Here’s an 62-min recorded video Dhamma Talk (122MB .mp4).

Topics:

  • Samaṇa Sañña, Samana Sanna, Samana Sanya, hiking, nature, wanderers, seekers, ancient India, Jambudipa, hunter gatherers, nomads, nomadic monks, monks who had no “home monastery”, tudong, carika, agriculture, disadvantages of agriculture, as compared to nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle, Brahminism, their history as nomadic hunter-gatherers, awareness of nature, Ruka devas, spirits, shamans, animistic religion, monotheistic gods, polytheistic gods, awareness of space, Judaism, origin story of “The Garden of Eden”, kicking ourselves out of the Garden of Eden worse and worse and worse, example of nuclear weapons, and how we can’t return to a time where they don’t exist any more, because any holdouts would become the new rulers of the world


Slight Correction: In Buddhism, Ruka devas are angelic-grade “tree spirits”, while Bumma (pronounced “Booma”) devas are angelic-grade Earth spirits.

Sutta References:

Meditation on Space:

  • MN 127 - Anuruddhasutta: Anuruddha

    (Exalted vs. Immeasurable deliverance of mind. Both are space-element meditations. Rare space-element object of meditation):

    And what is the limitless release of the heart? It’s when a mendicant meditates spreading a heart full of love to one direction, and to the second, and to the third, and to the fourth. In the same way above, below, across, everywhere, all around, they spread a heart full of love to the whole world—abundant, expansive, limitless, free of enmity and ill will. They meditate spreading a heart full of compassion … They meditate spreading a heart full of rejoicing … They meditate spreading a heart full of equanimity to one direction, and to the second, and to the third, and to the fourth. In the same way above, below, across, everywhere, all around, they spread a heart full of equanimity to the whole world—abundant, expansive, limitless, free of enmity and ill will. This is called the limitless release of the heart.

    And what is the expansive release of the heart? It’s when a mendicant meditates determined on pervading the extent of a single tree root as expansive. This is called the expansive release of the heart. Also, a mendicant meditates determined on pervading the extent of two or three tree roots … a single village district … two or three village districts … a single kingdom … two or three kingdoms … this land surrounded by ocean. This too is called the expansive release of the heart. This is a way to understand how these things differ in both meaning and phrasing.

  • AN 6.26 - With Mahākaccāna

    That noble disciple meditates with a heart just like space, abundant, expansive, limitless, free of enmity and ill will.

“Mind like a deer”:

  • MN 66 - The Simile of the Quail

    repeated several times…

    “Having abandoned it, they live at ease, unruffled, subsisting on others’ gifts, with mind [as aloof] as a wild deer’s.”

  • SN 9.4 - Several Mendicants Set Out Wandering

    On one occasion a number of bhikkhus were dwelling among the Kosalans in a certain woodland thicket. Then, when they had spent the rains there, after the three months had passed those bhikkhus set out on tour. Then the devatā that inhabited that woodland thicket, not seeing those bhikkhus, lamenting, on that occasion recited this verse:

    “Today discontent appears to me When I see here so many vacant seats. Where have they gone, Gotama’s disciples, Those splendid speakers rich in learning?”

    When this was said, another devatā replied in verse:

    “They’ve gone to Magadha, gone to Kosala, And some are in the Vajjian land. Like deer that roam free from ties, The bhikkhus dwell without abode.” 540

    And that footnote, in the Wisdom Publications version (translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi):

    “Spk: Just as deer, wandering in the foothills or woodland thickets, wander wherever they find pleasant pastureland and dangers are absent, and have no attachment to their parents’ property or a family heirloom, so the homeless bhikkhus, without fixed abode, wander wherever they can easily find suitable climate, food, companionship, lodgings, and Dhamma-teachings, and have no attachment to the property of their teacher and preceptor or to a family heirloom.”

References to past Dhamma Talks:

Subscribe:

License:

Digital Signing and Checksum (of the .mp4 video file above):