You're too "clingy" (cartoon)

Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Nyanatiloka

I don't know what I'm doing wrong in relationship after relationship, searching for...

(Family Guy/Hulu) As clingy as a baby at the bosom is Stewie as Brian tries to cling to Drew

Starts off fun, gets to be too much.

Crystal, is clinging a problem in life? It is in Ashley's life; she has been known to get quite clingy. Ask her. But you? Not me so much, but guys I've dated. What do they do? You know how Brian once went on that reality dating show as a contestant then became infatuated with the bachelorette? Yes, exactly, I get it. He would leave all these phone messages and not get the hint to naff off. 

Brian the clingy bachelor (Family Guy)

"Clinging" (upādāna), according to the Path of Purification (Vis.M. XVII), is a pathetic and intensified degree of craving. The opposite is the "extinction of craving," which is identical with the "extinction of defilements" (āsavakkhaya), which is the attainment of full enlightenment or arhatship. (See noble persons).

There are four kinds of clinging that prevent enlightenment:

1. sensual clinging (kāma-upādāna),
2. clinging to views (ditthi-upādāna),
3. clinging to mere rules and rituals (sīlabbata-upādāna),
4. clinging to personality-belief (atta-vāda-upādāna).

(1) "What now is sensual clinging? Whatever with regard to sense objects there exists of sensual lust, sensual craving, sensual attachment, sensual passion, sensual delusion, sensual fetters (bonds of desire): this is called 'sensual clinging.'

Owner of a lonely heart? Try clinging to sensuality. It will disappoint, but what else are you going to do to overcome the empty feeling in your core and the body's cravings? Invest?

 
(2) ''What is the clinging to views? 'Alms and offerings are useless; there is no fruit or result for good and bad deeds: all such views and wrong opinions are called the clinging to views.

(3) "What is the clinging to mere rules and rituals? The holding firmly to the view that through mere rules (vows, precepts, discipline) and rituals (observances) one may reach enlightenment: this is called the clinging to mere rules and rituals.

• [NOTE: the way to enlightenment and nirvana is liberating-insight, made possible by the Noble Eightfold Path, not mere observance of ceremonies, celebrations, superstitions, magic, abstinences, or austerities, which may aid one along the way but cannot possibly in and of themselves bring about enlightenment.]

(4) "What is the clinging to personality-belief? The 20 kinds of ego-views with regard to the aggregates of existence (see sakkāya-ditthi): these are called the clinging to personality-belief" (Dhs.1214-17).

Not going to get all clingy, are you? - I'm not even going to call you tomorrow. - Good.

.

Heart Sutra: immaculate heart free of clinging

This traditional fourfold division of clinging is unsatisfactory. Besides sensual (kama) clinging we would expect either clinging to form or materiality (rūpa) and clinging to formlessness or immateriality (arūpa), or simply clinging to continued existence (continued becoming, bhava-upādāna).

Although the non-returner, the third of the four stages of enlightenment, is entirely free from the traditional four kinds of clinging, that person is not yet free of rebirth, as one still possesses clinging to continued becoming, the deep desire for rebirth on other planes even though one grasps that they are illusory, marked by Three Characteristics of Existence, namely, that they are impersonal, impermanent, and never able to satisfy one's desires.

The Commentary to the Path of Purification (Vis.M. XVII), in trying to get out of this dilemma, explains "sense clinging" as including here all of the remaining kinds of clinging.

"Clinging" is the common rendering for the Pali/Sanskrit term upādāna, but "grasping" would come closer to the literal meaning of it, which is "uptake" after craving it. See the Three Cardinal Discourses (Wheel No. 17), p.19.

"Family Guy" the Very First Episode

(Workard) Life in modern suburban USA as brought to us by Seth Macfarlane and the many writers of and contributors to "Family Guy." This is the pilot or unofficial first episode, the prequel. The "official" first episode was a remake of it.

Right View continued: Dependent Origination

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly: Noble Eightfold Path, Part III

Golden Buddha, sunrise, Wat Muang, Ang Thong, Thailand (Sasin Tipchai/Bugphai/flickr)

Contemplating the dependent origination of a flame meditation (roshchodeshnewmoon.com)

  
Dependent Origination
Right view also means understanding something mentioned at the beginning: Dependent Origination (paticcasamupada). That is, all things arise dependent on supporting causes and conditions and not independent of them. (The one exception, leading to IT not being called a conditioned THING like everything else, is nirvana, "the unconditioned element").

