The Buddhist Path as Therapy

Amber Larson and Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Thanissaro, "Healing Power of the Precepts" (Noble Strategy); Mary Loftus (Psychology Today, Sept. 5, 2013); Sunny

Fairness or martyrdom? When virtue becomes a vice (Jeff Riedel/psychologytoday.com)

.

Virtue becomes a vice? (PT)

The Buddha was a kind of doctor [referred to in some sutras as a "master physician"], treating the spiritual ills of living beings [human and devas, also referred to as "the teacher of gods and humans].

The path of practice he taught was like a course of therapy for suffering (disappointed) hearts and minds. This way of understanding the Buddha and his teachings or Dharma dates back to the earliest texts, and yet it is also very current.

Buddhist meditation practice is often advertised as a form of healing, and quite a few psychotherapists now recommend that their patients try (mindfulness based) meditation as part of their treatment.

 

After several years of teaching and practicing meditation as "therapy," however, many of us have found that meditation on its own is not enough.

Psycho Mike (Suicidal T.)

In my own experience as a Western monk and abbot of Wat Forest Monastery in California (Thai Theravada), I have found that Western meditators tend to be afflicted more with a certain grimness and lack of self-esteem than any Asians I have ever taught.

Our psyches are so wounded by modern civilization that we tend to lack the resilience and persistence needed before concentration (serenity) and insight practices can be genuinely therapeutic.

 

Other teachers have noted this problem as well and, as a result, many of them have decided that the Buddhist path is insufficient for our particular needs. To make up for this insufficiency they have experimented with ways of supplementing meditation practice, combining it with such things as myth, poetry, psychotherapy, social activism, sweat lodges, mourning rituals, and even drumming.

The Buddha's full course

The problem, though, may not be that there is anything lacking in the Buddhist path, but that we simply haven't been following the Buddha's full course of therapy.

 

The Buddha's path consists not only of mindfulness, concentration, and insight practices, but also of virtue (sila), beginning with the Five Precepts. In fact, the precepts constitute the first and most basic step on the Buddhist path.
 

Balance? (Jeff Riedel/PT)

There is a tendency in the West to dismiss the Five Precepts as Sunday-school rules bound to old cultural norms that no longer apply to our modern society. But this misses the role the Buddha intended for them: They are part of a course of therapy for wounded minds/hearts. In particular, they are aimed at curing two ailments that underlie low self-esteem, regret and denial.

 

When our actions do not measure up to certain standards of behavior, we either regret the actions or, worse, engage in one of two kinds of denial -- either denying that our actions did in fact happen or denying that the standards of measurement are actually valid. These reactions are like wounds in the mind... More

(Sunny and the Sunliners) Self-esteem low? Depressed after a bad relationship? "It's Okay," says Sunny. "Ha, ha, ha/ It's all right/ I've been hurt before/ It's all right/ You don't love me anymore/ Maybe someday/ I'll find a way without you/ Ha, ha, ha/ Who am I kidding?/ It's okay/ Baby, I can see/ It's okay/ But, but would it make you happy?/ Maybe someday/ I'll find a way without you./Ha, ha, ha/ Someday, it won't be long/ You're gonna find yourself all alone/ It's okay/ Baby, I can say see/ It's okay/ I will set you free..."

Buddhist Geeks in Los Angeles (InsightLA)

Wisdom Quarterly; Buddhist Geeks coming to Los Angeles (InsightLA.org)

Buddhist Geeks Conference 2014

Buddhist Geeks are excited to announce that their new workshop, "Mind Hacking," will be offered on August 2, 2014 from 10:00 am-1:00 pm at InsightLA in Santa Monica.
 
The workshop will be led by geeks, mind hackers, and Buddhist teachers Vincent Horn and Emily Horn.

 

Over the course of this 3-hour interactive workshop they plan to explore the basics of the hacking mindset as well as discussing four meditative skill-sets for hacking the mind, including:

• Concentration Meditation
• Investigation Meditation
• Meditative Inquiry
• Formless Awareness

During this time together all participants will be engaged in both silent meditation as well as a social form of mindfulness called "social noting." There will be plenty of time for fine-tuning and questions as all journey into a process of hacking the mind, awakening the heart, and rebooting the world.

