WHAT DID THE BUDDHA REALLY TEACH?

Interview - Bhante Vimalaramsi -Personal Journey - New definition of Min...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 00:41:00 +0000

Brahmavihāra (metta) Meditation Practice vs Mindfulness of Breathing in the Majjhima Nikāya as leading to Nibbana

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 27 May 2016 19:47:00 +0000

Number of times the Brahmavihāra Meditation Practice vs

Mindfulness of Breathing

in the Majjhima Nikāya.

The Buddha spoke of using the Brahmavihāra practice quite a bit more than using the breathing practice contrary what most meditation practitioners have been led to believe. The Brahmavihāra practice was taught by the Buddha, not as a side practice as most think, but as a primary practice to lead the meditator to the goal of awakening.

Researched: Majjhima Nikāya translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi and Ñāṇamoli – Wisdom Pub. 1995

Mindfulness of Breathing – (Ānāpānasati) — Four Suttas

*searched “mindfulness of breathing”

Sutta No.

· #10 Satipatthana Sutta: The Foundations of Mindfulness

· 62 Maharahulovada Sutta: The Greater Discourse of Advice to

Rahula

· 118 Anapanasati Sutta: Mindfulness of Breathing

· 119 Kayagatasati Sutta: Mindfulness of the Body

*searched “mindfulness of breathing”

Brahmavihāra Practice - 11 Suttas (the word Brahmavihāra isn’t found itself in the sutta text)

· 7 Vatthupama Sutta: The Simile of the Cloth

· 21 Kakacttpama Sutta: The Simile of the Saw

· 40 Cula-Assapura Sutta: The Shorter Discourse at Assapura

· 43 Mahavedalla Sutta: The Greater Series of Questions and Answers

· 50 Maratajjamya Sutta: The Rebuke to Mara

· 52 Atthakanagara Sutta: The Man from Atthakanagara

· 55 Jivaka Sutta: To Jivaka
+ 62 Maharahulovada Sutta: The Greater Discourse of Advice to Rahula

· 83 Makhadeva Sutta: King Makhadeva

· 97 Dhananjani Sutta: To Dhananjani

· 99 Subha Sutta: To Subha

· 127 Anuruddha Sutta: Anuruddha

METHODOLOGY

Mindfulness of Breathing (Ānāpānasati -only once as a title)

*searched “mindfulness of breathing” 4 suttas

Brahmavihāra Practice Found in 12 suttas

*searched “pervading one quarter”

also ”loving-kindness”

also "abided and pervaded"

Eliminated where lovingkindness was used in treating someone with lovingindness etc. Not mentioned as a practice

(Note:the word Brahmavihara not found itself in the sutta text)

Note: There should be many more instances in the Samyutta Nikaya of the Brahmavihāras —

to be researched soon

David Johnson

Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center

May 25, 2016

Number of times Jhāna Practice shows up in the Majjhima Nikāya.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 27 May 2016 19:44:00 +0000

Number of times Jhāna Practice shows up in the Majjhima Nikāya.

Vasettha Sutta: Sutta 98

“Who has crossed to the further shore

And meditates within the jhanas,

Is unperturbed and unperplexed,

Attained Nibbana through no clinging:

He is the one I call a brahmin.”

The Buddha declared that Jhāna Practice was the path to Nibbāna and he declared this more frequently than any other methodologies in the Majjhima Nikāya. Other sects say that “Dry-Insight” Practice without Jhānas was taught by the Buddha, yet there is no mention of such a practice in the Nikāyas. This was a commentarial addition much later. How a monk attains Jhāna is mentioned in at least 50 out of 152 suttas. 33% of all suttas have a mention of it there. I include also “base of infinite consciousness etc.”

Researched: Majjhima Nikāya translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi and Ñāṇamoli – Wisdom Pub. 1995

Jhāna Practice Explained/Described

Sutta No. Sutta Name Page No.

· 1 Mulapariyaya Sutta: The Root of All Things 83

· 4 Bhayabherava Sutta: Fear and Dread 102

· 6 Akankheyya Sutta: If a Bhikkhu Should Wish 115

· 8 Sallekha Sutta: Effacement 123

· 12 Mahasthanada Sutta: The Greater Discourse on the Lion's Roar 164

· 13 Mahadukkhakkhandha Sutta: The Greater Discourse on the Mass of Suffering

· 19 Dvedhavitakka Sutta: Two Kinds of Thought 207

· 25 Nivapa Sutta: The Bait 246

· 26 Ariyapariyesana Sutta: The Noble Search 253

· 27 Culahatthipadopama Sutta: The Shorter Discourse on the Simile of the Elephant's Footprint 269

· 30 Culasaropama Sutta: The Shorter Discourse on the Simile of the Heartwood 291

· 31 Culagosinga Sutta: The Shorter Discourse in Gosinga 301

· 36 Mahasaccaka Sutta: The Greater Discourse to Saccaka 332

· 38 Mahatanhasankhaya Sutta: The Greater Discourse on the Destruction of Craving 349

