Malunkyaputta Sutta Staying Focused Talk 1 May 8 2018

This is a live stream and recording of our Tuesday evening Dhamma class from Cross River Meditation Center in Frenchtown, New Jersey on May 8, 2018. The stream begins every Tuesday at 7:15 PM Eastern US time.

My Dhamma talk and our sangha discussion will be on The Malunkyaputta Sutta. The Cula-Malunkyovada Sutta is another sutta where the Buddha is questioned regarding the “Great Existential Questions” that humanity has been seeking answers for since the beginning of time. The Buddha consistently refused to answer anything that would prove to be a distraction from the goal of the Eightfold Path, or would only reinforce ignorance of Four Noble Truths.

As Buddhism developed many of the accommodations and embellishments made to the Buddha’s teachings were done to provide answers to these questions. When looked at closely, and in the context of The Four Noble Truths, many of these questions have an underlying motive of establishing a permanent “self” in the physical realm or a non-physical realm.

“Malunkyaputta, did I ever tell you, or even imply, that my teaching would answer these questions, or that these questions deserve an answer?”

A related article is here: https://becoming-buddha.com/malunkyaputta-sutta-staying-focused/

Each Tuesday class will have a twenty-minute Shamatha-Vipassana meditation followed by my Dhamma talk and Sangha discussion and conclude with Metta intentional meditation.

An audio only version of this video is available at my podcast archive: https://becoming-buddha.com/becoming-buddha-podcast/

A video of our classes including a beginning Shamatha-Vipassana meditation is available here: https://becoming-buddha.com/dhamma-stream-videos/

Here is the archive for all of my Dhamma articles and talks: https://becoming-buddha.com/dhamma-articles-and-talks-archive/

If you find benefit from this talk please consider a donation: https://becoming-buddha.com/support-john-and-becoming-buddha-com/

Thank You. Peace.