dakaornot?

The speaker discusses the difference between Dacca-Dacchini and secular forms of Buddhism. Dacca-Dacchini focuses on concentration and facing one's emotions and sensations until they dissipate. It believes in gaining enlightenment in one lifetime. On the other hand, secular Buddhism emphasizes mindfulness and teachings that alleviate suffering. It rejects mysticism. The speaker highlights the individual differences and sects within Buddhism and warns about the dangers of blindly following a guru. The effectiveness of Buddhism is left for individuals to discover. Hi everyone, I thought I'd talk a little bit about an idea that may seem contrary to do with Buddhism, the difference between Dacca-Dacchini and the secular forms of Buddhism. I remember Ajahn Sumedho, who was a student of Ajahn Chah, another monk, a Theravadan or Hinayana. Apparently the term Hinayana is only used in Vajrayana occasionally and there are one or two sects that use the word Hinayana. It means small vehicle and the greater vehicle, the Mahayana, which probably came first before the smaller vehicles, the tightness. The tightness always comes later. These are the rules, this is the way things are, this is the prescribed way of thinking. So the Mahayana or the large vehicle probably came first. The Buddha would change a lot of his teachings as he wandered about and experienced more of what his teaching was doing. That's an important thing. Anyway, I thought I'd talk about the difference between the idea of magic, which is used in Vajrayana and Shingon and other systems that are kind of mystical, and the idea that there is no mysticism in Buddhism, a secular or atheistic form of Buddhism and mindfulness and the teachings that avoid suffering. This is quite an important distinction because a lot of people don't accept it. They say, well it's religion, it's rubbish. You know, Buddhism is a religion, it's rubbish. But not everybody uses it in the same way. Not everybody is a Buddhist according to the rules and regulations set up by one group. Just like within any religion, you have various sects, you have various ways of thinking and you have individual differences in the way that people approach things. So a very, let's say, hardened form of, or an absolutist form of Buddhism would be Dachayana, the idea of concentration and focus, Zen ideas, where basically you sit facing a wall until you, it just exhausts, you exhaust yourself, all the rubbish, all the garbage, all the things, all the arisings, all the emotions, all the sensations, all this nonsense, you have to face it, deal with it, and eventually it dissipates, or you realise that all this stuff is not real. So this is a very hardened way of practising. And it's based upon the idea that you can gain enlightenment, or understanding, or wisdom, or personal empowerment in one lifetime. Vajrayana, which is, many people consider it, they sometimes call it the fourth turning of the wheel. Do they call it the fourth turning of the wheel, or the third turning of the wheel? I don't know how many turnings. It doesn't really matter. There's all these various ways of describing things. But they very often think of themselves as having a secret transmission, an esoteric transmission, an extra transmission, a transmission that came from all the Buddhas, all the awakened ones, and again, it was a one lifetime system. So you can gain enlightenment or wisdom, understanding of who you are, what you are, and self-improvement, self-empowerment in one lifetime. It's actually more dangerous in a lot of ways, because if your guru, your lama, your rinpoche, that is your dakka, your person of wisdom, if they're in fact not very wise, or not very able in themselves, they don't have any wisdom or enlightenment, they just are used as a personification of that, you can of course be led into all kinds of nonsense ideas and nonsense practices, and that happens. That happens. It can happen in any system. It can happen in any system, any religion, and anything that people are involved in. You can move in a particular direction that has absolutely no use for you, and yet you go along with it, because you know nothing else. Anyway, some things to think about. Does Buddhism work? Does it not work? It's for you to find out, not for me to tell you how to do that, or where to do it, or whatever. Anyway, bye now.