· 39 Maha-Assapura Sutta: The Greater Discourse at Assapura 362

· 41 Saleyyaka Sutta: The Brahmins of Sala 379

· 43 Mahavedalla Sutta: The Greater Series of Questions and Answers 387

· 44 Culavedalla Sutta: The Shorter Series of Questions and Answers 396

· 45 Culadhammasamadana Sutta: The Shorter Discourse on Ways of Undertaking Things 405

· 51 Kandaraka Sutta: To Kandaraka 443

· 52 Atthakanagara Sutta: The Man from Atthakanagara 454

· 53 Sekha Sutta: The Disciple in Higher Training 460

· 59 Bahuvedaniya Sutta: The Many Kinds of Feeling 502

· 64 Mahamalunkya Sutta: The Greater Discourse to Malunkyaputta 537

· 65 Bhaddali Sutta: To Bhaddali 542

· 66 Latukikopama Sutta-. The Simile of the Quail 551

· 76 Sandaka Sutta: To Sandaka 618

· 77 Mahasakuludayi Sutta: The Greater Discourse to Sakuludayin 629

· 78 Samanamandika Sutta: Samanamandikaputta -648

· 79 Culasakuludayi Sutta: The Shorter Discourse to Sakuludayin 654

· 98 Vasettha Sutta: To Vasettha 798

· 99 Subha Sutta: To Subha 808

· 101 Devadaha Sutta: At Devadaha 8-27

· 107 GanakamoggalUna Sutta: To Ganaka Moggallana 874

· 108 Gopakamoggallana Sutta: With Gopaka Moggallana 880

· 111 Anupada Sutta: One by One as They Occurred 899

· 112 Chabbisodhana Sutta: The Sixfold Purity 903

· 113 Sappurisa Sutta: The True Man 909

· 119 Kayagatasati Sutta: Mindfulness of the Body 949

· 120 Sankharupapatti Sutta: Reappearance by Aspiration 959

· 121 Culasunnata Sutta: The Shorter Discourse on Voidness 965

· 122 Mahasunnata Sutta: The Greater Discourse on Voidness 971

· 125 Dantabhumi Sutta: The Grade of the Tamed 989

· 137 Salayatanavibhanga Sutta: The Exposition of the Sixfold Base 1066

· 138 Uddesavibhanga Sutta: The Exposition of a Summary 1074

· 139 Aranavibhanga Sutta: The Exposition of Non-conflict 1080

· 140 Dhatuvibhanga Sutta: The Exposition of the Elements 1087

· 141 Saccavibhanga Sutta: The Exposition of the Truths 1097

· 143 Anathapindikovada Sutta: Advice to Anathapindika 1109

METHODOLOGY

Jhāna Practice

*searched “he abided in the first jhāna”

also *searching ”jhana” for instructions and explanation in addition to above.

Also *searching “Base of infinite consciousness”

Note: There should be many more instances in the Saṃyutta Nikāya of the Jhānas.

to be researched soon

David Johnson

Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center

May 26, 2016

The Importance of a Qualified Teacher

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 09 Jan 2016 20:05:00 +0000

Many people have taken retreats, and perhaps only just one retreat or a weekend seminar. Then all of a sudden, they become "qualified" teachers and start giving advice to students about the practice.

Just as it takes time and good instruction to train a Jedi Warrior, you should look for deep wisdom in your current teacher.

Some think they can just teach precepts and Buddhist Philosophy and think they are teaching Buddhism. The Buddha taught meditation and the way out of suffering. He was a meditation master and when he taught someone they understood so quickly that even after hearing just a few lines they attained awakening.

You won't find a Buddha around but make sure the teacher you find is not stuck in the mud along with you.

Here is the quote:

16. “Cunda, that one who is himself sinking in the mud should pull out another who is sinking in the mud is impossible; that one who is not himself sinking in the mud should pull out another who is sinking in the mud is possible. That one who is himself untamed, undisciplined, [with defilements] unextinguished, should tame another, discipline him, and help extinguish [his defilements] is impossible; that one who is himself tamed, disciplined, [with defilements] extinguished, should tame another, discipline him, and help extinguish [his defilements] is possible.

Read the sutta here...

Nibbana-A Gradual Training

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 21:13:00 +0000

Nibbana-A Gradual Training

Dear Derek,

Nice to talk with you. Nibbana is a fairly complex subject! We don't believe that attaining Nibbana is just one "Oh-Wow!" experience as in Zen ie. Satori like experience. This is a more gradual training- a peeling back of the onion to deeper and deeper levels of craving.

Let's back up for a second. What is Enlightenment or Awakening? What does it really mean. It can have two meanings:

1.The seeing at the deepest level that we are nothing more than an impersonal process moving through space-time for an infinite amount of time into the endless future. Spinning through Samsara through one of the 31 planes of existence depending on our past wholesome or unwholesome actions. Nibbana means the cycle comes to an end.

2. What does it accomplish? It accomplishes the end of craving. The desire to continue, the wanting and not wanting of the mind comes to an end. Contentment arises along with Deep equanimity. In this very life we achieve an overriding happiness. We are not bothered by anything anymore. Depression, Anxiety and stress are in the past. Finally we have arrived at contentment.

There are 4 stages of awakening. At "Arhant" (the 4th/Final stage of Enlightenment) all fetters and craving is eliminated.