All things have a cause and are themselves causes. Everything that arises does so depending on supports not in their absence.

This is very easy to understand AND very deep, profound, and difficult to understand. The Buddha stated that, "It is because of not seeing this truth that not only you but I, too, have wandered on for so long in this samsara [cycling wheel of death and rebirth]" meeting with suffering again and again, now here now there. It is key to enlightenment. (There are 37 "things pertaining to enlightenment" in all the Buddha's teaching, a list labelled the bodhi-pakkaya-dharma or "Requisites of Enlightenment." Such lists are for understanding, not for clinging to or memorizing or worrying about).

Easy DO

Five factors give rise to illusory flame.

Well, what's the easy version? As a general principle of reality, of life, of physics, of psychology, we can see countless examples of things that seem like things, like solid objects, like fundamental elements, like unities. But we come to find that they are actually composites. Fire (defined here as a simple flame) is a thing, but what is fire? It is not a "thing" at all, but a process, and this process has components, elements, factors. 

What are the elements of fire? Fuel, heat, air (or any oxidizer), a medium, and combustion. There may be more, but let's just look at these five and add anything else later when the principle of dependent origination is grasped. Is any one of them "fire"? Are any two, three, four? Is there "fire" without any of them? Is there "fire" hiding in them waiting to come out? Is there "fire" apart from them? These things, the components of fire, are NOT fire. And yet there is no fire without them.

Fire element (NLbroekieNL)

Put them together in a functionally operable way and, BAM, suddenly there's fire, there's a flame. Pull any one of the components (the supporting causes and conditions) out and, BAM, suddenly there's not fire. Add the component back and, BAM, fire. Pull another one and, BAM... Try it. Is the "fire" hiding in the thing pulled out and added back in? No, because "fire" is not a thing. It's an epiphenomenal process, an empty heap of elements, an illusion arising based on components.

That is not to say it's conventionally unreal. Of course, it's conventionally real. And if anyone doubts that, we'll burn you with a flame...or at least point you to a fire, and you can have at it. It is ultimately "unreal" -- that is, not at all what it seems, but rather without permanence, identity, or ability to satisfy. It is impersonal; no fire ever reaches out intending to burn someone. But burning will occur as a result of contact with it. Yet, our language forces us to say what is not actually true, which is that "It burns [inflicts injury on] us."

FACILE ARGUMENTS EXPLAINED

Candles go out (imag.yaymicro.com)

It does nothing of the sort. It just becomes (not is, not being, but becoming, an ever-dynamic process, and if the process stops for even an instant, it goes out. 

• Where does it "go"?

It doesn't actually go anywhere; that is just an artifact of the language we employ to talk when we talk about a process as if it were a "thing."

• Where's nirvana?

Nirvana's not a place; that's just an artifact of the language we use to talk about it.

• What are the components of nirvana, is it those 37 mentioned before?

Nirvana's not a "thing." It doesn't have components and is the only thing that does not, so it is the only thing that is not a thing.

• Aha, but you just called it a thing!

That's an artifact of the language we use, not a property of nirvana, and anyway the path to a thing is not the thing.

• Aha, you just called it a 'thing' again!

Shut up.

• No, you shut up!

Okay, I'll shut up, and then this argument's over.

• But...

Uh uh uh!

Difficult DO

Temple in Hamaya (Fabian Belleville/flickr)

Is it clear that what is a composite, composed of elements, is not an independent thing? It is a dependent thing, leaning for support on those elements. Even if we add others or subtract some, the principle remains. No-thing really comes into being or goes out; that's just illusory, that is, what seems to be happening. In reality, what there is is emptiness. Ah, emptiness (shunyata as anatta).

We chose the example of fire/a flame on purpose Other dharmas (e.g., Jainism) have had to say, due to the logic of their arguments about a self/soul, that fire is alive. It certainly is to animists, to some shamans, and to faithful Jains. A wise person, therefore, neither lights nor extinguishes fires for fear of "killing." Look into it.

The Five Aggregates of fire (or what Ven. Thanissaro explains in terms of ancient Indian ideas prevalent at the time of the Buddha of fire clinging or binding to an object, leading him to the eccentric definition of nirvana as "unbinding") are a lot like a famous Mahayana Buddhist Sutra, the most famous in fact.

The Heart Sutra (the epitome of the Heart of Wisdom Sutra in the Prajnaparamita literature) runs: "(1)Form is emptiness, and the very emptiness is form. Whatever is form, that is emptiness. Whatever is emptiness, that is form. And the same is true of (2) feelings, (3) perceptions, (4) formations, and (5) consciousness."