The Buddhist Geeks Team

25 Mildred Ave., Asheville, NC 28806

The opening keynote at the Buddhist Geeks Conference 2014 will be offered by Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara. She will be joining Geeks in the exploration of convergence. She brings years of experience as both a teacher and practitioner of Zen Buddhism.

"She asks me, 'Why Zen?'
clear blue sky
sunlight dancing off the bare branches
sound of leaves
the little black-headed chickadee whistles
my life so clear, so direct
gratitude for this mind moment."
- from Roshi O'Hara's book: Most Intimate: A Zen Approach to Life's Challenges

Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara received priest ordination from Maezumi Roshi and Dharma Transmission and Inka from Bernie Tetsugen Glassman. She founded Manhattan's Village Zendo, New York. 

• Before Mindfulness: Joseph Goldstein in LA
• About InsightLA and Trudy Goodman
• Heal GRIEF with Induced After Death Communication Some psychotherapists can help the grieving experience a reconnection with someone who has passed away, resulting in the healing of deep sadness associated with grief. The method of inducing this experience, called IADC, was discovered in 1995 by Dr. Allan L. Botkin and works for PTSD.

Comedian Russell Brand on "Mind Shift" (video)

Xochitl, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Daniel Pinchbeck ("Mind Shift," Gaiam TV)

Brand with the Dalai Lama

(GaiamTV) Daniel Pinchbeck interviews comedian and actor Russell Brand ("Messiah Complex"), who alludes to ex-wife Katy Perry when he gently jokes about our Reptilian Overlords, whom he laughs about as being just another frequency like us. Also in this episode, feminist and activist Eve Ensler ("V-Day," "Vagina Monologues") brings progressive momentum to the show promoting kindness and egalitarianism.

BuddhaFest (June 19-22, 2014)

Ashley Wells and CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; BuddhaFest.org via Tricycle.com

BuddhaFest 2014: A Festival for Heart and Mind. The fest is inspired by the principles of mindfulness and compassion and features four days of films, talks, Buddhist meditation, and music at the Spectrum Theatre at Artisphere in the Rosslyn area of Arlington, VA, just outside of Washington, D.C. (See complete BuddhaFest Schedule)

Opening Night Film: "Blood Brother," Sundance Grand Jury and Audience Award winner!

"Good Morning America" (GMA/ABC) panicky Weekend Anchor Dan Harris will speak on opening night about the spiritual odyssey that led him to Buddhist principles and mindfulness.

Sign up for updates, and events (buddhafest.org/sign-up-for-updates/)

Taming the Mind and Heart (Part 1)

Amber Larson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Touristing (flickr); F.L. Woodward (trans.), PTS

Bathing the Buddha, backed by deva, at Saturday Station, Shwedagon Pagoda (Touristing)

 

The Book of the Ones

Numerical Discourses (Anguttara Nikaya)

Burmese bhikkhus on Shwedagon stupa

The Buddha made these declarations to meditative audiences of laypeople and monastics (monks and nuns). They were recorded by monks, who remembered them as being directed at them as bhikkhus. It is clear from the context as well as the meaning that they are addressed to all "hearers" (savakas), all Buddhists, and all people who would practice and strive for enlightenment no matter what other teachings they follow. So we translate the opening word, bhikkhave (lit. "O, bhikkhus!"), to reflect this.
 

Meditating sayadaw (Touristing)

31. "Meditators, I know not of any other single thing so intractable as the untamed mind [heart]. The untamed mind [heart] is indeed an untractable thing. 

 

32. "Meditators, I know not of any other thing so tractable as the tamed mind. The tamed mind is indeed a tractable thing.

 

33. "Meditators, I know not of any other single thing so conducive to great loss as the untamed mind. The untamed mind indeed conduces to great loss.

 

34. "Meditators, I know not of any other single thing so conducive to great profit as the tamed mind. The tamed mind indeed conduces to great profit.

