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October 10 - October 14, 2018
“These habitual tendencies do not underlie all feelings; they do not have to be abandoned in regard to all feelings.”5 She is saying there are some pleasant feelings, secluded from unwholesome states, that lead onward to enlightenment. And there are also some unpleasant feelings that arise from renunciation and do not condition aversion, and they too can lead to awakening.
the path to realization is simply being mindful of all the different feelings as they arise. When a pleasant feeling arises, know it as worldly or unworldly; when an unpleasant feeling arises, know it as worldly or unworldly; and the same with neutral feelings.
The Buddha goes on to say that people might believe that feeling is “myself,” or “my self feels,” or even “my self is without feeling.” This identification then feeds the conditioned tendencies of desire for the pleasant, aversion to the unpleasant, and ignorance of the neutral, and so keeps us caught on the wheel of saṃsāra. Through contemplating feelings as impersonal processes, arising out of contact with the six sense objects (mind is included as the sixth sense), we no longer take these feelings to be self. And in those moments we are practicing the Buddha’s essential teaching, “Nothing
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“And how, bhikkhus, does one in regard to the mind, contemplate the mind?”
It’s important to understand which mind states are skillful and which are unskillful, not in order to judge ourselves or be reactive to them, but in order to see which lead to happiness and should be cultivated in our lives, and which lead to suffering and should be abandoned. The distinction between wholesome and unwholesome mind states brings a moral dimension into psychology. This is particularly important because these different states are not only arising in our minds, but they are also what motivate our actions.
It took a while to actually follow the Buddha’s instructions and see that the difficult mind states were not in themselves a problem or a mistake. They were simply part of the path, impermanent and selfless, just like everything else. Fear is just a mind state. At this point of understanding, there was a certain kind of joy in becoming aware of the defilements, because I would rather see and explore them than not see them and simply act them out.
Why did the Buddha include this external awareness of feelings and mind states?
Likewise, when we’re unmindful externally, the pleasant feelings in others could trigger jealousy or envy.
By including all the four foundations of mindfulness in the practice, the Buddha is giving the method for accomplishing bare knowing and continuous mindfulness, because no experience is left out. If pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral feelings are predominant, we’re mindful of them. If either wholesome or unwholesome mind states arise, we’re mindful of them.
“Abiding independent” means not being dependent on objects of experience through desire or through the view of self, not identifying with anything as being “I” or “mine.”
whoever hears this, has heard all the teachings; whoever practices this, has practiced all the teachings; whoever realizes this, has realized all the teachings. We abide independent, not clinging to anything in the world.
comprehensive list of the basic organizing principles of his teachings: the hindrances, the aggregates, the sense spheres, the factors of awakening, and the four noble truths.
When sense desire is present in the mind, it is as if the pool were suffused with a colored dye. Desires color our perceptions. When aversion is present, it is like boiling water. We can’t see clearly. When we’re heated up by anger, we’re in a state of turbulence. Sloth and torpor are like the pool overgrown with algae. There is a stagnation of mind that prevents us from seeing clearly. Restlessness and worry are like water when it is stirred up by the wind. The mind is tossed about by agitation. And doubt is like muddy water, where we can’t see to the bottom, and everything is obscured.
how can we practice working with and abandoning the hindrances without suppression, without aversion, without self-judgment?
“in-order-to” mind—that is, we are aware of something in order for something different to arise. Maybe we’re noticing a pain in order for it to go away or a pleasant feeling in order for it to continue. When we don’t recognize when desire is present, we’re simply lost in its distorting energy; when we are aware of it, it becomes part of the path of awakening.
next three steps in the instructions emphasize the understanding of conditionality.
when we’re not mindful of an arising sense object or the pleasant feeling associated with it, then the habitual conditioning of desire and craving easily gets activated.
“vipassanā romance,”
we see the importance of knowing what kinds of thoughts are arising in our mind, because the more often they are repeated, the more probable they become. We begin to be conscious of what patterns have been established, but often go unnoticed. Sensual desires also arise from the fundamental misperception that they will actually bring about a lasting happiness — something that, given their impermanence, is not possible.
He soon felt that the realization of his desires gave him no more than a grain of sand out of the mountain of happiness he had expected. It showed him the mistake men make in picturing to themselves happiness as the realization of their desires.”
