Diggin' the Dharma
Diggin' the Dharma with Jon Aaron and Doug Smith is a relaxed discussion of the Buddhist dharma between friends. Jon's interest centers around practice, while Doug's centers around scholarship of the early material, so their approaches balance practice with study. Their discussions will be approachable to a broad audience of Buddhists and those curious about Buddhism, and they welcome questions and comments. Jon is a teacher at Space2Meditate and NY Insight Meditation Center and a well known teacher and trainer of teachers of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. Doug has a PhD in Philosophy and runs Doug's Dharma on YouTube...
Gladdening the Mind
The actual instruction to "gladden" the mind is sdd in the Anapanasati (Mindfulness of In and Out Breathing) Sutta, in the third tetrad about the Mind.
What is the Buddha asking us to do here? Jon and Doug discuss what it means to gladden the mind in Buddhist practice, why it's important and how we can practice with this instruction.
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Letting Go Is Hard to Do
The second noble truth addresses the cause of Dukkha (suffering) as our nature to cling to our desires (or push away that which we don't want). The opposite of this is letting go. Ajahn Chah, the venerable Thai forest monk and teacher to many of today's wonderful teachers-- would say often:
Letting go a little brings a little peace. Letting go a lot brings a lot of peace. Letting go completely brings complete peace.
And yet, letting go, is not always easy! Jon and Doug discuss this.
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Go...
Practice as Refuge and Recharge
These are difficult times, and our practice can be a true refuge and an opportunity to recharge. However, it’s also possible for meditation to become a means of escaping or bypassing what’s happening in the world or our personal experiences. Ideally, true refuge recharges us and increases our capacity to face the world and with what Bhikkhu Bodhi calls “conscientious compassion.” Jon and Doug have a lively discussion about how our practice supports us in these times.
Link to Bhikkhu Bodhi's Commentary on Protecting Human Dignity and the Threat of Moral Nihilism: https://www...
Practicing Acceptance
Jon and Doug discuss the Buddhist practice of acceptance. How would the Buddha have framed it? How can we work with acceptance today, and how might an attitude of acceptance make our lives better?
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Guarding the Sense Doors and Practicing with Social Media
The Buddha taught that guarding the sense doors is an essential part of practice. Of course, social media didn’t exist 2500 years ago. These days it’s so easy to get caught in the vortex of social media. Jon and Doug discuss how they guard (or not) the sense doors in the current media reality.
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The Role of Faith or Confidence in Our Practice
Jon and Doug discuss the role of faith or confidence in Buddhist practice, how it can be useful and also how it can be misused.
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Silence and Solitude
Silence and solitude are two forms of Buddhist practice of great depth, but also some difficulty for many. Jon and Doug discuss how they appear in the early texts, and how we can practice with them today.
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Finding Joy Through Practice
Joy is an essential aspect of Buddhist practice. And boy do we need joy right now! Jon and Doug discuss how joy can arise for us, and what attitudes and practices can help joy to arise.
Jon's Talk on Joy for Tricycle
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Pilgrimage and Spiritual Seekers
Jon has been on pilgrimage in India over the last few weeks. He reports in about all he's been experiencing at various Buddhist and other sites.
Links:
Jon's blog posts: JonAaron.net/musings
Where Are You Going: Ajahn Sucitto and Nick Scott https://whereareyougoing.podbean.com/
Doug's video: King Asoka: Buddhism's Great Political Modernist -- https://youtu.be/V4894Ug8Y3c
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It's About Time in Buddhism
How do we perceive time, and what can we learn from Buddhist teachings about it? How do we frame the past and the future, not to mention the present? Jon and Doug discuss this topic, inspired by the fact that Jon is currently in India, which is 9.5 hours ahead of the East Coast of the U.S., where Doug is.
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Dharma Chat with Stephen Fulder-- Practicing in Challenging Times
Jon and Doug have a wide-ranging chat with the dharma teacher and peace activitist, Stephen Fulder, founder of Tovana, the Israel Insight Society. We discuss his work in Israel and his new book, How to Thrive in Hard Times.
You can find his book here on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/How-Thrive-Hard-Times-Buddhist/dp/1915672740/
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Refuge in Practice: Self or Sangha?