 

39. "Meditators, I know not of any other single thing that brings such woe as the mind that is untamed, uncontrolled, unguarded, and unrestrained. Such a mind indeed brings great woe.

40. "Meditators, I know not of any other single thing that brings such bliss as the mind that is tamed, controlled, guarded, and restrained. Such a mind indeed brings great bliss."

— Gradual Sayings, "The Book of the Ones," Chp. IV translated by F. L. Woodward

Taming the Mind
PTS edited by BPS (further editing and Dhr. Seven), "Discourse to Ganaka-Moggallana" (MN 107)

The Enlightened One (Chngster/flickr.com)

Thus I have heard. At one time the [Buddha] was staying near Savatthi in the palace of Migara's mother in the Eastern Monastery.
 
Then the Brahmin Ganaka-Moggallana approached, exchanged greetings and, having conversed in a friendly and courteous way, sat down at a respectful distance.

Sitting there, the Brahmin Ganaka-Moggallana spoke thus to the venerable one: "Just as, good Gotama [Sanskrit Gautama], in this palace of Migara's mother there can be seen a gradual training, a gradual doing, a gradual practice, that is to say, as far as the last flight of stairs [in a seven-storied palace, explains the Commentary, which is not to be built in a day] so, too, good Gotama, for these Brahmins:

"There can be seen a gradual training, a gradual doing, a gradual practice, that is to say, in the study [of the three three Vedas, which cannot possibly be done in a day] so, too, good Gotama, for these archers there can be seen a gradual... practice, that is to say, in archery. 

"So, too, good Gotama, for us whose livelihood is calculation [ganana, which is this Brahmin's profession, giving him the name Ganaka-Moggallana, explains Editor of The Wheel], there can be seen a gradual training, a gradual practice, that is to say, in accountancy.

"For when we get a pupil, good Gotama, we first of all make him [it was only offered to males] calculate: 'One one, two twos, three threes, four fours, five fives, six sixes, seven sevens, eight eights, nine nines, ten tens,' and, good Gotama, we also make him calculate a hundred.

"Is it possible, good Gotama, to lay down a similar gradual training, gradual doing, gradual practice in respect of this Dharma and discipline?" Continued in Part 2: "The Gradual Training"

"Effort" to practice Buddhism (sutra)

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera, Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines (4th Edition edited by Ven. Nyanaponika, BPS.lk)

The Buddha in gold, brass, and stone, Thailand (MarmaladeToast flickr.com)

  

Under a sprawling pipal tree -- bodhi!

The Four Right Efforts (samma-padhāna), which together form the sixth factor of the Noble Eightfold Path, are the effort: (1) to avoid, (2) to overcome, (3) to develop, and (4) to maintain. That is to say:

One endeavors, strives, makes an effort to avoid unwholesome states (generally, those states motivated by greed, hatred/fear, or delusion/wrong view) that are not yet present.

One endeavors to overcome unwholesome states that arise. 

One develops wholesome states (generally, those motivated by nongreed, nonhatred/nonfear, and nondelusion) -- such as the Seven Factors of Enlightenment.

 

One endeavors to maintain (and consummate, bring to culmination, fruition) wholesome states that have arisen. 

SUTRA 

"Numerical Discourses of the Buddha" (Anguttara Nikaya)

Intensive sitting meditation is one kind of striving (meditationguidance.com)

 
"The meditator rouses the will to avoid the arising of harmful, unwholesome things not yet arisen... to overcome them... to develop wholesome things not yet arisen... [and] to maintain them, without allowing them to disappear, to bring them to growth, to maturity, and to the full perfection of development. One makes (a balanced) effort, rouses energy, exerts mind/heart, and strives" (AN IV, 13).  
 
