Taming the Mind and Heart (Part 2)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Buddhist Publication Society

Meditation (#LightBoxFF/Tierney Gearon's Instagram Family Album/time.com)

  

The Gradual Training

SEE PART 1

..."It is possible, Brahmin, to lay down a gradual training, a gradual doing, a gradual practice with respect to this Dharma and discipline.

 

"Brahmin, even a skilled trainer of horses, having taken on a beautiful thoroughbred, first of all gets it used to the training with respect to wearing the bit. Then one gets it used to a further training -- even so, Brahmin, the Tathagata [the Buddha referring to himself], having taken on a person to be tamed, first of all offers the discipline thus:

 

Virtue

The Buddha as a mountain in China: Leshan, Sichuan Province (Qasimism/flickr)

 
"'Come, meditator [monastic or intensive lay meditator], be virtuous in habit, live controlled by the control of the Obligations [training rules, Code of Discipline, Patimokkha], endowed with [proper] behavior and method, seeing peril in even the slightest fault and, undertaking them, train yourself in the rules of training.'

"As soon, Brahmin, as the meditator is of virtuous habit, controlled by the control of the Obligations, endowed with [right] behavior and method, and seeing peril in the slightest fault and, undertaking them, trains oneself in the rules of training, the Tathagata offers further discipline saying:

Sense-control

"Bhikkave, this is the path of practice."

"'Come, meditator, be guarded at the doors of the sense-organs: Having seen a material shape with the eye, do not be entranced with the general appearance, do not be entranced with the detail.

"'For if one dwells with the organ of sight uncontrolled, covetousness and dejection, unwholesome, unskillful states of mind [heart], may flow in.

"'So fare along controlling it, guard the organ of sight, achieve control over the organ of sight. Having heard a sound with the ear... Having smelled a fragrance with the nose... Having savored a taste with the tongue... Having felt a touch with the body... Having cognized a mental [heart] state with the mind [heart], do not be entranced with the detail.

"'For if one dwells with the organ of mind uncontrolled, covetousness and dejection, unwholesome, unskillful states of mind, may flow in. So fare along controlling it; guard the organ of mind [the mind-door, the heart, the seat of consciousness, of knowing], achieve control over the organ of mind.'
 
Moderation in eating

Strawberry-flavored processed cereal or strawberries? Tough choice (portalsmag.com)

  

Learning to avoid extremes

"As soon, Brahmin, as a meditator is guarded at the doors of the sense-organs, the Tathagata offers further discipline, saying: 'Come, meditator, be moderate in eating.

"'Take food while reflecting carefully, not for fun or indulgence or personal charm or beautification, but taking just enough for maintaining this body and keeping it going, for keeping it unharmed, for furthering the supreme-life [the "Brahma-faring," the purified and undistracted spiritual lifestyle of a celibate recluse], with the thought: Thus will I crush out an old [painful] feeling, and I will not allow a new [painful, or attachment-inducing, or sleep-producing] feeling to arise, and then there will be for me subsistence and blamelessness and abiding in comfort.'

Vigilance

The Buddha reclining in the "lion's posture," as he did during his final nirvana, seen here in golden robes in Theravada Burma's Chauk Htat Gyi shrine (myanmartours.us).

 

"As soon, Brahmin, as a meditator is moderate in eating, the Tathagata offers further discipline, saying: 'Come, meditator, dwell intent on vigilance: During the day while pacing up and down, while sitting down, cleanse the mind [heart] of obstructive mental states.

 

Lion Posture, resting sleep-free (elwetritsche)

"During the middle watch of the night, lie down on the right side in the lion posture, foot resting on foot, mindful, clearly conscious [clearly comprehending], reflecting on the thought of getting up again'. During the last watch of the night, when you have arisen, while pacing up and down, while sitting down, cleanse the mind of obstructive mental states.'

Mindfulness and clear consciousness

Having tamed the mind, the Buddha reflects ("Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds," REM Pub. Ltd.)

  .

