The Jewel in Mumbai by Bikram Dandiya

"The Global Vipassana Pagoda in Mumbai was built to mark the birth centenary year of Sayagyi U Ba Khin, the Burmese Dhamma teacher of Shri Satya Narayan Goenkaji. The monument is built in the Myanmar style of the Shwedagon pagoda, as a token of gratitude to that country where the essence of the Buddha’s teachings was maintained in its pristine purity, and from where it is now spreading throughout India, and via India to the rest of the world. Our Dhamma teacher Shri S.N. Goenkaji became the vehicle to make this happen. He was also our inspiring guide for every important aspect of this building project. Tremendous volition and effort went into the building of this staggering monument and it is interesting and educative to explore the journey.

"Mr. Bikram Dandiya has beautifully chronicled some of these experiences in his booklet, “The Jewel in Mumbai”, the story of the making of the crystal bud atop the Global Vipassana Pagoda. Although his story concentrates on a specific part of this enormous structure, it typifies the challenges and solutions witnessed by those of us closely involved in its creation. For example, experts had opined that it was not possible to construct a 325 foot wide stone dome without supporting pillars; the dome went up thanks to indigenous technology, using thousands of huge interlocking stones weighing 700 to 800 kg each, and now seemingly floating in the air!"

narrated by Bikram Dandiya

Listen to Streaming Audio

Download Audio (12MB)

Audio copyright, 2024 Pariyatti

Available at Pariyatti at https://store.pariyatti.org/jewel-in-mumbai as a papaerback, free PDF download, and free audiobook. In Hindi as a PDF download.

View more books and audio resources available in the Pariyatti bookstore.

A Journey into Buddhism by Elizabeth J. A. Harris

"The themes of the talks are rooted in my journey, as a Christian, into Buddhism. In the mid-1980s I felt the need to ’let go’ of my own religious conditioning to enter the world of another faith. It grew from a conviction that people with an interest in religion should not remain imprisoned within one framework but should explore others. The choice of Buddhism and Sri Lanka was a natural one for me. Buddhism’s emphasis on meditation and non-violence touched my own interests as a Christian, and a visit to Sri Lanka in 1984 had left me with the feeling that my link with the island was not finished.

I originally intended to be in Sri Lanka for one year. One year, however, became seven and a half, from 1986 until 1993. My aim throughout was not only to study Buddhism but to practise it. I did not consider myself involved in ’interfaith dialogue’ although I’m sure some perceived my actions in this way. I wanted to enter Buddhism on its own terms, as a human being rather than as a Christian."

narrated by Ethan Christy

Listen to Streaming Audio

Download Audio (25MB)

Audio copyright, 2024 Pariyatti

Available at Pariyatti: https://store.pariyatti.org/journey-into-buddhism-audiobook.

More by Elizabeth Harris.

View more books and audio resources available in the Pariyatti bookstore.

Deconstructing Constructions: The Role of Saṅkhārā in the Buddha’s Discourses by Bhikkhu Bodhi

In this paper I intend to explore the Pāli term saṅkhārā, one of the pivotal concepts in the Buddha’s discourses. The Pāli word has such a rich gamut of meanings that merely to draw them out into the open sheds a flood of light on the Buddha’s understanding of reality. The word occurs in a variety of contexts that are subtly and intricately interwoven. To explore their contextual meanings and track down their interconnections will reveal the rigor of the Buddha’s philosophical vision and the coherence of his teaching in expressing that vision in language and concepts.

narrated by Jonathan Nelson

Listen to Streaming Audio

Download Audio (25MB)

Audio copyright, 2024 Pariyatti

Investigating the Dhamma as a book and eBook can be found at https://store.pariyatti.org/investigating-the-dhamma.

More by Bhikkhu Bodhi.

View more books and audio resources available in the Pariyatti bookstore.

Your Best Friend: And Other Essays by M. B. Werapitiya.

"To understand ourselves, we must live with ourselves and know all about ourselves. The mind for that matter is flickering, fickle, difficult to guard and control and flutters like a fish taken out of its watery abode and thrown upon the land. Somebody causes you hurt and although the aggressor has disappeared from sight, the hurt grows within you and every so often keeps surfacing with an overpowering intensity to give you a warp. Then again, you see something that has captured your attention and your mind has instantly photographed it from every conceivable angle with a see-through lens, developed it in your mental dark-room, brought out the prints and enlargements with the skill of an expert cameraman and processor rolled into one. Similarly, all the sense faculties and the mind are of high sensitivity and respond to anything and everything exciting. If the degree of excitement is not sufficiently satisfying, you step it up with the use of drugs, intoxicants and poisons. This activity goes on unabated and makes of you a human derelict. A wise person living in his mind protects himself holding himself dear. Such a person whose senses are subdued, whose pride is destroyed and is free from corruptions, is calm of mind, speech and action and rightly knows, and is perfectly peaceful and equipoised."

narrated by Tejendra Patel

Listen to Streaming Audio

Download Audio (19MB)

Audio copyright, 2024 Pariyatti

View more books and audio resources available in the Pariyatti bookstore.