NOTE: It is critical to bear in mind that overexertion is not right effort. The Buddha did not succeed under the Bodhi tree by overexerting as so many assume by not reading carefully. It is exactly because of struggling and overexertion that he could not succeed. Only when Siddhartha relaxed and began making a balanced-effort, which included the purifying meditative-absorptions (jhanas) he had fearfully been avoiding for years, did he finally reach the path to insight and enlightenment. He let go, allowed bliss of absorption and, remaining attentive, emerged to practice Dependent Origination -- the systematic pursuit of the 12 causal links that make up suffering. Siddhartha had set originally off to find the solution to the problem of suffering, so he asked: "Why is there suffering?" The practice of Dependent Origination answers this question through mindful application, insight-practice (vipassana), which begins as the fourfold setting up of mindfulness (on body, feelings, mind, and mind states). In this connection, the Buddha once taught a famous lute player to neither over-tighten nor under-tighten the strings of the instrument. Balance is the way to get the right sound -- balance between overexerting and underexerting.

Hi, I'm meditating (Kirsten Johnson)

(1) "What now, O meditators, is the effort to avoid? Perceiving a form, or a sound, or an odor, or a taste, or a bodily or mental impression, the medtitator neither adheres to (clings to, is entranced by) the whole nor to its parts. And one strives to ward off that through which harmful and unwholesome things might arise, such as greed and sorrow, if one remained with unguarded senses. And one watches over the (six) senses, restrains the senses. This is called the effort to avoid.

 

(2) "What now is the effort to overcome? The meditator does not retain any thought of sensual lust, or any other harmful, unwholesome states that may have arisen. One abandons them, dispels them, destroys them, causes them to disappear. This is called the effort to overcome.

 

(3) "What now is the effort to develop? The meditator develops the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, bent on solitude, on detachment, on extinction, and ending in liberation (deliverance, emancipation, nirvana), namely: mindfulness, keen investigation of phenomena, energy, rapture, tranquility, concentration (collectedness of mind), and equanimity. This is called the effort to develop.

 

OK, breaktime! (Vincenzo Rossi/flickr)

(4) "What now is the effort to maintain? The meditator keeps firmly in mind (attention) a favorable object of concentration, such as the mental image (nimitta) of [light, or the cemetery meditations of] a skeleton, a (very repulsive) corpse infested with worms, a corpse blue-black in color, a festering corpse, a corpse riddled with holes, a corpse swollen up. [In this way, one frequently given to lust is temporarily freed of lust so insight may dawn and permanently free one of hindrances, fetters, and defilements.] This is called the effort to maintain" (AN IV, 14).

With pleasure, misery, and escape (sutra)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly translation based on Frank Lee Woodward, Pali Tex Society, Book of the Kindred Sayings or Samyutta Nikaya PART IV (SN 4.17-22)

CHAPTER II, SECTIONS 17-22

In search of enlightenment

{17} Meditators, if there were not pleasure that comes from the eye, beings would not lust after (grasp for and cling to) the eye. 

But inasmuch as there is pleasure in the eye, beings lust after it.

Medtitators, if there were not misery that comes from the eye, beings would not be repelled by the eye.

But inasmuch as there is misery that comes from the eye, being are repelled by it.

If there were no escape from the eye, beings could not [become free] from it.

But inasmuch as there is a way of escape from the eye, beings do escape from it.

Likewise with regard to the pleasure, the misery, and the way of escape from the 

• ear,
• nose,
• tongue,
• body, and
• mind.... 

But inasmuch as there is a way of escape from the [ear, nose, tongue, body, and] mind, beings do escape from it.

The Buddha towering in Theravada Thailand

Meditators, so long as being have not understood as they truly are the pleasure as it is, the misery as it is, and the way of escape as it relates to this sixfold personal sphere of sense then, meditators, so long have beings not remained aloof, detached, and separated with the hindrances of the mind/heart done away with -- nor has the world with its shining ones (devas), killers (maras), divinities (brahmas), nor its legions of wandering ascetics (shramans) and temple priests (Brahmins), shining ones and human beings.

 

But, meditators, just as soon as beings thoroughly understand as they truly are the pleasure as it is, the misery as it is, and the way of escape as it relates to this sixfold personal sphere of sense -- then, meditators, beings and the world, with its light beings... do [finally*] remain aloof, detached, separated, with the hindrances of heart/mind done away with.

