[lodonyo]

Hi, I’m trying to locate the article “Root Cause of Anicca – Five Stages of a Sankata”
However, when I try the website, it gives me a search error.  please advise.  

Thank you again for everything, lal and hela dhamma team/sangha.  I think I need to download an offline copy of this website in case I can’t find articles.

 

[lodonyo]

Once again, an incredibly clear and concise answer. Thank you so much Lal.

Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu !!!

[lodonyo]

I am currently reading: https://puredhamma.net/paticca-samuppada/how-are-paticca-samuppada-cycles-initiated/ and listening to abhaya thero for answers to this question

[lodonyo]

Aloha Lal,

Thank you for such a thorough answer. Normally, I would not need to reply, but you wrote something the basically triggered the “crux” is my issue. I THINK you also kind of alluded to the remedy as well so I just wanted to reply in kind.

“Just think about the bad consequences of continuing that habit. You are WASTING VALUABLE TIME ON AN ACTIVITY that does not lead to any real benefit.”(capitals inserted)
– This is just it, I seem to be confused and bewildered by what is “meaningful”?! A dharma teacher of mine has a course called “making a suffering life meaningful”, and in it he mentions the exact same thing…that we are essentially wasting our time by not working on giving up our attachment to “this” life (in favor of looking at our life as potential to change our attitude/gathi/character vs. focusing on sense pleasures).
— So this is why I mentioned the confusion about the meditation. What behavior is useful and not useful? If I knew that I would essentially know what “anapana” is right? Anyway this is your general point to learning more dharma so I understand.

“Try to break that habit by switching to a better activity like reading or exercising (even walking is beneficial)…When you start calming the mind, you will be able to learn Dhamma easier.”
– I think I understand that what you are basically saying is…”meditation on the uselessness of addictive activities with no fruit > engage in wholesome activities > then when the mind calms down learn more dharma”.
— I can see the logic in this, it’s very simple to understand. The “fruitlessness” is really what I need to meditation on, hence what you said about the tilakhanna. Walking, yoga, qigong actually have long-term fruits, many other things do. It’s almost as if there is a spectrum, as if changing habits that produce better and better fruits will eventually lead to the ultimate…I don’t think you’re saying that but I can at least understand the idea of changing out fruitless habits with fruitful ones – even in a mundane sense.

[lodonyo]

Just adding to this thread that the point about striving for the conditions of the next patisandhi seems to be the name of the game. In my practice it’s very easy to say “oh well this isn’t doing anything”. But then I remember that preparing myself for the patisandhi moment is actually what i’m doing then I realize what i’m doing is incredibly useful.

[lodonyo]

Buddhas followers didnt earn money though…? Earning money in general seems to go against the very idea of ”giving without expecting anything in return”.

[lodonyo]

I can confirm the link seems to navigate to discordapp.com proper and not the actual channel

I will try inputting the url # as a server search
-metta

[lodonyo]

Im very interested in this retreat as i have received great awakenings from abhaya thero lectures and include him in my dedications.

I would like to receive transmission of his jhana techniques for practice in this life.

The WhatsApp link says its been “revoked unfortunately” and I do not know sinhalese…yet. can anyone direct me ti another way to connect to registration or information on this retreat?

[lodonyo]

ALOHA WTA,
I hope you come back to the forum and aee these messages.

Pema chodron has a great rest on loneliness. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.lionsroar.com/six-kinds-of-loneliness/amp/. It relates to a recent article written by all ACTUALLY…https://puredhamma.net/dhamma-and-science/origin-of-life/worldview-of-the-buddha/is-there-a-self/chachakka-sutta-no-self-involved-in-vipaka/

Tge thick & skinny of it is illustrated early in Pema’s article: “The experience of certain feelings can seem particularly pregnant with desire for resolution: loneliness, boredom, anxiety. Unless we can relax with these feelings, it’s very hard to stay in the middle when we experience them. We want victory or defeat, praise or blame. For example, if somebody abandons us, we don’t want to be with that raw discomfort. Instead, we conjure up a familiar identity of ourselves as a hapless victim. Or maybe we avoid the rawness by acting out and righteously telling the person how messed up he or she is. We automatically want to cover over the pain in one way or another, identifying with victory or victimhood.”

