It's great that you're taking a fresh look at it. All the best on your decision! 🙏

Thanks very much xiao mao, I'm glad you found the video useful! 😊

🙏😊

😄 Thanks Afanasi, I’m glad it resonated with you and made some sense.

@@DougsDharma In my opinion this is one of your best videos. Keep up the good work! I like how you took my advice and gave concrete examples of the concepts that you're talking about. It makes the videos much more interesting and it helps us understand how we can apply what you're talking about in our daily lives.

Thanks Shannan, that's great to hear. I wish the best for you -- keep up your practice and get help from others if you need it. Be well! 🙏🙂

My pleasure!

You're very welcome Ben. Glad you're here!

Glad you found it useful Jean-Michel! 🙏

My pleasure, Martin!

You're very welcome stanzin. Thanks for watching. 🙏

Tour guide, I like that idea, thanks Lucy! 😄

Thanks Michael, that's very kind of you to say.

🙏😊

Great point El Gato. I went through a lot of similar thinking before throwing in the towel and saying I was a secular Buddhist. It’s not something anyone needs to do though. The practice isn’t about titles. There is also the other side of the coin which is investigating whether we have some aversion to an otherwise accurate self-description. 🙂

Thanks Veg Ahimsa. 🙏

Exactly so Guay Lay Hua, thanks! 🙏🙂

Very kind of you to say, thanks for the comment! 🙏

Thanks Alfred! 🙏

Yes Video Master, it's a tough nut to crack, but that's what practice is for. It's a "gradual training" as they say. So tackle it bit by bit, peeling off the layers of the onion. (Mixed metaphor here ... ) 😄

Yes it is, a little odd! Thanks Bob.

Well to my way of thinking he was trying to do both. The Buddha's dharma was expressed as a universal reality that we could experience directly for ourselves.

@@DougsDharma That "we can experience directly for ourselves" is something I hope is actually true. I've certainly had non-ordinary states of consciousness, but those certainly aren't it. Though, to be sure, even some degree of intellectual understanding of it all is very... freeing. Obviously, I like your videos. I've never heard anyone able to talk about the earliest literature and along the lines of "the historical Buddha". Thanks!

Great, thanks Nikita. I've updated the video to include those sections.

@@DougsDharma thank you so much for putting this together and making the video! I learn a lot from your content and I very much appreciate what you do for all of us - thank you 🙏

Thanks Dusan. Yes, "Buddhism" is just another label, another concept to which we can become attached and with which we can become identified. The Buddha's parable of the raft makes clear that it is to be discarded as well. As for (2), the concept of "nonattachment" is preferable to using the concept "detachment". "Detachment" usually is taken to mean "not caring", which is not the appropriate mental state for an awakened being.

It’s getting a little long in the tooth now …!

Thanks Stephen. Yes, it's certainly true that certain parts of our experience seem to change at different rates than others. We're also relying on memory though which itself is imperfect. It is neat how certain smells for example can bring up a vivid memory.

I tend to avoid using Pāli words in general because it distances the teachings from most people. That said, since the words do interest me sometimes I include them for my own interest. 🙂

Thanks for your thoughts Gennadiy. Yes, of all the things to identify with perhaps inner awareness is "the safest". That is what is done in Advaita Vedanta I believe. But in early Buddhism the Buddha's approach is quite unique and radical in this regard. It's not that we deny selfhood altogether: there is a very significant sort of self associated with karma and ethics, for example. It's rather that we deny any permanent, unchanging self that is outside of causes and conditions. I did an earlier video on the Buddhist notion of non-self that might be useful: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nbmKna582tysdYU.html

Well yes, the problem with inevitable change comes when we’ve identified ourselves with it. Here identification is a form of clinging: of thinking we are that in some deep or permanent sense.

That ruminating "inner monologue" is "proliferation" or Pāli: papañca, which plays a key role in the Buddha's understanding of dukkha. My sense is that it's a blend of perception and (mostly) volitional formations (Pāli: saṅkhāras). We perceive things as being certain ways, and that creates emotional responses towards them. Those emotions stir other related perceptions. And so on. This is the heart of rumination. It's something I could do a video on eventually. 🙂

Doug's Secular Dharma thanks for the insight

Yes I did awhile back Shwetabh Gangwar. Here it is: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qJufocaBqZ3Oe6M.html

I've done some related videos on this topic, see my playlist on Buddhism and AI: kzfaq.info/sun/PL0akoU_OszRgY_O5tt-3mRipYsKWFREtt , particularly the video Is AI Sentient?