• *[NOTE: This letting go is accomplished by insight, not by an act of willpower or effort. Knowing-and-seeing, or insight into the true nature of things, is in itself liberating. There is no need to struggle and make the Truth true. Truth sets one free.]

[{18} The same is true of all other psycho-physical phenomena in addition to the eye, visible objects (sights), and the consciousness arising from seeing; ear, sounds, and the consciousness arising from hearing....]

DELIGHT

Silent stillness and vipassana to know-and-see

{19} Meditators, whoever takes delight in the eye takes delight in disappointment. And I declare, whoever takes delight in disappointment is not released from disappointment.

Whoever takes delight in the tongue... in the mind takes delight in disappointment, I declare. And I declare, whoever delights in disappointment is not released from disappointment.

 

But whoever does not take delight in the eye, the tongue... the mind -- that person does not delight in disappointment. And I declare, one who does not delight in disappointment is released from disappointment.

[{20} The same is true for visible objects (forms), sounds, fragrances, tastes, tangibles, and mind-states.]

 

{21} Meditators, that which is the arising, persisting, the rebirth, the manifestation of objects -- that is the arising of disappointment, the persisting of diseases, the manifestation of decay and death.

So also with regard to sounds, fragrances, tastes, and tangibles....

That which is the arising, the persisting, the rebirth, the manifestation of mind-states -- that is the arising of disappointment, the persisting of diseases, the manifestation of decay and death. 

But, meditators, that which is the ceasing, the quelling, the going out of objects -- that is the ceasing of disappointment, the quelling of diseases, the going out of decay and death.

So also with regard to sounds, fragrances, tastes, and tangibles...

 

That which is the ceasing, the quelling, the going out of mind-states -- that is the ceasing of disappointment, the quelling of diseases, the going out of decay and death.

[{22} The same is true for visible objects, sounds... mind-states -- for all psycho-physical phenomena.]

• Seeing things as they truly are (vipassana)
• VIDEO: Woolly Mammoth survives in Siberia
• AUDIO: Real Sasquatch encounters, California
• Woman, 21, wants to have sex with 100,000 men
• VIDEO: Sex-crazed girl (South Park version)
  

How to reach enlightenment: 3 things

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Nyanasatta (DN 22)

There are four meditation postures -- walking, standing, sitting, and lying down. Because the goal is calm-wakefulness, sitting is best in the long run (Sue90ca/flickr.com).

  

The Buddha's mudra (Nilantha Hettige)

As the new year is about to begin (judging from the more accurate and ancient lunar calendar), it's time to commit. Nothing is so useful, so sane-making, so beneficial as intensive practice. 

The Dharma is just a set of ideal ideas, a beautiful view of the universe, which explains everything important. But it is never real until we make it our own insight, our own realization. "Buddhism" is not a system of belief; it is a system of practices (a systematic set of practices, a path). The Truth is there for all to see -- yet the only ones who'll see it are the practitioners.

 

How to (jhanasadvice.com)

What is there to practice? The historical Buddha Shakyamuni said three things are crucial. 

• First, there's restraint, the Five Precepts. These make us human. They are VIRTUE (sila).
• Second, there's CALM-collectedness (samadhi), the beginnings of the first four absorptions (jhānas, dhyana) or enough focus, togetherness, unification of mind, enough appeasement of the heart to be serene and stable. 
• Third, there's WISDOM (paññā, prajna). By adding four specific kinds of mindfulness practices, four "foundations" or pillars, to the serenity-practice, liberating-insight arises.

Meditation means more than intensive sitting.

If the ultimate aim of the Path is nirvana then the way there is enlightenment. Enlightenment needs insight, and insight arises on a foundation of calm-"concentratedness."*

A serene, tranquil, purified (i.e., a heart/mind temporarily released from the oppression of the defilements and fetters) is possible with basic virtue aided by a focus that excludes all other stimuli. (If meditating on breath, stay with the breath all of the time in all  postures, moving slowly, remaining silent). The time to build this focus are periods of intensive meditation, which build momentum until one breaks through to complete freedom.