The Stages of Awakening are:

Sotapanna
Sakadagami
Anagami
Arhant

This is a gradual training so there are stages of peeling the onion back. Our first goal is Sotapanna or Stream Enterer.

So What is Nibbana itself?

Nibbana is an actual experience of "cutting off". As you meditate and go through the Jhanas and then you will reach that point when the mind becomes so calm that it actually stops. This is Cessation. There is nothing at all. A blank slate as Bhante says. Full stop. You are still alive but the mind has stopped wavering. There is no going anywhere -there is no craving now-no desire.

Blank Slate

Then what happens is the first thought process starts up again and you actually see the arising of those links happen. When one sees those links arise AND sees how each link is dependent on the link before it, a deep insight is attained. You go so deep that Nibbana arises. When one experiences this what happens is a sense of Relief and Joy result. It is relief to see that we are only a process and we don't have to worry about controlling anything anymore! As they say "No Self, No problem". Nibbana means "ni" NO "bana" FIRE. No fire. The mind is completely "happy" and cooled.

Relief

This relief and joy will last a few days. This first experience is the "path moment" (phalla) of Sotapanna . If you continue to meditate the same thing happens again and this is the fruit (Magga). So there is two parts to each attainment: Path and Fruit. The Fruit locks in the attainment and you can now never fall back. With only the path there is the possibility of losing the attainment if you were to break precepts and otherwise live an unwholesome lifestyle. But the fruition is deeper and "locks in" the understanding and you will never fall back and continue up the remaining 3 stages to full Arhantship.

You will not be reborn more than 7 times as a result of becoming a sotapanna. No more than one rebirth in the human world as a Sakadagmi and you will Never will come back to the sensual world as an Anagami and rebirth will be in a place high in the Brahma-lokas that is only for Anagami. You will attain Arhantship upon leaving this lifetime.

These stages of enlightment are referenced in Majjhima Nikaya #142 and are talked about here in the Wikipedia. These stages are also referenced as 7 stages in MN 70.

In Closing - Nature of Nibbana

I believe Nibbana is like an Element - like water. When it arises and touches you it cools off some facet of your craving mind. And in the Suttas Nibbana is called a "Dhatu" or element as well. Nibbana is different than Cessation. Cessation is nothing. Nibbana is something - it is described as Unconditioned- not born of any conditions of this world. Yet it is not a place or realm. It just is - it is Nibbana, the highest goal of this human existence!

Its not a mystical event but a real result that anyone, with a little bit of effort, can attain in this lifetime. Bhante Vimalaramsi teaches retreats that are based on the Suttas and he follows the techniques there with the relax step or "tranquilize" step as it is called in the Suttas. This has been left out by other teachers and that is why they are not getting the results that Bhante is. His students experience these events and it does work!

Learn More

Do Sensual Pleasures Lead to Heaven or Hell?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 20:49:00 +0000

Posted by David Johnson

I was reading Yahoo news the other day and yet another celebrity seemed to have gotten herself into trouble again by drinking too much, driving too fast and threatening the Paparazzi. When she was asked why she did it she said "All I am trying to do here is have fun!"

So where does the indulgence in sense pleasures lead us? Why would we ever be penalized for having "fun". It's not fair that some people get to have so much fun and they hardly ever pay the price. Why not just "Party like its 1999!" Should we just go get on the next flight to Vegas? Or should we follow a more conservative middle path?

This question of indulgence and restraint was put to the Buddha in Majjhima Nikaya 71 "Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta:" To Vacchagotta on the Threefold True Knowledge".

It was too early to walk for alms so the Buddha decided to go to visit Vacchagotta in the Wanderers' Park of the Single White-lotus Mango Tree. Vacchagotta saw the Blessed One coming and after discussing with him the depth of the Blessed One's threefold knowledge he asked the Buddha whether a layperson could be reborn in Heaven.

To this the Blessed One replied, "Vaccha, there are not only one hundred or two or three or four or five hundred, but far more householders who, without abandoning the fetter of householdership, on the dissolution of the body have gone to heaven."

A lay householder would be someone who has faith in the Buddha and follows the five precepts of morality -Not to kill, not to take what is not given, not to engage in wrong sexual activity (adultery or someone who is too young) not to lie and not to use intoxicants.

So by stating the above the Buddha indicated one who followed the precepts who was not a monk could be destined for a heavenly rebirth; but what about the lower worlds?

Vaccha asked the Blessed One, "Master Gotama, is there any âjivaka who, on the dissolution of the body, has made an end of suffering?"

"When I recollect the past ninety-one aeons, Vaccha, I do not recall any âjivaka who, on the dissolution of the body, went to heaven, with one exception and he held the doctrine of the moral efficacy of action, ... of deeds."

The âjivaka Sect were people that did not believe in Kamma or that deeds led to results. Their motto was to "Eat and be merry for tomorrow we die!" or "Hey, you only live once!"

So here the Buddha tells us the destiny of one who indulges in sense pleasures should be aware that they are not on the path to a higher existence and, indeed, they should change their ways. The next time you see a celebrity taken to jail, once again, for getting into trouble, then instead of being jealous of all the money they have and the fun they might be having, you should consider them to be like the âjivaka Sect, who may enjoy life now but later they will suffer the consequences of their wrong views and actions.

