Bhante Bodhidhamma - Oxford Gaia House - Part 4

Bhante Bodhidhamma started training in Soto Zen in 1977, then in the Mahasi Theravada Tradition with Sayadaws U Rewata Dhamma, U Janaka and U Pandita. In 1986 he ordained, subsequently spending eight years at Kanduboda Mahasi Meditation Centre in Sri Lanka. He has been teaching in Europe and the USA since 1998. From 2001 - 2005, he was the Resident Teacher at Gaia House. He founded Satipanya Buddhist Retreat in Wales: http://www.satipanya.org.uk

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• Bhante
• Bodhidhamma
• Mahasi
• Vipassana
• Insight
• Meditation
• Gaia
• House

[Kensho79]

@Fraterculae Hope these responses clarify what I was trying to say in my previous posts regarding your initial comment here. Your subsequent posts bring up additional questions, excellent ones, that would be worth exploring. I'd like to attempt to answer them but space limitations make it difficult to do here. If you'd like to discuss them though feel free to message me directly through the site. I find the dialogue helpful. You make some good points and I'd like to explore them more fully.

[Kensho79]

When you mentioned you should have listened to your fear because it would have been the wiser response, Buddhist teachings would be in agreement with this conclusion because it would view this fear as an outcropping of your wisdom. And Buddhism values wisdom highly. The Buddhist approach is not to discount your wisdom by thinking "it's only in my own mind"

[Kensho79]

In particular what I was "countering" was the common misperception that Buddhism does not permit one to perceive of another as violent, or threatening, or potentially dangerous. People that hold this view will opt to block out such thoughts when they come up or reject them as being "unspiritual" or lacking in compassion. They will ignore their wisdom that is alerting them to a threat and instead think "compassionate" thoughts. Wisdom should not be ignored but used *along with* compassion.

[Kensho79]

@Fraterculae Hey, thanks for replying :) I wanted to say that I didn't mean to come across as a know-it-all or anything like that. Sorry if it came off that way. Based on how I interpreted what you were saying it seemed you were holding an idea of Buddhism that I too used to hold and through later learning found to not be the case, based on talking with quite a few teachers over the past 7 years or so. Just wanted to share my understanding, for what it's worth - hopefully helpful.

[Fraterculae]

@Kensho79 Many people have the potential to rape or kill.. you can sense it near them .. or can you? .. how to distinguish what is in another from what is ones own fear is important .. and ultimately when one is in a subtle state of mind there is no real distinction between minds. When the speaker here says 'no-one makes you feel fear, it is your own fear .. hmmm .. I dont exactly know how to take that.

[Fraterculae]

@Kensho79 this seems a very subtle distinction between supramundane and mundane wisdom. Rape and violence are as old as humanity. I dont know if it is mundane or not. I dont know if this person attacked me at a mundane or profound level or at which level i should or should not have reacted with fear. Since the attack my fear was out of control for years , because my body had been so injured and it has reflexes which are hard to access ..

[Fraterculae]

@Kensho79 thankyou , hmm this is interesting and feels important to me .. the idea that 'no-one makes you feel fear' .. well i took that to be true.. so in all situations i stayed calm and simply dealt with the situation through calm awareness. Someone then tried to scare me and as i didn't scare he pushed this further. By the tine i realised i should feel fear it was too late. Once my body was badly damaged it absolutely had to feel fear of its own accord. I went into shock basically.

[Kensho79]

would have been in accord with Buddhist doctrine (as I understand it) as the actions would have been initiated with the compassionate intent to alleviate suffering. Compassion is not *just* for others, neither is loving-kindness :) something I didn't learn till years into my involvement with Buddhism! The talk given here is not easy to generalize to other situations, such as the one you went through, without easily misinterpreting what is meant. Hope my explanation has helped! ~ with metta ~

[Kensho79]

In dependence upon this intelligence (of a threat) fear arose, quite naturally. However, another aspect of your personality chose to dismiss this intelligence and instead opt for a false equanimity. The equanimity aimed for in Buddhist practice is not one that comes about through force of will or suppression of emotions. Compassion is for the suffering of others *and* oneself. Acting to alleviate your own suffering in this situation via screaming, running, fighting, resisting, etc.

[Kensho79]

@Fraterculae Though I don't know which particular part of the video you disagree with it seems there's a misunderstanding so I'd like to chime in. Pañña/Prajna (wisdom) is of two forms. There's supramundane "world transcending" wisdom that is born of insight via vipassana but there is also mundane wisdom, wisdom of "this world" In this context it could also be thought of as intelligence. Your intuitive intelligence knew that this man was a threat and a danger.