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simply reinforces the sense of self with negative self-judgment: “I’m so bad,” with an emphasis on the “I.”
Rem...
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acknowledges the action, understands its unwholesomeness, makes amends when poss...
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understanding that the mind’s empty, aware nature is already here.
two reminders to great benefit in my practice: “Already aware” and “It’s already here.”
“If doubt is present, one knows ‘there is doubt in me’; if doubt is not present, one knows ‘there is no doubt in me.’ And one knows how unarisen doubt can arise, how arisen doubt can be removed, and how a future arising of doubt can be prevented.”
This is the mind state of uncertainty, wavering, and indecision. It is like coming to a crossroad and not knowing which way to go.
Unnoticed, doubt is the most dangerous of the hindrances because it can bring our practice to a standstill.
“To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.”
But rather than investigating and seeing for ourselves whether they have meaning for us, we often use doubt as a way of simply dismissing what is beyond our current level of understanding.
The great seduction of doubt is that it comes masquerading as wisdom.
we become more familiar with our own particular tapes and note them accurately: “I can’t do it”—doubting tape. “I’m not doing it right”—doubting tape. “What’s the point?”—doubting tape.
“There are, bhikkhus, things that are the basis for doubt: frequently giving careless attention to them is the nutriment for the arising of unarisen doubt and for the increase and expansion of arisen doubt.”2
When we bring a close attention to the moment, we can be aware of thoughts closer to their beginning and not be seduced by their convincing tone.
it is better to do an unskillful act knowing that it’s unskillful than to do it without that knowledge.
the very opposite of doubt is the beautiful mental factor of faith.
the Buddha outlines the contemplation of what are called “the five aggregates” (khandhas, in Pali) of experience: material elements, feelings, perceptions, formations, and consciousness.
“How does one abide contemplating dhammas in terms of the five aggregates of clinging?”
the first aggregate of material form or materiality (rūpa, in Pali).
Whenever we are mindful of a physical sensation — hardness, softness, pressure, vibration, heat, cold, lightness, heaviness — we are contemplating the first aggregate.
know each of these basic elements, each of these sensations, as being rūpa.
our experience in the contemplation of rūpa is one of a flow of changing vibrations.
the second aggregate, that of feeling (or vedanā, in Pali).
Perhaps you’re sitting and the mind has settled into a more concentrated state where there is stillness, calm, and ease of body. Watch the tendency of the mind to like this state, to cling to it, to want it to continue. This would be a good time to notice and note the feeling aggregate: “pleasant, pleasant.”
“See everything with perfect wisdom. This is not mine, not I, not myself.”
The third of the five aggregates is perception.
When perception and mindfulness are balanced, they work together in the service of insight. But when they are out of balance, perception can keep us imprisoned in the world of concepts, imprisoned in the conventional idea of self.
there’s one deeply habituated perception that we have about the world and ourselves that becomes the origin of many inaccurate conclusions. It’s a perception that keeps us from understanding what is true. This is the perception we have of the solidity of things.
“You live in confusion and the illusion of things. There is a reality. You are that reality. When you know that, you will know that you are nothing and, in being nothing, are everything. That is all.”
When there is perception without mindfulness, which is our usual way of being in the world, we recognize just the surface appearance of things; we have not entered deeply into the experience and do not see its impermanent, insubstantial nature. We can see this tendency to solidify our view of the world through superficial perceptions and concepts in many areas of life, sometimes with very harmful consequences.
The Buddha taught that we cannot be said to truly own even these minds and bodies, much less anything else.
Let go of the past, let go of the future, let go of the present, and cross over to the farther shore of existence. With the mind wholly liberated, you shall come no more to birth and death.4
As soon as we identify with any role or image, it is already a limitation. It is like a mold that we pour ourselves into, and then wonder why we feel contracted.
“good yogi, bad yogi syndrome.” We also project these assessments onto others and then suffer with the comparing mind.
One of our deepest conditionings and the source of so much suffering in our lives comes from one basic misguided perception, which is the mind-created concept of self.
these concepts are only a designation for an arising appearance of complex interactions.
Understanding our experience through the lens of the five aggregates helps us realize for ourselves the fundamental selfless nature of all phenomena.
The fourth aggregate is called saṅkārā in Pali.
saṅkārā has a wide range of meanings.
in the context of the five aggregates, saṅkārā refers specifically to all the mental factors that arise in different combinations with each moment of consciousness, except feeling and perception,
the Buddhist psychology, mental factors are the building blocks of all mental activity, including thoughts, emotions, moods, and mind states.
The Abhidhamma delineates these factors into four basic categories.
The first category of mental factors is called “the universals,” because they are common to all moments of consciousness.
The seven common mental factors are contact, feeling, perception, attention (which is different and more superficial than mindfulness), one-pointedness, volition, and something called “life faculty.”
The second category is called “the occasionals,” because they are sometimes present and sometimes not.
include such factors as initial and sustained application of mind, decision, energy, rapture, and “desire to do.”
The third category are the fourteen unwholesome factors of mind: greed, hatred, delusion, shamelessness, fearlessness of wrongdoing, restlessness, worry, wrong view, conceit, envy, avarice, sloth, torpor, and doubt.
four of them are always present in every unwholesome consciousness: delusion, shamelessness, fearlessness of wrongdoing, and restlessness.
The fourth category of mental factors is comprised of what are called “the beautiful factors of mind.”
is an essential part of our practice, because whenever we identify with any of these factors, whether wholesome or unwholesome, we reinforce both the concept and felt sense of self.
