AustinIdeals

Forum Replies Created

Viewing 2 posts - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • in reply to: Experience with Anapanasati + My Esoteric Background #25047
    AustinIdeals
    Participant

    Hi Tobias, regarding the anatta sanna, I don’t know if you’ve studied the teachings of Adi Da Samraj. He states that the cause of suffering can be reduced to three main processes: identification, differentiation, and desire.

    Identification is pretty simple, it’s the attachment to your self-identity (this is not Lal’s anatta interpretation, but you get the point).

    Differentiation is interesting, and I think this is where the dichotomy lies. The equation of samsara with material rebirth, based on traditional Buddhism, would deem sensate reality to be separate from ultimate fulfillment. On the other hand, worldly people would do the exact opposite, where cessation of sensate reality is separate from their ultimate fulfillment. In both cases, there is a “differentiation” of experience or non-experience from fulfillment.

    This creates the last aspect of desire, which Adi Da calls “seeking” or the moment-to-moment avoidance of relationship as I mentioned before. He outlines these processes in his autobiography, “The Knee of Listening”.

    This all sounds conceptual, but the eradication of this threefold process can only be done using L. Ron Gardner’s “Plugged-in Presence” meditation, or something similar. These meditations are designed to go beyond the self-contraction mechanism.

    Did you try it out? If you do it correctly, you’ll actually feel the downpour of energy into the hadya-vatthu, located two digits to the right of your sternum.

    *Adi Da describes his meditation technique, a little different from Mr. Gardner’s, in this chapter.
    https://www.beezone.com/AdiDa/KneeofListening/book/chapter19.html

    in reply to: Experience with Anapanasati + My Esoteric Background #25045
    AustinIdeals
    Participant

    Hey Tobias, thank you for the feedback. I don’t think I mentioned Daniel Ingram in the post, though I have included some of his work in my curriculum. I’m not a huge proponent of his Mahasi-style vipassana. I’d agree with L. Ron Gardner in saying that he hasn’t “cracked the code” on enlightenment is. As Ramana Maharshi, Adi Da, and Mr. Gardner have defined it, it is the complete obviation of the self-contraction mechanism, the “I” feeling in the hadaya-vatthu which fuels our resistance to reality. Adi Da called it “the avoidance of relationship”.

    On the surface, the premise of Human Ideals seems to be the attachment to worldliness over liberation, but it’s deeper than that. Our mission is to transcend the attachment to both worldliness and anti-worldliness, where all of existence is affirmed. The means to this affirmation can be embodied through worldly activities, but we don’t need these activities for the affirmation. It’s something that comes within.

    Dr. David R. Hawkins mentioned that, as you strive for enlightenment, very challenging dualities will arise, similar to this one. I believe the phrase, “to be in the world, but not of it”, is a huge insight into surrendering either position. As he puts it, the ultimate question is, “Is there an opposite to God (ultimate goodness, absolute reality…not an anthropomorphic creator God)? The answer is no.” Even he said that the final attachment preventing enlightenment is to surrender life itself.

    I don’t fully know how this would play out in action. You know, I’ve asked myself this question repeatedly, “If none of your goals would come true in reality…if Human Ideals would never come to life, would you still believe in its goodness, the goodness of humanity?” Even with my attachments, I find myself saying yes to that question, every time.

    I understand the grave samsaric consequences that could arise if I’m wrong, i.e. going to avici hell, but I’m not trying to cause a schism in the Buddha dhamma. I just believe that the answer to this question, whether to affirm existence or escape it, or if there’s an answer that transcends this dichotomy, is crucial to humanity’s future.

Viewing 2 posts - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)