Proliferation (papañca)
Alternative translations: Objectification
Glosses: Thinking (unskillful)
Parent topic: Unskillful qualities
See also: Directed thought and evaluation
86 excerpts, 5:05:23 total duration

Events (1) All excerpts (89) Questions about (42) Answers involving (35) Stories (2) Quotes (9) References (1)

Remembering Ajahn Chah Weekend, Session 32 – Apr. 29, 2001

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6. Story: When asked about the potential for sacred sexuality, Ajahn Chah picks his nose. Told by Ajahn Amaro. [Sensual desire] [Fierce/direct teaching] [Ajahn Chah] // [Insight Meditation Society]

Quote: “There’s nothing more to it than that except what your mind adds to it.” — Ajahn Chah [Proliferation]


Abhayagiri 2014 Winter Retreat, Session 41 – Mar. 3, 2014

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5. “Did Ajahn Chah ever tell a student to study?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Learning] // [Eightfold Path] [Study monks] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma]

Quote: “These are not absolute statements. When Ajahn Chah says something, he’s pointing. He just doesn’t work that way. And we take it as an absolute.” [Teaching Dhamma] [Proliferation]

Story: Ajahn Chah monks who became study monks. [Ajahn Bunjong] [Ajahn Mahā In]


Abhayagiri 2014 Winter Retreat, Session 51 – Mar. 17, 2014

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2. “The citta is sometimes defined as pure awareness, and it being in the fourth khanda, but it sounds like here he’s talking about the activity of awareness?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Heart/mind] [Knowing itself] [Volitional formations] // [Rebirth]

Quote: “There is that which is beyond birth and death. And then you start asking, ‘Well, what is it and how is it? How should it be?’ It’s just the same as in the Sabbāsava Sutta (MN 2.7)...As soon as you get into conceiving, you’ve already started the process of dukkha.” [Unconditioned] [Proliferation] [Conceit] [Suffering]

Follow-up: “So is it better to hear what he said and let it go when I notice awareness that’s good, but I don’t have to make anything out of it?”

Quote: “The investigation is not a conceiving. The best investigation is when the mind is exceedingly still and not conceiving, not creating concepts.” [Discernment] [Concentration]

Follow-up: “So is it a realizing, not a conceiving?” [Knowledge and vision]


Thai Forest Tradition, Session 3 – Jun. 14, 2014

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1. Biography and role of Ajahn Liem. [Ajahn Liem] [Thai Forest Tradition] // [Wat Pah Pong] [Ajahn Chah] [Abbot] [Ajahn Sumedho] [Leadership]

Quote: “He’s in the middle of all of this duty and projection. Whatever comes his way, he doesn’t pick up any of it. It’s quite delightful to be around him.” [Proliferation]


Questions and Answers with Dharma Realm Buddhist University – Nov. 18, 2014

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21. “How do you not objectify this awareness?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Knowing itself] [Mindfulness] [Proliferation] // [Four Noble Truths] [Suffering] [Relinquishment] [Investigation of states]

Quote: “If you objectify awareness, you’re going to suffer.” [Proliferation] [Nature of mind]

Quote: “These Four Noble Truths are not an endpoint, they are something that you’re internalizing and using in your meditation practice and in your daily life.” [Meditation] [Everyday life]


Abhayagiri 2015 Winter Retreat, Session 21 – Feb. 1, 2015

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1. “Is it easy for a person with attainments to deal with the world?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stages of awakening] [Everyday life] // [Discernment] [Conceit] [Culture/West] [Wrong concentration]

Quote: “To push away the world is also to reifying it. One gives it power when one is afraid of it.” [Craving not to become] [Proliferation] [Fear]

Laypeople with highly developed meditation practice function well in the world. Comment by Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Lay life] [Meditation/Results] [Energy]


The Middle Way of Not-Self, Session 2 – May. 27, 2015

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11. Comment: Before I get to all that [deep reflection on not-self], in the meantime I thing of Luang Por Sumedho’s saying, ‘Every time I think of myself, I get depressed.’ [Ajahn Sumedho] [Self-identity view] [Depression] [Not-self]

Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Five Precepts]

Quote: “It’s difficult but it’s not that complicated. The Buddha’s teachings go against the grain of our conditioning and habits, but the essence of it is quite simple.” [Proliferation] [Right Effort] [Craving] [Simplicity] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma]


The Path of Practice, Session 2 – Jun. 16, 2019

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11. Comment: I’m improving my skill at seeing the greed or aversion when there are pleasant or unpleasant feelings, but I often don’t see the neutral feeling state so clearly. [Mindfulness of feeling] [Feeling] [Unwholesome Roots] [Neutral feeling] [Delusion] // [Mindfulness of body] [Restlessness and worry] [Fear] [Present moment awareness]

Response by Ajahn Pasanno.

Quote: “That whereby one is a conceiver of the world, a perceiver of the world, that is the world.” — SN 35.116 [Nature of the cosmos] [Proliferation] [Perception]


Love, Attachment, and Friendship, Session 3 – Oct. 12, 2019

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1. Quote: “The kindest thing you can do for your parents is to not create them.” — Ajahn Sumedho. Quoted by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Parents] [Goodwill] [Cessation] [Not-self] // [Amaravati] [Sīladharā] [Proliferation]