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.

Purifying the Mind/Heart (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

Bhikkhu Bodhi, "Purification of Mind" (BPS/ATI); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha at Battambang, Cambodia (Kim Seng/CaptainKino.com/flickr)

Mind matters: materiality and mentality, kalapas and cittas (wellhappypeaceful.com)

  

Free your mind; the rest will follow.

An ancient maxim found in the Dhammapada sums up the practice of the Buddha's teaching in three simple guidelines to training: to abstain from all harm, to cultivate good, and to purify one's mind.

 

These three principles form a graded sequence of steps progressing from the outward and preparatory to the inward and essential. Each step leads naturally into the one that follows it, and the culmination of the three in purification of mind makes it plain that the heart of Buddhist practice is to be found here.

 

Purification of mind as understood in the Buddha's teaching is the sustained endeavor to cleanse the mind (citta, heart) of defilements, those unwholesome mental forces that run beneath the surface stream of consciousness vitiating our intentions, thinking, values, attitudes, and actions.

 

(Inquiring Mind)

The chief among the defilements are the three that the Buddha has termed the "roots of [all] harm" -- greed, hatred, and delusion -- from which emerge their numerous offshoots and variants: anger and cruelty, avarice and envy, conceit and arrogance, hypocrisy and vanity [pride, personality view, wrong view regarding ego], the multitude of erroneous views.

The "defilements" are heart-defiling, unwholesome qualities of mind: "There are ten defilements, so called because they are themselves defiled and because they defile the mental factors associated with them:
(1) greed, (2) hate, (3) delusion, (4) conceit, (5) speculative views, (6) skeptical doubt, (7) mental torpor, (8) restlessness, (9) shamelessness,(10) lack of moral dread or unconscientiousness (Vis.M. XXII, 49, 65)." (For further information on 1-3, see mūla; 4, see māna; 5, see ditthi; 6-8, see nīvarana; 9 and 10, see ahirika-anottappa.

  These ten are explained in the Commentaries, but no classification of them is found in the sutras even though the term occurs frequently. The "impurities" (upakkilesa) are: 16 moral impurities of the mind mentioned and explained in MN 7 and MN 8 (The Wheel #61/62): (1) covetousness and harmful greed, (2) ill will, (3) anger, (4) hostility, (5) denigration, (6) domineering, (7) envy, (8) stinginess, (9) hypocrisy, (10) fraud, (11) obstinacy, (12) presumption, (13) conceit, (14) arrogance, (15) vanity, and (16) negligence.

 

Contemporary attitudes look unfavorably on such notions as "defilement" and "purity." On first encounter they may strike us as throwbacks to an outdated morality, valid perhaps when prudes and taboos were dominant, but having no place now. Not all of us wallow in the mire of gross materialism; many among us seek our enlightenments and spiritual highs, but we want them on our own terms. And as heirs of the new freedom we believe they are to be won through a hungry quest for experience without any need for introspection, personal change, or self-control.

 

However in the Buddha's teaching, genuine enlightenment lies precisely in purity of mind. The purpose of all insight and enlightened understanding is to liberate the mind from the defilements (taints, fetters, distortions). Nirvana itself, the goal of the teaching, is defined quite clearly as freedom from greed, hatred, and delusion.

 

From the perspective of the Dharma, defilement and purity are not postulates of authoritarian moralism but real and solid facts essential to an objective understanding of the human situation in the world.

 

As facts of lived experience, defilement and purity pose a vital distinction with crucial significance for those who seek liberation from suffering. They represent the two points between which the path to liberation unfolds -- the starting point of the problem and its resolution in the end. The defilements, the Buddha declares, reside beneath all human suffering. Burning within as lust and craving, as rage and resentment, delusion and wrong views, they lay to waste hearts, minds, lives, hopes, and civilizations. They drive us blind and thirsty over and over again through the round of birth and death.

Cultivate constant mindfulness.

The Buddha describes the defilements as bonds, fetters, hindrances, and knots. So the path to liberation, unbonding, release, to untying the knots is a discipline aimed at inward cleansing.