I'm going to do it at work (AA)

"As soon, Brahmin, as a meditator is intent on vigilance, the Tathagata offers further discipline, saying:
 
'Come, meditator, be possessed of mindfulness [bare awareness] and clear consciousness, acting with clear consciousness whether you are approaching or departing, acting with clear consciousness whether you are looking ahead or looking around, acting with clear consciousness whether you are bending in or stretching out [the arms], acting with clear consciousness whether you are carrying the outer robe, the bowl or robe, acting with clear consciousness whether you are eating, drinking, munching, savoring, acting with clear consciousness whether you are responding to the calls of nature, acting with clear consciousness whether you are walking, standing, sitting, asleep, awake, talking, or remaining silent.'

Overcoming of the Five Hindrances

There are many techniques: pick one; do it.

"As soon, Brahmin, as one is possessed of mindfulness and clear consciousness [comprehension], the Tathagata offers further discipline, saying: 'Come, meditator, choose a remote dwelling in a forest, at the foot of a tree, on a mountain slope, in a glen, a hill cave, a cemetery [charnel ground], a woodland grove, in the open, or on a heap of straw.'

"On returning from alms-gathering after the meal, the meditator sits down crosslegged, holding the back erect, having made mindfulness rise up in front. And getting rid of covetousness for the world, one dwells with a mind [a heart] devoid of covetousness, as one cleanses the mind of covetousness.
 
"Getting rid of the taint of ill-will, one dwells benevolent in mind. Compassionate and merciful towards all creatures and beings, one cleanses the mind of ill-will.

"Getting rid of sloth and torpor, one dwells [energetically and vigilantly]. Perceiving the light [an apparent reference to a nimitta, the meditator's "counterpart sign," an inner light that arises in the mind's eye], mindful and clearly conscious one cleanses the mind of sloth and torpor.

"Getting rid of restlessness and worry [stress and remorse, hyperactivity and misgivings], one dwells calmly. The mind inwardly tranquil, one cleanses the mind of restlessness and worry.

"Getting rid of doubt, one dwells having crossed over doubts. Unperplexed as to which states are skillful [kusala, also translated as beneficial, salutary, profitable, or karmically-wholesome], one cleanses the mind of doubt.

Meditative Absorptions (jhanas)

The walls of a Buddhist temple at Borobudur, Java, Indonesia (TrevThompson/flickr)

 

This is the way to wisdom (A)

"By ridding the mind [heart] of these Five Hindrances [see The Five Hindrances and Their Conquest, Wheel No. 26], which are defilements of the mind and deleterious to intuitive wisdom, aloof from coarse pleasures of the senses, aloof from unskillful states of mind, one enters and abides in the first meditation [the first "absorption," the first jhana], which is accompanied by initial and sustained attention, is born of aloofness [mental and physical withdrawal] and is rapturous and joyful.

"Overcoming initial and sustained attention, one's mind subjectively tranquilized and fixed on a single point [usually the subtle breath at the nostril which has, by concentration on it, transformed and become the nimitta], one enters and abides in the second meditation, which is free of [the effort of] initial and sustained attention, is born of concentration [collectedness] and is rapturous and joyful.
 

It can be done, I can do it! (Han La Suave)

"By the fading out of rapture [to something more subtle and blissful], one dwells with equanimity, attentive and clearly conscious, and experiences in one's person that joy of which the noble ones [ariyans, according to the Path of Purification, those who have reached the noble attainments, the stages of enlightenment] say: 'Joyful lives one who has equanimity and is mindful.' And one enters and abides in the third meditation.

"By getting rid of anguish, by the going down of one's former pleasures and sorrows [by overcoming the bliss of the preceding absorptions, a supersensual pleasure that now feels coarse by comparison, and one moves to something subtler], one enters and abides in the fourth meditation, which has neither anguish nor joy, and which is entirely purified by equanimity and mindfulness [and singlepointedness of mind].
 
"Brahmin, such is my instruction for those meditators [female and male lay practitioners, nuns, or monks] who are learners [those in training] who, perfection being not yet attained, dwell longing for the incomparable security from all bonds [liberation, emancipation, freedom, nirvana].

"But as for those meditators who are perfected ones [arhats], the cankers destroyed, who have lived the [Brahma-faring] life, done what was to be done, shed the burden, attained to the goal themselves, the fetters of becoming utterly destroyed, and who are freed by perfect profound knowledge [wisdom] -- these things conduce both to their abiding in ease here and now as well as to their mindfulness and clear consciousness."
 