I’m currently on my way to having Gnosis on this topic. The keyword for the issue is “feeling”. Basically, the situation is this: due to a series of karmic fruits, we feel some kind pain due to REAL INVISIBLE ENERGY (Kamma) in our mental bodies. This is like the feeling of a loose tooth, or the feeling of a headache – we either bear witness to it with some kind of strong positive emotion like love and compassion or we let our mind become agitated and continue to think about how we can rid ourselves of THE FEELING. <- thia actually creates even more suffering and thus a cycle repeats.

You listed the karmic fruit/cause of your feeling in your post. NOT having intimate connections with your family or anyone for that matter.
From Buddha: “Now this, bhikkhus, is the noble’s comprehension of suffering: Birth of a [hated] is suffering, Decay of a [Loved] is suffering, disease/disorder of a [loved] is suffering, death/transition of a [loved] is suffering; union with a [Hated] is suffering; separation from a [Loved] is suffering; not getting an object of satisfaction is suffering; in brief, the…”. So you are having to go through a seemingly continual amount of suffering because the kama guna (as mentioned above) which is a real phenomena called “intimate connection” – likely a source of energy from other people – you are missing in your life. This is like being in a karmic situation where you are poor and cannot afford food – maybe you would be hungry ? all the time and have to bear the suffering feeling of being without food a lot until you were able to eat again.

I write all this to give context to thw above answers and other answers I’m sure you’re getting. The dukkha vedana(feeling) have the same root. Also those feelings are RESULTS and made worse, or better, by thoughts about them.

In my own research/XP, the Buddha – and anyone giving teachings for that matter — has always responded with a kind of meditation to people who were experiencing the feeling of suffering from the reasons Buddha gave(listed above). It seems to me then, an effective recourse for experiencing a “suffering karmic result” is to either focus on that feeling with various levels of wisdom anout the true nature of reality OR re-direct the attention of the mind with one-pointed attitude towards a positive direction like Buddha dhma or some other topic.

The important thing here seems to be 1. The feelings of loneliness ARE NOT JUST “ONE FEELING” but basically a string of bad feeling resulting from a craving that is not met everytime it “bubbles up”. Every bubble-craving not met gives a kind of pain feeling and we experience a string of them which results kn a kind of subtle agonizing emotion.
2. Though a variety of advice can be given, the main faculties of aid in such a situation always seem to be directing the attention and intention towards the feeling, the cause od the feeling, or some other object that will result in a dukkha feeling instead. <- perhaps if you think about it, there can only be so many “movies” running at once?

So I hope this helps. Release the craving of kamaguna/intimate connection can come through a variety of ways, as #2 above. Past life regression, early childhood regression, vipassana meditation, deel Dharma research and consequential realizations, deep meditation on the nature of your suffering…etc etc etc. But all such pathways to happiness rely on us not generating hatred (or greed) due to the experience. I think this is the initial hard part…going from suffering to focusing on something else other than the suffering and temporary relief from it. We all seem to have our own “version of this and this ia because the root is the same!

[lodonyo]

Thank you Also for your reply.

I would just like to share i received some kind of transmission with your words. In particular, “The hard part of the practice is to bear those bad vipaka and be determined not to do new bad kamma.” helped me to see clearly that the pain of craving/unbeautiful mental attitudes is (mostly) vipaka and needs great mindfulness as a counteraction…similar to “being tempted” and using the will/wisdom to do go towards that object of temptation. Understanding of/meditation on citta vritti/etc helps.

Again, thank you. May you continue to have all auspicious conditions for your work – may your merit fruit the ultimate happiness.

[lodonyo]

*** Note:
Harvard Scholars translated patanjali’s sutras which I believe were actually either created or influenced during buddha’s time.

Patanjali’s word for “ignorance” is avijja however they translated avijja as “undifferentiated consciousness”. My research has discovered that the citta or consciousness is “undifferentiated” because it is not differentiated from it’s object. As we know citta attaches to it’s object, upadana. So I firmly believe patanajali was using the term ignorance to describe to same phenomena we use the word upa+dana or attachment but in a different context. The citta is attaching and identifying with it’s object, which patanjali essentially calls ignorance…

It is also quite possible, he was talking about the hadaya vatthu and the moment that the citta “references” it’s object with either love or hatred. This “differentiation” of love/hate is also likely ignorance he was speaking of.

