How Did Lord Buddha actually Teach lay practitioners- discussion in lieu of current practices

Discussion
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Vandami Ven Bhante & Bhikkhuni, and greetings to the learned friends.

I intend to ask: How did Lord Buddha dispense his valuable teachings to the lay practitioners? Today, even when we attend modern-day retreats, such as the one led by S.N. Goenka, there is a need for hand-holding, which continues long afterward.

Even Ven. Analayo’s mindfulness of breathing instructions and its four tetrads progression are not easy.

The context of this is very relevant today, especially to a lay practitioner like me, who may not be striving for nibbana at this point in time but is looking to better their miserable phase of life, and who is not committed to a teacher per se (I respect every teacher who taught me) but is committed to Dhamma. So, is there not a very simple instruction for laypeople, maybe, which I could practice and strive to live by?

An instruction that makes me strive on this path of Dhamma, realizing the truths of Dhamma and reducing my ego, improving selflessness and compassion in my life.

I thank you all for your time & patience

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Hello, there. :slight_smile:

For starters, while it was addressed to a nun, I think AN 8.53 does a good job of explaining the Dharma in plain, memorable terms that can be applied to a wide range of situations:

"Gotami, the qualities of which you may know, ‘These qualities lead to passion, not to dispassion; to being fettered, not to being unfettered; to accumulating, not to shedding; to self-aggrandizement, not to modesty; to discontent, not to contentment; to entanglement, not to seclusion; to laziness, not to aroused persistence; to being burdensome, not to being unburdensome’: You may categorically hold, ‘This is not the Dhamma, this is not the Vinaya, this is not the Teacher’s instruction.’

“As for the qualities of which you may know, ‘These qualities lead to dispassion, not to passion; to being unfettered, not to being fettered; to shedding, not to accumulating; to modesty, not to self-aggrandizement; to contentment, not to discontent; to seclusion, not to entanglement; to aroused persistence, not to laziness; to being unburdensome, not to being burdensome’: You may categorically hold, ‘This is the Dhamma, this is the Vinaya, this is the Teacher’s instruction.’”

Otherwise, you can go to Comprehensive Index of Pāli Suttas and go to “Lay life” section. There’s a mix of suttas about both the dangers and duties of lay life, and beneficial practices.

Thanks for your courteous words. :slight_smile:

:lotus:

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Thank you for your reply and guidance.

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Here is some stuff I’ve collected on the topic. Scroll down to the “Canonical Works” for the suttas specifically:

https://buddhistuniversity.net/tags/lay

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Thank you very much Ven bhikku. I am very much indebted for the source you shared.

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I think the most basic one is doing Uposatha days and upholding the eight precepts as frequently as possible. Most of the advice the Buddha gives to live a good life is basic advice that you can find anywhere, really. If the only goal that you have is to improve your life no need to be a Buddhist really. Do therapy, eat healthy, do exercises, do your obligations, cultivate good friendship, spend less than you make etc.

Personally, I woundn’t advise someone who is not looking for Nibbana to read the suttas or “meditate” if this “meditation” is what one thinks is the practice. But, in psychology this kind of meditation can be very good to improve your life.

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Maybe this is what I am wanting to hear, someone recently asked me what I am looking for through this practice & that shook me, not in the sense I never took refuge in Dhamma, but I was mainly trying to cultivate compassion to serve better ( I work as a doctor in my country). However I do meditate daily - an hour or even two per day and try to be mindful in between, but I started digging deeper into the suttas, the techniques, the traditions & got more confused than ever.

I am really glad I got to hear your view out & I believe it helped me, Thank you good friend.

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To supplement the already wonderful advice you’ve already received, I will add excerpts from two of my favorite discourses on just this topic.

The first is from SN 55.53 and is a directive delivered to the lay teacher Dhammadinna and his 500 lay disciples:

“May the Buddha please advise and instruct us. It will be for our lasting welfare and happiness.”

“So, Dhammadinna, you should all train like this: ‘From time to time we will undertake and dwell upon the discourses spoken by the Realized One that are deep, profound, transcendent, dealing with emptiness.’ That’s how you should train yourselves.”

The second, from AN 5.176, was addressed to Anāthapiṇḍika and his own band of 500 lay disciples:

“Householders, you have supplied the mendicant Saṅgha with robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick. But you should not be content with just this much. So you should train like this: ‘How can we, from time to time, enter and dwell in the rapture of seclusion?’ That’s how you should train.”

If you have time, perhaps you might go to the full discourses themselves to appreciate the excerpted sections within their proper contexts. In addition, @sujato has included some excellent annotations to the first discourse which demonstrate how the two are likely pointing to the same sorts of practice.