These five are called "heaps" or the Five Aggregates (Groups) of Clinging because they are clung to as self (ego, soul, identity, personality, I, and me). But the very thing that looks at the world is not a unity either. It is a composite. A thing. And these are its components.

• I'm not a 'thing'!

Of course not, not you. You're different. We meant every other living being, every other animate and inanimate thing. But here thing does not mean thing in conventional language. Conventionally, of course, we are all persons. Lowly living beings move up. High born beings fall. Everyone whirls in samsara rarely hearing anything about liberation, nirvana, enlightenment, or the Buddha's Dharma, so rarely appearing in the world.

So we beg your indulgence to pay a little attention because a little "right view" goes a long way in this continued wandering on of suffering, rebirth, and death, death, death. Actions performed with right view are very profitable, very meritorious, even for one not striving for enlightenment. So pay attention. You will rarely ever hear something so important. CONTINUED

Real independence on Independence Day

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, CC Liu, Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

A bathing suit beauty used to sell inexpensive clothes is, ironically, not any symbol of freedom. But it is business-as-usual in the USA (americanapparel.net). See femen.org.

 

Waking up in a sleeping world

There are two forms of independence that are of paramount importance in Buddhism.

One is independence from any teacher; the other is freedom from all suffering.

The first is achieved by insight. It is liberating-knowledge that no longer depends on anyone else. It has been personally verified and has the effect of certainty beyond all doubt.

• But as Engaged Buddhists out to save the world, shouldn't we forego this spiritual mumbo-jumbo and and help wake people up, at least help wake up America? The shocking truth is this: "You can't wake up someone who is only pretending to be asleep." It is not that they don't know how, or why, or what for. One can step into a cage and start yelling, "Come on, come on, everybody run, escape, get out of the cage!" Will they go and be free? No, they're like to attack you. But you can go, be free, come back, remind some. Some will see. Are you free as you point at the cage door that's actually unlocked even though it says locked? Get free then help free others, or get on a quest for freedom and offer mutual assistance. It's not one or the other. There is no wisdom without compassion no matter what anyone says or fears or call selfish. Be free.

One's confidence in the "Three Treasures" becomes absolute by this personal verification:

1. The Buddha, the teacher, is indeed enlightened;
2. this Dharma, this teaching, indeed leads the one who practices in accordance with it to enlightenment;
3. those who successfully practice it -- the taught, the Noble Sangha (adepts, lay and monastic practitioners who range from stream winners to arhats) -- in the past, now, or in the future have indeed verified it for themselves and gotten beyond all doubt.

Nirvana is ultimate freedom

I'm not free but I have this nice shirt

What is it that is being personally verified?

In a sense, it does not matter what is true or Truth. What matters is what we realize. It remains something for someone else until then. What is true. Three things are certainly true -- and by their Truth are liberating. They lead to complete freedom. That is why the Buddha taught them. He pointed out the Path to Freedom.

The Path of Freedom (pariyatti.org)

The three are the Three Characteristics of Existence: all things are changeable, all things are ultimately disappointing, all things are impersonal.

"Everything changes," but Truth does not change. That is because Truth is not a "thing." The explanation is technical: There are only two kinds of "things" (dharmas) in Buddhism, the conditioned and the unconditioned.

Everything that depends on conditions (components, supports, causes) is a conditioned thing. Everything that does not depend on conditions is an unconditioned thing -- and only one thing, one element, is unconditioned: Nirvana is the unconditioned element. In that sense it is not a thing like all other phenomena.

• Nirvana is a real thing, an existing reality

All other phenomena depend on aggregates (groups of things), factors, elements that make up the whole. Everything, with only one exception is like this. Therefore, sometimes nirvana is called true in a world of change, disappointment, and emptiness.

1. If things are void, why do we pursue them? It is because we think they are full and offer the possibility of fulfillment. We think they are ours.
2. If things are disappointing, why do we pursue them? It is because we think they are satisfying and offer the possibility of fulfillment. We think they can serve as the basis for enduring happiness.
3. If things are always changing, why do we pursue them? It is because we think they are stable and offer the possibility of fulfillment. We think they will not let us down.

The Buddha walked the Path and then pointed it out to others as he walked around India

 

Quest for Truth and liberation

We have to ask ourselves this question, just as Prince Siddhartha once asked himself:

 

If I am always changing, always ultimately disappointing, always not what I seem, Why do I pursue things that are also always changing, always disappointing, and always not what they seem?
 