 

The work of purification is undertaken where the defilements arise, in the mind, and the main method the Dharma offers for purifying the mind is meditation.

What is meditation not? Meditation in Buddhist training is neither a quest for ecstasies (forms of bliss derived from concentration and absorption) nor a technique of DIY psychotherapy, stress reduction, or relaxation. What is it? Meditation is a systematic method of mental development -- precise, practical, and efficiently leading to an objective -- to attain inner purity and complete freedom.

 

The principal tools of Buddhist meditation are the core skillful mental factors: energy, mindfulness, concentration, and understanding. In the systematic practice of meditation, these are strengthened and brought together in a program of self-purification that aims at rooting out the defilements so that not even the subtlest unwholesome stirrings remain.

 

All defiled states of consciousness are born of ignorance. The most deeply embedded defilement is undone, with the final and ultimate purification of mind being accomplished through wisdom -- the knowledge and vision of things as they really are.

 

Wisdom, however, does not spontaneously arise through chance or random good intentions. It only arises in a purified mind. In order for wisdom to come forth and accomplish the ultimate purification of eradicating the defilements, we first have to create a space for it.

Big Buddha, Tian Tan (discoverhongkong.com)

This is done by developing a provisional purification of mind -- a purification which, although temporary and vulnerable, is still indispensable as a foundation for the emergence of all liberating-insight.

 

The achievement of this preparatory purification of mind begins with the challenge of self-understanding. To eliminate defilements we must first learn to recognize them, to detect them at work infiltrating and dominating our everyday thoughts and lives.

For countless aeons we have acted on the spur of greed, hatred, and delusion. So the work of self-purification cannot be executed hastily with our demand for quick results. The task requires care, patience, and persistence -- and the Buddha's clear instructions.

For every defilement the Buddha out of compassion gave an antidote, a method to emerge from it and vanquish it. By learning these principles and applying them properly, we gradually cleanse the most stubborn inner stains and reach the end of suffering, the "taintless liberation of the mind."

Gradual Instruction to Enlightenment

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; "Gradual Training" (accesstoinsight.org)

(ArunHaridharshan/flickr.com)

Gandhara-style Buddha

The Buddha's teaching, or Dharma, has the notion of steady, incremental self-development. This method of "gradual instruction," anupubbi-katha, appears in countless sutras. It always follows the same arc: 

As a skillful teacher, a master physician, the Buddha guides hearers from first principles to progressively more advanced teachings, all the way to the fulfillment of the Four Noble Truths, which is the full realization of nirvana.

Perceiving those capable of understanding the liberating message, regardless of their appearance or caste or social standing, he taught them this way. There is the example of the leper:

 

Having encompassed the awareness of the entire assembly with his awareness, the Blessed One asked himself, "Who here is capable of understanding the Dharma?" He then saw Suppabuddha the leper sitting in the assembly, and the thought occurred to him, "This person is capable of understanding the Dharma." 

The Buddha taught daily for 45 years

Turning his attention to Suppabuddha the leper, he gave a step by step discourse, that is, a talk on generosity, a talk on virtue, a talk on heaven(s). He declared the drawbacks, degradation, and danger of sensual attachments and the rewards of internal-renunciation, of letting go, of freedom.

 

Then when he perceived that Suppabuddha the leper's mind/heart was ready, malleable, free from hindrances, joyful, bright and temporarily purified (released), he gave a talk on the Dharma unique to enlightened ones (who have realized it for themselves):

1. suffering
2. origination
3. cessation
4. the path leading to liberation.

And just as a cloth freed of stains would properly absorb a dye, as Suppabuddha the leper was sitting in that very seat, the stainless eye of the Dharma arose in him: "Whatever is subject to arising is also subject to cessation" (Verses of Uplift 5.3).

This "gradual instruction" pattern of a sutra (a suture, unifying string) progressing through stages was utilized by the Buddha to prepare listeners' hearts/minds before speaking on the more advanced teaching of the Four Noble Truths. The stock passage (e.g., DN 3, DN 14, MN 56) runs as follows:

"Then the Blessed One gave a gradual instruction -- that is to say, speaking on liberality, virtuous conduct, and the heavens, then explaining the peril, the folly, and the depravity of [addiction to] sensual pleasures and, moreover, the advantage of freedom.

