What is this?

A secular study course using talks given by Stephen Batchelor

• PART 2 OF 8 • CONFUSION – REFLECTIONS ON MOHA

Recorded at the July 2016 Secular Buddhist Retreat in Gaia House, Devon

Ethics and ontology 1. What is to be gained in understanding the distinction between ‘knowing that’ and ‘knowing how’. From your own experience, give an example that illustrates the distinction.

Ontology and ethics 2. Batchelor defines ontology as ‘the attempt to know what things are’ while the question of what to do and how to live is one of ethics. What point does he establish by making this distinction?

Ethics and 3. Drawing from a sutta in which a person who realises nirvana is presented as displaying an ethical position, Batchelor cites the following:

A person who clearly sees nirvana, for whom nirvana is immediate, and inviting and uplifting, such a person neither plans for his own harm nor for the harm of others, nor for the harm of both. In this way, Brahmin, nirvana is clearly visible, inviting, uplifting.

What characteristics does such an accomplished person possess? What characteristics are absent?

What is this? A secular dharma study course • 1 • onemindfulbreath.org.nz Nirvana as an ethical space 4. What is the basis for Batchelor’s claim that nirvana is a non-reactive ethical space as opposed to being the goal of the path, or the end of the path, or a metaphor of final transcendent liberation?

Moha and nirvana 5. Batchelor begins this lecture referencing the various translations of moha as confusion, delusion and ignorance, while nirvana is defined as the absence of confusion, greed and hatred. Is there a discord for you too, as there is for Batchelor, in confusion being included with and comparable to greed and hatred? If so, why? If not, why not?

Nirvana and 6. What is the difference between nirvana as defined above and samadhi or collectedness, which is similarly defined as seclusion from the five hindrances?

Moha or blindness 7. Consider the defining characteristic of moha as a blindness. What is not seen?

‘’ 8. Provide a popular definition of ‘mindfulness’. Contrast it with that of Batchelor’s characterisation of mindfulness as ‘not something purely internal to oneself but it is actually an engagement, or a way of working with the materials of life itself, and it is also somehow transformative’.

Ignorance and ‘knowing that’ or ‘knowing how’ 9. As examples, Batchelor cites several traditional presentations on ignorance as: a failure to recognise anicca, dukkha and ; a failure to recognise emptiness of self and phenomena; and a failure to understand the true nature of mind. Do you think his critique that these presentations are all very much coming from what Dewey calls ‘knowing that’ rather than knowing how’ is fair. If so, why? If not, why not?

What is this? A secular dharma study course • 2 • onemindfulbreath.org.nz Four tasks 10. Choosing two or three words that are meaningful to you, summarise each one of the tasks of the four: 1) dukkha; 2) taṇhā; 3) nirodhā; 3) magga.

Kusala or virtue 11. Cite a dictionary definition of kusala. What is the relationship between kusala and the hindrances (attachment, aversion, lethargy, excitement, vacillation)?

Emptiness and virtue 12. How is that recognition of emptiness, likened to an ‘absence of resistance’, indicates to a practitioner what is virtuous (kusala) and what is non- virtuous (akusala)?

Emptiness 13. What is the defining characteristic of emptiness as referenced in the canon that is often absent as a defining characteristic in the later commentarial traditions?

Asava and emptiness 14. Cite a dictionary definition of asava. How is a person who is dwelling in emptiness freed from the asavas?

Asava and reactivity 15. Batchelor remarks that the asavas ‘are very similar to what we’ve been thinking of as reactivity’ [taṇhā]. In what way is taṇhā concordant with or inclusive of the asavas?

Emptiness in canon and later 16. Batchelor remarks that in the canon emptiness ‘started life as an ethical frame of being in the world, a way of being in which you’re no longer influenced by these reactive patterns [asavas], which allows you the freedom to pursue the path. And the path itself is actually an emptiness. It’s an absence of what obstructs your movement, your progress, your development.’ How has emptiness been elaborated upon since the time of the Buddha as a dwelling place? Give an example. If you had to explain why

What is this? A secular dharma study course • 3 • onemindfulbreath.org.nz these elaborations accrued over time, what would be your best guess?

Practice 17. To conclude his points, what counsel does Batchelor offer practitioners? If one were to follow this advice, what does Batchelor propose one would gain?

Our heartfelt thanks go to Christine Johnson of Upaya of Tucson for her work developing these questions

This course is being freely offered. Your support for One Mindful Breath will help us continue courses like this.

Donations can be made in New Zealand by internet banking to 38 9019 0064622 03. Information on how you can support One Mindful Breath through Aotearoa Buddhist Education Trust, within and outside New Zealand, can be found at: • http://abet.nz/how-to-donate/#1505384503802-d240360b-21c2.

Support for Stephen Batchelor can be offered by credit or debit card and by PayPal here: • https://stephenbatchelor.org/index.php/en/donation

What is this? A secular dharma study course • 4 • onemindfulbreath.org.nz SOURCE MATERIAL

The four

Suffering (dukkha) Arising (samudaya) (craving or taṇhā) Ceasing (nirodha) Path (magga)

The four tasks

Suffering is to be fully known (pariññā) Arising is to be let go of (pahāna) Ceasing is to be experienced (sacchikāta) Path is to be cultivated (bhāvanā)

The twelve aspects of the four

Each of the four tasks is to be (i) recognised, (ii) performed, (iii) accomplished

i.e. (i) such is suffering, (ii) it is to be fully known, (iii) it has been fully known

ELSA

Embrace, Let go, Stop, Act As long as my knowledge and vision was not entirely clear about the twelve aspects of the four, I did not claim to have had a peerless awakening in this world… – the Buddha, Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta

Whatever is an arising thing, that too is a ceasing thing. – Kondañña, Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta

translator Stephen Batchelor • stephenbatchelor.org

What is this? A secular dharma study course • 5 • onemindfulbreath.org.nz