Advayavada Study Plan – week 9 (2209) – samyak-karmanta

The purpose of the autonomous and open-ended 13-week Advayavada Study Plan (ASP), which can conveniently be repeated four times in a calendar year, is that we study and debate in a local group, the family circle or with good friends the meaning and implications of the weekly subject, not as a formal and impersonal intellectual exercise, but in the context of whatever we ourselves are presently doing or are concerned with, or about, or affected by, such as our health, relationships and responsibilities, work, and study, as well as our physical and social environment and circumstances, etc.

In weeks 1 to 5 we again treated the preliminary subjects; in week 6 we again honestly reviewed and took stock of, and responsibility for, our personal situation at this time (first step on the Noble Eightfold Path); in week 7 we again took an appropriate and timely decision to adjust our course, bearing in mind that truly commendable individual initiatives are those which are in agreement with wondrous overall existence and take us forward at the fundamental level of our life (second step); and in week 8, in order to lay a strong foundation for achieving our goal, we again privately committed our decision and improved objective to paper as precisely as possible (third step).

To continue with this first quarter’s 13-week ASP, during this week, week 9, we shall further cultivate and develop our very best attitude and commitment to be able to improve our way of life as we aspire, in our quest to become a true part of the wondrous whole.

This task is based on the fourth step on the Noble Eightfold Path: samma-kammanta (in Pali) or samyak-karmanta (in Sanskrit); in Advayavada Buddhism’s fully personalized usage: our very best disposition or attitude; in Dutch: onze beste instelling of houding (de vierde stap op het edele achtvoudige pad). Adherence to the five precepts (not to kill, not to steal, sexual restraint, not to lie, and refraining from alcohol and drugs) and to follow this weekly ASP conscientiously is, of course, already proof of a serious and positive attitude.

See further advayavada dot org/#plan and/or ‘The purpose of the Advayavada Study Plan’ on advayavadabuddhism dot org . Please feel free to share this post.