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Hi all
To avoid any misunderstanding: the sati ways described in my previous comment just before this one come from Chan Buddhism. They’re a complement to my formal sessions which are totally Pure Dhamma based.
Metta
y not,
“I do not have to turn the tv or radio off to continue being mindful.”
Mindful of what (else) ? Of your mind’s content ? In the same context i see at least two alternatives :
1. I want to watch the TV so i give priority to such but without elaborating/constructing (abisankhara?) on it.
2. I don’t give priority to ANYTHING i.e. now i’m watching the program, now i’m reading a magazine, now i’m getting up from the chair…DOESN’T MATTER, i try to be unceasingly mindful of myself and of the environment, whilst aware of my mind’s content in order to avoid noxious elaborations on what it’s being lived right here and now.
Contrary to what one might think this is not difficult or tiring. To be aware of yourself and of the environment moment to moment, instead of being separated from it it’s even relaxing. Anyways it’s better than being “splitted” i.e. thinking about job problems (just an example…) whilst peeling off potatoes…Of course this isn’t about formal sessions; it’s about current everyday life…
It’s not because I listen to some music that I get attached to it. That I develop a cling towards it. And who says music says anything else. You just have to be moderate which implies more insight and/or will power than totally abstain.
Hi…
I would like to help yet given my status here, I can only respond with questions as the following ones, mainly related to your first paragraph only :
- Perhaps it’s possible to reduce such “inability” of the mind to perceive and cope with Anicca ? (I suppose it is…but i’m an incorrigible optimistic).
- And to reduce such inability and given the multiple interconnections between Anicca, Anatta & Dukkha, the more natta one achieves instead of anatta the better one will cope with anicca and the more anicca will become nicca ?
3.Any unfavorable kamma dynamic will be reduced in so far as 1. and 2. are feasible…?
In terms of pratical training one thing that works astonishing well (in my case) is contemplating anicca causes & effects in a state of relaxation relatively to my life experiences . And i have “excellent” anicca examples from the past with which to learn a lot…Your questions seem to me extremely interesting, thank you !
“Loving others or oneself in a worldly sense is done so out of ignorance. I come to realise to cultivate the path, one must be ‘selfish’ as what common-folks perceive it to be…ETC”
That’s exactly what i wanted to mean yet now i’ll downrightly suppress “if” from my question and also the question mark, to say: to love oneself (be it to definitely get out of samsara or other) may be (it depends) the same kind of attachment/ clinging than one loves others – even if with a genuine, pure love etc.
To me it’s not about love for oneself, it’s about to feel a transcendental drive for Truth – for a Truth above worldly (paraphrasing you) things.
A little aside: when Siddhartha the Gotama leaves his family etc there is one mundane (seeing that there are other deeper factors to consider too) contingence that is going to play a crucial role on the hows and whys of his quest , that is, the extremely brutal contrast between his luxurious lifestyle within the enclosure of his domains and what he found outside of it.Just my opinion, no worries.
@Johnny_Lim : “If I am not wrong, the Buddha did say the person we love most cannot be anyone else other than we ourselves.”
If to love others (as in the situation that y not described) implies attachment,clinging, then why would such condition alter when one loves oneself ?
@y not : “How can attachment when it is through genuine and unselfish love for some one be of any negative or hindering effect to the giver IN ANY WAY whatsoever?”
Because an attachment even if one like you’re describing triggers kamma thus binding you to existence ?
Hi
I started notice it some years ago: the more sati one imprints on one’s daily life, the less one dreams or the dreams are upekha pervaded. There’s a co-relation.
I read the first 7 articles and found there the following that certainly answers my question :
“So, the premise of the Mahāyāna re-formulation of the Buddha Dhamma was to “refine and improve” the Dhamma of the Buddha. This is in sharp contradiction with one of the most fundamental concepts in Dhamma that only a Buddha can discover these laws of nature and BY DEFINITION, it is not possible to improve upon them. They themselves admit that a Buddha appears in the world after long times, and thus their attempt to change Buddha Dhamma is one of the basic contradictions in Mahāyāna.”
I agree it’s extremely delicate to try to reformulate the authentic Buddha Dhamma.
It can perhaps be adapted (daily practice,formal sessions…) to the individual existential status but that’s all.On the other hand Pure Dhamma content pushes one to channelled reflection and research, it’s irresistible.
Ah i’ll not miss this opportunity to improve my gati by mastering my tanha, thus avoiding bad kamma.
Thank you
Ok but my post has nothing to do with the good and old creator god.
The thing is, clinging to any form of Absolute would be the worst possible obstacle to liberation, the worst possible craving…and He – the Gotama – was such an extraordinary pedagogue. How would one feel/integrate then “clinging to nothing…etc” …? But once achieved isn’t Nibbana an Absolute knowing? Instead of a(one more) Being…
Nibbana Sutta
“The born, become, produced,
made, fabricated, impermanent,
fabricated of aging & death,
a nest of illnesses, perishing,
come-into-being through nourishment
and the guide [that is craving] —
is unfit for delight.
The escape from that
is calm, permanent,
a sphere beyond conjecture,
unborn, unproduced,
the sorrowless, stainless state,
the cessation of stressful qualities,
stilling-of-fabrications bliss.”Metta !
Y Not
Alot can be said, in terms of philosophical labels centered around existence, non-existence, dual and non- dual perception, the beginning as a Knowing instead of as a Being and so on.Yet the Dhamma isn’t about philosophy. Or about existence coming from eternity which is beyond existence and non existence. These little things said, why is that the Buddha mentioned often ” the Unborn “/Deathless (or translated as such) ?
Thank you very much for your kind attention.
“he ability to see “san” (defilements of greed, hate, ignorance that come to one’s mind) increases significantly when one starts comprehending Tilakkhana, i.e., at the Sotapanna stage.”
Yes and what works more effectively in my case is the bhavana on the outcomes of anatta.
Hi
Y not said (at least in my email):
“At other times, minutes go by, we are not aware, we just get carried away.”
Precisely and that’s why it’s necessary to train what i would call “basic background awareness”. The more one trains it, the more one will be able to stop vacisankhara on-the-spot and /or move on to beneficial anapana-sati according Pure Dhamma.
Metta
