Dear friends,
I’ve re-enabled the comments. Hopefully the problem is resolved; if not, I will have to close them again until it is sorted.
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Sujato’s Blog 
I am sorry to hear this blog has been the victim of abuse. I wish serenity and wisdom to all involved parties.
Mostly, I would like to thank you for keeping this blog which I have only found today. I could not find any better avenue to do so than the comment section. I hope this will do. Special thanks also for writing about the Buddhist perspective on the climate change and the environment. It is very refreshing to be able to read a compassionate as well as educated opinion on such important matters.
Thanks, Alessandro.
Bhante, I am curious about what you think about Bhikkhu K. Nanananda’s books and his writings, particularly his interpretation of paticca samuppada as not involving time. I wonder if you could write something about what you think of his writings, if you’re familiar with them. There’s an interview with him here, where he says some intriguing things: http://www.dhammawiki.com/index.php?title=The_Heretic_Sage%2C_Part_1
(That interview is also available as an appendix to his Nibbana Sermons ebook with better fonts: http://books.nibbanam.com/epubs/nibbana_mind_stilled.pdf)
He agrees with Nagarjuna’s interpretation of sunyata (though he thinks later Mahayanikas went too far with it), and thinks Ven. Nanavira had some good ideas though it seems he doesn’t agree with Nanavira’s overall interpretation.
It turns out that Bhante Analayo is a fan. He says in an interview that he’s the one who helped Bhante Nanananda translate them to English: http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=18927
Hi Uttara,
I loved Concept and Reality as a young monk, and have read some of his later work, but I have not studied everything in detail. Generally, of course, I have a lot of sympathy for his approach, and agree with his—in fact fairly obvious—statement that we should neither blindly accept nor vehemently reject the commentaries. I also agree with your description of his take on Nagarjuna. Reading through the essay on the link you supplied, I can see why some might take him to be an idealist, but I agree that this would be an incorrect reading. So there’s lots of common ground to start with.
As for Dependent Origination not involving time, on the face of it this doesn’t appear right; akalika means “can be realized in this very life”, and Dependent Origination is obviously depicted as a process involving time. But I would not jump to any conclusion that I disagree with him on this point, since his ideas are subtle and easily mistaken.
Of course, one can slice through experience and see all of the factors present at once. There’s nothing particularly mysterious about this, I don’t know why so many people seem confused by it. It’s no different than any process involving time, such as, say, evolution. It takes time for creatures to evolve, yet at any one time we can see many different creatures from different “eras”, and we can see the evidence in many ways of the biological changes they have been through, and we can see the same forces operating right now. We look at the present and understand the past. But as I said, I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions re Ven Nanananda’s views on this topic without having first studied them more carefully.
Voices of reason, independence, and commitment to the Dhamma such as his are rare and precious in the world, and I hope we see more like him emerge. He follows a generation of brilliant minds in Sri Lanka that largely shaped how Buddhism was received in the West. But he is the last Sri Lankan Buddhist teacher whose ideas have been influential outside of the island. Unless we encourage and respect our iconoclasts, we will end up with a Dhamma that grows ever more stale, and suitable only for mass-production, dogmatic arrogance, and nationalist propoganda.
Hi
Sorry about being off the topic. My question is regarding Suttacentral.net
From Russia and Ukraine direct connection to the site is impossible, browser returns a message that the domain could not be found, that’s regardless of ISP i connect through.
Is this intentional and if so, what is the reason?
If not, do you plan to resolve this problem and how soon?
cheers
Hi Баян Купи-ка,
First of all, can I have a name that I can call you? My Russian is non existent!
We certainly don’t have a policy to restrict access to SuttaCentral to any country. So thanks for letting us know about the problem. Can I ask you to help us fix it? If you could keep trying to access the site and let us know the results that would be fantastic. I’ll contact you via email to chat about this.
Meanwhile, try our development site, which, although not fully functional, mostly works: staging.suttacentral.net. Perhaps that might be better.