Path of Buddha

@Path of Buddha

Hello, what a nice thread idea



The Noble Eightfold Path is a fruitful one if I may say, through my own investigations and observations.

Truly do appreciate your posts mate!



What an appropriate thread to break down and discuss each element of the Path, as well as the Four Noble Truths!

 

25km is straight beast bro. Lol, you trainin for a half marathon or somethin?

 

Gettin back into slapping together picture quotes, once again gratitude for this thread @Path of Buddha

 

So before I spark up a discussion of the Path, an image and link :



http://www.beinginthenow.org/buddha-word-eightfold-path/

The first element of the path is Right View, or Right Understanding. Will delve into it a bit shortly.

@Path of Buddha I genuinely hope you stay and contribute your thoughts here. If you get deleted, I will carry on your legacy.

 

Transcendence and genuine insight is the goal for me in this thread. Improving my mind and ultimately extinguishing the fires of lust that lead to PMO. I suppose everything happens for a reason, and Path of Buddha's short time here was not for nothing after all...if by chance he follows through with the deletion. I understand the feelings which can possibly influence such a choice.

Copied from BuddhaNet (will simply be copying and pasting each element of the Path from this site in 8 subsequent posts along with a video in each post, feel free to discuss):

RIGHT UNDERSTANDING

The first element of the Eightfold Path is Right Understanding which arises through insights into the first three Noble Truths. If you have these insights, then there is perfect understanding of Dhamma - the understanding that:

‘All that is subject to arising is subject to ceasing.’ It’s as simple as that. You do not have to spend much time reading ‘All that is subject to arising is subject to ceasing’ to understand the words, but it takes quite a while for most of us to really know what the words mean in a profound way rather than just through cerebral understanding.

To use modern colloquial English, insight is really gut knowledge - it’s not just from ideas. It’s no longer, ‘I think I know’, or ‘Oh yes, that seems a reasonable, sensible thing. I agree with that. I like that thought.’ That kind of understanding is still from the brain whereas insight knowledge is profound. It is really known and doubt is no longer a problem.

This deep understanding comes from the previous nine insights. So there is a sequence leading to Right Understanding of things as they are, namely that: All that is subject to arising is subject to ceasing and is not-self. With Right Understanding, you have given up the illusion of a self that is connected to mortal conditions. There is still the body, there are still feelings and thoughts, but they simply are what they are - there is no longer the belief that you are your body or your feelings or your thoughts. The emphasis is on ‘Things are what they are.’ We are not trying to say that things are not anything at all or that they are not what they are. They are exactly what they are and nothing more. But when we are ignorant, when we have not understood these truths, we tend to think things are more than what they are. We believe all kinds of things and we create all kinds of problems around the conditions that we experience.

So much of human anguish and despair comes from the added extra that is born of ignorance in the moment. It is sad to realise how the misery and anguish and despair of humanity is based upon delusion; the despair is empty and meaningless. When you see this, you begin to feel infinite compassion for all beings. How can you hate anyone or bear grudges or condemn anyone who is caught in this bond of ignorance? Everyone is influenced to do the things they do by their wrong views of things.

As we meditate, we experience some tranquillity, a measure of calm in which the mind has slowed down. When we look at something like a flower with a calm mind, we are looking at it as it is. When there is no grasping - nothing to gain or get rid of - then if what we see, hear or experience through the senses is beautiful, it is truly beautiful. We are not criticising it, comparing it, trying to possess or own it; we find delight and joy in the beauty around us because there is no need to make anything out of it. It is exactly what it is.

Beauty reminds us of purity, truth and ultimate beauty. We should not see it as a lure to delude us: ‘These flowers are here just to attract me so I’ll get deluded by them’ - that’s the attitude of the old meditating grump! When we look at a member of the opposite sex with a pure heart, we appreciate the beauty without the desire for some kind of contact or possession. We can delight in the beauty of other people, both men and women, when there is no selfish interest or desire. There is honesty; things are as they are. This is what we mean by liberation or vimutti in Pali. We are liberated from those bonds that distort and corrupt the beauty around us, such as the bodies we have. However, our minds can get so corrupt and negative and depressed and obsessed with things, that we no longer see them as they are. If we don’t have Right Understanding, we see everything through increasingly thick filters and veils.