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There is also a large section on Dhamma teaching in the CIPS.

Veludavāreyya SN55.7 specifically speaks to your question I think…

“Worthy Gotama, these are our wishes, desires, and hopes. We wish to live at home with our children; to use sandalwood imported from Kāsi; to wear garlands, fragrance, and makeup; and to accept gold and currency. And when our body breaks up, after death, we wish to be reborn in a good place, a heavenly realm. Given that we have such wishes, may the Buddha teach us the Dhamma so that we may achieve them.”

“Householders, I will teach you an explanation of the Dhamma that is relevant for oneself. Listen and apply your mind well, I will speak.”

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One possible framework for lay practitioners to follow is (there can be more) :

Faith, discipline, generosity and wisdom together with learning (suta)

Also there are some teachings given for all 4 groups of Buddhists regardless of their state.

Here is an article that collects some of the related suttas scattered in the canon.

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Hi,

In my view it’s good to have a consistent and daily routine practise to delve deeper into the teachings of the Buddha. These days I myself have been focusing on practising Metta Bhavana (loving kindness) meditation. There are lots of guided instructions on metta meditation on youtube. You could include meditating on compassion, symphatetic joy and equanimity (four Brahmaviharas) during your sitting . The aim of metta meditation is to develop the heart and make metta an active force in your day to day life. Metta helps to counteract ill will within yourself and also in people around you. You could also specifically send metta to your patients and help them to be relieved of mental afflictions to some degree.

The Buddha has said in Samyutta Nikaya that one can protect both oneself and others by practising metta.

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Thank you for your reply

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Sure, thank you for your reply

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(krsna:)

I intend to ask: How did Lord Buddha dispense his valuable teachings to the lay practitioners? Today, even when we attend modern-day retreats, such as the one led by S.N. Goenka, there is a need for hand-holding, which continues long afterward.

Even Ven. Analayo’s mindfulness of breathing instructions and its four tetrads progression are not easy.

The context of this is very relevant today, especially to a lay practitioner like me, who may not be striving for nibbana at this point in time but is looking to better their miserable phase of life, and who is not committed to a teacher per se (I respect every teacher who taught me) but is committed to Dhamma. So, is there not a very simple instruction for laypeople, maybe, which I could practice and strive to live by?

 

I’m someone who looks to the teaching to try to understand and fully experience my own nature.

I feel that the relationships that Gautama described are accurate regardless of whether someone has taken vows or not.

The heart of the teaching I take to be “one-pointedness of mind” as “right concentration” (MN 117), Gautama’s return to concentration after he spoke (MN 36), and the mindfulness of Anapanasati (MN 118) as his way of living:

Monks, if the wanderers who hold other views should thus question you:

‘Friends, in what way of life does Gotama the recluse generally spend the rainy season?’

thus questioned, thus should ye make reply to those wanderers holding other views:

‘Friends, the Exalted One generally spends his time during the rainy season in the intent concentration on in-breathing and out-breathing.’

(SN 54.11, tr. Pali Text Society)

The monks are forbidden from talking about their experience with jhanas with laypeople, so you may have to investigate on your own. “One-pointedness of mind” is interpreted in the Theravadin tradition to be focus on an object of meditation, you may have to discover Mencius’s “released mind” on your own. The fourth concentration, the cessation of activity by choice in the body and in particular in the movements of inhalation and exhalation, is likely a prerequisite to the contemplations Gautama described in Anapanasati for state of mind:

Whatever… is material shape, past, future or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, mean or excellent, or whatever is far or near, (a person), thinking of all this material shape as ‘This is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self’, sees it thus as it really is by means of perfect wisdom. Whatever is feeling… perception… the habitual tendencies… whatever is consciousness, past, future, or present… (that person), thinking of all this consciousness as ‘This is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self’, sees it thus as it really is by means of perfect wisdom. (For one) knowing thus, seeing thus, there are no latent conceits that “I am the doer, mine is the doer” in regard to this consciousness-informed body.

(MN 109; tr. PTS vol III p 68; reprint 1977; parentheticals paraphrase original; emphasis added)

Something I wrote elsewhere, about the fourth concentration:

If you sit, I’m sure you will come to a moment when only extending a lack of any intention to act no matter where consciousness takes place will be your only refuge.

From Gautama’s description of the fourth jhana, “the cessation of inbreathing and outbreathing”:

… seated, (one) suffuses (one’s) body with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind.

(AN 5.28, tr. PTS vol. III pp 18-19, parentheticals paraphrase original)

From AN 10.72:

In-and-out breathing is a thorn to the fourth jhāna.

If you find that to be the case, you can take refuge.