With this question he could successfully let go of the unimportant and search for the important, search for the unchanging, the satisfactory, the true. This was his spiritual (supersensual) quest. He found it and talked about it in the Four Noble Truths.

 

This is the essence of Buddhism, all its diverse teachings reduced to four simple things that are true, but their Truth hardly matters if we do not realize them for ourselves. Stating them without realizing them is compared to being a shepherd counting another's flock.

 

Fortunately, we can study them, learn them, and realize them, realization being by far the most important. All (conditioned) things are disappointing (unsatisfactory, unfulfilling, off center, ill, defective).

 

That is the first liberating truth. Instinctively, we turn away. We don't want to hear that. The mind/heart argues, "I can name a bunch of stuff that's not!" If one actually looks, one will realize that the only "thing" that is not disappointing is nirvana. That is the third liberating truth.

 

The second truth is that the disappointment of conditioned-things has a cause. All (conditioned) things have causes and conditions and are therefore unstable, unreliable, fickle, fragile, crumbling, slipping away, leading to disappointment.

 

The fourth and final truth is that there is a path, a way to the realization of the third truth, the unconditioned-element, and that is the Noble Eightfold Path.

• Liberation is deliverance (vimokkha, moksha)

What does WISDOM have to do with it?

Wisdom (paññā, prajna, understanding, knowledge, insight) comprises a wide field. The specific Buddhist wisdom, as part of the Noble Eightfold Path to deliverance, is insight (vipassanā).

It is direct-knowledge that brings about the four stages of enlightenment (bodhi) and the realization of nirvana.

And it consists of the penetration -- the full realization -- of these three things: the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and egolessness (anattā) of all forms of conditioned existence.

But I really love myself! (sutra)

Ashley Wells and Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly

Nepal's other Everest: trekking to the summit of Gokyo Ri and some of the best views in the country. About two hours’ walk north of Namche Bazaar, the largest town in the Khumbu region, the trail forks. Turn right towards Everest Base Camp (Zolashine/Getty/BBC.com)

Royal Sutra

Dhr. Seven (trans.), Wisdom Quarterly (Rājan Sutra from "Inspired Utterances," Udana 5.1)

Buddha on Gokyo Ri peak (Hendrik Terbeck)

Thus have I heard. Once when the Blessed One was residing near Sāvatthī at Jeta's Grove in the millionaire's monastery, King Pasenadi of Kosala and Queen Mallikā went to the upper floor of the palace.

The king turned to the queen and said, "Mallikā, is there anyone dearer to you than yourself?"

 

"No one, great king, no one is dearer to me than myself. Great king, and how is it with you, is there anyone dearer to you than yourself?"

 

"No one, Mallikā, no one is dearer to me than myself," he answered. Then King Pasenadi left to see the Blessed One. When he arrived, he bowed, sat respectfully to one side, and related to him the exchange.

Then realizing the significance of what was being said, the Blessed One exclaimed this verse of uplift:

"Scanning all directions with awareness, one finds no one dearer than oneself. Others, too, are equally dear to themselves. So if one loves oneself, one avoids hurting others."

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A Guide to Void-Gazing Meditation

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly; Wayne Pitches (voices.yahoo.com)

The boundless sky or akasha includes space (bbc.co.uk)

 

Deep in meditation (wiki)

This is a variation on a Tibetan meditation known as "Sky-Gazing." It is named this because the practice involves gazing in a relaxed way at the sky as one meditates. This meditation is essentially the same and can be used indoors or wherever even if the sky is not immediately visible.

Begin by taking a seat with back erect, hands resting on lap. Alternatively, lie down comfortably, but not so comfortably that sleep comes on. Close the eyes, and take a few calming breaths as eyes settle gently behind the eyelids, gazing gently ahead. To relax even further, repeat silently the seed mantra, Emaho (ay-mah-ho). It is Tibetan for "wondrous!" and is the core-teaching of Tibetan meditation. Experience the wonder of being alive, sitting there in immersed in our original Buddha nature.

 

Gazing at Occupy LA (WQ)

Imagine staring out into a vast emptiness, a deep dark void where nothing exists. When this can be imagined easily, begin to breathe in and out as deeply as possible while remaining relaxed. The focus should be on the out-breath, imagining that with each exhalation one is breathing essence out into that void, becoming one with its spacious luminosity. No ego exists here. Feel yourself expanding beyond any corporeal confines, filling that void. More

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