  

Compassion accompanies virtue and increases with the purification that results from tranquil-concentratedness.* Its consummation is arrived at with wisdom. There is no wisdom without compassion.

*"Concentratedness" is odd wording, of course, but we use it to emphasize the effortlessness involved in getting there, getting to that "zen," that dhyana, that jhana. The route is the opposite of "trying," "struggling," and "efforting" -- as if one were trying to get, grasp, or cling to a goal. The way to "strive" is to let go, to practice the yogic art of sthirasukha, "effort-ease": Sit up, sit still, sit silent. (This is the effort arrived at by letting go of "doing"). But then just sit sinking into a very pleasant wakeful-ease (arrived at by letting go of "struggling"). 

Knowing and seeing (Sukhothai-tourism)

This is the diligence, the general-mindfulness, the vigilance that leads to success. The specific mindfulness practices that follow are outlined in the Maha Satipatthana Sutra; they are detailed under a qualified meditation instructor, one who has succeeded on the Path. As Americans, we say we'll do it ourselves, but we won't do it ourselves. Even the Buddha could not have done it himself, if we read his story carefully.

Teaching members of the Noble Sangha (Community) are not easy to find, but they exist. Contact us and we will point them out. Many of them are not monastics. People say they do not exist nowadays, but they do. When they cease to exist in the world, there will be no more Buddhism. The Path will go unknown until it is rediscovered aeons later.

“There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience.”

- Macliesh

 

The wandering ascetic Siddhartha found out the hard way that struggling, trying, stressing, and straining is the way to FAILURE, frustration, fraud, and finally giving up. Most educated people have heard the story of how Siddhartha became the Buddha. Note that it was not by severe austerity, energy (virile effort, viriya), and determination. It was by not giving up yet dropping the struggle. He realized that he had been avoiding the jhanas (absorptions), that he had been afraid of pleasure. But jhana is a blameless pleasure; it is supersensual. 

Happiness awaits. Enlightenment guaranteed!

Craving, indulging, and delighting in sense pleasure does not lead to the fruit of enlightenment. But the absorptions alone do not lead to enlightenment either! It is only when they are used in the service of establishing a base for the setting up of the Four Foundations (Pillars) of Mindfulness. Then the absorptions catalyze the process. If mindfulness is the nitro, then absorption is the sweet glycerine. Insight is almost immediate, like an explosive chemical reaction with the right balance of ingredients. What are the ingredients? Just these three: virtue, calm-concentratedness, and wisdom.

How long will it take?

By the way, how long will this take? That's easy. Practice in this way and enlightenment will take seven days, or at most seven years. Enlightenment is guaranteed. Read the sutra. Near the end it says:

 

Sutra: Enlightenment guaranteed

"Fourfold Setting Up of Mindfulness," Maha Satipatthana Sutta (DN 22, MN 10)

The shift: meditation changes our perspective (PeterFroehlich/flickr.com).

 

..."Verily, meditators, whosoever practices these Four Foundations of Mindfulness in this manner for seven years, then one of two fruits may be expected -- highest knowledge (full enlightenment) here and now or, if some remainder of clinging is yet present, the stage of non-returner.

 

"O meditators, let alone seven years! Should any person practice these Four Foundations of Mindfulness in this manner for six years... five years... four years... three years... two years... one year, then one of two fruits may be expected -- highest knowledge here and now or, if some remainder of clinging is yet present, the stage of non-returner.

 

"O meditators, let alone a year! Should any person practice these Four Foundations of Mindfulness in this manner for seven months... six months... five months... four months... three months... two months... a month... half a month, then one of two fruits may be expected -- highest knowledge here and now or, if some remainder of clinging is yet present, the stage of non-returner.

 

"O meditators, let alone half a month! Should any person practice these Four Foundations of Mindfulness in this manner for seven days [a week], then one of these two fruits may be expected -- highest knowledge here and now or, if some remainder of clinging is yet present, the stage of non-returner.