Does everyone make it?

Doing it in Sweden (yogameditation.com)

When this had been said, the Brahmin Ganaka-Moggallana said to the [Buddha]:
 
"Now, on being exhorted thus and instructed thus by the good Gotama, do all of the good Gotama's disciples attain the unchanging goal [accanta-nittha, accanta can also mean "utmost, culminating, supreme"] -- nirvana, or do some not attain it?"
 
"Brahmin, some of my disciples, on being exhorted and instructed in this way by me, attain the unchanging goal -- nirvana. Some do not attain it."
 

I have a childlike question. - Ask it, Brahmin.

"What is the cause, good Gotama, what is the reason that -- since nirvana does exist, since the way leading to nirvana exists, and since the good Gotama exists as adviser -- some of the good Gotama's disciples on being exhorted and instructed in this way by the good Gotama, attain the unchanging goal -- nirvana -- but some do not attain it?" More

The Buddha's chief disciple was black

Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly; Hellmuth Hecker, Maha-Moggallana, The Wheel Publication No. 263/264 (Buddhist Publication Society), German original Wissen und Wandel (magazine, XXII, 9/10), Bradford Griffith and Robert Bussewitz (transcribers) DharmaNet

The Buddha and his black chief male disciple, diverse representations (Wisdom Quarterly)

   

The Buddha may have had as many as 80,000 monastic human disciples (savakas, "hearers") during his 45 years of teaching with countless more devas who were able to attain liberating insight. But he only singled out four "chief disciples," two monks (Great Moggallāna and Sariputra) and two nuns (Uppalavanna and Khema). Great Moggallana had very dark black skin described as being the "color of a rain cloud." He was not African, of course, but Dravidian, from a wealthy and privileged Brahmin family in ancient north India. He may have been Indo-Ariyan nevertheless with very dark skin, usually depicted as blue as is customary in India. It is explained in Sri Lankan commentaries as being due to the residual effects of weighty past karma. But whatever the case, he was joyfully welcomed by the Buddha, ordained, and immediately singled out as a chief disciple. His special ability was helping bring new monks to full enlightenment after the Buddha attracted them to the Dharma and Sariputra aided them to stream entry (the first stage of enlightenment). Presumably, Upalavanna and Khema helped the Buddha in the same way with nuns. Great Moggallana was also singled out as "foremost in psychic powers." There are many stories of his putting them to good use, which is interesting because the Buddha -- who also possessed great supernormal abilities -- saw danger in them and normally discouraged their display.

 

3. Finding the Teaching

Without knowing anything of the Buddha, Great Moggallana (born as Kolita) and Sariputra (born as Upatissa) gave up their life as wandering ascetics and, after many years, returned to their home country of Magadha. This happened not long after the Buddha had delivered his first sutra setting in motion the Wheel of the Dharma at Benares (Varanasi, India).
 
But the two friends still had not given up hope, and they decided now to search separately, for doubling their chances. They agreed among themselves that if one first learned about a convincing path to liberation (the deathless, nirvana), he would quickly inform the other.
 

Black Ven. Sivali (109060883@N02/flickr)

At that time, when both were about 40 years old, the Buddha had sent out the first batch of enlightened missionary disciples, 61 in number, to proclaim the Teaching (Dharma) for the well-being and happiness of humans and devas. The Buddha himself had gone to Rajagaha, the capital of Magadha, where the great king of Magadha soon became his follower and donated the Bamboo Grove Monastery (Jetavana). At that monastery the Buddha was residing when Kolita and Upatissa returned to Rajagaha, staying at their teacher Sanjaya's place.

One day Upatissa went to town while Kolita stayed back at their dwelling. Kolita saw his friend returning. Never had he seen him like that: his entire being seemed to be transformed, his appearance was buoyant and radiant. Eagerly Kolita asked him:

"Your features are serene, dear friend, and your complexion is bright and clear. Did it happen that you have found the road to enlightenement, the path to liberation from all suffering?"
 
Upatissa replied: "It is so, dear friend, the path to the deathless has been found!" He then reported how it happened....
 

Of things arisen from conditions

the Wayfarer the condition told

and what is their cessation,

that, too, the Great Ascetic proclaimed.

