The Way of Non-Attachment (Dhiravamsa)
Vipassana Meets Krishnamurti
[My 3-star Amazon review (NDA) of “The Way of Non-Attachment: The Practice of Insight Meditation” by Dhiravamsa.]
It had been close to forty years since I last read this book, and since I have it on my recommended Spiritual Reading List (which I include in the books I write), I decided to give it another read, knowing that what I now know about spirituality and Vipassana exceeds what I knew four decades ago.
What attracted me about this book when I initially read it was the fact that the author, a former long-time Thai Buddhist monk, marries the teachings of J. Krishnamurti with those of Buddhism and Insight (or Vipassana) meditation. Although the author, Dhiravamsa, never mentions Krishnamurti (K), those who have studied K’s teachings will quickly recognize Dhiravamsa’s expropriation of them. Here are a few examples from the book.
“When we indulge in hoping, we are building up resistance to what is at this moment and trying to escape into what should be. This resistance blocks the flow of dynamic living.”
“To see the wholeness of what is really there requires total attention and awareness.”
“We must revolt against everything accumulated but the mind, but the state of revolution is not possible unless the mind is aware… Therefore to be radically revolutionary, we must be fully aware every moment of living, doing, speaking and thinking. In this way, self-interest is not at work and you become absolutely nothing. It is only when you are nothing that you are omplete – completely integrated – because there is no separation within.”
“Self-control cannot be built up through external or imposed discipline, because this would be force countercting force and would result in rigidity or deadlock. Intead, flexibility through clear awareness is required, freedom, which is the true source of control, independent of codes of conduct but flowing from the source of right action.”
Dhiravamsa also alludes to the indirectness of the Advaita Vedanta approach of finding out who is aware, or who one is. He writes: “if you ask “Who is aware, then the activity of awareness in the present moment is sidetracked. Simplicity is essential, and although at first it may be difficult, it becomes easier with practice.”
Dhiravamsa’s discourse fails to impress when he “creatively,” throughout the text, interprets the Buddha’s Dharma. For example, he writes, “The whole point of Buddhism may be summarized as living in the present.” Wrong. The whole point of Buddhism is entering Nirvana, the Unmanifest.
Dhiravamsa understands that energy is involved in the Awakening project, but apart from a couple of brief, surface-level paragraphs on the subject, he has nothing substantive to say on this. He writes: “When we turn the circles into a spiral, it becomes kind of a bridge leading us to the stream of Nirvana or the stream of life, eternity, immortality or whatever word we would like to use. The stream is the flow of life, the flow of energy. It must flow not only in the meditation period, but in life in general. To remain clear and objective, our ordinary consciousness should depend on this basis of the stream-of-life consciousness.”
An astute Mindfulness teacher/author would explain the energetic dimension of mindfulness meditation in the context of the Four Jhanas. Dhiravamsa not only fails to this, but provides just a single paragraph on the Jhanas:
“Some people think that to purify the mind one must have an experience of Jhana, or meditative absorption or ecstasy. Such a state arises when momentary concentration becomes continuous, but it is not a fixation of the mind, but a steadiness of mental functions which work in harmony without creating obstructions or problems. In this state, the mind is being purified every moment, and if this continues for some time the flow of intuitive wisdom allows us to see the truth.”
Dhiravamsa’s paragraph hardly does the Jhanas justice. The Jhanas comprise the eighth and final limb (Contemplation) of the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path, and it is impossible to attain Nirvana without experiencing the progressively intense descent of the Stream (Holy Spirit, or Sambhogakaya) via the infused contemplative states of the Jhanas.
Dhiravamsa provides an Appendix titled The Principles of Vipassana Meditation wherein he he elaborates the Buddha’s Four Foundations of Mindfulness. Unfortunately, his elaboration is grossly flawed because he, inexcusably, cuts out the final instructions provided by the Buddha at the end of each of the Foundations upon concentration being established. According to the Buddha, once concentration is established via any of the Four Foundations, the practioner then “abides detached and grasps at nothing at at all in the world.” It is hard to believe that the author of a text entitled “The Way of Non-Attachment” would delete the very instructions to abide detached in the Buddha’s seminal Mindfulness techings, yet this is what Dhiravamsa does.
Right now, I’m debating if I want to keep this book on my recommended Spiritual Reading List. Its plus is that it integrates Krishnamurti’s teachings with the practice of Insight Meditation, and its negative is that it doesn’t do the Buddha’s Mindfulness teachings justice.