What is the role of community in our practice? The sangha is one of the traditional three refuges or jewels of Buddhism. The Buddha also advised at the end of his life to hold the self as our island and refuge, with the dharma as our island and refuge. Jon and Doug discuss how we reconcile these ideals.
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Investigation, Energy, and Joy
Three key aspects of the seven enlightenment factors are investigation, energy, and joy. What are they, and how can we touch them in our practice?
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Conscious of Consciousness
The final aggregate in the set of five is consciousness. What is meant by consciousness/ As an aggregate of clinging, when does it get in the way?
Jon and Doug discuss.
Doug's Video:
The Problem(s) of Consciousness -- https://youtu.be/W1Pn65QZiZs
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Sankharas, What Are They? Volitional Formations/Constructions/etc.?
In Buddhism the root of karmic action is in sankharas, a word with many uses in the dharma. As we practice, we can see the sankharas taking shape and then realize we have choices. But even the choices are related to other sankharas and the "wow' of this mind.
Jon and Doug discuss them and how we can view their role in our lives.
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Bringing Our Practice to an Unwanted Outcome
Two days after the US Election, Doug and Jon discuss how they are handling the results. They also discuss how our practice can support us as we look to the future political landscape in the US and the world.
Jon offered this poem by Rilke as a support:
Let This Darkness be a Belltower
Rainer Maria Rilke
Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,
what b...
Talkin' 'bout feeling (Vedana)
Feeling tone, the pleasure or pain we take in experience, is a central part of dharma. As an aggregate, a foundation of mindfulness, a link in the chain of dependent origination, appreciating, understanding, and directly experiencing Vedana is a key to experiencing freedom.
Jon and Doug have a lively discussion on this topic.
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The Aggregate of Form: Body and World
Doug and Jon continue to explore the Five Aggregates of Clinging (to self) and this week explore Form. How do we cling to form and at what point, does this clinging become suffering? Are doesn't it?
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"Things Aren't as the Seem , Nor are they Otherwise*"-- Perception and Mis-Perception
Jon and Doug discuss perception and how it's mediated by past experience and the stories we tell. How does it become misperception? How can we work with our perception to live more skillfully and fully?
*this quote is attributed to the Roman poet Phaedrus but it is often used by various Zen teachers
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The Fetter of Conceit
How does our concept of ourselves and others create suffering? What would it be like to soften this "conceit of self". Understanding and seeing through this conceit, is the last of the higher fetters, which needs to the released before awakening.
Jon and Doug discuss how this comes up in practice.
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Disenchantment: It's not really what it sounds like, or is it?
The Buddhist attitude of "nibbidā" or "disenchantment"/"disgust" is central to the early teaching. What is it and how can it help us navigate our lives? Jon and Doug discuss.
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A Buddhist View on Forgiveness
Doug and Jon discuss what forgiveness means in the contact of Buddhism. Is it Buddhist? It's a powerful and important practice but it doesn't seem to appear anywhere in the teachings.
Information on the Class offered by Jon:
Watering the Seeds of Forgiveness
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The Buddha in the Voting Booth 2024
Doug has Covid, Jon has a bad microphone, but they're chatting about the Buddha and voting anyway, as well as Buddhist practice and voting. What does 2024 bring for us in the voting booth, and how should we frame our political choices?
To register to vote, and check voter registration in the US:
https://vote.gov/
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Is Meditation Dangerous?
A recent podcast series at the Financial Times discussed serious problems several meditators have had at one popular ten-day Vipassana retreat system. Jon and Doug discuss this and some important work by Brown psychology professor Dr. Willoughby Britton.
Links:
The Retreat — an investigative podcast into the perils of meditation [Financial Times] -- https://www.ft.com/content/b3ec8e57-5cf9-4f96-9267-56c3bcd9c102
The Hidden Risks of Meditation — Dr. Willoughby Britton | The Tim Ferriss Show — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdmvoX1RZWA
Cheetah House: Help for Medita...
Renunciation
With Jon's impending move to Chicago Jon and Doug discuss the beneficial practice of renunciation. What do we really need?