Pleasures of the sense involve craving and taking things personally, hence are unwholesome states and give unwholesome results. So from the above we can understand that following and indulging in unwholesome states does not lead us to higher ground.

On the other hand, following the moral precepts will lead one to a better existence in the next life and even in this life one will become blessed with a life with few worries and needs fulfilled. One lives guilt free and has no fear from having performed unwholesome actions.

Balancing the 7 Factors of Enlightenment

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 21 Jul 2013 22:46:00 +0000

As the meditator proceeds on his path to awakening he will need to balance the 7 factors of enlightenment. When they come into balance then Nibbana occurs. So what does balancing mean? Are there too much of one and not enough of the other?

In Buddhism, the Seven Factors of Enlightenment (Pali: satta bojjhaṅgā or satta sambojjhaṅgā; Skt.: sapta bodhyanga) are:

Mindfulness (sati) i.e. to remember to watch the minds movement.
Investigation (dhamma vicaya) of how states arise. What comes first, second etc.
Energy (viriya)

Joy or rapture (pīti)

Relaxation or tranquility (passaddhi) of both body and mind
Collectedness (samādhi) a calm, collected state that stays on the object of meditation.
Equanimity (upekkha), Seeing arising passing away of objects with a calm and tranquil mind without disturbance, with dispassion and detachment. Imperturbable.

The Student at first thinks they must use neither too much nor too little of each factor. One must have the right amount for the "recipe". Once the balance is achieved the mind will enter into cessation of perception, feeling and consciousness. This leads to seeing the links of dependent origination and the attainment of Nibbana.

But this is not correct. Not all factors are the same. Some factors you can never have too much of... the rest you can have either too much or too little. There are what may be called fixed factors and variable factors.

Fixed factors are completely wholesome factors of mind and can never be found in unwholesome states. They are always positive no matter how much of them is present.

Variable factors like energy, joy, investigation and tranquility can be found in unwholesome states and sometimes are wholesome and sometimes mixed with unwholesome. These are the factors which must be balanced specifically with a "NOT TOO MUCH" or "NOT TO LITTLE" guideline.

FACTORS that may be only perfected- One can never have too much of these.

EQUANIMITY -This is a completely wholesome state. It is a Brahma-Vihara and one of those four measureless liberations. Too much does not apply to this perfect state of balance.

MINDFULNESS - Remembering to watch mind's attention on the object. You can't remember too much. There is only perfection of this state. You cannot be too mindful.

COLLECTEDNESS (samadhi) One can never be too collected. One never backs off on being too collected.

FACTORS THAT ARE VARIABLE - that you may have too much or not enough

INVESTIGATION - You may be too eager to investigate the state. Sariputta realized he was too curious about the states that arose one by one. He brough dispassion to his mind the investigation was lessened. And on the other hand you may not inquire enough.

ENERGY - This is the obvious factor that may be out of balance. How much energy does one bring to the object and noticing hindrances. Trying to do the practice with too much effort leads to restlessness. One may need to bring up Tranquility or Equanimity to lessen the effort. On the other hand you may be not bringing enough effort into the practice and this will lead to sloth and torpor. You will need to bring more effort into applying your mindfulness and bringing up the positive factors.

JOY - One naturally tends toward seriousness and the mind is heavy. By bringing up more joy the mind lightens up and this heightens the other factors. How does one bring up the joy factor. By putting a small smile on the face this will help to notice when the mind is sagging. However one may be excited at seeing insights into how the mind works. Then one must notice this and bring up some calm to balance the joy.

TRANQUILITY - Too much tranquility leads to sleep. Too little leads to restlessness. Bring in Energy, mindfulness, joy and investigation if too much tranquility. If not enough bring up equanimity, collectedness.

Notes by David Johnson DSMC

Blood Cleansing through in the Third Jhāna

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 23:02:00 +0000

Snippet from an explanation of the Sutta# MN111 One by One as they occurred by Bhante Vimalaramsi

Presented by Ven Bhante Vimalaraṁsi on 20^th February 2007

At Dhamma Dena Vipassanā Center, Joshua Tree, California

Here he picks up with the 3rd Tranquil Aware jhāna out of 8 jhānas (As he teaches the TWIM jhānas -not absorption jhānas. These would not have the same effect)

MN: 8. "And the states in the third jhāna—the equanimity, the happiness, the mindfulness, the full awareness, the unification of mind; ...

BV: Now here, Sāriputta's awareness extends a little bit to say that there is very strong mindfulness and there is full awareness. The full awareness happens at each one of the sense doors. You can be sitting and you can not feel anything, and then an ant starts walking across; there's contact, and because there's contact, feeling arises, and because of that all this other stuff happens. You're aware of that even though you don't feel your body when you get into the third jhāna, after a period of time when you get deep enough.

The third jhāna is where there's some really interesting things happen in your meditation. Your mind becomes so pure that it doesn't have any tension and tightness in it. If there's no tension and tightness in your mind, there's no tension and tightness in your body. So you don't feel your body unless you direct your attention to feel your body. This is quite different from being in the one-pointed jhāna where you don't even know you have a body.