Right Understanding is to be developed through reflection, using the Buddha’s teaching. The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta is a very interesting teaching to contemplate and use as a reference for reflection. We can also use other suttas from the tipitaka, such as those dealing with paticcasamuppada (dependent origination). This is a fascinating teaching to reflect upon. If you can contemplate such teachings, you can see very clearly the difference between the way things are as Dhamma and the point where we tend to create delusion out of the way things are. That is why we need to establish full conscious awareness of things as they are. If there is knowledge of the Four Noble Truths, then there is Dhamma.

With Right Understanding, everything is seen as Dhamma; for example: we are sitting here....This is Dhamma. We don’t think of this body and mind as a personality with all its views and opinions and all the conditioned thoughts and reactions that we have acquired through ignorance. We reflect upon this moment now as: ‘This is the way it is. This is Dhamma.’ We bring into the mind the understanding that this physical formation is simply Dhamma. It is not self; it is not personal.

Also, we see the sensitivity of this physical formation as Dhamma rather than taking it personally: ‘I’m sensitive,’ or ‘I’m not sensitive;’ ‘You’re not sensitive to me. Who’s the most sensitive?’....’Why do we feel pain? Why did God create pain; why didn’t he just create pleasure? Why is there so much misery and suffering in the world? It’s unfair. People die and we have to separate from the people we love; the anguish is terrible.’

There is no Dhamma in that, is there? It’s all self-view:

‘Poor me. I don’t like this, I don’t want it to be this way. I want security, happiness, pleasure and all the best of everything. It’s not fair that my parents were not arahants when I came into the world. It’s not fair that they never elect arahants to be Prime Minister of Britain. If everything were fair, they would elect arahants to be Prime Minister!’

I am trying to take this sense of ‘It’s not right, it’s not fair’ to an absurdity in order to point out how we expect God to create everything for us and to make us happy and secure. That is often what people think even if they don’t say so. But when we reflect, we see ‘This is the way it is. Pain is like this and this is what pleasure is like. Consciousness is this way.’ We feel. We breathe. We can aspire.

When we reflect, we contemplate our own humanity as it is. We don’t take it on a personal level any more or blame anyone because things are not exactly as we like or want. It is the way it is and we are the way we are. You might ask why we can’t all be exactly the same - with the same anger, the same greed and the same ignorance; without all the variations and permutations. However, even though you can trace human experience to basic things, each one of us has our own kamma to deal with - our own obsessions and tendencies, which are always different in quality and quantity to those of someone else.

Why can’t we all be exactly equal, have exactly the same of everything and all look alike - one androgynous being? In a world like that, nothing would be unfair, no differences would be allowed, everything would be absolutely perfect and there would be no possibility of inequality. But as we recognise Dhamma, we see that, within the realm of conditions, no two things are identical. They are all quite different, infinitely variable and changing, and the more we try to make conditions conform to our ideas, the more frustrated we get. We try to create each other and a society to fit the ideas we have of how things should be, but we always end up feeling frustrated. With reflection, we realise: ‘This is the way it is,’ this is the way things have to be - they can only be this way.

Now that is not a fatalistic or negative reflection. It is not an attitude of: ‘That’s the way it is and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ It is a very positive response of accepting the flow of life for what it is. Even if it is not what we want, we can accept it and learn from it.

We are conscious, intelligent beings with retentive memory. We have language. Over the past several thousand years, we have developed reason, logic and discriminative intelligence. What we must do is figure out how to use these capacities as tools for realisation of Dhamma rather than as personal acquisitions or personal problems. People who develop their discriminative intelligence often end up turning it upon themselves; they become very self-critical and even begin to hate themselves. This is because our discriminative faculties tend to focus upon what is wrong with everything. That is what discrimination is about: seeing how this is different from that. When you do that to yourself, what do you end up with? Just a whole list of flaws and faults that make you sound absolutely hopeless.

When we are developing Right Understanding, we use our intelligence for reflection and contemplation of things. We also use our mindfulness and wisdom together. So now we are using our ability to discriminate with wisdom (vijja) rather than with ignorance (avijja). This teaching of the Four Noble Truths is to help you to use your intelligence - your ability to contemplate, reflect and think - in a wise way rather than in a self-destructive, greedy or hateful way.

 

The next element is Right (or as the rough looking tattooed gent in the video above stated the word 'appropriate' is a softer interpretation of right or correct) Intention (also translated as Right Thought or Aspiration, think 'free your mind from evil'):

RIGHT ASPIRATION
The second element of the Eightfold path is samma sankappa. Sometimes this is translated as ‘Right Thought’, thinking in the right way. However, it actually has more of a dynamic quality - like ‘intention’, ‘attitude’ or ‘aspiration’. I like to use ‘aspiration’ which is somehow very meaningful in this Eightfold Path - because we do aspire.

