Ajahn Thanissaro - the futility of attempting to use science to validate the Dhamma

"This is why science will never be able to pass valid judgment on the truths of Awakening, for the path deals in matters that outside experimenters can't reach. Although others may sympathize with your suffering, the suffering itself is an experience you can share with no one else. The honesty and skillfulness of your intentions is an affair of your internal dialogue, something that is also purely your own. Scientists can measure the neurological data indicating pain or intentional activity, but there's no external measurement for how the pain feels, or how honest your intentional dialogue may be. And as for the deathless, it has no physical correlates at all...." ~ Ajahn Thanissaro

Nun now teaches Buddhist psychology, once was body guard for Dalai Lama

by DEEPA BHARATH,OC Register, Sept. 18, 2015 Orange County, CA (USA) -- The Venerable Robina Courtin has led many lives. At 70 years old, she’s been a Buddhist, a Catholic, a musician, a political activist, a radical feminist, a martial arts expert, an advocate for prisoners and even one of the Dalai Lama’s personal bodyguards. A native of Melbourne, Australia, Courtin, who was ordained as a nun in 1977, now teaches people how to understand their own minds. On Friday, Courtin will speak at the Neighborhood Congregational Church in Laguna Beach on the subject of “Becoming Your Own Therapist.” Earlier this week she spoke with the Register about her life experiences and how people can access clarity and peace through the practice of focus and meditation, giving themselves the therapy they need. Q. What drew you to Buddhism?

How corporates co-opted the art of mindfulness to make us bear the unbearable

September 23, 2015 
Zoë Krupka PhD Student Faculty of Health Sciences, La Trobe University

Almost every person who walks through my practice doorway 
is anxious in some way. And so they should be. While their anxiety 
might be blasting messages at an overly high volume, the messages themselves are worth paying attention to: abusive relationships, significant losses and workplaces that have squeezed their personal, physical and spiritual lives into a corner too small for a hamster to 
burrow in.

Most come in hoping that the volume of their anxiety will be turned 
down, but many also hope that the messages themselves will go 
away. Like all of us, they want to find a way around having to 
take difficult action to change their lives. And for some of them, 
their hopes are pinned on our current corporatised misinterpretation 
of mindfulness. They’ve been sold on meditation as a simple way to 
bear the unbearable.

Going Forth as Monks & Nuns

' ... "There is the case, great king, where a Tathagata appears in the world, worthy and rightly self-awakened. He teaches the Dhamma admirable in its beginning, admirable in its middle, admirable in its end. He proclaims the holy life both in its particulars and in its essence, entirely perfect, surpassingly pure.

Buddhist pilgrimage

"These, Ananda, are the four places that a pious person should visit and look upon with feelings of reverence. And truly there will come to these places, Ananda, pious bhikkhus and bhikkhunis, laymen and laywomen, reflecting: 'Here the Tathagata was born! Here the Tathagata became fully enlightened in unsurpassed, supreme Enlightenment! Here the Tathagata set rolling the unexcelled Wheel of the Dhamma! Here the Tathagata passed away into the state of Nibbana in which no element of clinging remains!'

"And whoever, Ananda, should die on such a pilgrimage with his heart established in faith, at the breaking up of the body, after death, will be reborn in a realm of heavenly happiness." ~ Maha Parinibbana sutta

Doing Evil Knowingly and Unknowingly (Milindapañha: The Questions of King Milinda )

The king asked: "Venerable Nagasena, for whom is the greater demerit, one who knowingly does evil, or one who does evil unknowingly?"

The elder replied: "Indeed, your majesty, for him who does evil not knowing is the greater demerit."

"In that case, venerable Nagasena, would we doubly punish one who is our prince or king's chief minister who not knowing does evil?"

"What do you think, your majesty, who would get burned more, one who knowing picks up a hot iron ball, ablaze and glowing, or one who not knowing picks it up?"

"Indeed, venerable sir, he who not knowing picks it up would get burned more."

"Indeed, your majesty, in the same way the greater demerit is for him who does evil not knowing."

How to communicate like a Buddhist — mindfully and without judgment

By Cynthia Kane, The Washington Post, September 2, 2015 San Francisco, CA (USA) -- There’s a lot that used to frustrate me about communicating. Well, if I’m honest, it was that I didn’t know how to do it. I knew how to speak and string words together, but no one ever sat me down and taught me the purpose of communication or how to effectively express myself so I was heard and how to listen so I could understand. A lot of times it seemed that because I knew how to talk, that automatically meant I should know how to communicate. Let’s be honest, communicating effectively is hard to do, especially in heated situations. It’s difficult because rarely do we stop to pay attention to what we’re saying or the purpose of our communication. What I’ve found to help guide me on my quest is the Buddhist practice of mindfulness, specifically mindful communication. “Mindfulness means being present with what you are doing, while you are doing it, with a nonjudgmental attitude,” says Sarah McLean, director of McLean Meditation Institute in Sedona, Ariz. “Not only is mindfulness a formal practice of meditation, it can also be the way one is engaged in activity. It is real-time gentle, present-moment, nonjudgmental attention while walking, mindfully eating, mindfully showering, for example.”