Time to go LIVE?

     To what extent do YOU sleepwalk through life - your thoughts, speech & actions fully pre-programmed by your genetic & environmental conditioning? How predictable are you? Are you barely surviving on "story of me" re-runs?

          “To live is the rarest thing in the world. 
            Most people exist, that is all.”                         Oscar Wilde

     As one who’s spent far too much time & energy on (wallowing in) miseries from my childhood, I’ve come to wonder if such activity (or more accurately, lack of activity) is primarily an avoidant luxury when we have nothing truly important & urgent to deal with. 
     An incurable disease diagnosis with a month left to live seems to snap about 40% of people out of their “neurotic selfing habit” and right smack into the best quality of life they’ve ever known. And they’re profoundly grateful for the diagnosis! See: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.com/search?q=post+traumatic+growth

     An excellent, wonderfully well-written book IMHO is: Nina Riggs. “The Bright Hour. A Memoir of Living and Dying.” Simon & Schuster, 2017. A few relevant quotes from it:
          “Cancer removes whatever weird barriers we sometimes have with others. A mastectomy of bullshit, my mother suggests. All the o-yes-everything-is-great stuff eventually gets carted off in a bag of medical waste.”
          “Annie Dillard … reminds us again and again to clear our vision of expectations, to try to see without understanding.”

     And finally, a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke: 
          “Death is our friend precisely because it brings us into absolute and passionate presence with all that is here, that is natural, that is love.”

Danger Signals

     Immediately from one or a few obvious cause(s), or more gradually from unknown numbers of straws on the camel's back, we're regularly bombarded by many, many danger signals.
     'Danger' sounds acute, even life-threatening. But as social creatures, we sense danger even when someone we consider important, isn't as friendly towards us as usual. So the innumerable variables in life, coupled with our 'negativity bias' conspire to more or less constantly keep us on edge! And the greater our history of trauma, the more exaggerated the alarm bells & our responses. One can sustain major trauma without ever having experienced combat or sexual abuse.
      “By far the most important predictor of how well (people) coped with life’s inevitable disappointments was the level of security established with their primary caregiver during the first two years of life.”
     Bessel Van Der Kolk. “The Body Keeps the Score. Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma.” Penguin Books, 2015. 

     So we can see that we should be gentle & understanding with our own & others' odd behavior. We're all, to some degree, scared, needy kids who just want to be safe, secure, loved & happy. Our behavior hints at how patient (to desperate) we are to get there, as well as how healthy (to dysfunctional) our idea of "there" happens to be. All of us are always doing our best, no matter how that may appear to others - and even to ourselves when we look back (with dismay & gratitude for the great tolerance we received) later!
     But identifying with our level of dysfunction is unsatisfactory - intentional wallowing simply won't do. We must tirelessly dig ourselves out of this hole. We can learn to quickly & easily recognize the felt sense of false (ego) danger. There's a distinct difference between danger to our ego vs actual life. We must learn to identify this difference, because our quality of life definitely depends on skillfully managing these two vastly different dangers.

 The Space Between by Alice Mason   https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/AliceMasonArtist?ref=l2-shopheader-name

Deluded Ordinary Mind

     “Buddhist psychology offers models of the process and structures of the mind. It shows how flight from the existential inevitability of loss, pain, and death leads to delusion, which is a subtle and pervasive refusal to face reality. Instead, we attempt to find and hold on to something that is concrete and substantial. This common mentality is one of grasping, which leads to attachment and creates an accumulation of habit-energies, preferences, and behavior patterns that support the illusion of an enduring self that can escape impermanence. Buddhist psychology sees this self as a defensive structure that lacks foundation yet dominates the ordinary mind.”

        Caroline Brazier. “Buddhism on the Couch. From Analysis to Awakening Using Buddhist Psychology.” Ulysses Press, Berkley, CA, 2003. 