It is important to see that aspiration is not desire. The Pali word ‘tanha’ means desire that comes out of ignorance, whereas ‘sankappa’ means aspiration not coming from ignorance. Aspiration might seem like a kind of desire to us because in English we use the word ‘desire’ for everything of that nature - either aspiring or wanting. You might think that aspiration is a kind of tanha, wanting to become enlightened (bhava tanha) - but samma sankappa comes from Right Understanding, seeing clearly. It is not wanting to become anything; it is not the desire to become an enlightened person. With Right Understanding, that whole illusion and way of thinking no longer makes sense.

Aspiration is a feeling, an intention, attitude or movement within us. Our spirit rises, it does not sink downwards - it is not desperation! When there is Right Understanding, we aspire to truth, beauty and goodness. Samma ditthi and samma sankappa, Right Understanding and Right Aspiration, are called panna or wisdom and they make up the first of the three sections in the Eightfold Path.

We can contemplate: Why is it that we still feel discontented, even when we have the best of everything? We are not completely happy even if we have a beautiful house, a car, the perfect marriage, lovely bright children and all the rest of it - and we are certainly not contented when we do not have all these things!....If we don’t have them, we can think, ‘Well, if I had the best, then I’d be content.’ But we wouldn’t be. The earth is not the place for our contentment; it’s not supposed to be. When we realise that, we no longer expect contentment from planet earth; we do not make that demand.

Until we realise that this planet cannot satisfy all our wants, we keep on asking, ‘Why can’t you make me content, Mother Earth?’ We are like little children who suckle their mother, constantly trying to get the most out of her and wanting her always to nurture and feed them and make them feel content.

If we were content, we would not wonder about things. Yet we do recognise that there is something more than just the ground under our feet; there is something above us that we cannot quite understand. We have the ability to wonder and ponder about life, to contemplate its meaning. If you want to know the meaning of your life, you cannot be content with material wealth, comfort and security alone.

So we aspire to know the truth. You might think that that is a kind of presumptuous desire or aspiration, ‘Who do I think I am? Little old me trying to know the truth about everything.’ But there is that aspiration. Why do we have it if it is not possible? Consider the concept of ultimate reality. An absolute or ultimate truth is a very refined concept; the idea of God, the Deathless or the immortal, is actually a very refined thought. We aspire to know that ultimate reality. The animal side of us does not aspire; it does not know anything about such aspirations. But there is in each of us an intuitive intelligence that wants to know; it is always with us but we tend to not notice it; we do not understand it. We tend to discard or mistrust it - especially modern materialists. They just think it is fantasy and not real.

As for myself, I was really happy when I realised that the planet is not my real home. I had always suspected it. I can remember even as a small child thinking, ‘I don’t really belong here.’ I have never particularly felt that planet Earth is where I really belong - even before I was a monk, I never felt that I fitted into the society. For some people, that could be just a neurotic problem, but perhaps it could also be a kind of intuition children often have. When you are innocent, your mind is very intuitive. The mind of a child is more intuitively in touch with the mysterious forces than most adult minds are. As we grow up we become conditioned to think in very set ways and to have fixed ideas about what is real and what is not. As we develop our egos, society dictates what is real and what is not, what is right and what is wrong, and we begin to interpret the world through these fixed perceptions. One thing we find charming in children is that they don’t do that yet; they still see the world with the intuitive mind that is not yet conditioned.

Meditation is a way of deconditioning the mind which helps us to let go of all the hard-line views and fixed ideas we have. Ordinarily, what is real is dismissed while what is not real is given all our attention. This is what ignorance (avijja) is.

The contemplation of our human aspiration connects us to something higher than just the animal kingdom or the planet earth. To me that connection seems more true than the idea that this is all there is; that once we die our bodies rot and there is nothing more than that. When we ponder and wonder about this universe we are living in, we see that it is very vast, mysterious and incomprehensible to us. However, when we trust more in our intuitive mind, we can be receptive to things that we may have forgotten or have never been open to before - we open when we let go of fixed, conditioned reactions.

We can have the fixed idea of being a personality, of being a man or a woman, being an English person or an American. These things can be very real to us, and we can get very upset and angry about them. We are even willing to kill each other over these conditioned views that we hold and believe in and never question. Without Right Aspiration and Right Understanding, without panna, we never see the true nature of these views.