 

"Because of this it was said: 'Meditators, this is the direct way that leads to enlightenment, to the purification of beings, to the overcoming of all sorrow and misery, to the destruction of disappointment and grief, to reaching the right path, for the attainment of nirvana, namely the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.'"

Five Causes of "Monkey Mind"

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Vens. Nyanatiloka, Nyanaponika

"Monkey mind" is mental frenzy brought on by the Five Hindrances (patheos.com)

Successful meditation is greatly hampered by monkey mind (Bliss Blog/Beliefnet.com)

 

Shut up, shut up, shut up (childhoodrelived.com)

Normally, we do not notice that the mind/heart is constantly swinging from branch to branch in a ceaseless frenzy seeking entertainment. Like cartwheels and kaleidoscopes, "More and more stimuli!" it demands. "A constant flow of new and novel stimulation!" it insists in fits and tantrums, pulling on its hairy bootstraps to yank itself from the peril of the doldrums.

But when we sit in an attempt to meditate, then it becomes crystal clear: This mind is no sane, serene human mind. It is like a wild monkey!

If we were to be with what is...monkey mind?

This is a common experience for new meditators -- and a frustrating reality for seasoned meditators as well. Approaching the cushion is like visiting a zoo. So what to do? Many antidotes are provided by the Buddha in various sutras.

However, what is the cause, what is at the root of all this monkeying around in distraction, frustration, desperation with the doors of the senses unguarded? There are five causes that hinder and obstruct the heart/mind preventing serenity and insight:

1. sense desire (craving for sensuality)
2. aversion (anger, annoyance, fear)
3. sloth and torpor (boredom and sleepiness)
4. restlessness and remorse (flurry and worry)
5. skeptical doubt (uncertainty and wavering).

Hear no Kardashian, see no Kardashian, speak no Kardashian (not even Kendall and Kylie)

 

Solutions

Let go. Monkey mind is a monkey trap

The antidotes are replacing them with their opposites, substituting for example doubt with confidence/trust or craving desire with renunciation.

This can be accomplished by focusing on the harm done when they are allowed to hinder the heart/mind. Then there is a natural withdrawal. One becomes dispassionate, lets go, and no longer takes an interest in these obsessions. However, this release is only temporary, possibly lasting the entire meditation period.

Not all "meditation" is a sitting session, even if that tends to be the most intensive period of practice, of walking the path the Buddha pointed out as the way to ultimate freedom. 

The overcoming of these Five Hindrances by the meditative absorptions (jhanas) is a way of temporarily suspending them. Such an achievement will make one seem and feel very "saintly" (and, indeed, this is how most of the world's religions define sainthood as it sometimes entails miraculous powers). For purified in heart, mentally clear and at peace, one's conduct is full of effortless restraint. But this is called "overcoming through repression" (vikkhambhana-pahāna).

These obstructive hindrances disappear forever only when we enter the noble or supermundane paths (and become nobly enlightened individuals. Skeptical doubt (misgivings about whether this is the path to enlightenment) vanishes when we reach stream entry. Craving sense desires, aversion, and worry vanish on reaching non-returning. Sloth, torpor, and restlessness vanish when we become arhats.

• More info about their origination and how to overcome them: AN I, 2; VI, 21; SN XLVI, 51

The Five Mental Hindrances

Ven. Nyanaponika (BPS.lk, Wheel #26) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

"Without having overcome these five, it is impossible for a meditator, whose insight thus lacks strength and power, to know one's own true good, the good of others, or the good of both. Nor will a person be capable of realizing that superhuman state of distinctive achievement, the knowledge and vision enabling the attainment of full enlightenment.

 

"But if one has overcome these five hindrances and impediments, these overgrowths of the mind/heart that stultify insight -- then it is possible that, with strong insight, a meditator can know one's own true good, the good of others, and the good of both. And one will be capable of realizing that superhuman state of distinctive achievement, the knowledge and vision enabling the attainment of full enlightenment (AN 5:51).

