn 1.8), translated from the Pali by The Amaravati Sangha. Access to Insight (Legacy Edition), 2 November 2013, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.1.08.amar.html . Commentary on words and phrases by Andrew Olendzki http://www.dharmanet.org/coursesM/18/mettasutta6.htm Happiness by Matthieu Ricard.
Benevolence -- how to wish well. The actual instructions on metta bhavana. Texts quoted: Karaniya Metta Sutta: The Buddha's Words on Loving-Kindness (Sn 1.8), translated from the Pali by The Amaravati Sangha. Access to Insight (Legacy Edition), 2 November 2013, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.1.08.amar.html . Commentary on words and phrases by Andrew Olendzki http://www.dharmanet.org/coursesM/18/mettasutta6.htm
More on frugality. Guarding the six sense-doors and mastering oneself. Metta and service. Texts quoted: Karaniya Metta Sutta: The Buddha's Words on Loving-Kindness (Sn 1.8), translated from the Pali by The Amaravati Sangha. Access to Insight (Legacy Edition), 2 November 2013, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.1.08.amar.html . Commentary on words and phrases by Andrew Olendzki http://www.dharmanet.org/coursesM/18/mettasutta6.htm
In this panel, Grace Jill Schireson, Melissa Blacker, Robert Caper, Andrew Olendzki, Stuart A. Pizer, Shinzen Young, and Polly Young-Eisendrath discuss human freedom. Presented by Enlightening Conversations, "Enlightenment: Idealized or Real" is the second program in a series in which psychoanalysts and Buddhist teachers speak openly and honestly about the nitty-gritty of human liberation.