"Enlightenment Parts one, two and three" -- James Baraz

http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/86/talk/11620/

http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/86/talk/11649/

http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/86/talk/11695/

Recently posted on Dharmaseed. First one is about the classic Theravadin meditative path to freedom, including progress of insight and stages of enlightenment

Second: Enlightenment: It's already here...and right now.

Third: A presentation of non-Buddhist perspectives on enlightenment through stories and quotes of Advaita (non-dualistic) teachers such as Ramana Maharshi , Poonjaji , Eckhart Tolle , and Adyahshanti . The talk ends with a brief guided meditation.

I haven't listened yet, but I'm very curious.

Thanks for posting this, Mike. Let us know what you think. I'll try to give them a listen as well, especially part 3.

Early on in part one he asks the audience "anyone familiar with The Progress of Insight?" it was clear that very few were. A year ago this would've pissed me off.



Anyway I'm 17 minutes in and I really like it.

I've listened to part one, and a bit of part two.

I really liked it, but I'm not sure I can explain why.

But I'll try, of course.

Baraz's (how do you make a possessive out of that word?) vibe about the subject just seemed real wise to me. One can tell that he's been doing this stuff a long time and understands all the pitfalls and mistakes and knows there is no point in getting all excited about specific things.

I loved how he talked about the "progress of insight" material very clearly while always pointing out that it is just one "model" and that awakening can happen in all kinds of ways.

Interesting his point that by all the reports in the Buddhist literature, many people became awakened just from hearing the buddha talk, with no need for all the developmental stages. I wonder if any of those stories are actually even true, but Baraz clearly doesn't doubt them.

Interesting his point that by all the reports in the Buddhist literature, many people became awakened just from hearing the buddha talk, with no need for all the developmental stages. I wonder if any of those stories are actually even true, but Baraz clearly doesn't doubt them.

-michaelmonson

Hi Mike,

Those people were the exceptionally well-prepared ones. Either they had already been engaging with a serious, valid practice before meeting the Buddha, or they had the good karma to be born in the same era and place as the Buddha due to their practice in a past life.

There's a nice excerpt of the teaching about Awakening expressed in terms of citta by a great Theravadin monk who just recently passed away. Check out his bio on Wikipedia for some juicy quotes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajahn_Maha_Bua