In this episode I am joined by Leigh Brasington, Buddhist meditation teacher to discuss his new book ‘Dependent Origination and Emptiness: SODAPI’.

Leigh lifts the lid on his writing process, including how he overcame severe writer’s block to complete the book that his students had been asking for years, and shares his reasoning for making the book free.

Leigh reveals why he considers the dependent origination to be at the heart of the Buddha’s teaching, and traces different interpretations of the doctrine throughout the Buddhist literature. Leigh draws on the works of Nagarjuna to discuss emptiness, and levels a critique of the teaching of reincarnation which he calls an ‘immortality project’.

Leigh explains why he translates ‘dukkha’ as the hippy slang word ‘bummer’, how he came up with the acronym SODAPI - Streams of Dependently Arising Phenomena Interacting, and offers medium and long term strategy advice for how to practice this powerful method to achieve the liberation of promised in Buddhism.

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Video version at: https://www.guruviking.com/ep122-mysteries-of-dependent-origination-leigh-brasington/

Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.

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Topics include:

00:00 - Intro

01:03 - Leigh’s new book

02:24 - Why the book is free

06:00 - Dharma teacher income

09:35 - What is dependent origination?

13:21 - Inspired by teachers

18:00 - The writing process

20:15 - Overcoming writer’s block

23:00 - Dukkha is a bummer

30:36 - Various sutta presentations on dependent originations

37:55 - Dependencies not causes

43:04 - Consciousness and the body

45:25 - Critique of religious immortality projects

49:12 - kāmataṇhā (NB: Leigh meant to use the word bhavataṇhā, not kāmataṇhā)

52:35 - Moment to moment model

55:17 - Buddhism without reincarnation?

01:01:37 - Jakatta tales and the tulku system

01:08:56 - Short and long term practice strategies

01:16:27 - Is mindfulness of vedana enough to uproot ignorance?

01:19:56 - Nagarjuna and the implications of the emptiness doctrine

01:23:43 - How did Leigh come up with SODAPI?

01:29:07 - Sañña and the Honeyball Sutta

01:32:27 - How to practice dependent origination for jhana meditators

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Previous episodes with Leigh:

- https://www.guruviking.com/?s=BRASINGTON

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To find out more about Leigh, visit:

- http://leighb.com

Read Leigh’s new book ‘Dependent Origination and Emptiness: SODAPI’:

- http://sodapi.leighb.com/download.htm

For more interviews, videos, and more visit:

- www.guruviking.com

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Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James