However it is this very “attaching” I believe that causes the perception of time and hence the entire mundane world of the conventional mind or reality. I could easily be mixing up some things here, and while that may be true I think it stills adds a bit to my post above.

[lodonyo]

@tobias
Hi Tobias, thank you for your time & energy in reply. Yes you spotted correctly my two major hindrances. Unfortunately, due to vicikicca, I struggle with generating conviction needed to overcome torpor. I struggle with this the most which is why I wrote this post. All of my energy is being used to overcome vicikicca just to overcome torpor. These words don’t give the immense weight of these hindrances justice. I’ve had so many spiritual experiences and yet vicikicca remains subconsciously. It is not a waking-conscious only thing…

@christian
Thank you very much for sharing this with me. Walasmulle is the only teacher in hela dhamma I follow because he teaches in english and has given talks in canada and australia which really opened my mind.

My studies show that mantra works with the aether element or akasha-dhatu and i’ve recently learned that the maha-bhutas have a trickle down effect from subtle -> gross. So when the aether is purified, the wind(mind) is purified; when wind -> fire(emotions/volition) is purified, when fire -> water(feelings/perceptions) is purified, when water -> earth (physical processes including brain) is purified.

So yes I will use abhaya thero’s technique thank you for reminding me and sharing!!!

@lal
Yes, that pleasant feeling when a bad karma is avoided i’ve felt it, as well as the rest, thank you for adding to my confidence.

“We can see the suffering of humans and especially animals…” I believe you’ve touched on something important. I’ve been too concerned about the spirit world and I need to ground my practice anyway. This helps me to remember that all the motivation I need to share merit and compassionate energy/thought is found in our everyday world just by thinking about it. The conditions of life can be so atrocious — human trafficking, slavery, corruption, possession, mental/physical illnesses, torture — even I shy away from such thoughts but I see now I need to actually go into them more every day(with balance) to generate a compassionate mind.

“hidden suffering”…yes not only can our impressions of sense gratification produce immediate suffering of more craving(i’ve got this one down) but suffering of immense impulse to do the same thing in the future, suffering of having to work to fulfill that craving, and suffering conditions in future jati/bhava. I know there is hidden suffering so my awareness is constantly on that FACT even though I haven’t “awakened” to it quite yet.

Lal your posts are always very balanced and calming, you live the middle way quite well it seems haha. Thank you so much for providing this invaluable resource and sharing the teachings of Buddha through your transmissions and teacher ven. Waharaka.

Thank you all for your reply. I walk away with mantra, confidence, and conviction to continue.

Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu

[lodonyo]

Regarding Walasmulle:
yes I do not have an onus to speak with authority so I simply expressing knowing I am mostly ignorant.

Here is the video in which he explains using amma as the (empty) object, translated as “neutral”. Simply the idea that my vedana of amma(or my wife in this case) is not coming from, it is in within me. But I am ignorant of this way of perceiving and I wish to change that.

Regarding subconscious: “Only when one starts generating vaci sankhara (talking to oneself), that one becomes aware of the thoughts and that is when one CAN stop any bad thoughts”. Ok, yes I hear you. My experience is (if i’ve been meditating) sensing a negative “feeling” arise with some kind of “logic” or “reason”. So sense trigger —> awareness of some shift in the form of a changed perception —> some kind of “logic” or reasoning that has no words activates —> images and thoughts in english arise. It’s hard to relate these things and maybe not that useful but this is my experience.

I will re-read vaci-sankhara article it is good. Also thank you for your research in researching the correct meaning of what Lord Buddha was pointing too.

Regarding Meditation: Thank you for your console, truly I appreciate it.

“We need to understand that Buddha Dhamma is not about JUST LEARNING concepts (even though learning plays a big part), it is all about using what is learned for purifying the mind.” from ‘Are You Not Getting Expected Results from Meditation?’

I think my entire post here is asking for a suggestion to “use what is learned and purify” ‘my’ mind. I do not want to hurt people due to my anusaya, my outbursts of anger, controlling behavior etc. It’s that simple.

I will read your section on bhavana more and divine an answer. I will likely make a separate post later to further clarify purification of mind but I think this at least makes it clear what I want to do and that’s more than I started with.

Love, Joy, Bliss, Freedom

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