Also, because of the purity of mind that you have gained by doing this practice, your blood starts to purify, and by purify I mean all of the organs, because when you don't have any tension in your body, they start to function more easily and properly. The blood starts to purify because there's no tension and tightness squeezing the blood off from one spot or another. After getting into the third jhāna, the oxygen starts coming into the blood. The blood platelets go from having a brown sickly ring around them with a black spot in the middle, to a cherry red and there's no blackness in the blood at all. I tested this in Malaysia, but I haven't done it in this country yet. This is one of the advantages of having no tension in your mind. You become more healthy and you become more happy.

MN: ... '"And the states in the third jhāna—the equanimity, the happiness, the mindfulness, the full awareness,"'

Full awareness: when you're in the one-pointed jhāna, somebody can come right by the building with a motorcycle without a muffler on it and you wouldn't hear it, but when your mindfulness is good and you're practicing with the six Rs, that motorcycle can come beside the building and you would hear it, but it would be like the sound just goes through you. It's just sound, it's no big deal; let it be, relax, come back. So you are aware of things around you and you have the unification of mind.

MN: ... the contact, feeling, perception, volition, and mind; ...

BV: There are the five aggregates again, you still have them.

MN: ... the enthusiasm, decision, energy, mindfulness, equanimity, and attention— these states were defined by him one by one as they occurred; known to him those states arose, known they were present, known they disappeared. He understood thus: 'So indeed, these states, not having been, come into being; having been, they vanish.' Regarding those states, he abided unattracted, unrepelled, independent, detached, free, dissociated, with a mind rid of barriers. He understood: 'There is an escape beyond this,' and with the cultivation of that attainment, he confirmed that there is.

BV: These first three jhānas are generally considered among the monks to be emotional jhānas because of the joy and the happiness. When you get into the fourth jhāna, you've given up your rookie status, let's put it that way. You're not a beginner meditator anymore. You really start to understand deeply what the meditation is getting to be and your equanimity is very strong. You don't have these emotional states arising any more. In one commentary - when they start explaining about the jhānas - it's like a bee that is looking for honey and he sees the flower, and he starts buzzing around the flower; that's like being in the first jhāna. The second jhāna, he lands on the outside petals and he starts looking around. The third jhāna is when he goes in and starts getting some of the nectar. The fourth jhāna is when all of that is done and he flies back to the hive. That's like being in the fourth jhāna. He's already done all of that work. Now he has the benefits of that work and he's bringing it home.

To read more of this Sutta go to the website

Check out Bhante's new book "Moving Dhamma Vol 1" for more on this.

Instructions in the Breathing Meditation as taught in the Suttas - NOT what you think!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:52:00 +0000

This is a snippet from a talk by Bhante Vimalaramsi, in which he talks about the new way he has found to practice Anapanasati, or the breathing meditation BUT ... As taught in the Suttas - Not from the Vissudhi Magga, Vipassana and Burmese teachers, not from Zen masters, not by Chinese masters....

This is from the Original Teachings of the Buddha as memorized and passed down by monks for the last two thousand, five hundred years.

MN20 The Removal of Distracting Thoughts - Vitakkasanthāna Sutta

Ven Bhante Vimalaramsi

SNIPPET:

Now, I know that there are some of you that have been practicing different kinds of meditation, and I’ll show you exactly why the Buddha’s meditation, the way he taught it, works so well and is immediately recognizable and effective. When you practice normal meditation your mind is on your object of meditation, it gets distracted. Now, there are three or four different methods of dealing with this. One of them says you note it until it goes away; another one says you let it go and you come back immediately. But what you’re doing, when you practice, in this way is, you’re bringing that craving - that you haven’t let go of yet - back to your object of meditation. And eventually your concentration starts to develop so it becomes very deep, and it will start suppressing hindrances when they arise. Now, there’s a little problem with this because your hindrances are where your attachments are. So you practice absorption concentration, you can get real peaceful and calm while your mind is absorbed, but when you lose that concentration then you have hindrances coming at you really heavily. And you’re not really very aware of it.

Now, the Buddha’s practice is this: your mind is on your object of meditation - that’s the same; your mind gets distracted - that’s the same; you let go of your distraction - that’s the same; but where the Buddha’s teaching is different, is the Buddha said: "Tranquilize your bodily and mental formation" - mind and body - before coming back to your object of meditation. Now, it says this often. It says it in the Satipatthāna Sutta (MN10) , it says it in the Mindfulness of Body Sutta (MN119), it says it in Mindfulness of Breathing Sutta (MN118). It says it in sutta number 62 where the Buddha’s giving instructions on how do to the breathing meditation to Rahula, his son. I’m going to read that to you just so I can let you know that this isn’t my idea.

Okay, this is the Mindfulness of Body Sutta number 119. It says 'Mindfulness of Breathing'.

MN: {switches to MN119.4}

"Here a monk, gone to the forest or to the root of a tree or to an empty hut, sits down; having folded his legs crosswise, set his body erect, and established mindfulness in front of him, ever mindful he breathes in, mindful he breathes out. Breathing in long, he understands: 'I breathe in long'; or breathing out long, he understands: 'I breathe out long.' Breathing in short, he understands: 'I breathe in short'; or breathing out short, he understands: 'I breathe out short.'

