Diggin' the Dharma – Details, episodes & analysis

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This week is a special episode, recorded thanks to Ajahn Kovilo and Ajahn Nisabho at Clear Mountain Monastery. Our conversation touched on themes Secular Buddhism vs Traditional Buddhism, the sacred, belief in rebirth, saddhā (faith), Mundane Right View vs Transcendent Right View, attachment to views, and much more!

Clear Mountain Monastery will release a video of this discussion on their YouTube channel in December.

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It's Halloween as Jon and Doug record their episode, so the discussion is about the supernatural beings in Buddhism, their history, how they reflect our own inner and outer states, and how we can practice with them. 

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These are difficult times, and our practice can be a true refuge and an opportunity to recharge.  However, it’s also possible for meditation to become a means of escaping or bypassing what’s happening in the world or our personal experiences.  Ideally,  true refuge recharges us and increases our capacity to face the world and with what Bhikkhu Bodhi calls “conscientious compassion.”  Jon and Doug have a lively discussion about how our practice supports us in these times.

Link to Bhikkhu Bodhi's Commentary on Protecting Human Dignity and the Threat of Moral Nihilism: https://www.lionsroar.com/commentary-protecting-human-dignity-from-the-threat-of-moral-nihilism/

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In our final podcast of 2022 we'll take another look at embodied meditation, following a retreat that Jon was just on.  As a special gift, Jon will lead us on a wonderful guided meditation illustrating how seeing this embodiment can work in our practice.

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Jon has just got back from a long retreat, so we discuss his experiences, as well as offering a few book recommendations for the holidays and New Year. Go to our website for titles and some links!

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Is our "Diggin' the Dharma" logo a problem? Doug and Jon react to some recent comments on a thread at Doug's YouTube channel that expressed the concern that the logo was offensive in depicting the Buddha with a shovel.   It's an opportunity to look at the teachings of "rites and rituals" as well as the concept of spiritual materialism.

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"Yet it is just within this fathom-long body, endowed with perception and cognition, that I declare that there is the world, the origination of the world, the cessation of the world, and the path of practice leading to the cessation of the world.”  In this quote from the Rohitassa sutta  the Buddha addresses the knowing  body.  All that we know  and experience is in this body.  
So embodied practice is not the practice of cognitive understanding (though this is important) but rather a result of our direct experience.   Embodied practice is when our actions are a result of  heartfelt wisdom.  Where the rubber meets the road.
Doug and Jon discuss what is meant by embodiment and how do we know when we know.

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As we head out of the week of Thanksgiving we consider eating and food in the context of early Buddhist practices.   For those of who are used to eating three meals a day--a very western European way-- the notion of eating on the early Buddhist monastic schedule  of one basic meal a day before noon would seem rather strange if not impossible to hold to.  Of course, we don't go out for alms rounds to obtain our food and our daily schedules are quite different.   There is also the question of our attitude toward food and eating.    In this episode Doug and Jon explore eating as a practice and how meditation and Buddhism impacts (or not!) their food habits.

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For our listeners in the US, we are beginning Thanksgiving week. It's a perfect time to consider gratitude and how it integrates into our lives.  And if you're not in the US it's still a good time!  

As always, thank you all for listening, and for your continued support!

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Perception is one of the Five Aggregates of Clinging and critical to our understanding of self and the world we live in.   It is through mindfulness and our meditation practice that we start to see through the trap of our own perceptions.  We don't see things as they are, we things as we are" (attributed to Anais Nin).

Bhante Gunaratana's book is: Meditation on Perception.

Sutta:
https://suttacentral.net/an10.60/en/sujato 

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