Perception (saññā)
Perception (saññā)
4. “As a guilt-ridden American, how do you respond to personal mistakes without guilt?” [Guilt/shame/inadequacy] [Culture/West] [Great disciples] // [Saṅgha] [Conscience and prudence] [Pāli] [Skillful qualities] [Self-identity view] [Respect] [Perception] [Virtue] [Buddha]
Story: A monk falsely accuses Sāriputta (AN 9.11). [Forgiveness]
4. “Can the practice be used in a punitative or punishing way?” [Guilt/shame/inadequacy] // [Culture/West] [Habits] [Clear comprehension] [Craving not to become]
Quote: “Having a human mind...it's amazing how perverse it can be sometimes.” [Human] [Unwholesome Roots]
Story: Ajahn Pasanno can't translate guilt into Thai. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Translation] [Culture/Thailand] [Suffering]
Quote: “All you need to do is create a cage of mindfulness around [unskillful habits].” — Ajahn Chah [Ajahn Chah] [Sense restraint] [Mindfulness] [Unskillful qualities] [Similes]
Follow-up: “What about letting the tiger go instead of keeping it in a cage?”
Follow-up: “What about the case when one feels one is the tiger trapped in a metaphorical cage. How to escape?” [Liberation] [Perception] [Self-identity view] [Spiritual friendship]
7. “Is there a distinction between the awareness and the naming? Does naming bring intellect or self into play? Is confusion the nagging sense of self or self-consciousness?” [Knowing itself] [Perception] [Noting] [Self-identity view] [Delusion] // [Investigation of states] [Proliferation] [Relinquishment] [Equanimity] [Doubt] [Mindfulness of body] [Continuity of mindfulness]
1. “Could you expand about the layers of understanding of thought, perception, and dukkha?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Yatiko. [Discernment] [Directed thought and evaluation] [Perception] [Suffering] // [Proliferation] [Relinquishment]
Quote: “First you study the Dhamma, then you know the Dhamma, then you see the Dhamma, they you be the Dhamma.” — Ajahn Chah. Quoted by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Dhamma] [Progress of insight]
Commentary: Path of Purification by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, p. 631: The highest level of understanding is giving up.
9. “What attitude should we take when observing things so we don't objectify them or make it stressful?” [Perception] [Knowing itself] [Appropriate attention] [Suffering] [Tranquility] [Proliferation] // [Direct experience]
2. “Could you clarify the difference between perception (sanna), mental formations (sankara) and conscousness (vinnana)?” [Perception] [Volitional formations] [Consciousness]
10. “Could you please explain again the differences between sanna, sankara, and vinnana? I'm still not getting it.” [Perception] [Volitional formations] [Consciousness]
1. “Why is sañña often translated as perception?” [Perception] [Translation] // [Thai] [Recollection] [Aggregates]
Sutta: MN 43.5 Mahāvedalla Sutta: Conjoined not disjoined.
2. “Have you heard of sañña and saṅkhara being translated as short-term and long-term memory?” [Perception] [Volitional formations] [Translation]
15. Stories about car accidents. [Clear comprehension] [Perception]
8. “Perception can be very slippery. I experience it as a veil, view, filter, or lens that colors a situation. The traditional Buddhist teaching of, “tinted glasses” and “bowls of water,” is very helpful. However, identification is strong. Do you have suggestions for how to see through perception? How to know when it is coloring my world view?” [Perception] [Self-identity view] [Delusion]
2. “How can one be mindful of the beginning of thought?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno, Ajahn Kaccāna and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Directed thought and evaluation] [Mindfulness] [Right Mindfulness] // [Appropriate attention] [Perception] [Proliferation]
Comments about observing proliferating thoughts. [Conditionality] [Right Effort] [Restlessness and worry] [Mindfulness of mind]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Mindfulness of breathing] [Feeling] [Perception]
Sutta: MN 118 Ānāpānasati Sutta.
4. “Could you clarify “the body in the body?”” [Mindfulness of body] [Right Mindfulness] // [Translation] [Pāli] [Ajahn Ṭhānissaro] [Direct experience] [Self-identity view]
References: Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 91; Right Mindfulness by Ajahn Ṭhānissaro. [Elements] [Proliferation] [Perception]
4. “What does “know the mind as mind; know feeling as feeling” mean?” [Right Mindfulness] [Relinquishment] // [Proliferation]
Comment: Self-view forms around the feeling from sense contact. [Sense bases] [Contact] [Feeling] [Self-identity view]
Sutta: MN 18: Madhupiṇḍika Sutta, The Honeyball.
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Volitional formations] [Perception]
Sutta: MN 118: Ānāpānasati Sutta. [Mindfulness of breathing]
1. “Why does the Buddha describe perception in terms of colors but consciousness in terms of tastes?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno, Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Perception] [Consciousness] [Sense bases] // [Bhikkhu Bodhi] [Commentaries] [Ven. Analayo] [Memory] [Feeling]
Sutta: SN 22.79: Being Devoured; footnote 114 in Bhikkhu Bodhi translation.