BV: Now, did you hear me say "nose," "nostril," "upper lip" or "abdomen"? No. It says you understand when you take a short breath, you understand when you take a long breath. Now, the real instruction occurs:

MN:

He trains thus:

BV: These are key words--"he trains thus."

MN:

'I shall breathe in experiencing the whole body';

BV: Not 'body of breath'. The whole 'body', physical 'body'.

MN:

he trains thus: 'I shall breathe out experiencing the whole body.' He trains thus: 'I shall breathe in tranquillising the bodily formation'; he trains thus: 'I shall breathe out tranquillising the bodily formation.

BV: That’s the entire instructions in how to practice mindfulness of breathing. And you have no idea how many times I’ve gotten in discussion with monks in Asia, with monks here, with laymen teacher here, and I’ll say: "It says that on the in-breath you tranquilize your body formation, on the out-breath you tranquilize your body formation. You tranquilize your body formation on the in-and-out-breath. Do you do that?" "Well no, I practice this way." Well, but the instructions that the Buddha gave very specifically, said you tranquilize on the in-breath and you tranquilize on the out-breath. In other words, when you breathe in, you’re not focusing on the breath; you see the breath and you relax; on the in-breath, you see the breath and you relax; on the out-breath, and you relax; on the in-breath, you relax; on the out-breath... that’s quite different from the way, in this country in particular, meditation is being taught. Meditation is being taught to focus very deeply on the tiny sensation of the breath, but there’s no relaxing that’s occurring.

And I’ve run across a lot of people that have said: "Well, I become real peaceful and calm and serene." When you’re practicing without the relaxation, your mind becomes absorbed, there’s no hindrances that can arise, you can have all sorts of things that are very nice states that your mind focuses on, but you’re not practicing insight while you’re practicing your breath meditation. You’re practicing a form of absorption if you don’t have that relaxing. Now, coming back to the mindfulness of metta - because that’s what I teach, I teach insight in metta - there is that relaxing. I’m continually talking about: you see a distraction, you relax; any tension or tightness in your body, in your mind, let it be and relax. So, this is basically the same kind of instruction that the Buddha was giving for the mindfulness of breathing.

When the Buddha was a bodhisatta, he practiced the absorption kinds of concentration where he got to very deep states of absorption, but then he went to the teacher and he said: "Is this all there is?" And the teacher said: "Yeah, this is it, this is as far as you can go." You can get to: the first teacher said the realm of Nothingness; the second teacher said the realm of Neither Perception nor Non-perception. Can’t get any higher, that’s it. And the bodhisatta said "I’m not satisfied with that. There’s still something there that I’m seeing." He said "There has to be another way." Now, the meditation, the absorption meditation, has been taught from time immemorial. Everybody practices that in one form or another. It doesn’t matter what religion you’re talking about. When they’re talking about some form of concentration, they’re talking about absorption types of concentration.

I was in Burma for almost three years. I had the opportunity to go and study with some really, really good scholars. Now, one of the scholars was at the Sixth Buddhist Council, and he was the chief answerer for the Sixth Buddhist Council. He’s called the Mingun Sayadaw. He had memorized over twelve thousand pages from the suttas and commentaries. He took a test. Now, you know how everybody here, they complain because "There’s a four-hour test I have to take when you’re going to college. Ah, it was a killer!" He took a test ten hours a day for thirty days in a row. He got better than ninety percent correct on everything that he did. I mean this man had an amazing mind. He knew the suttas unbelievably well. So, I went to him and I said "Bhante, where in the suttas does it mention 'access concentration' or 'moment-to-moment concentration'?" And he said "It’s not in the suttas. That’s in the commentary." I asked him a lot of... in a lot of different ways basically the same thing about absorption concentration: "Is that really what the Buddha taught?" And he said: "No, it was different because of the tranquilizing." - "Well, why aren’t we teaching that now?" - "Because the commentaries don’t agree with that and we go with the commentaries."

When I let go of the commentaries, and I still use the commentaries occasionally because there’s some real good points in the commentaries, but I always check it against what it says in the suttas now. When I started going to the suttas, I started seeing a definite different type of meditation that the Buddha was teaching.

Now, in this country in particular there’s an awful lot of people that are very much interested in quote "straight vipassanā." When you look up the word 'vipassanā' in the suttas and you get all of the different references, the suttas that it goes to, and then you look up the word 'samatha' and you go to those references, you start seeing that 'vipassanā' and 'samatha' are always mentioned together. The word 'vipassanā ', in the suttas, is mentioned just over a hundred times, I don’t remember the exact number.

The word 'jhāna' is mentioned thousands of times in conjunction with 'vipassanā' and 'samatha'. So, what did the Buddha teach? Did he teach straight vipassanā or did he teach samatha-vipassanā? There’s a sutta 149 in the Middle Length Sayings that kind of clears everything up. Now, let me see if I can find this part, it's not there… okay, this is section number 10 if you want to go to it and read it yourself:

MN: {switches to MN149.10}

"These two things - serenity - (samatha) and insight (vipassanā) - occur in him yoked evenly together."

BV: It says: "These two things, serenity and insight occur in him yoked, held together, evenly together."

So there’s a little interesting sidebar for you to think about.