[My 3-star Amazon review (NDA) of “The Way of Non-Attachment: The Practice of Insight Meditation” by Dhiravamsa.]
It had been close to forty years since I last read this book, and since I have it on my recommended Spiritual Reading List (which I include in the books I write), I decided to give it another read, knowing that what I now know about spirituality and Vipassana exceeds what I knew four decades ago.
What attracted me about this book when I initially read it was the fact that the author, a former long-time Thai Buddhist monk, marries the teachings of J. Krishnamurti with those of Buddhism and Insight (or Vipassana) meditation. Although the author, Dhiravamsa, never mentions Krishnamurti (K), those who have studied K’s teachings will quickly recognize Dhiravamsa’s expropriation of them. Here are a few examples from the book.
“When we indulge in hoping, we are building up resistance to what is at this moment and trying to escape into what should be. This resistance blocks the flow of dynamic living.”
“To see the wholeness of what is really there requires total attention and awareness.”
“We must revolt against everything accumulated but the mind, but the state of revolution is not possible unless the mind is aware… Therefore to be radically revolutionary, we must be fully aware every moment of living, doing, speaking and thinking. In this way, self-interest is not at work and you become absolutely nothing. It is only when you are nothing that you are omplete – completely integrated – because there is no separation within.”
“Self-control cannot be built up through external or imposed discipline, because this would be force countercting force and would result in rigidity or deadlock. Intead, flexibility through clear awareness is required, freedom, which is the true source of control, independent of codes of conduct but flowing from the source of right action.”
Dhiravamsa also alludes to the indirectness of the Advaita Vedanta approach of finding out who is aware, or who one is. He writes: “if you ask “Who is aware, then the activity of awareness in the present moment is sidetracked. Simplicity is essential, and although at first it may be difficult, it becomes easier with practice.”
Dhiravamsa’s discourse fails to impress when he “creatively,” throughout the text, interprets the Buddha’s Dharma. For example, he writes, “The whole point of Buddhism may be summarized as living in the present.” Wrong. The whole point of Buddhism is entering Nirvana, the Unmanifest.
Dhiravamsa understands that energy is involved in the Awakening project, but apart from a couple of brief, surface-level paragraphs on the subject, he has nothing substantive to say on this. He writes: “When we turn the circles into a spiral, it becomes kind of a bridge leading us to the stream of Nirvana or the stream of life, eternity, immortality or whatever word we would like to use. The stream is the flow of life, the flow of energy. It must flow not only in the meditation period, but in life in general. To remain clear and objective, our ordinary consciousness should depend on this basis of the stream-of-life consciousness.”
An astute Mindfulness teacher/author would explain the energetic dimension of mindfulness meditation in the context of the Four Jhanas. Dhiravamsa not only fails to this, but provides just a single paragraph on the Jhanas:
“Some people think that to purify the mind one must have an experience of Jhana, or meditative absorption or ecstasy. Such a state arises when momentary concentration becomes continuous, but it is not a fixation of the mind, but a steadiness of mental functions which work in harmony without creating obstructions or problems. In this state, the mind is being purified every moment, and if this continues for some time the flow of intuitive wisdom allows us to see the truth.”
Dhiravamsa’s paragraph hardly does the Jhanas justice. The Jhanas comprise the eighth and final limb (Contemplation) of the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path, and it is impossible to attain Nirvana without experiencing the progressively intense descent of the Stream (Holy Spirit, or Sambhogakaya) via the infused contemplative states of the Jhanas.
Dhiravamsa provides an Appendix titled The Principles of Vipassana Meditation wherein he he elaborates the Buddha’s Four Foundations of Mindfulness. Unfortunately, his elaboration is grossly flawed because he, inexcusably, cuts out the final instructions provided by the Buddha at the end of each of the Foundations upon concentration being established. According to the Buddha, once concentration is established via any of the Four Foundations, the practioner then “abides detached and grasps at nothing at at all in the world.” It is hard to believe that the author of a text entitled “The Way of Non-Attachment” would delete the very instructions to abide detached in the Buddha’s seminal Mindfulness techings, yet this is what Dhiravamsa does.
Right now, I’m debating if I want to keep this book on my recommended Spiritual Reading List. Its plus is that it integrates Krishnamurti’s teachings with the practice of Insight Meditation, and its negative is that it doesn’t do the Buddha’s Mindfulness teachings justice.