Follow-up: “Could you say that perception is identification whereas consciousness is more refined?” [Aggregates] [Not-self] [Self-identity view] [Rebirth] [Translation] [Similes]
[Session] [Proliferation] [Perception]
Reading: MN 18: Madhupiṇḍika Sutta, The Honeyball.
Reading: “Categorical Answers,” Skill in Questions by Ajahn Ṭhānissaro, p. 85.
Reading: AN 8.30: “Anuruddha.”
1. Discussion of the meaning of papañca in AN 8.30 and various other suttas. [Pāli] [Translation] [Proliferation] [Perception] // [Great disciples] [Liberation] [Conditionality] [Directed thought and evaluation] [Language]
Suttas: Sn 4.11: Pāsāṇa and DN 21: Sakkapañha Sutta in which papañca precedes thinking.
Reference: Skill in Questions by Ajahn Ṭhānissaro, p. 85.
Suttas: MN 19: Dvedhāvitakka Sutta; MN 20: Vitakkasaṇṭhāna Sutta.
Reference: Concept and Reality in Early Buddhist Thought by Bhante Ñāṇananda
[Session] [Proliferation] [Perception]
Reading: MN 18: Madhupiṇḍika Sutta, The Honeyball.
Reading: “The Perceptual Process,” p. 222-223, 225-226 in Satipaṭṭhāna: The Direct Path to Realization by Venerable Analayo.
1. Comparison of causality in MN 18 and dependent origination. [Conditionality] [Dependent origination] [Proliferation] [Perception] // [Similes] [Suffering]
2. Translation of phassapaññattiṃ paññāpessatīti (manifestation, delineation). Teaching by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo, Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Kaccāna. [Pāli] [Translation] [Proliferation] [Perception] // [Bhikkhu Bodhi] [Commentaries] [Ajahn Ṭhānissaro]
3. Comment: Dependent origination is not necessarily time-based. [Dependent origination] [Conditionality] [Proliferation] [Perception]
Response by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo.
4. “Can one sense-bases that starts the proliferation process lead to different sense-bases?” Answered by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Pasanno. [Sense bases] [Conditionality] [Proliferation] [Perception] // [Feeling] [Heart/mind]
5. Examples of signs and secondary characteristics of sense objects? Answered by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Pasanno. [Sense bases] [Proliferation] [Perception] // [Ven. Analayo] [Sensual desire] [Conditionality] [Food] [Appropriate attention]
Sutta: Thig 14.1: Subhā.
Comment about the feedback loop of perceptions looking for reinforcing perceptions. [Perception] [Views] [Clinging]
Quote: “The underlying tendency to aversion is like a search engine.” — Ajahn Sucitto. Quoted by Beth Steff. [Ajahn Sucitto] [Aversion] [Similes] [Perception]
6. “Could you talk about the role memory plays in perception?” [Memory] [Perception]
4. “Could you speak on working with sanna in meditation? Over these days there is an experience of heightened sensitivity to perception and the initial contact that gives rise to thought and feeling. In particular, I notice how an inaccurate perception, seen as inaccurate, gives rise to thought formations that move forward as if based on an accurate perception. This moves fast in the mind feels somewhat trippy and disorienting. How does one develop the skill of sensitivity and perception so as to have durability in daily life?” [Perception] [Dependent origination] [Everyday life]
7. “Do thoughts by themselves have karmic consequences?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Kamma] [Directed thought and evaluation] // [Perception] [Feeling] [Volition] [Self-identity view]
Sutta: MN 56: Upāli
Follow-up: “Is it good kamma to decide not to act on an unskillful thought?” [Skillful qualities]
Story: A person talks with Ajahn Liem, analyzing their consistently bad thoughts and obsessions. He replies, "If you see a pile of excrement, why would you want to stick your nose in it?" Told by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Ajahn Liem] [Unskillful qualities] [Similes] [Fierce/direct teaching] [Culture/Thailand] [Thai Forest Tradition]
Comment: I think my problem is that my nose is already in there, and I don't want to realize that I'm so stupid that it's hard to get it out. [Delusion]
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]
3. “The pandemic has given rise to feelings of profound grief and loss in many of us. How can we best work with these emotions to cultivate well-being for ourselves and others?” [Pandemic] [Grief] [Emotion] [Happiness] [Community] // [Self-identity view] [Clinging] [Commerce/economics] [Perception]
7. “In what way are qualities and effects viral? Are right perception, right speech, right thought, and right action also viral?” [Media] [Online community] [Perception] [Right View] [Right Speech] [Right Action] // [Abhayagiri] [History/Western Buddhism] [Mindfulness] [Skillful qualities] [Happiness] [Tranquility] [Trust] [Human]
1. “The reflection on kamma (Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 55) uses language related to family: 'born,' 'heir,' 'related', 'supported.' What are the implications of this?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Kamma] [Family] [Language] // [Community] [Perception]