What the Buddha taught was how to have a still, alert mind that saw how things occur - how they occur. We don’t care about why - why is for the psychologist and the therapist. How does anger arise, what happens first, what happens after that, what happens after that? You can be sitting in your meditation very peacefully, very calmly, and all of a sudden somebody slams the door, they make a sound, doesn’t matter what the cause is. And your mind goes "God, I hate that. I wished it’d stop." Now, how did that arise? Okay, first there was a sound, and then there was a feeling, and it was a painful feeling. And then there was craving, "I don’t like", and tension, and then there’s clinging, and then there’s your habitual habit of: "When this kind of feeling arises, I always act with dissatisfaction." So, you’re reacting over and over again to a sound. Whose reaction is it? "It’s mine, I don’t like it, I don’t want it to be there, I don’t like being disturbed - I, I, I, I, I." When in fact, sound arose - that’s not good, bad, or indifferent - but it was kind of loud and it was a painful sound. When your mindfulness is sharp, you will see that painful feeling arise - and immediately relax. Then the craving doesn’t arise, and the clinging doesn’t arise, and your habitual tendency doesn’t arise. Your mind is alert, bright, and you bring that mind back to your object of meditation. It takes some degree of practice because these things happen very quickly, and it’s hard to recognize them. Now, what actually happened? When the sound arose, there was a painful feeling and then that "I don’t like it" tension, and your concepts, and opinions of the way things should be is fighting with reality, and that causes pain, that causes suffering, that causes all kinds of disturbance.

Now, the way dependent origination works is very fast. Every thought moment, it has dependent origination in it -. (snaps finger) - that was a million times. It happens over and over again very quickly. The more you identify with the dissatisfaction, the more the dissatisfaction keeps arising; the more you identify with it, the more pain you experience. How to let go of the pain.

I used to get a kick out of one of my friends that was a Zen teacher, and he would teach people about Buddhism and he would say "Buddhism is about pain." And then he'd just sit there and he wouldn’t say anything more. He didn’t say anything about the cause of the pain, or the possibility of the cessation of the pain, or the way to do it. He just said "Buddhism is about pain!" And I know some people that are teaching vipassanā, that they want you to have pain arise. So they tell you as soon as a painful sensation arises, you put your attention right in the middle of that pain and watch, quote "its true nature." So you stare at that pain in your knee, or wherever it happens to be, and you watch all these different characteristics arise and pass away, but you’re missing something when you do that. You’re not seeing mind’s reaction to the pain, which is tightened around it, "don’t want it there". Pain by nature is a repulsive thing. So, is the Four Noble Truths being taught when they say "Put your attention right in the middle of the pain?"

Now, what I’m telling you is, when this feeling arises - pain is going to arise - welcome to having a human body. What do you do with it? First you notice all the thoughts about the pain, and you let those thoughts go and relax. Now, you notice a tight mental fist around that pain. Now, the truth is when these kind of sensations arise, they are there. Anytime you try to fight with the truth, anytime you try to control the truth, anytime you try to make the truth be something other than it is, that is the cause of suffering. So, what do I tell you to do? Allow the pain to be there. "It hurts." Yeah okay, it’s a painful feeling. But it’s okay for that painful feeling to be there; it has to be okay because that’s the truth. Allow the painful feeling to be there and relax into that. Now, bring your smile back to your object of meditation. The nature of these kind of sensations is they don’t go away right away. So your attention is going to go back to it. So you treat it in the same way again. Let go of the thoughts about it, relax, allow the space for that sensation to be there, relax. Come back to your object of meditation. What are you doing when you do that? You’re practicing the entire Eightfold Path. You’re changing it from: "This is my pain and I don’t like it" to "It’s this sensation and it’s okay for it to be there because that’s the truth, it’s there." You’ve changed your perspective. You’ve changed your view from "This is me, this is who I am" to "It’s only that." Every time you change your perspective, there is a lessening of tension and tightness. There is the learning how to lovingly accept whatever arises in the present moment. Anytime you try to fight with what’s happening in the present moment, anytime you don’t like what’s happening in the present moment, you can look forward to dukkha. You can look forward to pain, you can look forward to suffering, you can look forward to stress. I don’t care what name you put on it; it hurts.

What is the cause of suffering? The Second Noble Truth: the cause of suffering is craving. How does craving arise? Craving arises as tension and tightness in your mind and in your body. Every time you let go of the tension and tightness in your mind, in your body - that’s the Third Noble Truth - that’s the cessation of the suffering. And the way you do it is by practicing the Eightfold Path, which we’ll get into at another talk down the way. So, every time there’s a distraction, every time your mind gets pulled away from your object of meditation, there is this craving, there is this tension and tightness. And every time you see it, you allow it to be and relax, you are practicing the Third Noble Truth.

Now, one of my monk friends - it was another scholar in Australia - we got in a big discussion about the word "Nibbāna." What is Nibbāna? And he kept on saying there’s two kinds of Nibbāna. I’d never heard of that before. How can that be? So, there’s a mundane kind of Nibbāna: "Ni": no - "bana": fire. Putting out the fire. The fire of what? The fire of craving. You must experience the cessation of craving - the tension and tightness - many thousands, many tens of thousands, many hundreds of thousands of times before you will be able to experience the supramundane kind of Nibbāna. Letting go of that tension and tightness every time it arises gets you one step further, one step closer, to the supramundane Nibbāna.