Video: George Carlin talks about "stuff" -- https://youtu.be/MvgN5gCuLac
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The Value of Silence
Silence is so important to Buddhist practice. Jon and Doug discuss how silence impacts practice as well as some of the early tradition around silence.
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Experiencing Art and Entertainment in the Context of the Dharma
How do we bring our Buddhist practice into our relationship with the arts and entertainment? The early Buddhist teachings, in particular, seem to look askance at this area of life. Doug and Jon discuss this interesting topic and how they integrate practice into their own interests in the arts.
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The Bodhisattva Ideal
The Bodhisattva ideal really blossomed in the Mahayana traditions but the idea of the Bodhisattva was certainly present in the earlier traditions. Perhaps not in name but certainly in expression. When the Buddha spoke about himself before his Enlightenment, he referred to himself as a Bodhisattva. And, of course, the fact that he taught for 40 years after his Awakening points to his desire to awaken all beings. But how is the ideal expressed in us?
Two papers:
Bhikkhu Anālayo, Genesis of the Bodhisattva Ideal — https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/analayo/genesis-bodhisattva.pdf
Bhikkhu...
Steps Along the Path: The Four Stages of Progress
Stream-entry, once returning, non-returning, and arahantship are the traditional four stages of progress along the Buddhist path. What do they mean? Are they historical? Are they necessary for us to know about? Jon and Doug dive into this topic, which always raises questions about the value and the pitfalls.
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How We Become a Self
The Buddha described humanity as tangled like string, knotted like a ball of thread. This tangle is a result of not seeing clearly the dependent co-arising— paticca-samupadda-- of phenomena. This is one of the most important of the early teachings. It can be seen through the lens of individual dissatisfaction and of course, through social, political and cultural dissatisfaction.
Doug and Jon explore the teaching and how we bring it into our practice.
Dhivan Thomas Jones's book: This Being, That Becomes
Videos:
Playlist on dependent origination at Doug's Dharma: https://www.youtube.com/pla...
The Heart Quality Equanimity
Equanimity- Upekkha has an important place in many of the key Buddhist teachings. It's the fourth of the Divine Abodes, the seventh Factor of Awakening, the last step of the 16 Step teaching in the Mindfulness of Breathing and in the 10th of the Parami- the Perfections of the Heart. Doug and Jon discuss the various facets of this important quality.
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Letting Go Again: The Unquenchable Thirst
How can we work with our thirst for clinging and identification that seems unquenchable? We will discuss various aspect of letting go related to desire and thirst.
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More on Letting Go
We can't let go of letting go so we continue discussion from the prior episode.
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Insights into Insight , and a New Platform
What is Insight (Vipassana) practice? Doug and Jon discuss its origins and how it orients our approach to the dharma. They also discuss some exciting potential developments with livestreaming the podcast.
Book:
Erik Braun, The Birth of Insight
Our new YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8HnYof8CejuOkLsr86EjRQ
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Is Your Livelihood Right Livelihood?
Right Livelihood is one of the factors of the Buddha's Eightfold Noble Path. Of course, times have changed in the last 2500 years, so what does this mean today? Doug and Jon look at the teaching and do some head-scratching over certain parts of it.
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The Question of Internal, External and Both.
The refrain in the teaching on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness refers to contemplating internally, externally, and internally and externally. Jon and Doug talk about how they receive that part of the teaching, which doesn't appear in any obvious way in other suttas but is actually a very important part of mindfulness.
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Freedom and Free Will
What is free will? Do we have free will? What does it mean to be free, and what does this have to do with our ethical and karmic responsibility?
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Truthfulness and Authenticity
Truthfulness is one of the Paramis or perfections of the heart. In this episode we dig into what it means to not only be factually true but how the truth finds expression in appropriate ways-- both in our external and internal speech.
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The Nature of Buddha Nature
Buddha Nature: what is it and how is it a controversial concept in some understandings? Jon and Doug discuss this as well as concepts and words generally.
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Moving Beyond Craving and Clinging
The second noble points to the cause of dukkha—craving and clinging. It's also related to the uncertainty of life and the desire for it to be otherwise. Sometimes, the wisdom we gain, even after years of practice, seems to vanish when confronted with the inevitable change. Our discussion was sparked by Jon's pending move to Chicago and the dukkha this has manifested.
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