A new essay on the meaning of "yoniso manasikara" available here: www.hillsidehermitage.org/bhikkhu-anighas-writings/

Wonderful thank you so much 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

thank you for all your wisdom, my practice has deepened greatly because of all of you

Excellent talk, thank you, Venerables. When it comes to dealing with other people’s less than stellar behavior, it came to mind something I took for granted: that they also must deal with their present and latent ignorance, desire, aversion, and delusion. They are suffering at the moment of their unwholesome behavior the way I suffer when I behave unwholesomely. Change, illness, death, existence in general, is hard for everyone, not just ME. At least I have some refuge in the Dhamma. (And therefore, I have no excuse other than the fact that it’s a gradual training) Not sure, but I don’t think this general way of considering others is psychologizing or dwelling in the content of the situation, whatever it may be. Regardless, actions initiated by hate toward the senses, I noticed, just breeds more hate and guilt- even for the smallest acts of impatience - especially toward other people. The guilt is heavy. You seem to be the only ones currently teaching about pathiga toward the senses that I’ve seen. Very appreciative!

Sadhu sadhu sadhu

I marathon Hillside H everyday at work and it has worked wonders for my Dhamma practice and understanding

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Cat

Thank you for the teachings, Bhante. I must confess that I have become somewhat dissatisfied with your insistence on what I perceive as a kind of black-and-white thinking, and which can even be in detriment to practitioners: that only the context matters and there is absolutely no use for the contents of experience in the practice, in relation to the path. I have benefited immensely from your teachings on the context, the meaning, that which is always in the background of the contents, and I get it that this is by default overlooked and that some teachings, instead of uncovering it actually conceal it even more. Your insistence here is very much welcomed. But to take it so far as to systematically insist over and over that there is absolutely no use for contents of experience in the practice (in terms of the path, not just in a psychological sense), I think is to deny the possibility of skillful use of the contents (thoughts, for example) in the progress of the path. The thing is, phenomenologically, you cannot have content without context, but the inverse is also true: there is no context without content. Your teachings seem to imply that it is a one-way thing: you have to work with the context and by doing so the contents will gradually move from (say) ill will to non-ill will, and any practice that directly address the contents is invariably misguided and a waste of time. But this ignores the basic phenomenological fact just stated: content also affects context. They are co-dependent phenomena and both perspectives can be put into use for the benefit of the practice. So, in this context (no pun intended), a mantra then doesn't have to be a mechanical repetition of something without any understanding; there is awareness that we are manipulating the content to aid in the development and reinforcement of the desired context. For example, related to the practice of Metta, I can begin by discerning the context of my current situation, let that endure to be sure that there is no greed or aversion towards my experience. Then, with mindfulness established, I can eventually start to bring up thoughts of goodwill as a way to cultivate the wholesome states. The Buddha was the foremost behaviorist when he said: 'Whatever you frequently think and ponder upon, that will become the inclination of your mind'. With Metta.

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