The BSWA is delighted to present yet another workshop in the series on Early Buddhism. We will continue where we left off with the last workshop, which completed the noble eightfold path. This means we will focus on factors nine and ten of the tenfold path, that is, right knowledge and right liberation. This brings us to the very end of the Buddhist path of practice, including the fruits of that practice.
On the first two Saturdays of this series (8/7 and 15/7) we will cover right knowledge. Right knowledge emerges from right stillness and concerns seeing one’s personal experience according to reality. On the third Saturday (22/7) we will look at some of the common misconceptions concerning right knowledge and liberation. On the final Saturday (29/7) we will focus on right liberation, the freeing of the mind from entrapment in suffering.
This series consists of 4 workshops, conducted in two sessions.
Lesson Plan:
| Time | Plan |
| 08:30 – 10:15 | Session 1 (Live Streamed) |
| 10:15 – 12:00 | Lunch |
| 12:00 – 12:30 | Breakout Session |
| 12:30 – 14:30 | Session 2 (Live Streamed) |
General Reading:
- Ajahn Brahm, “Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond”, (Chapter 14, Nibbāna)
- Ajahn Brahmali, “Dependent Liberation”
- Ajahn Brahmali, “What the Nikāyas Say and Do not Say about Nibbāna”
- Bhikkhu Sunyo, “Viññāṇa Anidassana, The state of boundless consciousness”
- Gil Fronsdal, “From the Eightfold Path to the Tenfold Path”
- Prof. P.D. Premasiri, “Right Knowledge”
Workshop Series:
- Workshop 1 (Part 1 – 2 ) | 8 July 2023 | Ajahn Brahmali and Venerable Sunyo
- Workshop 2 (Part 3 – 4) | 15 July 2023 | Ajahn Brahmali and Venerable Sunyo
- Workshop 3 (Part 5 – 6) | 22 July 2023 | Ajahn Brahmali, Ajahn Sujato and Venerable Sunyo
- Workshop 4 (Part 5 – 6) | 29 July 2023 | Ajahn Brahmali, Ajahn Sujato and Venerable Sunyo
Workshop I (Part 1 – 2) | 8 July 2023 | Ajahn Brahmali and Venerable Sunyo
Right Knowledge 1
- Factor 9 and 10 of the tenfold path in context (AN 10.103)
- Dependent liberation (AN 10.2)
- Can you contemplate in the jhānas?
o No: reviewing and emerging from samādhi (AN 5.28, AN 9.35)
o Counter arguments (MN 51, MN 111) - Knowledge and conduct always go together
- Jhāna + right view > reviewing/contemplating/reflecting/observing/directing the mind > right knowledge.
Slides: Right knowledge part 1&2 (Workshop-1)
Part 1
Part 2
Workshop II (Part 3 – 4) | 15th July 2023 | Ajahn Brahmali and Venerable Sunyo
Right Knowledge 2
- What is right knowledge?
o Four noble truths (SN 56.1)
o Three characteristics
o Five aggregates (SN 22.56, SN 22.79)
o Six sense fields (SN 35.1)
o Dependent origination (SN 12.1)
o Threefold knowledge (AN 3.58) - Contemplating the five aggregates (MN 118, MN 64, MN 52).
Slides: Right knowledge part 3&4 (Workshop-2)
Part 1
Part 2
Workshop III (Part 5 – 6) | 22nd July 2023 | Ajahn Brahmali, Ajahn Sujato and Venerable Sunyo
Myths and Misconceptions
- Myth 1: Nibbāna is a kind of consciousness
- Myth 2: Nibbāna is kind of mind
- Myth 3: Extinguished fires keep existing
- Myth 4: The Buddha/arahants do not suffer
- Myth 5: Cessation is just annihilation
- Myth 6: Only the clinging aggregates are suffering, not the pure aggregates
- Myth 7: Nibbāna is “the unborn” thing, the “deathless” thing
- Myth 8: Nibbāna is a state or sphere.
Slides: Right knowledge part 5&6 (Workshop-3)
Part 1
Part 2
Workshop IV (Part 7 – 8) | 29th July 2023 | Ajahn Brahmali, Ajahn Sujato and Venerable Sunyo
Right Liberation
- Liberation from what exactly?
o Defilements
o Suffering = the five aggregates = existence
o Liberation in both respects - Liberation and Nibbāna (SN 23.1, SN 1.2)
- The meaning of “Nibbāna”
- The two types of Nibbāna (Iti 44, Thag 15.2)
o Nibbāna at enlightenment
o Nibbāna at passing away - Nature of Nibbāna
o Awakening vs. enlightenment
o Only potsherds being left (SN 12.51)
o All feelings become cool at the end of life (MN 140) - Anattā: no entity comes to an end, only suffering (MN 72, SN 22.85)
- Conceit and enlightenment (MN 140, Ud 1.10)
- To help others, aim for enlightenment yourself; get out of the mud (MN 8)
- Some say Nibbāna is cessation, others that it is a kind of eternalism; so how do we choose?
o We need to zoom out and take a bird’s eye view
o The safe bet: let go of as much as possible. “Nothing is worth holding on to” (MN 37)
o The view of cessation of existence is closer to non-clinging (MN 60) - What’s the purpose of extinguishment? (SN 23.1)
Slides: Right knowledge part 7&8 (Workshop-4)
Part 1
Part 2
Right Knowledge Right Liberation Workshop – Lesson Plan and Reading Materials
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