(Once again all elements copied and pasted from www.buddhanet.net)



And feel free to discuss. This Path is a universal one, a way of life to be put into practice by anyone, regardless of religion. True Buddhism is a practical philosophy of life, not some religious doctrine to be followed blindly. There is no servitude to dogma being encouraged here. (Granted the monk in that video explains Buddhism is neither a religion nor a philosophy, I was merely expressing a point).

EDIT: Posted this video in my journal and this dude also explains the point I was trying to stress about True Buddhism not being a religion (surely it is practiced as a religion by some people around the world, hence I added the word True),

 

The 3rd factor or element of the Path is pretty self-explanatory:

3. Right Speech
Avoid lying, gossip, harsh speech and tale-telling.

Very good talk by a very good monk, on the off chance someone even cares about listening to transcendental insight:

 

Path of Buddha actually deleted their account. Posts don't get deleted though.

I am not sure I understand what you are asking, I am assuming it may be related to the counter in someone's signature? Just click anybody's and it takes you to the page where you create your own, if that answers your question or what you were even asking about

 

The 4th element is Right Action, also self-explanatory, think do not harm other sentient beings:

4. Right Action
Not to destroy any life, not to steal or commit adultery.

 

Another brief overview for the next factor,



5. Right Livelihood
Avoiding occupations that bring harm to oneself and others.

Basically avoiding building or selling deadly weapons, intoxicants, and any professions that harm, take the life of, or contribute to the death of sentient beings. Or that exploits oneself, other people, and lower creatures.

 

Alright I know these were going to be spaced out into 8 posts to avoid video and image clutter, but this is the last post summing up the remaining 3 elements of the Path. Once again all descriptions copied from www.buddhanet.net:

6. Right Effort
Earnestly doing one's best in the right direction.

7. Right Mindfulness
Always being aware and attentive.

8. Right Concentration
Making the mind steady and calm in order to realise the true nature of things.

RIGHT EFFORT, RIGHT MINDFULNESS, RIGHT CONCENTRATION

Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration refer to your spirit, your heart. When we think of the spirit, we point to the centre of the chest, to the heart. So we have panna (the head), sila (the body) and samadhi (the heart). You can use your own body as a kind of chart, a symbol of the Eightfold Path. These three are integrated, working together for realisation and supporting each other like a tripod. One is not dominating the other and exploiting or rejecting anything.

They work together: the wisdom from Right Understanding and Right Intention; then morality, which is Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood; and Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration - the balanced equanimous mind, emotional serenity. Serenity is where the emotions are balanced, supporting each other. They’re not going up and down. There’s a sense of bliss, of serenity; there is perfect harmony between the intellect, the instincts and the emotions. They’re mutually supportive, helping each other. They’re no longer conflicting or taking us to extremes and, because of that, we begin to feel a tremendous peacefulness in our minds. There is a sense of ease and fearlessness coming from the Eightfold Path - a sense of equanimity and emotional balance. We feel at ease rather than that sense of anxiety, that tension and emotional conflict. There is clarity; there is peacefulness, stillness, knowing. This insight of the Eightfold Path should be developed; this is bhavana. We use the word bhavana to signify development.


This looks like it is from the 80's hahah totally awesome stuff:







Some mindfulness quotes from http://liveboldandbloom.com/06/mindfulness/mindfulness-quotes:

1. “When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” ~Lao Tzu

2. “Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future; live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh”



3. “As soon as we wish to be happier, we are no longer happy.” ~Walter Landor

4. “Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn’t more complicated than that. It is opening to or receiving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it.” ~Sylvia Boorstein

5. “The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness. Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.” ~Jon Kabat-Zinn

6. “In today’s rush, we all think too much — seek too much — want too much — and forget about the joy of just being.” ~Eckhart Tolle

7. “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” ~Dalai Lama

8. “Suffering usually relates to wanting things to be different than they are.” ~Allan Lokos

9. “If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.” ~Pema Chodron

10. “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” ~William Blake

11.”Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

12. “If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” ~Amit Ray

13. “In the end, just three things matter: How well we have lived. How well we have loved. How well we have learned to let go” ~Jack Kornfield



14. “Do every act of your life as though it were the last act of your life.” ~Marcus Aurelius

15. “Everything is created twice, first in the mind and then in reality.” ~Robin S. Sharma

