Hardcore dharma--straight out of 1945

Greetings.
I thought the KFD crowd might be interested in this Buddhist Geeks mag article I did on the first translation available in the West of Mahasi Sayadaw's two-volume Manual of Insight. To me, the interesting wrinkle here is that the senior vipassana teacher behind this translation effort had as a specific goal introducing the Progress of Insight to a wider audience of practitioners. Also noteworthy is that some of the founders of Western vipassana ended up agreeing with him that there is a big downside to not teaching people the states and stages of the path. A bit of anti-mushroom push-back, yo.
Enjoy!
www.buddhistgeeks.com/2010/04/the-practi...a-of-mahasi-sayadaw/

Great, thanks.

It wasn't clear, on reading the article, when this book is due out? Will it be available online too?

"It wasn't clear, on reading the article, when this book is due out? Will it be available online too?"

Steve hasn't yet started shopping it around to publishers, so I guess it's not yet clear when it will be published. I'll e-mail him and ask whether he plans to make it available online if no big American publisher picks it up.

Thanks Joel, that was an interesting and inspiring article.

edit: spelling. sorry Joel

Thanks Joel! Awesome article, can't wait to read the entire text when it is published. Soo excited to get into the gritty details as explained by a master. The stuff I have skimmed by him on Google Books seems like brief explanations of the territory. I am sure that with 2 Volumes we will get some great material... Keep us posted...

Edit: Sorry had to change name from Jeff to Joel lol

"Thanks Jeff! Awesome article, can't wait to read the entire text when it is published. Soo excited to get into the gritty details as explained by a master. The stuff I have skimmed by him on Google Books seems like brief explanations of the territory. I am sure that with 2 Volumes we will get some great material... Keep us posted... "

Yeah, it will be neat to see if Wisdom or a major house publishes this. Thanks for the kind words.
For the record, someone called me Jeff once--once!
(It's Joel)
LOL!

Joel: what do you think is a good definition of "hardcore" dharma. Is it simply anit-mushroom or is there more to it?

"Joel: what do you think is a good definition of "hardcore" dharma. Is it simply anit-mushroom or is there more to it? "

I'll admit my little subject line for this thread was a bit tongue-in-cheek. But I think of it as anti-mushroom, meaning it's practice-focused, keeps psychology in proper perspective, and doesn't heed the "we're all the same, don't talk about progress" type of attitude.
Another funny headline possibility: "1945: the year hardcore dharma broke" (Anybody remember that Sonic Youth line?)

"I'll admit my little subject line for this thread was a bit tongue-in-cheek. But I think of it as anti-mushroom, meaning it's practice-focused, keeps psychology in proper perspective, and doesn't heed the "we're all the same, don't talk about progress" type of attitude."

I just re-read this last night and thought "Man, I wish I would have gone to sit with Steve Armstrong when he was in Seattle a couple weeks ago". Then noted "thinking, judging" and wrote down when he'll be up in these parts next

Anyone have experience doing a retreat with him? Does he teach what's in that article or does he teach more "Western Dharma" to the audience that might be expecting it? I saw in a description of an upcoming retreat he has that the "Progress of Insight" is listed as a topic, so it has me curious...

"I just re-read this last night and thought "Man, I wish I would have gone to sit with Steve Armstrong when he was in Seattle a couple weeks ago". Then noted "thinking, judging" and wrote down when he'll be up in these parts next

Anyone have experience doing a retreat with him? Does he teach what's in that article or does he teach more "Western Dharma" to the audience that might be expecting it? I saw in a description of an upcoming retreat he has that the "Progress of Insight" is listed as a topic, so it has me curious..."

If you go to Audio Dharma, the Insight Meditation Center's Web site offering free dharma talks as MP3s, there are a few of Steve's talks. My guess is that his stint in Burma with U Pandita has translated into a practice-focused approach to the dharma that recognizes the importance of states and stages. The degree to which he softens this in dealing with general audiences--I'm just not sure about that. He was very helpful when I called, though, and said very emphatically that he had been extremely impressed by the effectiveness of U Pandita's approach, which obviously both Kenneth and Daniel have been greatly influenced by. That would seem to bode well for a good retreat!

One of my Twitter friends (c4chaos) sent something around about a Mahasi Sayadaw lecture on Nibbana in PDF form. Digging into the URL a bit, I found this resource for a ton of M-S material:

www.dhammaweb.net/dhammabook/author.php?author=Mahasi%20Sayadaw

Enjoy!

"One of my Twitter friends (c4chaos) sent something around about a Mahasi Sayadaw lecture on Nibbana in PDF form. Digging into the URL a bit, I found this resource for a ton of M-S material:

www.dhammaweb.net/dhammabook/author.php?author=Mahasi%20Sayadaw

Enjoy!"

Wow. That is a ton of stuff. My favorite title is the last one: "World Buddhist Missionary Tour"!

www.saddhamma.org/pdfs/mahasi_practical_insight_meditation.pdf

Found this too. It's available on google books, but this .pdf is much more user friendly.

I, for one, am anxious for this work to be published. I try not to splurge on too many books, since there's so much free material available online. But I might just have to drop some coinage on this two-volume collection.

" www.saddhamma.org/pdfs/mahasi_practical_insight_meditation.pdf

Found this too. It's available on google books, but this .pdf is much more user friendly."

That's great. I have a tough time reading stuff on Google Books, but this PDF can go on the Kindle. Thanks, livinlite.

By the way, if Steve uses the article on Buddhist Geeks in his pitch to a publisher, it would probably help to have a lot of comments on there indicating actual demand for the text from readers. (hint hint)

"By the way, if Steve uses the article on Buddhist Geeks in his pitch to a publisher, it would probably help to have a lot of comments on there indicating actual demand for the text from readers. (hint hint)"

Noted.

"Noted."

Surely, the pun was intended!

The pdf of Practical Insight Meditation at saddhamma.org only has the first 15 pages of the book. The one on books.google.com is the full version.

"The pdf of Practical Insight Meditation at saddhamma.org only has the first 15 pages of the book. The one on books.google.com is the full version."

I found a PDF of PIM from www.aimwell.org/assets/practicalinsightmeditation.pdf that is a full 24 pages.

For those who are interested, Steve sent a couple of PDFs, including the practical instructions in Chapter 5 from the new translation, and gave me permission to send them out to people. If you'd like a copy, you can use this site to e-mail me your e-mail address (so that I can send the attachments to you). Or you can just go to the Mahasi noting thread on DhO, where I've uploaded the PDFs. (For those who have read MS's Progress of Insight, this material will be pretty familiar already.)
Thanks!
Joel