From Deva Realms to Crusty Cups: New post on Buddhist Geeks

New post on Buddhist Geeks Digital Magazine, the latest episode in the Folk/Groover interviews:

www.buddhistgeeks.com/2010/08/from-deva-realms-to-crusty-cups/

Simply excellent!

A great explaination of mind states.
Also gives a more complete view of dark night. The "so call problems" experienced in dark night are existing responses that will hi-jack a person whether they meditate or not. The view often put forward is that meditation was the cause (bleed through) . What is clear here is that meditation only exposes that which life will present. I remember folk asking whether the should put off meditating until a better time to go through dark night; always better to deal with it sooner otherwise you are a timebomb for lifes situations.

I really enjoyed the first part of the interview also. The cosmology...who knows?? But I think it's really helpful in terms of helping me to understand what enlightement is all about. CH5 of the Manual of Insight is where I first began to grasp why it would not be an advantage to be a Deva in a heavenly realm. Now I can really see why such beings would venerate the Buddha or an Arhat, and for the same reason I feel a sense of veneration for those who have ceased outflows as well.

When you think of it, you have to appreciate this human realm. It's the perfect place for the likes of us.

I think Bikkhu Bodhi pointed out in one of his lectures that our lifespan here is long enough that we can take a really good look at what is actually happening, but yet it's short enough that we can't pretend we're gonna live forever. There's enough suffering that if we try and devote our lives to pleasure we can't pull it off, and there's enough pleasure that if we devote or lives to suffering we can't pull that off either. It's the perfect storm to awaken.

If it wasn't for the fact that we're all experts at distracting ourselves we wouldn't be able to stand it here for more than 5 minutes with out realizing something is defitnely not what it seems.

I just posted a reply to a comment by Dennis Hunter on the Crusty Cups interview on Buddhist Geeks Mag that I think is relevant to some of the discussions we've had here over the last couple of days. I even included a brief exchange I had today with Omnipleasant by way of example:

www.buddhistgeeks.com/2010/08/from-deva-realms-to-crusty-cups/