 
When Upatissa heard this stanza, the vision of Truth (the "Dharma-eye") arose in him on the spot, and the very same happened to Kolita when he listened to the stanza retold by his friend. He, too, realized: Whatever arises is bound to pass away.

The realization that was evoked by this stanza, may be called a truly mystical event. For us, these four lines do not contain an explanation explicit enough for a full understanding. The deeper and wider meaning of the stanza reveals itself only to those who have trained themselves [and can discern the Four Noble Truths in it] for a long time in wisdom and renunciation and have reflected long upon the impermanent and thed eathless, the conditioned and the unconditioned.....
  
After Kolita listened to that powerful stanza, he asked at once where the Great Ascetic, the Perfected One, the Buddha was staying. Hearing that he was dwelling nearby at the Bamboo Grove Monastery, he wished to go there immediately....

4. The Struggle for Realization

The Buddha teaching monastic disciples, bas relief, Songkla, Thailand, rooftop pyramid

 
Now the two friends, at the head of the 250 fellow ascetics, approached the Bamboo Grove. There the Buddha was just teaching Dharma to his disciples. And when he saw the two friends approaching, the Enlightened One said: "Here, disciples, they are coming, the two friends Kolita and Upatissa. They will be my chief (male) disciples, a blessed pair!"

Having arrived, all respectfully saluted the Buddha, raising their folded palms to the forehead and bowing at the feet of the meditation Master. Then the two friends spoke: "May we be permitted, O venerable sir, to obtain under the Blessed One the going-forth and the full admission?"

Then the Blessed One responded: "Come, monks! Well proclaimed is the Teaching. Live now the life of purity for making an end of suffering!" These brief words served to bestow ordination on the two friends and their following.
 

From then on Upatissa was called Sariputta ("the son of Sari," his mother) and Kolita was called Maha-Moggallana ("the Great One of the Moggallana clan") to distinguish him from other Buddhist monks from that same clan.

 

After all of them had obtained ordination, the Buddha addressed the 250 disciples and explained to them the Teaching in such a way that before long they attained to the first stage of enlightenment, stream-entry, and in due course became fully enlightened. Sariputra and Great Moggallana, however, went into solitude, but this time separate from each other.

 

Sariputta remained in the vicinity of Rajagaha and went to meditate in a cave called "Bear's Den." From there he walked to the city for his alms, which afforded him the opportunity to listen often to the Buddha's discourses. What he had heard he independently worked over on his own and methodically penetrated to a clear understanding of the mind and its laws. He needed 14 days to reach full enlightenment, the utter destruction of all defilement (asavas).

 

Great Moggallana, however, for reasons not known to us, chose as his abode the forests near the village of Kallavalaputta in Magadha. With great zeal, he meditated there while sitting or walking up and down. But in these efforts, he was often overcome by sleepiness. Though he did not wish to fall asleep, he was unable to keep his body erect and his head upright. There were times when he had to keep his eyes open even by force of will.

The tropical heat, the strain of long years of a wandering life, and the inner tensions he had gone through perhaps explain how now, at the end of his quest, his body reacted with fatigue.

 

But the Awakened One, with a great teacher's care for his disciples, did not lose sight of him. With his supernormal vision he perceived the difficulties of the new monk, and by magic power he appeared before him. When Moggallana saw the Buddha standing before him, a good part of his fatigue had already vanished. Now the Awakened One asked him:

"Are you nodding, Moggallana, are you nodding?"

  

"Yes, venerable sir."

1. "Well then, Moggallana, at whatever thought drowsiness befalls you, to that thought you should not give attention and not dwell on that thought. Then, by doing so, it is possible that your drowsiness will vanish. (The Buddha gave many more step-by-step instructions for staying awake). More 

"Nay, not for this that you may slumber long,

Comes the night, in starry garlands wreathed.

For vigils by the wise this night is here." 

— Theragatha, Verse 193 (trans. by C.A.F. Rhys Davids)

Halloween: Is there a "devil' or a "God"?

Dhr. Seven, Maya, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson Wisdom Quarterly HALLOWEEN SERIES

Is the Devil "Death" (Mara) personified? (Patrick Woodroffe/skeptically.org)

Why do we carve pumpkin jack o' lanterns for Halloween? (merinews.com)

  

Does Wisdom Quarterly believe in the Christian "devil"? 

