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A HOUSEHOLDER’S VINAYA With Home and Saṅgha Retreat Guides namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa Homage to the Blessed One, the Perfected One, the Fully Self-Enlightened One Allan Cooper Kusinara Press Silver City, New Mexico Copyright © 2020 by Allan Cooper Kusinara Press 510 Broken Arrow Dr. Silver City, NM, 88061 USA www.householdersvinaya.com • [email protected] Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Cooper, Allan Lee, author. Title: A householder’s vinaya with home and saṅgha retreat guides / by Allan Cooper. Description: “namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa Homage to the Blessed One, the Perfected One, the Fully Self-Enlightened One”--from title page. | Silver City, NM: Kusinara Press, 2020. Identifiers: ISBN: 978-0-578-67289-2 Subjects: LCSH Theravāda Buddhism. | Vipaśyanā (Buddhism) | Meditation--Buddhism. | Spiritual life--Buddhism. | Spiritual retreats. | BISAC RELIGION / Buddhism / Rituals & Practice. | BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Meditation. | RELIGION / Buddhism / Theravada. Classification: LCC BQ4262 .C66 2020 | DDC 294.3/422--dc23 ISBN (paperback): 978-0-578-67289-2 ISBN (ebook): 978-0-578-67445-2 For Free Distribution: You may copy, reformat, reprint, republish, and redistribute this work in any medium whatsoever without the author’s permission, provided that: (1) Such copies, etc. are made available free of any charge. (2) Any translations of this work state that they are derived therefrom. (3) Any derivations of this work state that they are derived and differ therefrom. (4) You include the full text of this license in any copies, translations or derivations of this work. Otherwise, all rights reserved. Edited by Ruby Grad Cover and interior design and layout by Ann Lowe Rouse yourself! Sit up! Resolutely train yourself to attain peace. Do not let the king of death, seeing you are careless, lead you astray and dominate you. – Utthana Sutta: On Vigilance (Sn 2.10) TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments Biography of the Author Dāna/Donations How to Read This Book Introduction Part I: Basic Principles for the Vinaya Chapter 1. Practicing Every Day in the World Chapter 2. Monastics and Householders Chapter 3. Optimal Conditions for the Journey Ahead Chapter 4. The Categories of Practice Part II: The Vinaya Chapter 5. Generosity, Cooperation, Patience Chapter 6. Harmlessness Chapter 7. Materiality Chapter 8. Sexuality Chapter 9. Speech Chapter 10. Intoxication and Clouding the Mind Chapter 11. Food Chapter 12. Livelihood Chapter 13. Family, Friends, Community Chapter 14. Activities of Daily Life, Maintenance of the Body, Health-Sickness, Exercise Chapter 15. Style and Preferences Chapter 16. Entertainment Chapter 17. Creativity Chapter 18. Choosing a Spiritual Practice Tradition Chapter 19. Practice, Study, Ceremony Conclusion Part III: The Home Retreat Guide Introduction Chapter 1. Daily Life, Home Practice, and Home Retreat Chapter 2. Preparation for Home Retreat Chapter 3. Practice During Home Retreat Chapter 4. Seeing the Results of Home Retreat Practice Part IV: The Saṅgha Nonresidential Retreat Guide Why a Saṅgha Home Retreat Guide? Who Can Use The Saṅgha Nonresidential Retreat Guide? A Householder’s Vinaya and The Home Retreat Guide How Does a Saṅgha Home Retreat Work? Prerequisites for Participation Preparation for the Retreat Retreat Structure Retreat Schedule During the Retreat After the Retreat Part V: Appendices Appendix 1: Glossary Appendix 2: Table of Quotations and Aphorisms Appendix 3: Table of Abbreviations Appendix 4: Table of Lists, Chants and Reflections Appendix 5: Bibliography and Suggested Reading and Listening List Appendix 6: Retreat Centers and Monasteries ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS With and gratitude I thank my three main teachers. Without their wisdom and presence of character the Path of this practice may not have been available to me. Joseph Goldstein, Sayadaw U Pandita, and Sayadaw U Vivekananda each in their unique ways have met me where I needed to be met and offered inspiration through their teachings and modeling. The greatest gift is the act of giving itself. Traditionally, three kinds of giving are spoken of. There is beggarly giving, which is when we give with only one hand, still holding onto what we give. In this kind of giving we give the least of what we have and afterward wonder whether we should have given at all. Another kind of giving is called “friendly” giving, in which we give open handedly. We take what we have and share it, because it seems appropriate. It’s a clear giving. Then there’s the type of giving that’s called “kingly” giving. That’s when we give the best of what we have, even if none remains for ourself. We give the best we have instinctively with graciousness. We think of ourselves only as temporary caretakers of whatever has been provided, as owning nothing. There is no giving; there is just the spaciousness which allows objects to remain in the flow. – Levine, A Gradual Awakening A number of people have given to this project with time, money and encouragement; two stand out. Ruby Grad, the wise and skilled editor, and Steve Katona, friend, financial supporter and kalyāṇamitta. Without each of them, and without everyone else who has contributed in their own way, this project would not, could not have come this far. Thank you. May what we’ve offered serve the Dhamma and provide a basis for wholesome intention and direction for wise practice to arise for many in the years to come. BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR In 1973, when I was 23 years old and a dedicated hippie, I was exposed to Burmese-style Buddhist meditation while hitchhiking throughout the world. My first