Wise Wishes & Foolish Desires

     "Wanting to come on a meditation retreat, wanting to see the truth, wanting to gain insight – these would be classified as wise wishes. Wanting dessert after every meal or wanting to experience some blissful state so you can hang out there would be considered foolish desires. 
     There is indeed pleasure on the spiritual path; the Buddha frequently mentions the fact that gladness and joy are necessary components of the path. But you can't be hankering after that pleasure while working to generate deep concentration. The idea is to see where you are, to know what the instructions say to do at that point, and just do that – without what Ayya Khema called 'result thinking.' 
     As part of the practice for entering the first jhāna, when you recognize the mind has gotten to access concentration and been stabilized there for a bit, then the next step is the focusing on pleasure. That's just part of the path. Just stay focused on the pleasurable sensation and enjoy it. 
     There's nothing wrong with enjoying. It's the grasping and seeking that causes the problems; being there and just staying focused on it is not a problem. But if you are actively wanting the jhāna while you are meditating, that's a hindrance and it's going to prevent you from attaining access concentration, and with no access concentration there's no jhāna possible. This is actually a great example of the second noble truth: dukkha arises from craving."
       Leigh Brasington http://rc.leighb.com/more/Abandoning_the_Five_Hindrances.htm 

Maddy's Sky

 

Life on the Razor's Edge

     What the heck does that mean? How about being fairly continuously aware of Ezra Bayda's "anxious quiver of being"? Can you acutely feel all sorts of needs - AND AT THE SAME TIME - know perfectly well that none of these can possibly satisfy? What about acutely feeling all sorts of aversions - AND AT THE SAME TIME - knowing perfectly well that avoiding these can't possibly satisfy either? Now what? 

     You've become fed-up with distractions, diversions, addictions, delusions! Self-centeredness has finally lost its allure.  
     The real world awaits. The heart-mind opens - outwards - to what is.
     

Pleasure & Externals vs Happiness & Internals

     “Pleasure depends on where you are, who you are with, what you are eating,” Mother Antonia told The Post. “Happiness is different. Happiness does not depend on where you are. I live in prison. And I have not had a day of depression in 25 years. I have been upset, angry. I have been sad. But never depressed. I have a reason for my being.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/21/us/antonia-brenner-prison-angel-who-took-inmates-under-her-wings-dies-at-86.html?_r=1&

     See also "Hedonism & Eudaimonia": http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2013/09/hedonism-eudaimonia-important-concepts.html

Steve McCurry   stevemccurry.com

Impersonal Causes & Conditions and Knowing

     "We begin to see that everything that we call self is simply this pairwise progression of knowing and object, arising and passing moment after moment. And we also see that the knowing in each moment arises due to impersonal causes and not because there is some abiding 'knower.' So we can say that knowing (consciousness) arises spontaneously when the appropriate causes and conditions are present. Going even deeper, we see that the knowing faculty is not altered or affected by what is known, and this realization has liberating consequences for both our meditation practice and our lives. In meditation, as we go from painful sensations to pleasant ones, we see that the basic quality of knowing is not affected - it is simply aware of what is arising."

       Goldstein J. Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening. Sounds True, 2013. - except published in Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly, Winter 2013.

Outdoor sign for Toronto restaurant Moments

Eight Winds Agitate & Inflame the Heart & Mind

     "Nichiren Daishonin (advised) 'A wise person is one who is not swayed by the eight winds.' 
     The 'eight winds' are eight influences that agitate and inflame the human heart and mind. They consist of four favorable circumstances (prosperity, honor, praise, and pleasure) and four setbacks (decline, disgrace, censure, and suffering). Their contents are roughly as follows:

• Prosperity: to obtain what one desires 
• Decline: to suffer loss
• Honor: to be admired and praised in one’s absence
• Disgrace: to be criticized and defamed in one’s absence (behind one’s back)
• Praise: to be admired and praised directly
• Censure: to be criticized and defamed directly
• Pleasure: to be happy in body and mind
• Suffering: to suffer in body and mind

     People naturally seek out the four favorable circumstances and try to avoid the four setbacks. This is why their defenses can be penetrated by these eight winds. The four favorable circumstances are viewed as rewards of the world of Heaven and the four setbacks as retributions of the three evil paths. For the most part, life consists of repeated encounters with these eight winds, what is termed in Buddhism 'transmigration of the six paths.'"

http://www.nst.org/articles/guideposts-in-faith/do-not-be-swayed-by-the-eight-winds/