What is #metadharma? (Seems to be a coinage of @BuddhistGeeks... with @ryanoelke & @VincentHorn self-describing as metadharma teachers) And @OortCloudAtlas & @Meaningness have also been using the term.
Trying to pin down what metadharma means
13 tweets · August 2019 · 30 likes · 3 retweets · read on Twitter
Google found this @BuddhistGeeks episode: ~> This series, on Metadharma, will explore the ways that three jewels of the Buddhist contemplative tradition, Buddha/Dharma/Sangha, may be understood in light of emergence of a Integral/Metamodern orientation. art19.com/shows/buddhist…
Is metadharma simply metamodern dharma? What would such a "simply" even mean?
Aha, further scrolling through twitter search results yielded this: twitter.com/VincentHorn/st…
Which is partway down a thread that starts here: twitter.com/VincentHorn/st…
Okay, so I sort of have my answer! Figure I'll publish this thread anyway, as there's lots of further surface area to explore here. #ThinkingOutLoud
I'm feeling particularly aware of Stephen Batchelor's book Buddhism Without Beliefs, where he says something like "I tried to write this book with minimal jargon, but I couldn't for the life of me find an adequate translation for 'dharma'."
I then mused that one verbose translation for "dharma" might be ~ "instructions for how to wake up" 👁️ Then, since normally waking isn't something one can consciously do (as the very need to wake necessitates unconsciousness) there's no natural metaphor for such instructions!
Thus #metadharma might be (diff. uses of "meta") - instructions for how to generate instructions for how to wake up - instructions for how to wake up, that are self-aware of their context/role as instructions - instructions for how to wake up our "instructions for how to wake up"
These 3 meanings don't contradict! I think the last framing most directly connects with @VincentHorn's usage, particularly the second sentence in this tweet: twitter.com/VincentHorn/st…
There is a sense in which dharma is known. There's also a sense in which it is always evolving & contextual. While the evolution is slow enough, perhaps, it stays dharma. When the evolution becomes conscious & part of the dharma itself, it becomes metadharma. Does this resonate?
Here's a page I was reading this morning in the Foreword of Roaring Silence by the arobuddhism.org folks. It seems that if language is living, one might be able to awaken the language itself.
I'm excited to watch & participate in the evolution of this term! What are your thoughts? (Also these podcast episodes are probably a good next thing to explore, although I haven't yet looked at them and am sorta just freestyling based on the word: 👇)