Negative capability; the ambiguous nature of self; self as process; foundations of ethics; Buddha and the sick monk; definitions of stream entry: as lucid confidence, as freedom from perplexity, as abandoning three fetters; the lay sangha.
Reflections on the demonic: what rises up and limits us on the path; Mara and Namuci; the parable of the crow and the piece of rock as an alternative metaphor of freedom; the Buddha's response to Mara who appears as a farmer.
Insight into conditionality as the core of the Buddha's awakening; reading of and reflection on the first discourse; the process of the four: embracing dukkha, letting go of craving, experiencing the stopping of craving, cultivating the path.
Definition of dukkha; dukkha and pleasure; "fully understanding" dukkha; the Buddha and Nagarjuna's understanding of the five bundles as not self; definition of tanha (craving); clinging and narcissism.
Meaning of the term "namarupa" in Upanishads and early Buddhism; the Buddha's critique of an unconditioned consciousness; the interdependence of namarupa and consciousness like two sheaves of reeds.
