metaphysics stems from anxiety

The Theravādin Sutta Piṭaka, collection of the Buddha's discourses, opens with the Brahmajāla Sutta, the "Net of Brahmā." In it, the Buddha lists 62 views that he considered mistaken. And the funny thing is, it's arguable that a few of these mistaken views include things that the Buddha himself said!

To me, the punch-line to the sutta comes toward the end: "Therein, bhikkhus, when those recluses and brahmins who [proclaim a particular view]—that is only the feeling of those who do not know and do not see; that is only the agitation and vacillation of those who are immersed in craving" (Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation).

The Buddha refrained from answering a number of metaphysical questions, instead always refocusing the questioner to the problem of dukkha and its cessation. Ultimately, that's all the Buddha taught, and he said so over and over again.

The need to erect a philosophical system, according to this sutta, is rooted in an anxiety, an anxiety itself rooted in the ceaseless cycle of craving in which we are trapped. With the cessation of craving, would come the cessation of philosophical speculation, on this view.

love, not engineering, gets you to samādhi

Tonight I finished the final night of Gil Fronsdal's latest concentration series, which is the fifth week of talks he has been giving on Wednesdays. And tonight he said something that struck a chord, because it resonates with how my practice has been unfolding the last few weeks: Getting to samādhi--to that attentive stillness so often referred to as "concentration" in translations--is not about engineering the right technique, but about love for the state.

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