The Religious Tradition
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 6 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘The Evidence Bases in Religion, Science and Politics,’ and explores how a Wisdom or Religious tradition comes about. It follows on from The Scientific Tradition. The Wisdom tradition But what about a Wisdom tradition such as Buddhism? Here the authors [of The Embodied Mind] draw upon the philosophical tradition of Phenomenology, in particular the work of Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The Greek word logos traditionally means ‘word, thought, principle, or speech’ and has been used among both philosophers and theologians, and the word phenomenon—which because it comes from the Greek phainomenon, from the verb phainesthai, meaning “to appear, become visible”—means ‘appearance’ and so the word Phenomenology can be glossed; ‘what you can say about the phenomena of experience / what appears to be in the world, (by implication) if you set aside speculative theories, for instance theories about whether you and the world exist, whether there are “real objects” out there.’ Martin Heidegger’s’ answer was ‘you appear in the world as if thrown here’ and the appropriate response to your existential situation was ‘care;’ you should look after yourselves and your world (Heidegger has a critique of technological excess that is very pertinent today). Phenomenology ‘pushes us back onto our experience’, and the authors call this experience ‘first-person experience’ or ‘first-person evidence;’ because it is only accessible to a first person (to an ‘I;’ to oneself). This is relevant today: Critical Race Theory and proponents of Woke assume that all white people are racist. Obviously, it is possible to tell whether someone is racist from their words and actions, but beyond that, such a realization can only come from self-knowledge and awareness: in other words, from a first-person perspective. The only person who can truly know for certain whether they are racist is the person themselves: as they are the sole person with access to their inner world. And what they do with that knowledge is their business: this is how conscience works. In Buddhism, for true confession to take place, the practitioner must see their failing for themselves; any person hearing a confession is only witness to an inner process. Confession therefore is a ‘first-person to first-person’ matter, just as a preceptor witnesses a Buddhist ordinand’s effective going for refuge to the Three Jewels. Varela [co-author of The Embodied Mind] went on the create a new field; Neurophenomenology, bringing together neuroscience—including the scientific study of brainwaves of meditating monks—with first-person reports of meditative experience. I explored these ideas in a Shabda[1] article entitled ‘Consciousness and...
Buddhists in Silicon Valley
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 12 minute read Check out this fascinating 7-minute excerpt from the chapter ‘Transhumanism and Alienation,’ which explores the connection between Buddhism and Silicon Valley, including the concepts of ‘Buddhism-lite’ and Wisdom 2.0. Are you concerned about the dilution of Buddhism in a secular context? This excerpt is a must-read. Buddhists in Silicon Valley Emma Grey Ellis, in her WIRED review[1] of Dan Zigmond’s book Buddha’s Office–Dan is a Facebook (and Microsoft, Instagram, YouTube, and Google) alum, data analyst and Zen priest[2]–spells out the strong connection between Buddhism and Silicon Valley. ‘In Silicon Valley, you are always an iPhone’s throw from a Buddhist. Some of them will have arrived at their Buddhism the usual way—family, culture—but a fair few will have adopted it later in life, as a piece of their adult identity. Even if they’re not checking the “Buddhist” box on the census, you’ll know them by their Zen meditation retreats, their references to ‘the Middle Way’, their wealth … of Steve Jobs trivia. Did you know that Steve Jobs was a Buddhist who studied under Zen priest Kobun Chino Otogawa and once wandered India in search of a guru? Did you know Jobs swiped Apple’s famous “Think different” slogan from the Dalai Lama? Did you know Buddhism and tech companies have a grand historical ‘synergy’?[3] When I moved to California from the East Coast, I did not. After living and working in San Francisco for a few years, I see Buddha everywhere.’ Wisdom 2.0 ‘Every February or thereabouts, representatives from tech companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter and PayPal gather in San Francisco for Wisdom 2.0, a conference that aims to unite mindfulness with technology.’[4] ‘Over the course of several days, high-profile digerati interact with spiritual luminaries like Eckhart Tolle, Jon Kabat-Zinn and Joan Halifax, to explore topics such as ‘mindful management,’ ‘conscious leadership,’ and ‘wisdom in the workplace’ through speeches, dialogues, and group sessions.’[5] In a 2014 article called The selective awareness of Wisdom 2.0, Darrin Drda asks whether in taking an ancient practice, removing it from its context, stripping away its ethical imperatives and selling it for a profit, ‘Is the goal of the corporate mindfulness movement to comfort the already comfortable?’[6] By 2001, Slavoj Zizek had already pointed out a link between Western Buddhism and late capitalism: ‘Marxist philosopher Slavoj Yizek has long argued that “Western Buddhism,” as he calls it, is an ideal palliative for the stresses of life under late capitalism—their “perfect ideological supplement.” ‘“It enables you to fully participate in the frantic pace of the capitalist game,” Žižek explains in a 2001 essay...
