Spring 2009 201 Lecture Notes
Go to Human Nature.
Go to Lecture Notes from first half of the semester
3/19/2009
Shout out to J and W. Keep it real Shout out to A. Keepin the Hegimonikon in check 24/7...
Introduction to Buddhism
- The Four Noble Truths
- 1 There is suffering.
- 2 There is the origination of suffering: suffering comes into existence in dependence on causes.
- 3 There is the cessation of suffering: all future suffering can be prevented.
- 4 There is a path to the cessation of suffering.
- Problems and issues with suffering: What kinds of suffering are there? For Buddhists, for you. [Distinquish good/bad, nec/unnec, etc.]
- Dependent Origin: what is it?
- Cessation of suffering: meditation, (non)self-discovery. [Need to assess this more in light of Discourse on Mindfulness and the Eight Fold path (See wiki page Noble Eight Fold Path)
- Paradox of Liberation
Introduction to the Problem of Free Will
Presupposition in the discussion of free will: What would have to be true about the world for us to have free will?
First, define free will. Consider possible starting points:
- Human agents act outside of causal influence...
- Human agents experience choice in a way that they characterize has "free"...
Notice the different "burdens" each of these starting points.
We'll come back to the various positions on this topic, but take notes on them as part of your own background preparation.
3/24/2009
Basic Positions in Free Will
- Question from previous class.
- How should we picture choice?
- Basic Positions, strengths and weaknesses
- Hard Determinism
- Indeterminism
- Soft Determinism (Compatibilism): traditional and deep self.
- Liberatarianism
Mindfulness in Buddhism
Our major philosophical interest in this text is to use it to explore rationales for mindfulness. Is mindfulness a good thing to develop or should we leave non-reflective belief and experience as it is?
- Mindfulness in the 8 fold path. "Samadhi" - mental culture, between right effort and right concentration.
- The Four foundations: (290) read. body as body, feeling as feeling, mind as mind, mental phenomena as mental phenomena. [ Note the "sorting" here]
- Mindfulness of the body. How might you be better off heightening your mindfulness of the body as suggested in the 290's of this text?
- Feeling as feeling. What's the difference between have a feeling and also noticing that you have it?
- Mind as mind.
- Five obstacles to mindfulness. sensual desire, ill will, sloth and laziness, agitation and worry, perplexity.
- Five aggregates of attachment: body, feeling, perception, action, consciousness. For each the "aggregate of attachment" is that it admits of origin, itself, and extinction. j
- Four noble truths
- Follow his characterizations. very nice detail on suffering. clear that origin of suffering is natural attachment which gives rise to craving. Mindfulness pulls you away from craving.
Email to Meditation Group
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Meditators,
One thing you might ask about your meditations (after the fact, that is) is whether your moved in the direction of "stillness" of thought as a result of the meditation. If you think about the mind as a collection of "modules" that each have claims on your attention, then you could say that stillness during meditation refers to a decrease in the demands placed on your attention by your mind.
It might seem odd to describe meditation this way in light of the reading on mindfulness for today's class. After all, if you become mindful of all of the things the Buddha talks about in that reading, it might seem like you would have a very busy mind.
But then think about the way that attention to breathing during meditation can settle the mind. Often by focusing attention or by acknowledging a thought or worry, we are in a better position to set it aside temporarily. This can happen during meditation. Likewise, when you become more aware of the feeling of your body during meditation, it tends to make fewer demands on you (to be fed, moved, or itched) during the meditation.
Please feel free to post experiences, questions, etc. to the meditation email list or to me individually. I'll look forward to your journals, but I'm already pretty curious about your experiences.
Alfino
