Perceptions Move Consciousness (and the World) (German)

This talk is German, but it contains some very important lessons in relation to the victory of peace and compassion. First of all, it understands that ‘the world’ we think of as outside of ourselves, really is reflected on the consciousness of six sense bases. Perceptions are reflected on hearing consciousness, smelling consciousness, mental consciousness, and the other sense base consciousnesses. And that consciousness, varying on the type of consciousness, conditions or determines which perceptions and conceptualizations can be reflected on that consciousness. 

A consciousness conditioned by anger conditions, colours or enchants the perceptions that are reflected on that angry consciousness. And the perceptions reflected on that angry consciousness, as understandings of the world, impact or condition that consciousness. Perceptions, then, move the world of the sense bases, which really is the world we think is out there. It follows that peace activism isn’t some angry debate. It is instead to nourish around the world a type of perception, intention and consciousness that allow for different perceptions. The Buddha taught that there is such a thing as ‘unskillful perception’. Rob Burbea said: practice is not practice unless it affects perception.

Full playlist. 

Laws of nature

Ayya Khema says that ‘I don’t want this to go’ is a fear that most deeply underlies suffering. Our response to it is critical in determining to where in life we go next. Right before the talk there is a contemplation about the inevitability of disease and passing away. For reference, they are listed below. In another interview she talks about her own dying experience: “The action of dying, if there is no resistance, is extremely pleasant.”
Full Retreat Playlist.

Five daily contemplations:

“There are five things that should be frequently contemplated, whether one is a woman or a man, a layperson or a monastic. What five?

‘I am subject to aging; I am not exempt from aging.’
‘I am subject to sickness; I am not exempt from sickness.’
‘I am subject to death; I am not exempt from death.’
‘Everything that is beloved and pleasing will change and be separated from me.’
‘I am the owner of my karma, the recipient of my karma, born from my karma, bound to my karma, inseparable from my karma. Any action that I do – whether it is good or evil – I will receive its result.’

This should be frequently contemplated, whether one is a woman or a man, a layperson or a monastic.

Dependent Origination

Leigh is most well-known for his work on the jhanas. The most important work he considers to have written on is dependent origination. He has written a book on it, which is freely available on his website. Leigh describes existence not in terms of identity, but rather as streams of dependently arisen processes interacting, or SODAPI. Siddhāttha Gotama (the Buddha) didn’t discover the jhanas. He was the first to use the jhanas to discover the law of dependent origination.

In the video Leigh also describes how he uses modern research from linguistics and history to determine what are the oldest texts, and so to be closest to what the Buddha taught.

Jhanas

Leigh Brasington has been one of the most pioneering and influential teachers in bringing jhanas to science. In 2020 I watched this video. In April 2022 I emailed him after getting to the first jhana and he has been my teacher since. https://leighb.com/
Watch my interview with him here.

Leigh has authorized the following people to teach.
Matt Harvey on Instructions for the First Jhana.
Claralynn Nunamaker on Mindfulness.
Rabbi Jay Michaelson on Spiritual Practice and Political Activism.

Ven. Canda

Ven. Canda is a teacher who is engaged in an exceptional and arduous effort establishing the first monastery for nuns in the UK. She gives an imaginative and personal talk on how undoing the causes of our own suffering allows us to prevent or stop suffering for others.
Full Retreat Playlist:
No Mud No Lotus: Transforming Suffering to Joy

Ven. Bhikkhu K. Ñāṇananda

The Ven. Bhikkhu K. Ñāṇananda offers scholarly commentaries on the discourses. The series attempts to clear up confusion around nibbana. And especially that nibbana doesn’t imply either eternalism or annihilationism. The eternalist is afraid of losing the self, not understanding it is only a reflected dimension on dependently arisen consciousness. Likewise the annihilationist is only fighting against a reflection. Dependent upon clinging to the reflection – which is different from the way things are – there is becoming. As that becoming grows otherwise from what was craved, dependent on that there is now stress. Nibbana is transcendent to an eternal cycle of streams of dependently arisen processes interacting (SODAPI). It is, after understanding it as it is, becoming disenchanted with it, freeing the mind from these sankhara’s (reflections, conditions, fabrications). For his written resources, please consult seeing through the net.
[12-2025] A recent interview has appeared on the current status and history of this series and tradition.

anagarika Vilas Kadival

Vilas Kadival is a practitioner with a lot of zeal. Vilas has turned his home into a monastery, and when I discovered him taught with utmost zeal to often one or two people. He is incredibly easy to access to talk to on the basis of generosity.
Find more information on his website.

*Note: Vilas gives a traditional Theravada perspective. I dont attest to anyones attainments should claims be made. There are jhana’s, dependent origination, and a possibility to use the jhana’s to understand it. Anyone who feels called can find this out for themselves.

Sujato

Ajahn Sujato is a driving force behind the volunteering project of suttacentral.net. Sujato conveys a story of a boy not wanting to be reborn. The boy has annihilationist demeanor in the understanding of nibbana. The commentary from the ven. Nanananda explains how the path is neither what would be considered eternalism or annihilationism. The world is thought of in these two extremes. But if things are a stream of dependently arisen conditions interacting (SODAPI), there can neither be eternalism nor annihiliation. Those craving eternity seek something that doesn’t match with how things actually are. Those who fear annihiliation fear something that can’t actually happen. The mistake is in thinking in terms of identity, that there was some fixed thing in the first place, when what it really was is SODAPI.

Nibbana is the stilling or unbinding of these processes, in particular the construction of sankhara’s by the seamstress known as craving. It doesn’t mean existence or the self is destroyed. It also can’t be said that there still is existence or a perpetuation of a self. Ayya Khema describes this by comparing it to religions in which ‘ a me’ would unite with something else, instead saying there just is this something else, the unconditional, which is hindered underneath defilements. The sense of self was a reflected dimension in the water, that was mistakenly clung to and which lead to birth and death for supposedly many eons. Seeing the same thing over and over again, one can become disenchanted, dispassionate, and then free.

Biography
Ayya Khema on the Art of Loving

Beth Upton

Beth Upton was a nun for 10 years with Pa Auk Sayadaw, a Burmese meditation master. She has very powerful mindfulness developed by wisdom. And she is very pleasant to listen to.

Another former student from Pau Auk, and who got authorized to teach by him, is Stephen Mugen Snyder, Roshi. He is attentive to the spiritual care needs of anglo-saxon students, for instance in tracking obstacles that his students meet.

Dipa Ma

Dipa Ma was widely reputed to be a saint. She was influential by teaching some current well-known teachers, such as Jack Kornfield and Sharon Shalzberg. And ultimately Leigh Brasington has studied with Jack Kornfield and has been authorized to teach by him.

https://dipama.com/