Bhikkhu Cintita
Ashin Cintita (aka Bhikkhu Cintita Dinsmore) was born John Dinsmore in San Francisco, California into a non-religious family. He earned a PhD in linguistics at the University of California at San Diego, and an MS in computer science at Kansas University. Shortly after marrying and becoming father to two of three children, he became a professor of Computer Science at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. After a divorce he worked in the corporate world doing research and development in artificial intelligence, which brought him to Austin, Texas.
In 2001 Ashin Cintita retired from his career at the age of 51 in order to devote himself to Buddhist practice and later teaching, which he has done ever since. He spent one and a half years at Tassajara Zen Monastery in California, which is in the Japanese Zen tradition of Suzuki Roshi, founder of the San Francisco Zen Center. Returning to Austin, he ordained as a Zen priest in 2003 at the Austin Zen Center, which he had helped found a few years before. He lived, trained and taught at the Austin Zen Center for six years before deciding to ordain as a Theravada monk.
In 2009, was ordained as a bhikkhu by Sitagu Sayadaw in Myanmar where he lived for thirteen months before returning to Austin. Since then, he has been living at a Burmese monastery in Austin, teaching, researching and writing.
Address: Sitagu Buddha Vihara
9001 Honeycomb Dr.
Austin, Texas 78737, United States
In 2001 Ashin Cintita retired from his career at the age of 51 in order to devote himself to Buddhist practice and later teaching, which he has done ever since. He spent one and a half years at Tassajara Zen Monastery in California, which is in the Japanese Zen tradition of Suzuki Roshi, founder of the San Francisco Zen Center. Returning to Austin, he ordained as a Zen priest in 2003 at the Austin Zen Center, which he had helped found a few years before. He lived, trained and taught at the Austin Zen Center for six years before deciding to ordain as a Theravada monk.
In 2009, was ordained as a bhikkhu by Sitagu Sayadaw in Myanmar where he lived for thirteen months before returning to Austin. Since then, he has been living at a Burmese monastery in Austin, teaching, researching and writing.
Address: Sitagu Buddha Vihara
9001 Honeycomb Dr.
Austin, Texas 78737, United States
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Books by Bhikkhu Cintita
Rethinking Satipaṭṭhāna is a thoroughgoing reevaluation of the early satipaṭṭhāna teachings that integrates right view, right recollection and right samādhi based on a critical rereading of the earliest Buddhist texts in an effort to recover a doctrinally coherent, cognitively realistic, etymologically sound, functional, and explanatory interpretation of this ancient wisdom practice.
Satipaṭṭhāna is seen as a practice that extends Dhamma study to investigation, verification, and internalization in terms of direct experience to produce the fruit of "knowledge and vision of things as they are." The jhānas are seen, in accord with modern cognitive research, as an aid to internalization that offloads sophisticated Dhamma understandings onto the effortless and intuitive “intrinsic” system of human cognition.
Satipaṭṭhāna Rethought is a short meditation manual for the modern student that covers the same exercises found in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, and is based entirely on a critical rereading of the earliest Buddhist texts, undertaken to recover a doctrinally coherent, cognitively realistic and etymologically sound interpretation of this ancient wisdom practice. Satipaṭṭhāna as taught here extends Dhamma study to investigation in terms of direct experience, actualizing the Buddha’s instruction to “come and see.” It integrates samādhi or jhāna as a necessary and critical factor in this practice. Its fruit is "knowledge and vision of things as they are," declared by the Buddha as close to awakening. Widely neglected aspects of the ancient practice are highlighted in this manual, including its sophisticated exploration of non-self and of the mental constructedness (emptiness) of the “objective world.”
In spite of its conciseness, this text provides a comprehensive overview of the range of Buddhist practice and understanding and contains practical advice on how we can integrate Buddhist practice into busy modern lives. It begins from the premise that Dharma serves solely as a support for practice and that the role of mindfulness is to enable Dharma effectively to inform practice.
Papers by Bhikkhu Cintita
Drafts by Bhikkhu Cintita
Book Reviews by Bhikkhu Cintita