Pure and Simple

The Extraordinary Teachings of a Thai Buddhist Laywoman

Upasika Kee Nanayon, Thanissaro

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780861714926
• eBook ISBN: 9780861717514
• Topic: Teologia e religione
• Subtopic: Buddismo

Upasika Kee was a uniquely powerful spiritual teacher. Evocative of the great Ajahn Chah, her teachings are earthy, refreshingly direct, and hard-hitting. In the twentieth century, she grew to become one of the most famous teachers in Thailand--male or female--all the more remarkable because, rarer still, she was not a monastic but a layperson. Her relentless honesty, along with her encouraging voice, is one reason so many contemporary Buddhist teachers recall Upasika Kee so fondly, and so often. With this book, readers seeking something reminiscent of the classic Mindfulness in Plain English can receive instruction on meditation practice as they become acquainted with the legacy of a renowned Buddhist figure. Pure and Simple, the first widely-available collection of her writings, will be gratefully received not only by those who knew Upasika Kee, but by anyone who encounters her for the first time in its pages.

INDEX

A

absorption. See mental absorption (jhāna)

addictions, 87–88, 115, 136

aggregate (khandha), 239

See also five aggregates

anger, 31, 43, 216

anusaya. See obsession

apt attention, 132

arahants, 19, 34, 59, 177, 227, 239

arising and disbanding

contemplation of, 30–31, 221

Dhamma as phenomenon of, 24

in the mind, 10, 28–29

natural phenomenon of, 166–67

of perceptions, 29

of phenomena, 2, 10, 169

of sensations, 31

truths of, 21, 25

ariya-sacca. See Noble Truths

attachment

to the body, 1–2, 9–10, 90, 114, 168–69, 180–82, 202–3

as cause of suffering, 17, 107, 112, 151–52, 154–55

and circle of rebirth, 14–15

to defilements, 40

freedom from, 67, 83, 222

letting go of, 106–23, 191, 220

meaning and, 156

by the mind, 103–5, 124–26, 129–33, 164–65, 168–70, 209

to sensations, 97–98

and sense of self, 59, 105, 192, 205

aversion, 68, 82, 113

avijjā. See ignorance

Awakening

gained by arahants, 227

insights and, 173

instants of, 160

levels of, 241

path to, 59

awareness

See also mindfulness

of breathing, 11–12

eliminates suffering and defilement, 35

within the heart, 22

illusions within, 184

inner, 37–38, 41

maintaining, 19–29, 104–5, 123–39

of the mind, 5–6, 13, 153

of pain, 153–54

pure and simple, 204–5, 224–26

right, 211

B

becoming, 225

birth, 14, 106, 118, 120, 148, 160, 169

See also rebirth

boastfulness. See p...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Prologue
• Looking Inward
• Breath Meditation Condensed
• Going Against the Flow
• A Good Dose of Dhamma: For Meditators When They Are Ill
• Reading the Mind
• Pure and Simple
• Appendix
• Glossary
• Index