The Metta Bhavana
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 9 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘Buddhist Practice’ and it explores the metta bhavana meditation practice in its practical aspect. It follows on from ‘Day-to-day mindfulness.’ The Metta Bhavana I want to move on now to the Metta Bhavana: the ‘root’ meditation in a set of four called the Brahmaviharas or ‘divine abodes.’ Metta is Pali for ‘Universal Loving Kindness’ and bhavana means cultivation.’ I explored the principles behind the emotion in Chapter 1; and in ‘Kindness as Constructive Imagination.’ It is worth reiterating that metta is an emotion and that the practice consists in whatever creative action will systematically bring that emotion about. It doesn’t matter, for instance, that we care about or are sincere in our wish to develop loving kindness: this may be no more than virtue-signalling (to ourselves and others) what a good person we would like to be. No, what matters is that we are effective in our practice and come to actually care what happens to ourselves and every ‘other’ in a real, powerfully passionate and robust way. The method doesn’t really matter: it is all about trying out different things until something works. There are, therefore, a few common methods that people tend to use to stimulate the emotion: Reciting the phrases: May I be well; May I be happy; May I be free from suffering; May I make progress’ and waiting for an appropriate response Imagining the person at their best; or during a happy time, and wishing on them a similar experience today Using imagery: such as imagining a flower opening in our heart; or a warm colour, symbolizing love, flooding the world And, based the idea explicated in ‘Kindness as Constructive Imagination:’ that our emotional response to a person in conditioned by our view of what they are, I suggest a further method: Aligning our view of each person with what they actually are: a living being, with hopes and fears, who is sensitive to their experience, who wants to be happy and not to suffer Structured practice or ‘radiation method’ There are two basic ways to do the practice: the structured practice in five stages or the ‘radiation method.’ In the former loving kindness is cultivated firstly towards oneself; then towards a good friend; a neutral person; a person we find difficult; and in the final stage we extend it out to encompass more and more living beings. In the radiation method we simply radiate it out to living beings in all directions. Here then are instructions for the practice of...
Mental Proliferation (Papanca)
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 10 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘Augmentative Conditionality; The Spiral Path‘ and it follows on from an exploration of the early stages of that path. Mindfulness of mind As well as cultivating the appropriate creative emotional response to feeling, the monk works the other aspects of his mind so that they too conduce to skilfulness; he trains his attention to be sharp and ever present. And through reflecting on the veracity of his thoughts, he trains them to be in line with reality and thus to fostering universal well-being. Thought and reflection In the Dvedavitakka Sutta the Buddha says; ‘Whatever a monk keeps pursuing[1] with his thinking and reflecting, that becomes the inclination of his mental states and emotions (his citta)’[2] We probably all recognize that the more we reflect upon an idea, the more that thought becomes a habit: the Buddha warned the Kalama people against adopting ideas just because: They have heard them repeatedly They have been handed down in a tradition or lineage Of hearsay They see a scripture as authority Of sophistry or logical inference Of prolonged consideration Of getting carried away by a view they identify with [alternatively, ‘nor on indulgence in the pleasure of speculation’] Someone made a plausible impression on them [alternatively, ‘nor on (something that) looks plausible’] They have respect for a certain spiritual teacher[3] He taught instead that only when they know in their hearts that an idea leads to well-being and not to suffering should they adopt it: the list above indicates that the reason why we adopt one idea over another is often more down to habit, emotion or association than to such conscious examination. Vitakka and vicara Two Buddhist terms are in common use which are associated with thought: vitakka (Pali; Sanskrit: vitarka) and vicara (Pali and Sanskrit.) Opinions differ as to how best to translate them: many suggest ‘thinking of’ and ‘thinking about’ respectively. In my own view, they are best translated as ‘opining’ (in the sense of holding an opinion) and ‘reflecting’[4] (however, as they also refer to responses to imagery, in this case they might be rendered ‘visioning’ and ‘imagining’.) Some, like Leigh Brasington,’[5] argue that the terms are synonymous in that they both mean ‘thinking: I think this reasoning is lazy; some argue that in the first dhyana each is only concerned with attention,[6] but there is good reason to think otherwise: the most cogent explanation is that vitakka represents the capacity of the mind to turn towards a view (the Pali vi- means ‘split or...
Day-to-day mindfulness
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 4 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘Buddhist Practice’ and it explores day-to-day mindfulness. It follows on from ‘Mindfulness of Breathing: focus on detail.’ Day-to-day mindfulness The Mindfulness of Breathing develop awareness within the most conducive conditions; that mindfulness can then be applied to our day-to-day activities. In terms of mindfulness of the body we need to try and preserve the principles we learned in the Grounding Meditation, by attending to the state of our body and looking after it as we go about our daily business. Our body needs to be a vehicle that we are looking after, that will thus support our mind and emotions in their activity to bring about happiness. It is helpful if we are mindful of our body as we go about in the world, by moving in a way in which our spine is balanced and takes our weight as we move, and by minimizing the amount of muscular tension employed in our bodily activities. Our bodily use would be inspired by ideas developed by F. M. Alexander in the Alexander Technique; ideally, we would retrain ourselves to move naturally, as children and animals do, with grace and poise; at the very least, we would look after our body through regular trips to the gym or through taking Epsom salt baths. Other aspects of day-to-day mindfulness might include organizing our lives better so that for instance we know where we have left our car keys, as outlined in Maitreyabandhu’s Life with Full Attention. In general, any mental action or remembrance that helps us avoid unnecessary suffering is an aspect of day-to-day mindfulness. Certainly, it can help our mind feel more secure, and thus reduce mental suffering, when we ‘spell out’ to ourselves our situation; where we are, what we are doing, how we are feeling, and so on. This activity of ‘noting’ is a key tool in Theravada Buddhist meditation where the practitioner endeavours to make everything more conscious and it certainly has its use, although it does not cover every aspect of practice. In day-to-day mindfulness there is a sense in which we need to be appreciating our surroundings for the experience they have to offer, as illustrated in the ‘raisin exercise’ commonly used in week one of a secular mindfulness course. We come out of automatic pilot and consciously experience what is in front of our noses, thus maximizing the pleasure of sensory experience, though not at the expense of other sources of happiness–for ourselves or others. Mindfulness of the body’s posture and physical movement The monk...
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