16. “Don’t believe everything you think. Thoughts are just that – thoughts.” ~Allan Lokos

17. “Respond; don’t react. Listen; don’t talk. Think; don’t assume.” ~Raji Lukkoor

18. “In this moment, there is plenty of time. In this moment, you are precisely as you should be. In this moment, there is infinite possibility.” ~Victoria Moran

19. “Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different; enjoying the pleasant without holding on when it changes (which it will); being with the unpleasant without fearing it will always be this way (which it won’t).” ~James Baraz

20. “Mindfulness isn’t difficult, we just need to remember to do it.” ~Sharon Salzberg

21. “It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth – and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up – that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.” ~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

22. “Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.” ~Seneca

23. “Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading.Take down a musical instrument.” ~Rumi

24. “I wish that life should not be cheap, but sacred. I wish the days to be as centuries, loaded, fragrant.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson



The following is copied from http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/suwat/concentration.html

Right Concentration
by
Ajaan Suwat Suvaco
translated from Thai by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
© 2001

In general terms, Right Concentration means establishing the mind rightly. On one level, this can apply to all the factors of the path. You have to start out by setting the mind on Right View. In other words, you use your discernment to gather together all the Dhamma you've heard. Then when you set the mind on Right Resolve, that's also a way of establishing it rightly. Then you set it on Right Speech, speaking only things that are right. You set it on Right Action, examining your actions and then forcing yourself, watching over yourself, to keep your actions firmly in line with what's right. As for Right Livelihood, you set your mind on providing for your livelihood exclusively in a right way. You're firm in not making a livelihood in ways that are wrong, not acting in ways that are wrong, not speaking in ways that are corrupt and wrong. You won't make any effort in ways that go off the path, you won't be mindful in ways that lie outside the path. You'll keep being mindful in ways that stay on the path. You make this vow to yourself as a firm determination. This is one level of establishing the mind rightly.

But what I want to talk about today is Right Concentration in the area of meditation: in other words, Right Meditation, both in the area of tranquillity meditation and in the area of insight meditation. You use the techniques of tranquillity meditation to bring the mind to stillness. When you make the mind still, firm in skillful qualities, that's one aspect of Right Concentration. If the mind isn't firmly established in skillful qualities, it can't grow still. If unskillful qualities arise in the mind, it can't settle down and enter concentration. This is why, when the Buddha describes the mind entering concentration, he says, "Vivicceva kamehi":Quite secluded from sensual preoccupations. The mind isn't involved, doesn't incline itself toward sights that will give rise to infatuation and desire. It doesn't incline itself toward sounds that it likes, toward aromas, tastes, or tactile sensations for which it feels infatuation through the power of desire. At the same time, it doesn't incline itself toward desire for those things. Before the mind can settle into concentration, it has to let go of these five types of preoccupations. This is called vivicceva kamehi, quite secluded from sensual preoccupations.

Vivicca akusalehi dhammehi: quite secluded from the unskillful qualities called the five Hindrances. For example, the first Hindrance is sensual desire. When you sit in meditation and a defilement arises in the mind, when you think of something and feel desire for an internal or an external form, when you get infatuated with the things you've seen and known in the past, that's called sensual desire.

Or if you think of something that makes you dissatisfied to the point of feeling ill will for certain people or objects, that's the Hindrance of ill will. Things from the past that upset you suddenly arise again in the present, barge their way in to obstruct the stillness of your mind. When the mind gets upset in this way, that's an unskillful mental state acting as an obstacle to concentration.

Or sloth and torpor: a sense of laziness and inattentiveness when the mind isn't intent on its work and so lets go out of laziness and carelessness. It gets drowsy so that it can't be intent on its meditation. You sit here thinking buddho, buddho, but instead of focusing the mind to get it firmly established so that it can gain knowledge and understanding from its buddho,you throw buddho away to go play with something else. As awareness gets more refined, you get drowsy and fall asleep or else let delusion overcome the mind. This is an unskillful mental state called sloth and torpor.

Then there's restlessness and anxiety, when mindfulness isn't keeping control over things, and the mind follows its preoccupations as they shoot out to things you like and don't like. The normal state of people's minds is that, when mindfulness isn't in charge, the mind can't sit still. It's bound to keep thinking about 108 different kinds of things. So when you're practicing concentration you have to exercise restraint, you have to be careful that the mind doesn't get scattered about. You have to be mindful of the present and alert to the present, too. When you try to keep buddho in mind, you have to be alert at the same time to watch over your buddho. Or if you're going to be mindful of the parts of the body — like hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, teeth, skin — you should focus on only one part at a time, making sure that you're both mindful and alert to your mindfulness, to make sure you don't go being mindful of other things. That's how you can cut off restlessness and anxiety.