"When the Blessed One perceived that the listener's mind was prepared, pliant, freed of obstacles, elevated and lucid, he explained that exalted teaching particular to the buddhas, that is: suffering, its cause, its undoing, and the path [to its undoing]."

Intellect, Intelligence, and Intuition (Dr. Ashby)

Amber Larson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Dr. Elizabeth Ashby, "Three Mental Faculties" (Buddhist Publication Society, Bodhi Leaves No. 44)

The brain is not the actual source of knowing, just a citta routing station (DK Books)

Three Mental Modes

Emotional is not emotionally intelligent

In Western Buddhist literature we often find intellect and intuition contrasted with one another, usually to the disadvantage of intellect. This is a very short-sighted view, for both are necessary for the understanding and practice of Dharma (Pali, Dhamma).

The intellect is the reasoning faculty in humans. It sees things in their right proportions. It investigates, analyzes, and discriminates. It accumulates knowledge and is inclined to forget that “knowledge” isn’t “wisdom.” Too much stress on intellect produces mental dryness, harsh judgments, and a lack of kindness (mettā) and compassion.

The Buddha's Brain (Hanson)

 Another danger is that investigation may become mere idle speculation. “Speculative views” about the subjects that the Buddha refused to define will lead us into the wilds of skeptical doubt, with all the mental suffering that involves. Another danger is opinionatedness -- the canker (mental defilement) of clinging to views as in the case of certain Brahmins of old who declared: “This alone is the truth; all else is falsehood!”

Therefore one of the early Zen Patriarchs went so far as to say: 

Do not seek after the true;

Only cease to cherish opinions.

 
The cherishing of opinions leads to disputes and to vexation, for we wound one another “with the weapon of the tongue.”
 

Jim Olson studies creativity and the human spirit in medicine proposing to treat cancer with scorpion venom. Those using synthetic chemical poisons and cancer-causing radiation call him crazy (onbeing.org)

Intuition is the faculty that perceives truth without having it demonstrated or explained. It feels the truth before the intellect can grasp it and turn it into concepts. Hence intuition is closely allied to the emotions, and this constitutes a danger because the emotions go hand-in-hand with the imagination, and an imagined “truth” may be mistaken for “real truth.” 

This happens because intuition functions on both the mundane and the transcendental plane (lokuttara). Our intuitions -- our instinctive feelings for and against people or ideas, and our useful “hunches” -- do not mean that we already possess bodhi, the transcendental intuition that “knows according to reality.” 

This mundane intuition can be extremely deceptive and may lead to all kinds of trouble. It has to be examined in the light of a third mental faculty: intelligence. Intelligence is the ability to make skilful (kusala) use of the intellect. Lacking this, both intellect and intuition go astray.

Their emotions are like koans to me, with no easy way to solve their mysteries (CS).

  
All Buddhist schools recognize the part intuition must play in the attainment of wisdom (gnosis) -- that sure certain knowing that “done is what had to be done.” The winning of enlightenment by intellectual means, “the way of the head” (jnana or nyana), is very, very rare, though some of the Great Disciples are known to have done so.

The Zen School in particular stresses the importance of intuition. A great feature of Zen is to accept life as it comes and to make the appropriate response. Note, it is the appropriate or right response. This does not mean acting on the first impulse that comes into one’s head. Most human impulses arise from greed, hate, or delusion [the three roots of all unskillful karma], and it is only the trained disciple who can act both spontaneously and rightly every time.

Impulsive action frequently ends in disaster, as in the case of Don Quixote. More

"How to Clear Your Mind" (Allure Magazine)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Andy Puddicombe (GetSomeHeadspace.com), Brooke Le Poer Trench (Allure.com, Oct. 2013 issue); ilanadonna (video)

Mind racing? Focus on something concrete -- like the sensation of touching something.
 