Finding Our Way Home

     “When sitting in meditation, you may have strange experiences or visions such as seeing lights, angels, or buddhas. When you see such things, you should observe yourself first to find out what state the mind is in. Do not forget the basic point. Pay attention. Do not wish for visions to arise or not to arise. 
     If you go running after such experiences, you may end up babbling senselessly because the mind has fled the stable. When such things do come, contemplate them, do not be deluded by them. You should consider that they are not yourself; they too are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not yourself. 
     Though they have come about, do not take them seriously. If they do not go away, re-establish your mindfulness, fix your attention on your breathing, and take at least three long inhalations and exhalations – then you can cut them off. 
     Whatever arises, keep re-establishing your attention. Do not take anything as yourself – everything is only a vision or a construction of the mind, a deception that causes you to like, grasp, or fear. When you see such constructions, do not get involved. 
     All unusual experiences and visions are of value to the wise person but harmful to the unwise. Keep practicing until you are not stirred by them.”

       Kornfield J, Breiter P. “A still forest pool. The insight meditation of Achaan Chah.” Quest Books, Wheaton IL, 1985.


      “Your true home is wakefulness. Go home!”            Ashin Tejaniya

Peter O pics   www.dpreview.com

Joy

Live in joy,
In love,
Even among those who hate.

Live in joy,
In health,
Even among the afflicted.

Live in joy,
In peace,
Even among the troubled.

Look within.
Be still.
Free from fear and attachment,
Know the sweet joy of the way.

from the DHAMMAPADA, translated by Thomas Byron


Teachings of the Buddha, edited by Jack Kornfield 
Shambhala, Boston, 2012 

Dale Pbwu   www.dpreview.com

"How Does it Feel When You're On Your Own, No Direction Home, Like a Rolling Stone?"

     "Usually when someone takes away one of our mental toys we just find new toys. That is one of the reasons why many of the Prajnaparamita Sutras are so long - they list all the toys we can think of and even more, but our mind still keeps grasping at new ones. The basic point is to get to a place where we actually stop searching for and grasping at the next toy. Then we need to see how that state of mind feels. How does our mind feel when we are not grasping at anything, when we are not trying to entertain ourselves, and when our mind is not going outside (or not going anywhere at all), when there is no place left to go?"

       Karl Brunnholzl "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. The heart sutra will change you forever." Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly, Fall 2012.

phucthang   www.dpreview.com

Mindfulness - a Deeper, Broader Definition

     "Mindfulness has a wealth of meanings. Mindfulness is living in the present moment, but that is really not enough. Black labs & golden retrievers - amazingly playful, friendly dogs running around - they are living in the present moment, but they don't look like they're being too mindful, literally being led around by the nose. They're very much in the present, but it's not mindfulness. So I call that quality of mind 'black lab consciousness' to distinguish it.
     So then we might say that mindfulness is the observing power of the mind - so we're really observing what's happening, as it's happening. With a black lab there isn't much observation - no stepping back & knowing what's happening. The lab seems pretty identified with what's going on. There doesn't seem to be a lot of self-reflection. The observing power of the mind has to do with stepping back & knowing that we're knowing, rather than simply knowing.
     But even that's not enough for mindfulness, because we can be observing something through a filter of various mental factors, for example the filter of desire or the filter of anger, and we're not aware of that. So we're observing what's happening, but we're not being mindful. So mindfulness is yet something else again. It's not just being in the present, it's not just observing in the present, it's observing in a particular way. It's being aware of what's arising, but without greed or attachment, without aversion or condemning, and without delusion or being identified with it.
     So that's a very particular kind of awareness. And right there it leads the understanding of mindfulness into an ethical dimension. Mindfulness is always a wholesome state of mind, because it's free of greed, and free of aversion. Mindfulness is very rich, it's not a superficial quality of mind.
     People come to retreats and have a daily practice so that mindfulness can operate throughout our daily lives. And it's a tremendous blessing - the more mindful we are, the less we suffer." Joseph Goldstein

     This & other "Buddha at the Gas Pump" interviews: http://batgap.com

Visions Experienced During Meditation

     "The visions you experience exist within your consciousness,
      the forms they take are determined by your past attachments,
      your past desires, your past fears, your past karma.
      These visions have no reality outside your consciousness ...
      Let them pass."

                                                                                                   Tibetan Book of the Dead

       Collins S. To the Light. A Journey through Buddhist Asia. WW Norton & Co, NY, 2003.

Anderl   www.dpreview.com

Calm, Tranquility, Serenity, Composure - Important but

     "Calm ... plays a crucial and powerful role on the path of liberation, yet it is often overlooked or underemphasized in our practice. ... It is the soothing factor of mind that quiets the disturbances. It manifests as peacefulness or coolness in both the mind & body. It is what a tired worker feels upon sitting down in the cool shade of a tree on a sweltering day, or what a child feels when her mother lays a cool, soothing hand on her feverish forehead.