"One whose heart is overwhelmed by unrestrained covetousness will do what one ought not do and neglect what one ought to do.

"And through that, one's good name and one's happiness will come to ruin.
 
"One whose heart is [further] overwhelmed by aversion... sloth and torpor... restlessness and remorse... skeptical doubt will do what one ought not do and neglect what one ought to do. And through that, one's good name and one's happiness will come to ruin.
 

"But if a noble disciple has seen these FIVE as defilements of the heart/mind, one will give them up. And by doing so, one is regarded as one of great wisdom, of abundant insight, clear-seeing, well endowed with wisdom. This is called "endowment with wisdom" (AN 4:61). More

Ignorance, O ignorance! (cartoon)

Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson, CC Liu Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines; GoComics.com; Dilbert.com

IGNORANCE (avijjā, Sanskrit avidya) refers to lack of insight, lack of wisdom, nescience, unknowing. As a Buddhist term it is synonymous with "delusion" (moha, one of the three roots of all unwholesome action). In fact, it is the primary root of ALL bad karma and unhappiness in the various planes of existence generally referred to as "the world" or "universe."

It veils our mental eyes and prevents us from seeing the true nature of existence. It is the delusion or wrong view tricking beings by making life appear to them as (1) permanent, (2) happy, and/or (3) personal. Seeing its beauty without being mindful of inherent danger, living being cling to existence and experience even as it is passing away, disappointing, and impersonal.

What might we be were it not for ignorance? Enlightened here and now in this very life?

 

It prevents us from seeing that everything -- every compounded thing that comes into existence or originates dependent on supportive conditions -- is, ultimately speaking, radically impermanent, unsatisfactory, and void of "I," "me," or "mine": It is basically unattractive, foul, impure. (See The Four Perversions that make it appear otherwise).

 

Ignorance is defined as "not knowing [i.e., fully penetrating the truth of] the Four Noble Truths, namely, (1) unsatisfactoriness, (2) its origin, (3) its cessation, and (4) the way to its cessation" (S. XII, 4).

 

Kermit would have remained in the dark...

This root ignorance is the foundation of all karma that leads to becoming, all rebirth-producing actions, of all harm and suffering. Therefore, it stands first in the formula of Dependent Origination -- the 12-linked causal chain of the arising of present unhappiness.

But on account of it being first, explains the Path of Purification (Vis.M., XVII, 36f), ignorance should not be regarded as "the causeless root-cause of the world... It is not causeless. For a cause of it is stated: 

The Buddha glowing golden (Mesamong/flickr)

"'With the arising of defilements (taints, cankers, outflows, āsavas), there is the arising of ignorance' (MN 9). But there is a figurative way in which it can be treated as a root-cause. Namely, when it is made to serve as a starting point in an exposition of the Round of Existence... 

"As it is said: 'No first beginning of ignorance can be perceived, meditators, before which ignorance was not and after which it came to be. Yet, it can be perceived that ignorance has its specific [causal or supportive] condition'" (AN.X.61).

The same statement is made (AN.X.62) about the craving for [eternal] existence. The latter and ignorance are called "the outstanding causes of karma that lead to unhappy and happy destinies" (Vis.M. XVII, 38).

 

Ignorance as wrong or false view

As ignorance still exists -- albeit in a very refined way until the attainment of full enlightenment -- it is counted as the last of the Ten Fetters, which bind beings to samsara, the Cycle of Rebirths. As the first two unwholesome roots, greed and hate, are themselves rooted in ignorance, ALL unwholesome states of mind/heart are consequently and inseparably bound up with it.

 

Ignorance (delusion) is the most obstinate of the three roots of unhappiness. It is fully eliminated by the dawning of enlightenment, insight, final knowledge, liberating wisdom.

 

Ignorance is not only one of the taints or cankers, it is one of the proclivities. It is often called a mental hindrance (e.g., in S.XV.3; A.X.61) but does not appear together with the usual list of Five Hindrances [which it is at the root of].

The other definition of "ignorance" is anyone who disagrees with me (dilbert.com)