[Buddha-l] Re: there he goes again (sam harris)

[Mitchell Ginsberg]

Hello Joy and Richard and all, 
On Friday 27 October 2006 22:46, Joy Vriens wrote:
Don't those "picking up" the "practice" of "the four
foundations of
mindfulness" believe (for lack of a more appropriate
word) that it is 
the only way for the purification of beings, for the
overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the
destruction of suffering and grief, for reaching the
right path, for the attainment of Nibbana?

I am not famliar with this a general belief (or
assumption, etc.), that the four applications (or
foundations) of mindfulness are taken to be the only
way for .... Well, there is a translation of part of
the beginning passages in the Satipatthana Sutta that
suggests this, so perhaps some people who read that
and believe what they read (there) come to hold that
position. 
I don't recall ever discussing this in the context of
30+ years of teaching vipassana meditation (in Thai
Buddhist tradition, as in Dhiravamsa's work) with
someone who made that claim, though. I don't think
this is a sign of pre-senility. 
So I would suspect that it is not always held, and
probably rarely held. 
The term ekaayano ("one path" or "one going")
generally is understood and explained as meaning in
goes in one direction only, in the sense that if you
follow it you will go toward one thing, unlike, say, a
path that forks and has several endpoints depending on
which forks are chosen. This is a non-forking path, so
to speak. There are a variety
of features of this one path that make it "one" but
this is at least the start of that fuller
investigation. 
If I may ask a question in reply, your question begins
"Don't they..." and I wonder what the background (or
subtext?) is here. Is there a criticism waiting in the
wings if this is answered with the Yes that is
implied? I can't tell. What would that be about I find
myself asking. 
Best wishes, Joy, 
Mitchell/Jinavamsa

====================
See http://www.geocities.com/jinavamsa/mentalhealth.html with links 
to my home page, to info on The Inner Palace (4th ed.) & on The Far 
Shore (3rd ed.), & with further links to psychotherapy, to my current 
teaching, & to the Insight Practice (Vipassana), Chishtiyya (Sufi), 
Creative Solutions for Peace, & Nasrudin discussion groups.


 
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