Part 6 - Expanding Into New Frontiers from 'What Does Mindfulness Really Mean' by Bhikkhu Bodhi
.

Mindfulness has traveled a long way from its homeland in

narrated by Jonathan Nelson

Listen to Streaming Audio

Audio copyright, 2023 Pariyatti

'Investigating the Dhamma' as a book and eBook can be found at https://store.pariyatti.org/investigating-the-dhamma.

More by Bhikkhu Bodhi.

View more books and audio resources available in the Pariyatti bookstore.

Part 5 - Clear Comprehension from 'What Does Mindfulness Really Mean' by Bhikkhu Bodhi
.

While I said just before that clear comprehension plays a more

narrated by Jonathan Nelson

Listen to Streaming Audio

Audio copyright, 2023 Pariyatti

'Investigating the Dhamma' as a book and eBook can be found at https://store.pariyatti.org/investigating-the-dhamma.

More by Bhikkhu Bodhi.

View more books and audio resources available in the Pariyatti bookstore.

Part 4 - What the Suttas Say from 'What Does Mindfulness Really Mean' by Bhikkhu Bodhi
.

Nevertheless, despite my reservations about the use of “bare attention” as an alternative expression for sati, if we consider how mindfulness is to be practiced in the system laid down in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, we can find considerable support for the idea that the initial task of sati is to “keep to a bare registering of the facts observed” as free as possible from distorting conceptual elaborations. The problem, as I see it, is not with conceptualization itself, but with conceptualization that ascribes erroneous attributes to the objects and the experiential act itself. An experiential event can be viewed as a field distributed between two poles, the objective datum and the subjective act that cognizes it. Ordinarily, on account of the spontaneous functioning of unenlightened consciousness, this polarity is reified into a sharp duality of subject and object. The subjective pole seems to coalesce into a substantially existent “I,” an ego-self that hovers in the background as an autonomous and independent entity. The objective pole presents itself as an object that is there “for me,” ready to serve or oppose my purposes; thus it becomes a potential object of craving or aversion. This process is what the suttas refer to as “I-making” and “mine-making” (ahaṃkāra mamaṃkāra). It is the task of meditation to dismantle this structure by penetrating the selfless nature of all phenomena, whether pertaining to the objective or subjective poles of the experience.

narrated by Jonathan Nelson

Listen to Streaming Audio

Audio copyright, 2023 Pariyatti

'Investigating the Dhamma' as a book and eBook can be found at https://store.pariyatti.org/investigating-the-dhamma.

More by Bhikkhu Bodhi.

View more books and audio resources available in the Pariyatti bookstore.

Part 3 - Mindfulness and Bare Attention from 'What Does Mindfulness Really Mean' by Bhikkhu Bodhi
.

Many commentators who teach and practice in the contemporary vipassana movement have sought to convey the experiential flavor of mindfulness by means of the expression “bare attention.” With certain reservations (which I will discuss), I believe this characterization is acceptable if understood as a procedural directive for cultivating mindfulness in accordance with certain methods. It helps a novice meditator who has newly embarked on this unfamiliar enterprise get a grip on the appropriate way to observe the phenomenal field. The purpose of the expression would then be seen as pragmatic rather than doctrinal, as pedagogical rather than definitive.

narrated by Jonathan Nelson

Listen to Streaming Audio

Audio copyright, 2023 Pariyatti

'Investigating the Dhamma' as a book and eBook can be found at https://store.pariyatti.org/investigating-the-dhamma.

More by Bhikkhu Bodhi.

View more books and audio resources available in the Pariyatti bookstore.

Part 2 - The Meaning of Sati from 'What Does Mindfulness Really Mean' by Bhikkhu Bodhi
.

A problem in hermeneutics, with intimate bearings on the actual

narrated by Jonathan Nelson

Listen to Streaming Audio

Audio copyright, 2023 Pariyatti

'Investigating the Dhamma' as a book and eBook can be found at https://store.pariyatti.org/investigating-the-dhamma.

More by Bhikkhu Bodhi.

View more books and audio resources available in the Pariyatti bookstore.

Part 1 - Mindfulness in the Buddhist Path from 'What Does Mindfulness Really Mean' by Bhikkhu Bodhi

The entry of systematic mindfulness practice into the fields of stress reduction and psychotherapy has dramatically altered modern medicine’s perspectives on our capacity to regulate and overcome our human vulnerabilities. Mindfulness made its debut as a therapeutic discipline in 1979, when Jon Kabat-Zinn introduced his program of “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction” at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. Since then its use to reduce pain and stress has been adopted by hundreds of medical centers, hospitals, and clinics around the world. The application of mindfulness in clinical settings has spread beyond stress reduction to psychotherapy, where it has proven a potent tool for helping patients deal with such conditions as depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorders.

narrated by Jonathan Nelson

Listen to Streaming Audio

Download Audio (6.1MB)

Audio copyright, 2023 Pariyatti

'Investigating the Dhamma' as a book and eBook can be found at https://store.pariyatti.org/investigating-the-dhamma.

More by Bhikkhu Bodhi.

View more books and audio resources available in the Pariyatti bookstore.