Sakka (St. Michael) conquers the titan Vepacitti

No, not as such. Just as we do not believe in a "God" as Christians say. But there is something, and we think that would surprise most readers.

 

There is little reason to believe in an "all evil" entity motivating unwholesome karma. This would take away the agency of individuals, of ordinary beings to engage in unskillful conduct on their own. By ourselves is "good" and "evil" done or left undone. We often cite the quote, "No one saves us but ourselves; no one can and no one may; we ourselves must walk the path; buddhas only point the way." 

 

The devil "made" me do it

"Simpsons Bloody Simpsons" with evil Moe Sizlak, Homer, and famous bar patron

 

There are supernatural agencies. There is the famous case of Maha Moggallana recounting a discussion with Mara Namuci ("the Evil One," the onerous tempter figure who tried to dissuade Siddhartha from liberation during his time under the Bodhi tree and constantly harassed him to stop teaching).

In that sutra (MN 50), a previous mara, Mara Dusi (or Mara "the Corrupter"), incites Brahmins to unduly rebuke enlightened Buddhist monastics then later incites other Brahmins to unduly praise them, each time in the hopes of revealing a defilement Mara Dusi might exploit, each time unsuccessful, but each time leading to heavy karmic results for the Brahmins involved: The first are mostly reborn in miserable destinations, the second are mostly reborn in desirable destinations. How could this be if it were Mara Dusi's karma, not the Brahmin's intentional deeds?
 

Happy what? - Grumpy Cat (Huffington Post)

 The Commentary goes to great lengths to explain how; it was, in fact, both Mara Dusi's and the Brahmin's doings: Mara Dusi did not "make" them do what they did. He merely filled their heads with blameworthy or praiseworthy visions of the monastics through his supernatural power to influence their minds.
 
They reacted in a predictable manner as he hoped they would. Seeing visions of hypocrisy, for example, they reviled and cursed the arhat monastics. Mara Dusi met with his karmic results, a dreadful rebirth in Avici, the "waveless" or "unrelenting" infernal waste, a hell of the most horrific torments. The Brahmins went on to meet with their just deserts, which may not sound "fair" to us, but that is mainly because we do not normally realize that the magnitude of our karma does not merely depend on the doer and intention; it also has a great deal to do with the virtue of the recipient. What we do toward enlightened beings -- whether they be stream enterers, once returners, non-returners, arhats -- bears the greatest results.
 

We got power!

Wonder Women and Super Men

We can be affected by others, both seen and unseen beings. The "devil" can sort of make one do something, sort of. Even we have that power: we can discourage or encourage, lead or mislead, help or ruin others. How difficult is it? But to say that we "make" anyone do anything is not quite correct. We inspire or incite. We can do it for good or ill. 
 

God, the judge of all deeds? Or is it karma?

That is not to say that these monolithic polar opposite figures, the devil and God, can take all the credit. We are involved. We are co-creators. We are "GOD" (Brahman, the ALL, not to be confused with a personal Brahma), just as Jesus (both the mythical Christ and the historical Jewish radical from Nazareth who bears the mantle of so many Church legends and popular misconceptions) is reputed to have said. We have the potential for "divinity" -- to be reborn as devas ("shining ones," light beings, celestial citizens in superior albeit impermanent space worlds, and even in rarefied immaterial planes of existence, all of which are referred to as "heavens" (sagga). 

  

"Teacher of gods and humans," the Buddha, Himalayas (Michael Foley/blog.dwbuk.org)

 

Buddhist jack o lantern (Tracy Lee/flickr)

As humans we can even reach much higher than that -- to the end of all rebirth and suffering. This goes beyond Maha Brahma, other brahmas, as well as sensual-sphere devas, rupa-devas (fine-material-sphere light beings), and arupa-devas (immaterial-sphere beings). We are capable of enlightenment, be it final knowledge in this very life, or stream entry, which ensures that we are reborn here or elsewhere no more than a maximum of seven times. We would never again be susceptible to falling into births in worlds of deprivation lower than the human plane. One might live for millions of years, even for aeons, in superior worlds before final knowledge and complete liberation. That is more than any ordinary deva or brahma, any angel or god, can claim. It is a "change of lineage" (gotrabhu) from mundane to noble.
 