Most of us have had some realization of this truth; it is usually what brings us to the Dharma. But actualizing this understanding in our lives can be challenging, particularly in the lay life.
In the moment of being mindful of sensual desire when it has already arisen, we are no longer lost in it, feeding it, or identified with it. When we’re mindful of desire in the mind, we begin to see desire’s impermanent, impersonal nature.
The Pali word for aversion is paṭigha, which literally means “striking against.”
we might think we’re being quite open to and mindful of the pain, yet the very language we might use to describe it in a way we consider objective is really just further conditioning aversion.
when we get angry at something we are remembering or anticipating, in that moment we’re simply getting angry at a thought in the mind—a painted tiger.
There is also the phenomenon called the “vipassanā vendetta.” This happens when we’re going through some difficulties in our own practice, and we project this dissatisfaction onto others. If we’re feeling tired or grumpy, small things can provoke aversion or irritation. Usually it is a particular person on the retreat who begins to irritate us.
Very often we have never even spoken to this person, but the judging, aversive mind latches on and colors our experience of them.
weather? These are situations that are not directed at us personally and are due to causes clearly beyond our control, yet we often act as if they are a personal affront.
If we feel really caught by it, we can then bring some further investigation to these aversive states. First, check the accuracy of the note. Instead of making a general note of aversion, look more carefully at the specific form the aversion is taking.
We might stay in the state for extended periods of time, enjoying a mind that is not agitated, but is nevertheless not truly awake.
“If you fall asleep when you’re sitting, never mind.” This last reminder was the crucial piece.
just relaxed into the experience, instead of struggling to stay awake as I usually did. Something quite striking occurred: I sometimes did nod off for a few moments, but because the struggle was absent, I would often come back into awareness with a sudden jerk, and then I’d be wide awake and alert for the rest of the sitting.
First, it develops through a careful noting of a greater number of objects as a way of brightening awareness.
Arousal, endeavor, and exertion: as these qualities of energy are developed and strengthened, not only sloth and torpor, but also all the other hindrances, are weakened and avoided.
Anālayo points out that in working with the hindrances, the first step of satipaṭṭhāna is not in actively opposing the hindrance or struggling with it, but in clearly recognizing and being mindful of it, and in recognizing the conditions related to its presence or absence. It is when more active measures are needed that we then call on our other Dharma resources to free the mind from their hindering effects.
the mind can slip in and out of quickly passing thoughts.
remembering past unskillful actions, either of commission or omission.
Worry and restlessness also arise from an excess of striving in our practice and an overconcern with one’s progress or level of insight. We can get caught up in what I call “practice assessment tapes,” continually judging and assessing how we are doing.
sometimes helps to use the Pali words to note the hindrances, as these words can help to depersonalize them, to see them free from all the associations and connotations of the English words.
Although from the ultimate perspective, there’s no self, no “I,” still, in conventional, everyday usage, he is saying, “Is doubt present in me or not?” Right here is an integration of relative and ultimate truths. On the conventional level, we speak of “I,” “me,” and “self” even as we understand on a more ultimate level the selfless nature of all phenomena.
“To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.”
Perhaps an even stronger manifestation of doubt has less to do with our confidence in particular teachings and more to do with our own ability to put them into practice. This is the deeply ingrained pattern of self-doubt.
O]ne knows ‘there is doubt in me.’” Through a careful mindfulness of our thoughts, 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.
We’re going along, somewhat aware of what is happening, but not in a precise and accurate way.
On the general level, it means a collection or a heap of things, including all the elements that make up the substance or groupings of something.
Whenever we are mindful of a physical sensation — hardness, softness, pressure, vibration, heat, cold, lightness, heaviness — we are contemplating the first aggregate.
Buddha is saying to know each of these basic elements, each of these sensations, as being rūpa.
We use the same words — head, body, man, woman — whether it’s today, yesterday, or tomorrow. The words remain the same, which reinforces the illusion that there is something permanent that these words refer to. Yet when we contemplate the first aggregate of material elements, we clearly experience their changing nature.
When we’re undistracted, we become aware simply of sensations in space. There’s no body, no foot, no leg—nothing solid or permanent at all.
When we don’t observe the five aggregates carefully, 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. We believe in the solidity of material phenomena, in the solidity or stability of relationships, of societies. But as long as this perception of solidity and stability is fixed, we don’t deeply understand the impermanent and insubstantial nature of all phenomena.