As you keep being mindful of the same thing for a long time, the body will gradually calm down and relax. The preoccupations of the mind will calm down, too, so that the mind can grow still. It grows still because you keep it under control. You weaken its unruliness — as when you pull fuel away from a burning fire. As you keep pulling away the fuel, the fire gradually grows weaker and weaker. And what's the fuel for the mind's unruliness? Forgetfulness. Inattentiveness. This inattentiveness is the fuel both for restlessness and anxiety and for sloth and torpor. When you keep mindfulness and alertness in charge, you cut away forgetfulness and inattentiveness. As these forms of delusion are subdued, they lose their power. They gradually disband, leaving nothing but awareness of buddho or whatever your meditation object is. As you keep looking after your meditation object firmly, without growing inattentive, restlessness will disappear. Drowsiness will disappear. The mind will get firmly established in Right Concentration.

This is how you enter Right Concentration. You have to depend on both mindfulness and alertness together. Right Concentration can't simply arise on its own. It needs supporting factors. The first seven factors of the path are the supporters for Right Concentration, or its requisites, the things it needs to depend on. It needs Right View, Right Resolve, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, and Right Mindfulness. As you keep developing the beginning factors of the path, concentration becomes more and more refined, step by step. When the mind is trained and suffused with these qualities, it's able to let go of sensual preoccupations, able to let go of unskillful mental qualities. Vivicceva kamehi vivicca akusalehi dhammehi. When it's secluded from sensual preoccupations, secluded from unskillful qualities, it can enter concentration. It experiences stillness, rapture, pleasure, singleness of preoccupation. Both body and mind feel light.

In the first stage, the mind isn't totally refined because it still has directed thought and evaluation in the factors of its concentration. If your mindfulness is in good shape and can keep its object in mind without pulling away, if your effort is right and alertness keeps watching over things, the coarser parts of your concentration will drop away and the mind will grow more refined step by step. Directed thought and evaluation — the coarser parts — will drop away because they can't follow into that more refined stage. All that's left is rapture, pleasure, and singleness of preoccupation. As you keep on meditating without let-up, things keep growing more refined step by step. Rapture, which is coarser than pleasure, will drop away, leaving the pleasure. Pleasure is coarser than equanimity. As you keep contemplating while the mind grows more refined, the pleasure will disappear, leaving just equanimity. As long as there's still pleasure, equanimity can't arise. As long as the mind is still feeding off pleasure, it's still engaged with something coarse. But as you keep up your persistent effort until you see that this pleasure still comes under the Three Characteristics of inconstancy, stress, and not-self, that it's part of the aggregate of feeling, the mind will let go of that coarser aspect and settle down with equanimity. Even though equanimity, too, is part of the feeling aggregate, it's a feeling refined enough to cleanse the mind to the point where it can give rise to knowledge of refined levels of Dhamma.

When the mind reaches this level, it's firm and unwavering because it's totally neutral. It doesn't waver when the eye sees a form, the ear hears a sound, the nose smells an aroma, the tongue tastes a flavor, the body feels a tactile sensation, or an idea comes to the mind. None of these things can make the mind waver when it's in the factors of jhana. It maintains a high level of purity. This is Right Concentration.

We should all develop tranquillity meditation, which can give temporary respite from suffering and stress. But in a state like this, you simply have mindfulness in charge. Discernment is still too weak to uproot the most refined levels of defilement and latent tendencies (anusaya). Thus, for our Right Concentration to be complete, we're taught not to get carried away with the sense of pleasure it brings. When the mind has been still for an appropriate amount of time, we should then apply the mind to contemplating the five aggregates, for these aggregates are the basis for insight meditation. You can't develop insight meditation outside of the five aggregates — the aggregates of form, feeling, perception, thought-fabrications, and consciousness — for these aggregates lie right within us. They're right next to us, with us at all times.

