User talk:Trutheyeness

Hello, Trutheyeness! talk page and ask your question there. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by clicking or by typing four tildes "~~~~"; this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you are already excited about Wikipedia, you might want to consider being "adopted" by a more experienced editor or joining a WikiProject to collaborate with others in creating and improving articles of your interest. Click here for a directory of all the WikiProjects. Finally, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field when making edits to pages. Happy editing! — jmcgnh(talk) (contribs) 20:58, 6 February 2018 (UTC)[reply ] Getting Started Contributing to Wikipedia Your first article How to: edit a page • upload an image Getting Help Frequently Asked Questions Directories and indexes Where to: ask questions • make requests Tip of the day Request administrator attention Policies and Guidelines Reliable sources Verifiability • Citing sources • No original research What Wikipedia is not • Biographies of living persons Simplified Manual of Style • Three-revert rule Copyrights • Non-free content • Image use policy Sock puppetry Deletion policy • Conflict of interest • Notability The Community Community Portal • Adopt-a-user program Assume good faith • Civility • Etiquette No personal attacks • Resolving disputes Build consensus • Village pump IRC channels • Mailing lists Discover what's going on in the Wikimedia community (The Signpost) Things to do Be bold in editing • Help develop an article Maintenance • Peer review • Requested articles Join a WikiProject • Translating articles Cleaning up: General • Spam • Vandalism Miscellaneous Categories • Disambiguity • Stubs Talk pages Useful templates • Tools • User scripts

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Thank you. — jmcgnh^{(talk) (contribs)} 20:59, 6 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Please see the above: you are still not signing your posts. —DIYeditor (talk) 22:16, 6 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Trutheyeness. Most materials can be found in note 21 of the FNT-article. Try searching the titles plus "pdf"; a lot can be found online. Also take a look at A Handfull of Leaves; great site. Of this list a selection:

• Bronkhorst, Johannes (1993) [1986], The Two Traditions Of Meditation In Ancient India, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, chapter 8
• Tilman Vetter (1988), The Ideas and Meditative Practices of Early Buddhism, by Tilmann Vetter
• Richard F. Gombrich (2006) [1996]. How Buddhism Began: The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings. Routledge.
  ISBN 978-1-134-19639-5
  ., chapter four
• Anderson, Carol (1999), Pain and Its Ending: The Four Noble Truths in the Theravada Buddhist Canon, Routledge

@Joshua Jonathan: Thanks for the links. I'm making my way through them slowly. The authors' approach to sutta analysis is interesting. Trutheyeness (talk) 13:18, 1 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I'm studying Buddhism for 30 years now, and I'm still learning... Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 15:39, 1 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Joshua Jonathan:, I read through the literature you provided me with, spoke to a few practicing monks and did some meditation. Having done so, I believe that the logic used to conclude that the four noble truths are a later addition is flawed. The authors have taken the eight fold path as an indivisible, monolithic concept, which runs contrary to the suttas (which in general state that things are aggregates of other things). I'll use the following fictional story as an example:

Suppose that there is a man in Texas (America) who wanted to get to the Canada. He sees a sign pointing towards New Mexico, with the text 'This way to Canda'. So over many weeks he walks to New Mexico. As he searches around New Mexico, he finds another sign pointing towards Missouri saying 'This way to Canada'. So over many weeks he walks to Missouri. As he searches around Montana, he finds another sign pointing towards Colorado saying 'This way to Canda'. So over many weeks he walks to Colorado. Having done this repeatedly, he finally gets to North Dakota. Having gotten to North Dakota, he looks for the Canadian border, but can't find it. All there is, is forest as far as the eye can see. He asks some other travelers in the area, and they don't know how to get to Canada either. Then he reflects on his journey so far and realises that although he's been cris-crossing between states, the signs had all sent him further and further North. Having understood this, he realises that if he keeps going North, through the forest, he will eventually get to the Canadian border. So he starts his journey through the forest. Having walked for miles, he finds a clearing with a sign saying 'Canadian border - valid visa needed to enter'. Having seen this sign, he knows he has arrived.

Now, in this story, the traveler only had an insight that he had to travel North to get to Canada when he was right next to his border. Despite this, someone may still ask 'how did you get from Texas to North Dakota in the first place if you didn't know that you needed to go North?'. The answer is that he went in directions that consistently had a Northward component, such that he ended up going North without realising that he went North.

Similarly, Vetter etc. may say 'the Buddha cannot have had an insight into the eight fold path just before enlightnment, because he must have followed the path to get to where he was when he supposedly had the insight'. However, their oversight is that many other practices incorporate certain aspects of the eight fold path, and performing those practices in aggregate may result in an individual following the whole of the path. In addition to this, practicing meditators consistently say that each factor of the eight fold path supports the other. Thus the eight fold path is practiced, not sequentially, but in aggregate such that each 'round' of practice refines our mastery over it and ability to traverse it. E.g. a beginner's understanding of 'right view' will be completely different from an arahant's appreciation of it.

Given the above, I believe that a few articles in Wikipedia will need to be changed to reflect this. Trutheyeness (talk) 22:28, 20 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia gives an overview of what

WP:OR). The whole idea of insight as the defining moment on the Buddhist path is probably a later development, under the influence of other Indian traditions. Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 02:14, 21 September 2018 (UTC)[reply

]

@Joshua Jonathan:, I mentioned the above because to me, the seemingly iron-clad logic of Vetter's statement is the only thing that gives such an assertion legitimacy. Given that I have demonstrated that it is not at all iron-clad I believe it will be fairly straightforward to find scholarly texts affirming that the four noble truths are integral to the Buddha's teaching, and are not a later development influenced by other traditions (having had a read of sources listed on Wikipedia I believe that these sources may have been misrepresented... I'll present evidence in due course). However, I'll start that discussion on the 'Four Noble Truths' page so that others can weigh in if they like. Trutheyeness (talk) 07:47, 21 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Trutheyeness, please see

This is