     Passaddhi (Pali term for calm) encompasses both physical composure & mental tranquility. It is this quality of calm that keeps the mind composed & unruffled in times of difficulty. Buddhist psychology describes how it brings along with it other wholesome states, such as lightness, wieldiness, proficiency, and sincerity. While the first three of these associated states seem obvious concomitants of calm, it is interesting to reflect on the last. Why does calm bring sincerity? When our minds are tranquil, a natural genuineness, honesty, and freedom from duplicity are also present.

     In meditation teachings, we sometimes hear of the danger of becoming attached to this wonderfully calming, peaceful state of mind. When we first touch this space of tranquility in our meditation, there is a profound sense of relaxation, relief, and ease, especially as we contrast it with the speed and distractedness of our daily lives, and with the difficulties and struggles we sometimes experience in practice. The tranquility can be so enticing that we might start practicing only for the calm, becoming attached to it and identified with it, and forget that it, too, is a constructed state. We can easily sink into the enjoyment of it and forget to bring mindfulness to it.

     Although this is an important caution, the Buddha clearly emphasized the importance of calm in the list of the awakening factors. The happiness of a tranquil mind plays a key role in the path of awakening. Here, the instructions on the factors of enlightenment, found in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, provide crucial guidance: 

     If the tranquility awakening factor [or any of the others] is present [in him], one knows, “the tranquility awakening factor is present in me”; if the tranquility awakening factor is not present [in him], one knows “there is no tranquility awakening factor present in me.” One knows how the unarisen tranquility factor can arise, and how the arisen tranquility factor can be perfected by development. 

     It is mindfulness that knows whether tranquility is present or not. And investigation, energy, & interest — what we might call 'meditative intelligence' — lead onward to its development & fullness, but without becoming identified with or ensnared by it."

 
       Goldstein J. "Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening." Sounds True, 2013. 

       http://www.soundstrue.com/shop/Mindfulness/4436.pd

 

Steve McCurry   http://stevemccurry.com

The Serenity Trap

     "Serenity is not the end of the Path. The Buddha saw from his own experience that such peace of mind was not the ultimate. The causes underlying the process of existence had not yet been brought to cessation. The conditions for rebirth still existed. His spiritual work had not yet attained perfection. Why? Because there was still suffering. So based on that serenity of samatha he proceeded to contemplate, investigate, and analyze the conditioned nature of reality until he was free from all attachments, even the attachment to serenity. Serenity is still part of the world of conditioned existence and conventional reality. Clinging to this type of peace is clinging to conventional reality, and as long as we cling, we will be mired in existence and rebirth. Delighting in the peace of samatha still leads to further existence and rebirth.
       Ajahn Chah, Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly, Summer 2013.

Rodrigue Zahr   www.dpreview.com

Vedana - 2,500 years Ahead of Neuroscience

     "There are three kinds of vedana (feeling or sensation of mind, not body) - pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. ... the root meaning of the word vedana is 'experience,' moment after moment. In response to different forms of contact (visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, mental) with objects (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste, thought), a feeling arises. When it is pleasant, greed and attachment are likely to follow. When it is unpleasant, aversion is liable to arise, and thus condemnation. Lastly, a neutral sensation generally precipitates delusion because it often does not make enough of an impression on the mind and thus is not observed or understood clearly; that is, there is no mindful awareness.

     'These are the three roots of all evils: Greed brings attachment; aversion brings hatred; delusion brings more ignorance ... Greed will not allow you to give, to share. The positive side, nongreed, becomes dana - you can share, you can give.'  And dana ... whether small or large, as long as it is given with sincere intention, purifies the mind of greed."

        Knaster M. "Living this life fully. Stories and teachings of Munindra." Shambhala, Boston, 2010.

     An overlapping perspective on this phenomenon is the Western psychology's "approach-avoidance dichotomy" - search for "approach" on: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/

     A third overlapping perspective on this phenomenon is neuroscience's primitive brain stem, its influence on our perception, which in turn promotes reptilian reactivity (as opposed to well-considered executive control). Search the above blogsite for "brain stem."
 

Buddha at IMS, Barre MA   http://www.dharma.org/