A person can develop a mental tendency to be very trustful. He can trust all sort things that he should not and therefore be easy to scam by scammers, fall for propaganda, etc.
In the same way, one can develop a mental tendency to be very doubtfull. He can doubt even things that he should not. There is even the philosophy of postmodernism that is encouraging this. A person with this tendency strongly developed can even doubt weather the world is round or flat.
This might also refer to something else. For example a soldier might be doubtful that they can win the war. This doubt would lower his moral and therefore be unbeneficial for his goal.
Though there are six or so parallels of Anapanasati Sutta in the SN, the main one is MN118. So, it would seem you didn’t address my question re your reading of the SN. I’m guessing you didn’t notice them being presented as a progression, that is, from one to the other, step by step.
I would suggest people study the difference between the SN versions and MN 118 carefully. I regard MN 118 as the later and less preferable verison to study than the SN parallels.
The SN parallels are all the same sutta just being repeated and told to different audiences. MN 118 is mostly the same as the SN parallel, but there’s one big difference.
There are 20 suttas in SN 54, the anapanasati samyutta. Around sutta #7, there’s a shift, where the first 6 suttas the Buddha described the practice of 16 APS as anapanasati. In the remaining suttas from 7-20, where the 6 MN 118 parallels reside, the Buddha starts calling the same 16 APS as 16 APSS (anapanasati-samadhi).
It looks to me like Theravada over time changed by trying to segregate “sati” from the 8aam (noble eightfold path), whereas the earlier suttas there was more organic coherence and unity.
SN 54, “13 (3) Ananda (1)” appears to go through the satta bojjhaṅgā “coming to fulfilment” in progressive order – establishing one enables establishing the next – identically to MN 118 (other than being directed to “bhikkhus” rather than “Ananda”). Likewise, apparently, the variants in 14, 15, and 16. That is not “step by step”?
I’m getting a lot of email from this thread so I’ve made this simple to understand. I was at a class on Sunday and ajahn brahm clearly explains the five hinderences in his last installment of the word of the Buddha. You guys are way off topic. Please create another thread if you want to continue your discussion.
Our discussion seems to have gotten off topic. In any case, thanks for that clear answer. Yes, that indeed reads as step by step, to me.
It is encouraging to see ‘step by step’ presentations of practice. Though the 37bhj do not seem to fit the pattern of the ‘step by step’ path identified by Dr Rod Bucknell back in the 1980s, which I believe is generally authentic, as it follows the pattern of ethics, meditation and wisdom, as the Tenfold Path Does, unlike the ‘Noble Eightfold Path’.