"Insider's Guide," p. 142 (Oct. 2013 issue)

The former Buddhist monk Puddicombe cofounded Get Some Headspace and is the author of Get Some Headspace: How Mindfulness Can Change Your Life in Ten Minutes a Day.

Everyone feels overwhelmed at some point... But what is the most profitable way to respond? We can react -- follow patterns dictated by habit, neurosis, or social conditioning. We can also respond purposefully, try a new way of coping, enter upon a mindful solution.

The thing is, we would first have to be aware. And the habit of bare awareness with clear comprehension (sati-sampajañña) is not the habit most of us have been developing. But it is the  good habit the Buddha recommended on the path to enlightenment.

Even on the path to mundane success, mindfulness is useful. There is no such thing as too much mindfulness. In the development of five crucial factors for success in meditation, there can be too much confidence (faith), there can be too much wisdom. One should temper the other. There can be too much energy, there can be too much concentration. These, too, should be balanced, one by the other. 

Definition
But the fifth, this sati, which we translate as "mindfulness" (bare awareness, thoughtless awareness, nonjudgmental awareness, vigilance, diligence, wakefulness, nondistractedness, effortless mono-tasking, nonforgetfulness, remembering to remember, childlike presence of mind or beginner's mind, etc.), cannot be overdone.

• Mindfulness has a separate meaning with which it should not be confused. "Recollection" or active-contemplation is the "memory" or remembering/bringing to mind side of "mindfulness." It is the turning, thinking over, pensively considering or "rotating" a theme in mind. This rotation (ratiocination, cogitation) is the actual meaning of the English word "meditation." The Buddhist word we commonly translate as "meditation" is bhavana, which has the much broader meaning of cultivation, development, or literally "bringing into being." There are three other words that might better be translated as "meditation" in this older English language sense -- janeti (from jhana, getting to "absorption"), kammatthana (field to be cultivated or worked or acted upon, from kamma, karma, one's meditation subject or theme), and anussati (pondering, recollecting, contemplating, from anu = "scrutiny" + sati = "mindfulness," i.e., long consideration or "consideration all the way around"). More

One is aware-and-clear as one goes about one's day, as one sits on a meditation cushion, as one thumbs through Allure and gets to page 142. Mr. Andy Puddicombe explains the rest, showing how just 10 minutes of practice a day can change a life.

(US.Macmillan.com) A former Buddhist monk with over 10 years of teaching experience, Puddicombe has been acknowledged as the UK's foremost mindfulness meditation expert. Like so many of his students, he began his own meditation practice as an ordinary, "busy" person with everyday concerns. He has since designed a program that fits neatly into a jam-packed daily routine proving that just 10 minutes a day can make a world of difference.

Beautiful Mindfulness

Is Allure good reading? Not really.

Body News: Beautified Minds 

(Allure/Lois B. Morris) Does plastic surgery actually make people happier? Yes... Ugh, actually it's hard to tell because we now cannot wipe these stupid expressions off our Botoxy faces.

Mood News: Open Minded

Can something as simple as twisting on a faucet or spinning the wheel on an iPod have a psychological impact? Hmm, let me hold my chin and scratch my head while I think about that. 

Body News: Mind, Body, Colds

(Allure/Kristin Sainani) Meditation and exercise help prevent colds and flu, research suggests. 

Mood News: Night Lights 

Does exposure to brightness at night affect your mind? 

Body News: Hunger Games 

A woman's mind-set while eating may influence her metabolism, surprising research has shown.

Mood News: Romance Risk

When women have romantic relationships on their mind, they're more likely to consider unhealthy ways of enhancing their appearance.

Mood News: Seeing More Clearly 

It's possible to improve your eyesight by changing your mind rather than your prescription. 

Insiders' Guide: How to Get a Great Facial

A facial can make or break your skin. Keep a few rules in mind and your skin will glow.

Scents of Self

Everyone knows fragrances [stink of chemical odorants and flavorants and pungent volatile organic compounds that harm the brain with excitotoxic effects. But did they know that...]