Running Sañjaya's Method

Before I went any further with adding articles to this blog, I needed to run the thought experiment that Sañjaya lays out in the "Discourse on the Fruits of the Renunciate Life.” It took me about five days and nights (with sleep breaks) to work it through. The complexity is enormous, but I was able to get it into a working procedure, and now I can see what it can do. That procedure will gradually be presented in my future blog posts and webinars.  

But, for now, I want to stress that my study of Sañjaya supports an open meditation practice better than any Buddhist philosophy I have encountered. My research also has uncovered that Sañjaya’s method cannot be completely disentangled from certain early Buddhist poems and passages, and thus has been inadvertently handed down as part of the Buddha’s Teaching for over 2500 years. In a way, I have discovered a more robust version of an early Buddhist teaching that has been poorly understood until now.   

Sañjaya’s method targets the mechanism of view formation and the process of taking up of views. It does this not by replacing a deeply flawed view with a more correct one, but by exploring how views, doctrines, and beliefs move from ideas to convictions. It does not involve much study, memorization, or learning new vocabulary. The complexity of Sañjaya’s method can be addressed by slowing down and working on manageable segments, one at a time. You just have to be patient with this process and not expect quick results. True clarity and understanding do not arise on demand. Confusion, uncertainty, and doubt are more likely to be your companions at the beginning of this journey, and they may never completely go away. But that is because Sañjaya’s method chips away at the doctrines that we have used to give us certainty — and it exposes the pitfalls of the flawed certainties we have adopted (and let go of) throughout our life.