So. How do you develop the aggregate of form as a basis for insight meditation? You have to see it clearly in line with its truth that form is inconstant. This is how you begin. As you develop insight meditation, you have to contemplate down to the details. What is form? Form covers hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, teeth, skin, and all the four great elements that we can touch and see. As for subsidiary forms, they can't be seen with the eye, but they can be touched, and they depend on the four great elements. For example, sound is a type of form, a type of subsidiary form. Aromas, flavors, tactile sensations are subsidiary forms that depend on the four great elements. The sensory powers of the eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body are subsidiary forms — they're physical events, not mental events, you know. Then there are masculinity and femininity, which fashion the body to be male or female, and create differences in male and female voices, manners, and other characteristics. Then there's the heart, and then viññati-rupa, which allows for the body to move, for speech to be spoken.

So the Buddha taught that we should contemplate form in all its aspects so as to gain the insight enabling us to withdraw all our clinging assumptions that they're us or ours. How does this happen? When we contemplate, we'll see that yam kiñci rupam atitanagata-paccuppannam: all form — past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near — is inconstant, stressful, and not-self. It all lies under the Three Characteristics. When we remember this, that's called pariyatti-dhamma, the Dhamma of study. When we actually take things apart and contemplate them one by one to the point where we gain true knowledge and vision, that's called the practice of insight meditation, the discernment arising in line with the way things actually are.

This is a short explanation of insight meditation, focused just on the aggregate of form. As for feeling — the pleasures, pains, and feelings of neither pleasure nor pain within us — once we've truly seen form, we'll see that the same things apply to feeling. It's inconstant. When it's inconstant, it'll have to make us undergo suffering and stress because of that inconstancy. We'll be piling suffering on top of suffering. Actually, there's no reason why the mind should suffer from these things, but we still manage to make ourselves suffer because of them. Even though they're not-self, there's suffering because we don't know. There's inconstancy because we don't know. Unless we develop insight meditation to see clearly and know truly, we won't be able to destroy the subtle, latent tendency of ignorance, the latent tendency of becoming, the latent tendency of sensuality within ourselves.

But if we're able to develop insight meditation to the point where we see form clearly in terms of the Three Characteristics of inconstancy, stress, and not-self, then disenchantment will arise. When the latent tendencies of ignorance and becoming are destroyed, the latent tendency of sensuality will have no place to stand. There's nothing it can fabricate, for there's no delusion. When ignorance disbands, fabrications disband. When fabrications disband, all the suffering that depends on fabrication will have to disband as well.

This is why we should practice meditation in line with the factors of the noble eightfold path as set down by the Buddha. To condense it even further, there are three trainings: virtue, concentration, and discernment. Virtue — exercising restraint over our words and deeds — is part of the path. tranquillity meditation and insight meditation come under concentration. So virtue, concentration, and discernment cover the path. Or if you want to condense things even further, there are physical phenomena and mental phenomena — i.e., the body and mind. When we correctly understand the characteristics of the body, we'll see into the ways the body and mind are interrelated. Then we'll be able to separate them out. We'll see what's not-self and what isn't not-self. Things in and of themselves aren't not-self, for they each have an in-and-of-themselves. It's not the case that there's nothing there at all. If there were nothing there at all, how would there be contact? Think about it. Take the fire element: who could destroy it? Even though it's not-self, it's got an in-and-of-itself. The same holds true with the other elements. In other words, these things still exist, simply that there's no more clinging.

So I ask that you understand this and then put it correctly into practice so as to meet with happiness and progress.

That's enough explanation for now. Keep on meditating until the time is up.

 

A linked book below courtesy of
http://www.buddhanet.net/4noble.htm



THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS
Teachings by Ajahn Sumedho

• A Handful of Leaves
• Preface
• Introduction

• The First Noble Truth
• Suffering and Self-view
• Denial of Suffering
• Morality and compassion
• To Investigate Suffering
• Pleasure and Displeasure
• Insight in Situations

• The Second Noble Truth
• Three Kinds of Desire
• Grasping is Suffering
• Letting Go
• Accomplishment

• The Third Noble Truth
• The Truth of Impermanence
• Mortality and Cessation
• Allowing Things to Arise
• Realisation

• The Fourth Noble Truth
• Right Understanding
• Right Aspiration
• Speech/Action/Livelihood
• Effort/Mindfulness/Concentration

• Aspects of Meditation
• Rationality and Emotion
• Things As They Are
• Harmony
• 8-Path as Reflective Teaching
• Glossary
  

 

Wow great thread. @ओं मणिपद्मे हूं thanks for keeping it going! It would be nice to flesh out some ideas for where to go from here and what kinds of things to discuss. I know some nice resources have been linked to here. I think ओं मणिपद्मे हूं said something about discussing the Damma as it pertains to extinguishing the fires of lust that fuel the PMO-guilt-shame cycle. I think that'd be a great place to start. Buddhism as a philosophy is all about self-help. As the Buddha said "You yourselves must strive, the Buddhas only point the way." Dhp 20

 

So begins the parable post series for my own benefit at least as a preliminary stepping stone towards tracking my progress with one of those nifty "CrazyGopher" counters (I have been clean for sometime, I explain the reasons I do not keep a counter in my journal, but for fun I think I will begin a counter and track a year of progress after these posts, if I miss a post it means I relapsed.)

