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Notes on video lecture:
The Eightfold Path and the Matrix
Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
doctrine, Abrahamic, truths, clearly, Matrix, delusion, unpleasant, Dharma, work, gossip, unsatisfactoriness, Asia, abandonment, last, liberation, commandments, Livelihood, unsatisfactoriness, nirvana, misconceptions, mean, bad, enlightenment
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first two noble             
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the bad news and good news respectively
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the bad news is that life is full of                                     
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the good news is that we have at least isolated the cause: craving, clinging to things that don't         
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third and fourth noble truth
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more good news and then some        news
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the third noble truth tells us what the cure is, i.e. the                        of craving and clinging
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the fourth noble truth spells out the path you are going to have to follow to obtain full                     , and it turns out that it is an eightfold path, i.e. eight things you have to master if you want to be liberated:
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1. Right View
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2. Right Intention
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3. Right Speech (virtue)
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4. Right Action (virtue)
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5. Right                      (virtue)
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6. Right Effort
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7. Right Mindfulness (meditation)
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8. Right Concentration (meditation)
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many people are surprised that so many items on the list do not have to do with mediation
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most lay Buddhists in          don't meditate at all
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many Buddhist monks meditate
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many people in the West feel that Buddhism doesn't have this hangup that the                    religions have, that there are not all these oppressive lists of do's and don'ts
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however, 3, 4, and 5, have quite a bit of overlap with the ten                          and in some ways they are more demanding
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e.g. 3. Right Speech
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don't say things that are not true, avoid idle             , don't say          things about people
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7 and 8
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more heavy lifting: abandon craving and clinging, lose our aversion to                      things
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this isn't just liberation, it's                           
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meditative practice exists on a spectrum
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one end: therapeutic practice
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come home from          stressed out
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ten minutes of medication
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don't think about any Buddhist                 
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if you can't eliminate all of your                                     , you can eliminate some of it
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other end: practice with goal to achieve               
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in the middle: spiritual practice
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not just about self help
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desire to become a better person
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see world more clearly
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desire to strip yourself from delusions and misconceptions that seem to be happy for human beings
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spiritual practice is about more than self-help
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the Matrix
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modern psychology nor mainstream Buddhism tells us that we are as deluded about reality
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as in in The              movie
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many western Buddhists identify with this film
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call it a              movie
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allegory of a process of overcoming                  in a significant sense and fighting for liberation
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Buddhist practice in this sense involves having a little Keanu Reeves
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someone who is adamant about seeing things more               
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Buddhist enlightenment
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what a psychologist today would say your consciousness would be like if you stripped it of all the                              and delusions that seem to be built into us by natural selection
Naturalistic Buddhism
Feelings and Illusions
The First Two Noble Truths
Buddhism as Rebellion Against Natural Selection's Agenda
The Eightfold Path and the Matrix
Mindful Meditation
The Default Mode Network
The Evolution and Purpose of Feelings
Anātman: Buddha's Concept of the Not-Self
The Five Aggregates and the Non-Self
Left Brain, Right Brain, and The Self
Delusions of the Self
What Mental Modules Are Not
The Modular Theory of the Mind
Modular Theory of Mind and the Non-Self
Mind Modularity, Cravings, and Self Control
The Experience of the Not-Self
The Exterior Version of the Non-Self