teacher, S.N. Goenka, stripped the notions of suffering away from any cultural context and offered a clear and practiced method to explore and ultimately change how the mind works, and investigate how suffering arises and passes . without drugs. I have practiced vipassanā and samatha meditation since then. My primary teachers have been the Burmese meditation master Sayadaw U Pandita; his student, Sayadaw U Vivekananda, Abbott of Panditarama Lumbini International Vipassana Meditation Center; and Joseph Goldstein, co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS). Mahasi Sayadaw is considered the ‘father’ of the style of meditation I practice. U Pandita was the chief student of Mahasi Sayadaw; Joseph was a student of U Pandita. Joseph was among the first lay teachers in this tradition to offer long residential retreats in the United States. Thus, the road of practice led me to IMS in 1976, where I sat many three- month retreats. I later served as the mental health night contact twice in the 1990’s. U Vivekananda was U Pandita’s protege and translator for many years. U Vivekananda continues to teach in the Mahasi tradition with his own personalized style, which is especially suited to yogis willing to accept that: meditation is a gradual path; it is not just about bliss and what we like and don’t like; and wisdom arises when we train our minds to being open to all sense experience without reactivity. U Vivekananda is German-born, African-raised, polylingual and a worldly monastic. His near perfect command of English, his ability to understand lay Westerners without the filter of Southeast Asian cultural context and his profound understanding of The Path of Purification [Pāli: Visuddhimagga] established our connection and made him another natural fit as a teacher for me. For most of the last 20 years, I have traveled to Lumbini in Nepal to sit with U Vivekananda for 3 to 4-month retreats, served as his attendant [Pāli: kapiya] on retreat, and traveled with him through the Western United States. I am a retired hospice and mental health RN. I am a householding yogi who teaches how to make lay life one’s practice instead of trying to fit practice into lay life. I have been teaching meditation and leading retreats for over 15 years. Currently I live just outside Silver City, New Mexico. You can contact me at: [email protected]. DĀNA/DONATIONS A HOUSEHOLDER’S VINAYA, THE HOME RETREAT GUIDE, and THE SAṄGHA NONRESIDENTIAL RETREAT GUIDE are offered freely, without a price tag. They are for the use of anyone who wishes to use them. “The Dhamma is priceless,” and therefore no one can be charged for its transmission. Should these offerings serve you or inspire you to practice generosity, you can send a donation to: Allan Cooper 510 Broken Arrow Dr. Silver City, NM, 88061 USA To offer a donation online via PayPal, please go to householdersvinaya.com and click on Donate. Any donation or royalty earned from the publishing and distribution of this book, after expenses, will be donated to Buddhist Global Relief. HOW TO READ THIS BOOK Meditate, bhikkhus [meditators], do not delay or else you will regret it later. This is our instruction to you. – Dvedhavitakka Sutta: Two Sorts of Thinking (MN 19:27) A HOUSEHOLDER’S VINAYA, THE HOME RETREAT GUIDE, and THE SAṄGHA NONRESIDENTIAL RETREAT GUIDE offers practical instructions and tools to any householding meditator who is inspired to make one’s life a navigable sea of exploration and change. Much of this book offers the reader many spiritual, social and psychological reasons to follow the practice advice. For some, this more theoretical material will not be as valuable as the instructions themselves. For those of you who think you already have the foundation in theory and the gumption to just jump in, I still suggest you read The Heart of Buddhist Meditation by Nyanaponika Thera (with special emphasis on the section on clear comprehension [Pāli: sampajañña]), and Ambalaṭṭhikā Sutta: Advice to Rāhula at Ambalaṭṭhikā (MN 61), and then skip to the chart in Chapter 4. Please be advised that it is critical to understanding the practices described in this book and vital to the success of applying them, that the reader understands both in theory and practice what sati and sampajañña are.
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  • Sīvisôpama Sutta

    Sīvisôpama Sutta

    Sayutta Nikyavol4 S35.238 Āsīvisôpama Sutta sīvisôpama Sutta The Discourse on the Serpent Similes [The four elements, the aggregates and liberation] (Sayutta Nikya 35.238/4:172-175) Translated by Piya Tan ©2009 Introduction 1 The Commentary to the Āsīvisôpama Sutta says that the discourse is addressed to monks who were practising meditation using the characteristic of suffering (dukkha,lakkhaṇa) as their meditation subject. The sīvisopama Sutta (S 35.238) presents a set of similes beginning with the parable of the four serpents. The similes can be summarized as follows: A man is warned of four serpents of fierce heat and deadly venom [§3], and so he flees from them. Then he is warned of five murderous enemies [§4b] pursuing him, and again flees. He is now warned about a sixth murderer [§5b], an intimate friend in disguise, seeking to kill him. He flees again and comes to an empty village [§6b], where he is warned that bandits will be attacking at that very moment. Fleeing, he comes to a great stretch of water [§7b] with no means of crossing over. While on the near shore, fraught with dangers, he fashions a makeshift raft [§8], and paddling with all four limbs [§9], he crosses over the waters to the safety of the far shore [§9]. 2 The four types of serpents are listed in the sīvisa Sutta (A 4.110; Pug 4.14).1 The Commentary says that these serpents were raised by kings to ward off robbers, and explains how each serpent’s venom destroys its victim (SA 3:6-8).