Each post is a parable from the Hundred Parables Sutra. Feel free to keep discussing anything related to this thread, don't mind my presence in this thread

Each parable is copied from http://www.cttbusa.org/100parables/content.asp



1 The Stupid Man and The Salt

Once there was a stupid man who paid a visit to a friend. When the host gave him something to eat, he complained that the food was tasteless and so the host added a bit of salt. The stupid man tried the food again and found it much improved. He thought, “If a little salt improves it this much, more salt would make it even better.” Then he ate only salt and his mouth became raw and he became sick.

 

I thought Path of Buddha had a good thread idea here, a shame he decided to leave. Being a Buddhist I jumped on this thread naturally.

I like what the Chinese monk said in the International Buddhist Temple video some posts back about Buddhism not being a religion nor a philosophy. For a second he suggested it could be both then I believe he went on to explain it is actually neither. And of course Koi's take on Buddhism was beautiful.

True Buddhism is definitely not a religion. This is a secular recovery site, and believe me I am the last person to go expounding on any religious dogmas here, granted there are designated places to do that on the forum. It would be nice to have an official Buddhist thread or group, this thread seems appropriate enough for the time being. Once the group feature is live perhaps someone can start a group.

Anyways, here are more videos that explain a bit more on this train of thought:



http://bigthink.com/videos/buddhism-is-compatible-with-science

Article copied from http://bigthink.com/in-their-own-words/why-you-need-to-make-time-to-clean-your-mind



Why You Need to Make Time to Clean Your Mind
by KADAM MORTEN
ABOUT 2 YEARS AGO

I think what’s important here is to recognize that from one point of view, my view, is we can’t afford not to fit meditation in. We may think, "Well, I don’t have time in my busy schedule to brush my teeth." Well, that’s going to have a detrimental impact on the rest of your life, isn’t it? And so in the same way, really, we should find a little bit of time every day to brush our mind, to clean our mind.

We wouldn’t think of leaving the house without cleaning the body. Really, we shouldn’t think about leaving the house without cleaning the mind. Finding the mind is more important than the body. The state of your mind determines everything.

So, we need encouragement to do it though, there’s no doubt about that. Especially, to begin with because it so goes against our habit and because at this point in time, our mind is often very uncomfortable because it’s full of unhappiness, depression, frustration, anxiety. So when you sit still, you’re not going to necessarily go to a peaceful place or a joyful place or a loving place, like I was saying. So you have to expect that. And in part, that’s why it’s very important to connect with other people who are meditating.

You know, this is why my teacher, Geshe Kelsang, he’s written books, but the main thing he did, we might say, the main component of modern Buddhism was that he established centers where there are western teachers teaching these meditations and there’s a community of practitioners. And we need community, for sure, because we need that encouragement.

Basically my view is if you begin to practice and especially if you find that method of connecting to some community, receiving some encouragement, and you know, these days, you know, it can happen over the internet. But live is better. You know, connecting to an actual living community – live interaction with a teacher, always better, of course because there’s something energetic that happens then as well. But, if we begin to get that taste of meditation we will see it will improve us as a person. We will be a happier, more peaceful, more kind person. That will help our relationship, that will help our children, that will help our parents, that will help our colleagues, it will help our world. You know, we are all interconnected. That’s also another thing that modern life, I think, shows us. That’s one of the aspects of modern life, that we’re all interconnected. And it’s one of the things that Buddha taught, we’re all interconnected and everything you say or do affects everything else.

So it's important if we could, so to speak, inject into the bloodstream of all living beings, kindness, wisdom, peace, love, compassion. It’s clear there’s not enough of that happening and it needs to happen here, in our own heart and then it happens organically and naturally. So, we can always find the time if we really want to.

In Their Own Words is recorded in Big Think's studio.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock