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I just came across a post on vipallasa. I had forgotten about it:
“Vipallāsa (Diṭṭhi, Saññā, Citta) Affect Sankhāra“P.S. This post requires revision.
Thank you, Guided!
I think you stated there exactly what the root problem is with these types of meditations.
You wrote: “However, as far as the 10-day introductory course is concerned, there’s not much stress put on this kind anapanasati and instead, one should, I quote, “work with the body, not the mind,” therefore one should disregard ALL thoughts during the meditation itself and focus only on vedana, according to all the assistant teachers I met.”
It is the mind that needs to be purified.
– Our physical body will die within about 100 years.
– However, the “contents of the mind” will be carried to the next life, with its gati, asava, anusaya,, etc.Buddha taught that one should stop ONLY those thoughts that are defiled (immoral or sensual in nature). Those are akusala sankappa and kama sankappa.
– One needs to CULTIVATE moral and non-sensual thoughts. Those are kusala and nekkhamma sankappa.
– Here, “non-sensual” means thoughts that do not involve satisfying especially the taste, smell, and touch. Any thoughts about vision and sounds that are relevant to satisfying taste, smell, and touch need to be avoided too. Some examples are thoughts about food, sex, nice fragrances.In order to set the background, one first needs to realize the unfruitfulness and dangers in engaging in activities/speech/thoughts about sensory pleasures. That is to learn and comprehend Tilakkhana or the anicca, dukkha, anatta nature of this world.
June 13, 2020: I had posted the English translation of a long discourse by Waharaka Thero here. I just removed it since it needs some revision. I will post the revised version when ready.
Lvalio (Lair) has transcribed the first video that Christian posted. Lair emailed it to me since he cannot post the long document. I have converted his Word document to a pdf and the link is given below.
– Since it is the second video in the series it is labeled as #2.Much merits to Lair for taking the time to go through the laborious process!
June 13, 2020: Lair sent me the Word document of the English translation of the second video. I went through it and found that it needs to be revised.
– Then I went through the document for the other video that was posted here. It also needs to be revised.
– Therefore, I deleted the document that was posted here.
– I hope to go through both documents and posts them here. It may take several days.Greetings!
Thank you for providing a detailed account of your meditation experience.1. As I have explained above, and in many posts, there is no question that breath meditation can help one to get to different types of samadhi and even jhana.
– However, breath meditation is not Anapanasati meditation taught by the Buddha. And any kind of jhana attained provides only temporary relief. That means it will not help reduce one’s hidden defilements (anusaya).
– The correct Anapanasati meditation will permanently reduce anusaya in steps. For example, the tendency to get angry can be PERMANENTLY reduced by the correct Anapanasati mediation.2. Any type of meditation can calm the mind by focusing one’s attention on a single object. That can be one’s breath, a ball of clay (used in anariya kasina meditation), a statue of a religious figure (Buddha, Jesus Christ, etc.)
– That calming effect comes by not letting the mind wander around as it usually does.
– That “calming of the mind” can manifest as a lightness of the body, seeing various colors, lights, etc.
– Now, let me try to explain a fundamental issue that I may not have discussed in my previous comments on this thread.3. One’s tendency to get angry WILL NOT reduce significantly (that is the example we took above) with those meditation techniques. It may seem that anger has subsided, especially if one regularly practices those meditation techniques.
– However, if one goes for an extended time without engaging in regular meditation sessions, one will see that the tendency to get angry will be back.
– That means those meditation techniques WILL NOT help reduce anusaya (hidden defilements).Anusaya is a concept that is hard to understand for many people. It is closely related to one gati (pronounced gathi), which means one’s character/habits. The following posts may be helpful in understanding gati and anusaya (and asava, another related term).
“The Law of Attraction, Habits, Character (Gati), and Cravings (Āsava)”
Yes. Christian.
There are three types of distortions (vipallasa) that arise due to taking the world to be of “nicca, sukha, atta” nature, instead of anicca, dukkha, anatta (real nature).
– There are three levels of comprehension. Roughly speaking, one removes the wrong views (ditthi vipallasa) about them at the Sotapanna stage. Then sanna vipallasa removed at the Anagami stage and citta vipallasa removed at the Arahant stage.A Sotapanna or a Sakadagami has NOT removed the sanna for sensory pleasures (that is why they are reborn in kama loka). In other words, he/she may UNDERSTAND that those are not worth pursuing. But they just cannot help enjoying sensory pleasures. That means they have not removed the “SANNA vipallasa”. That means “confusion on PERCEPTIONS about wrong/unfruitful activities”.
I will get to discuss vipallasa in upcoming posts in the pancakkhandha section.
You have made great progress. Sadhu! Sadhu!! Sadhu!!!
You are right. Asmi mana goes away only at the Arahant stage.
– However, asmi mana will also decrease gradually as you make progress. It is not a sudden drop.For example, a Sotapanna Anugami starts losing all ten samyojana gradually as he/she makes progress.
– Then the first three samyojana (sakkaya ditthi, vicikicca, silabbata paramasa) will cease in one thought-moment. That is when one attains the Sotapanna stage.
– However, by that time the other 7 samyojana would have decreased in varying degrees too.
– Then kama raga and patigha will cease to exist at the Anagami phala moment. By that time, the other five samyojana would have decreased in varying degrees.But it is asmi mana that is usually eliminated last together with avijja. There are some who have eliminated rupa raga and arupa raga but have the other three (mana, uddacca, avijja) remaining to some degree. Those there are the last to go away at the Arahant stage.
So, I would not worry too much about asmi mana. Hopefully, you will see it reduce too gradually.
By the way, one loses asmi mana when one fully realizes the anatta nature.
– The first step is to “see” the anicca nature.
– The current series of posts on the Five Aggregates discuss these in a systematic way:
“The Five Aggregates (Pañcakkhandha)“Don’t worry about it, y not. I understand.
There is no need to contribute to maintaining the puredhamma.net site.
– But the thought is what counts and may you all accrue many merits for them.As for converting Waharaka Desana, I personally do not have time for it.
– But as I have mentioned many times, that is in effect what I do. Of course, I complement what I learned from Waharaka Thero with my science background.
– In the latter, sometimes science helps make the presentation stronger, and other times Buddha Dhamma can point out flaws in some scientific theories.Hi Johnny,
You wrote: “When an Arahant tastes a delicious meal, will he/she feel that a delicious meal has been eaten?”
I have confirmed that many times. Yes, An Arahant would taste that meal to be tasty.
– But he/she will not attach to that taste. No taṇhā or upādāna will be generated in the mind of an Arahant.Please read the relevant posts and cite the bullet numbers if I had said anything different.
“Kāma Guṇa – Origin of Attachment (Tanhā)”I do not know the person, Axel.
I think it would be a good idea to just post the converted English text (maybe in addition to the current format.) Then one can read the text first and then listen to desana.
– That will be really helpful for someone like you, who is making an effort to learn the Sinhala language.– If you know the person who has done the conversion, please make the suggestion to him.
P.S. I have only limited time in a day, y not.
I am glad that someone has taken the time to do it. Much merits to him/her.“Pleasing and agreeable things in this world that has Kāma Guṇa can evoke Sāmisa Vedanā in a person but never Kāma assāda, right?”
Yes.
“So, if a person who experiences Kāma assāda, does it imply that this person has already executed the samphassa-jā-vedanā process?”
No. Kāma assāda are, by definition, samphassa-jā-vedanā.
The Buddha would also taste honey as sweet. The sweetness of honey is a Kāma Guṇa.
– An average person may attach to the taste of honey and may generate greedy thoughts about tasting more honey. That is due to samphassa (“san” + “phassa”) or “contact with “san” or defilement (greed in this case)”
– But the Buddha (or any Arahant or an Anāgāmi) would not generate “samphassa-jā-vedanā” for eating honey.Both about the same. But Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation has gaps (refers to another sutta for a section) as I remember.
Sorry about the confusion.
– I have deleted some of the repeated comments.
– The second desana with English subtitles is below.When Lang (cubibobi) tried to post the link to the second desana, it did not appear first. When I posted it for him, I inadvertently posted the wrong link (the one Christian had posted.)
Anyway, it turns out that Lang’s post was waiting for me to approve, and that was not clear to me.
The bottom line is the following.
– The forum software was updated a couple of days ago. It seems to be working better, other than the glitch that we saw with Lang’s post.
– Most of the postings appear to go through without a glitch.
– If your comment does not appear right away, please send me an email ([email protected]). It may be waiting to be “approved.” I am not sure why the software is doing that randomly. Hopefully, they will get it right next.Thanks, Lang. My apologies for the confusion.
Yeos: Lack of merits can affect such an outcome directly or indirectly.
One may be born in a lower realm due to a lack of strong good merits (or having too many bad ones). Then one will be unable to learn Dhamma.
– That is why the Buddha ALWAYS encouraged doing punna kamma. That will NEVER go to waste.Merits due to engaging in punna kamma (giving, helping others etc.) helps one get a human life with enough comforts to be able to learn and practice Dhamma.
– Even if one is born a human, one may not be able to learn and practice Buddha Dhamma if one is born to poverty, for example.
– Engaging in punna kamma also helps one setup the necessary mindset to absorb Dhamma (even for one who is born with necessary comforts).Mahi wrote: “Now there is no such desire to pursue for those so called happiness.But this creates a dullness a void. When you stop chasing it kicks in a restlessness.Only thing I know for sure I want to chase is Buddha’s teachings.But these teachings gradually increase the urge to renunciate , which is not possible rt now.”
Buddha did not teach to renunciate (give up) worldly things.
– He taught WHY holding onto to worldly things lead to suffering.
– One will SEE the fruitlessness and dangers in CRAVING for worldly things once one understands the real nature of this world.Let us take an analogy.
– It is very difficult to give up drinking for an alcoholic.
– If he tries to just forcefully stop drinking, that may only lead to depression.
– But he truly understands the CONSEQUENCES of drinking, he can gradually cut down the habit to drink.So, my suggestion is to keep learning Dhamma AND to live a simple life (the Middle Way).
– Remember that the Buddha not only advised to stay away from TOO MUCH sense pleasures. He also advised not to WILFULLY subject oneself to austerity (depriving the body of a moderate level of comforts)
– The “giving up” (getting rid of tanha) comes naturally via understanding (via getting rid of avijja about this world), at the level of one’s understanding.