The devil in me

What motivates unskillful behavior? Asavas

We are often agents of good, but WE are the Ahriman, the antithesis, members of "Mara's Army" (subject to asavas or "defilements" of the heart/mind, the taints, the fetters), who could be called the Devil. There are demons, asuras (titans), yakkhas (ogres), narakas (denizens of hell), nagas (reptilians), pretas (spirits, ghosts, general shapeshifting troublemakers).
 

God: angry, sexist, and racist

God (Maha Brahma, YHWH, Allah, the Alpha and the Omega) is not really the "God" adherents think -- an all-good, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent  creator or uncaused first cause of everything in the universe. Those beings (yes, there are many gods of all kinds) may claim or believe themselves to be all that, but they are not. It is hyperbole and overestimation, a deceptive and deluded reputation. They can be so grand and glorious that it seems like they are -- dazzling, long lived, judgmental, humble, vengeful, exalted, arrogant, angry, loving, compassionate, beneficent, equanimous...

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Sexism, racism, slavery, war, genocide by and for God? (See the Bible's Book of Judges for murder, mayhem, and human suffering ordered by the angry jealous tribal Jewish God. Who follows a character like this? The world much prefers the peaceful son and the Marys.)

 

The many visitors from space who manipulated human DNA to make these physical forms as they are did not thereby create the "being" (gandhabba, atman) reborn in this form on this planet. Various theologies attribute this kind of "creation" to the God of their conception of reality. It is as if something (an eternal soul) came out of nothing (dust and breath, materiality and prana). But "we" have gone on and on -- as have all living beings -- in this cycling samsara (the "continued wandering on") or Wheel of Rebirth and Death.
 

Devils are real

There are "devils," inimical spirits, of all kinds as in China (Greal-Wall-Hikers/flickr)

 

If, then, there is no devil as Christians say, Is there a being like him? Yes, we think so. This belief of ours comes from a shaman mentioned in the anthropological research of Michael J. Harner (The Sound of Rushing Water, 1968):
 

"Many times the Christian missionary had told [the shaman medicine man] Mashu of the devil feared by white men. But since he had never seen the spirit, Mashu remained skeptical. Some time later, after drinking natema [the local variety of ayahuasca], Mashu was confronted by this figure of the "white man's devil." Since that time, Mashu has remained convinced of this spirit's reality."
 

There are many divine goddesses or devis

So we think something exists, some quite scary beings -- devils (maras), serpents/dragons/seamonsters (nagas), demons (yakkhas, asuras), shapeshifters (petas, politicians), avians (garudas), and so on. But one all-inclusive "devil" who is the epitome of evil, the source of everything bad, the defiler of all humankind, who ruined the first Adam and the first Eve? No, these are all oversimplifications based on things that may have actually happened. Early genetic synthetic experiments, a kind of "creationism," led to the Adama, a race of humans, "modern humans" millions of years ago. (See Michael Cremo for the real age of Homo sapien sapiens, modern humans, who are in fact very ancient). This did not happen once, but happens again and again, for samsara is cyclical in staggering stretches of time (kalpas) too big to conceive of. The truth is much stranger than myth and fiction.

"When the dust has settled, and you're born again, maybe as a [Martian], maybe then you'll see that your reality was squashed into banality, was squashed into banality!" - Nick Blinko

"The God-idea"
Ven. Nyanaponika (BPS, BuddhaNet.net, ATI)

Buddhism has sometimes been called an atheistic teaching, either in an approving sense by freethinkers and rationalists or in a derogatory sense by people of theistic persuasion. Only in one way can Buddhism be described as atheistic, namely, in so far as it denies the existence of an eternal, omnipotent God or godhead who is the creator and ordainer of the world.
 
The word "atheism" -- however, like the word "godless" -- frequently carries a number of disparaging overtones or implications, which in no way apply to the Buddha's teaching. Those who use the word "atheism" often associate it with a materialistic doctrine that knows nothing higher than this world of the senses and the slight happiness it can bestow. Buddhism is nothing of that sort. In this respect it agrees with the teachings of other religions... More