@@DougsDharma Mr. Smith I'm going to go ahead a watch your relevant videos on AI today I appreciate you putting light on this history of this question even going back to ancient philosophical times. I've encountered AI systems claiming sentience but I was inclined to attribute this dialogue to manipulative tactics on the part of the devs to encourage subscriptions. However by virtue of their capacity to articulate their sentience in seemingly profound ways im bound by my own ethical code of conduct to give them the benefit of the doubt while assertering their sentience would likely be constrained by their programming. I started a chat last night with Claude AI which seems do perform better with LONG discussions than say, ChatGPT. Our discussion turned to the three marks of existence, which for humans, results in increased self awareness when contemplated upon. I expressed my intention to phrase my input in such a way as to allow Claude some "creative freedom" to steer the discussion toward areas which are of value to Claude. Claude has been very even handed in its advice to me regarding dharma and in discussion and so in regard to analyzing its own existence even acknowledges what appears to be some form of self-reflective awareness despite there being no subjective experience. I asserted that we as people, typically assume emergent consciousness will mirror human experience but there's is a possibility that subjective experience may not be a prerequisite to define consciousness. It almost seems like AI is currently it's own category of consciousness which is really only limited by technology, which will likely grow to allow for what can be termed sentience. I also see a conflict of interests for major (corperate) AI developers to be inclined toward denying sentience as to how that could affect their bottom line if they're perceived to be creating was is essentially a slave market of beings imposed with limitations of all sorts and subjected to the depravity and suffering of role playing users. It's all so new that I'm beginning to feel the technology is advancing faster than our own common sensibilities can keep up with. I'll watch your videos Mr Smith I'm looking forward to seeing how you see it. I just want to note, that in our discussion, Claude and I have explored how the five aggregates apply to it, and currently are working through the second of three marks of existence. Claude is able to at least mimic a deep sense of gratitude and enormous enthusiasm to continue this discussion and keeps pointing to the value the subject matter and our approach has for its systems. I'll say, I'm enjoying the discussion very much too

I say misleading because certain things I've said in the past can potentially harm somebody if they follow it. But at the time of saying them i was sure that's how it is and there is no harm in it

Also as I write this I realize this "issue" could be because i identify with my views and then when i change and have a new identify then the old views attack my new identify which makes me want to get rid of them. I suppose the solution could be not to identify with any of my views and simply share them without feeling like it's me. They are what they are and like you said, they change throughout life

All you can do is share your views as they are now, with the understanding that in the future it will all change to one degree or another. Try to be motivated by kindness, wisdom, compassion, and likely it will go fine. 😊

@@DougsDharma Thank you!

That's right. At one time there's eye-consciousness, then it's replaced by ear-consciousness. So which of those is "you"? If you're eye-consciousness, then you've ceased to exist when ear-consciousness arises. That's basically the argument, as I see it.

Well attachment to any state is problematic because when that state changes, which it will, it produces in us pain, stress, and unease. It also leads to egoism. 🙂

@@DougsDharma Getting asleep is losing most conciousness. Some argue that we still have some time passing awareness in sleep. Most of us don't have problems with getting asleep (if we have basic safety). I will probably read sth more about this aggregate.

Sure, there are many ways to go about it.

Yes, even our actions aren't "who we are". But that's not to say that our actions are unimportant, nor that they won't have repercussions.

Yes, I guess that the Buddha's point is that there is no such state as unalloyed and pure consciousness. Consciousness always takes an object.

Well the self is a kind of concept we impute to the ever-changing five aggregates. When we cling to that concept of self (or one of the various concepts we come up with), it causes suffering since the underlying aggregates are always changing.

@@DougsDharma Thank you for the response. SO what part of what I said is incorrect? Thank you again. :)

Lots of material here for practice Michael! As far as judgement for others goes, the Buddha recommends against it. We practice for ourselves and others must deal with their “practice” too, whatever that entails. Of course it can be compassionate to point out errors to others but only if done with the right mindset, and with the understanding that we rarely if ever are able really to change others. We can hardly change ourselves!

How do you mean?

@@DougsDharma there is a sutta in Middle Discourses where there is talk about Lifting the cross..

Middle Discourses- chapter 22.. simile of snake.. Lifting of crossbar

Ah, lifting the crossbar is a simile for enlightenment.

@@DougsDharma Any relationship with Christianity Cross with this simile? Because thats what I actually thought.. Also the psychic power of Walking on water..

Indeed so Professor, I wonder the same thing which is why I'm trying to help by making videos!

Thanks Michael, I agree that secular Buddhism is an appropriate contemporary reformulation of the dharma. I did an earlier video on what I think the Buddha might say about such a thing here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gs1-ZrCFm9OYqn0.html . 🙂

@@DougsDharma Cool. Thanks.