You will hear me say over and over again: "When a sensation arises, allow it to be, relax, come back to your object of meditation.

I was telling some of you today about the five Rs: Release, Relax, Re-smile, Return, Repeat... but, I came up with another one. So, there is six of them. First is Recognize; recognize that your mind is pulled away from your object of meditation. Then Release the distraction, and Relax, Re-smile, Return, and continue doing it, continue on smiling, continue on with your object of meditation, Repeat. Anyway, when your mind is on your object of meditation, it’s very peaceful and calm, and it’s wholesome, it’s staying with a wholesome object. When your mind gets distracted, that’s when the craving, the clinging, and the pain begin. The more you get involved with that distraction, the more there is the "This is me, this is who I am, and I want to control it, and I want it to be the way I want it to be." And it never is, so there’s your suffering.

But what I want you to get in the habit of doing is seeing how this distraction arises. Again we don’t care about why it arises - well, the door slammed, that’s why - who cares? it’s just a sound. It’s just sound waves hitting the ear. Your ear is in good working order, the sound wave hits the ear, ear consciousness arises. The meeting of these three things is called contact. With contact as condition, feeling arises. Feeling is pleasant or painful, or we could go all the way up to 108 different kinds of feelings, but I don’t want to do that. It basically comes to either pleasant or painful. With feeling as condition, craving arises. Craving always manifests as tension and tightness, and it’s the "I like it, I don’t like it" mind. With craving as condition, clinging arises; all of your opinions and story about. With clinging as condition, habitual tendency arises. "I always think this way when this kind of feeling arises." Every time somebody slams the door, there is dissatisfaction: "I always act that way when that happens." That’s the cause of a lot of suffering because "I don’t like the door to slam. I don’t like that sound. I want the sound to stop so it doesn’t quote "disturb me." But sound is just sound, it’s not good, it’s not bad, it’s just sound. And it’s okay for the sound to be there, it has to be okay. Why? Because it’s there - it isn’t dependent on whether you like it or dislike it, it is there - you don’t have any control over it. Your reaction is the cause of suffering: "I don’t like it. I hate that when it happens. It disturbs my meditation. It makes me upset and frustrated" and your mind goes off into a thousand different things. And then with that distraction then comes more distraction, and it pulls your mind away further and further away from your object of meditation. Sometimes you can get caught for a long period of time. And then somebody else slams the door or the wind catches it or another sound happens, and your mind takes off with that one. What you think and ponder upon, that is the inclination of your mind. Whenever this sort of thing happens: "I don’t like it. I want it to be different than it is." The more you get into disliking something, the more your mind will tend towards that dislike.

Now, in the morning, one of things that we said was that hatred can never be overcome by hatred in this world; hatred can only be overcome by love. I like to change that around a little bit because hatred is such a hard word. How about aversion can never be overcome by aversion? Aversion can only be overcome by loving acceptance. How's that sound? "Well, you always act in this way!" How many times has that been said in relationships? "You’re always like this!" Well no, you’re not, but because you think that over and over again, your mind tends towards that and that leads to more and more suffering.

So how to overcome this habitual tendency? Sharpen your awareness to see when something happens and the feeling that arises because of that contact, and relax right then. If you relax that craving right then, then you don’t have clinging, you don’t have your habitual tendency. Your mind is very alert; your mind is very receptive for whatever else arises; you have gained a state of true equanimity. That’s what this practice is for, that’s what this practice is all about: sharpening your awareness so you can see how these things happen. That’s the question that the Buddha asks: How? Why? 53:04.231 Oh, there’s millions of excuses of why things happen. "Well, I don’t like these sounds because one time when I was in the crib, somebody made a real loud sound and scared the heck out of me and I’ve never liked loud sounds since." Why? Who cares! Why isn’t the question. How did this arise? Now, the whole idea of getting rid of your hindrances is seeing how they arise.

Now, restlessness is a great hindrance, and you better be friends with it because it’s going to stick around for a while, until you become an arahat anyway. What is restlessness? Restlessness first off is a painful feeling. There’s "the I like it, I don’t like it" and then there’s all the stories about what’s happening in the restlessness. Restlessness is every distracting thought. Every thought that pulls you away from your object of meditation is part of restlessness. So, you’re sitting in mediation and all of a sudden you think about what happened last year, what happened last week, what happened yesterday - doesn’t matter - what’s going to happen tomorrow, doesn’t matter what the distraction is. As soon as you recognize that your mind is not on your object of meditation, then let go of that distraction, relax, smile, come back to your object of meditation. The nature of these kinds of distractions is they’re not going to go away right away. So, your mind gets pulled back and starts thinking again. How'd that happen?

Take more interest in how the movement of mind’s attention got from being very peaceful and calm on your object of meditation, to being distracted. How'd that happen?

As you take more and more interest in how your mind gets distracted, you start becoming more familiar with the process because it is a true process. A lot of people will take words like 'restlessness' or 'automobile' or 'pain'; all of these words are concepts. Now, we'll take automobile as a great concept. Go outside and show me where you automobile is. Is it the wheel, is it the bumper, is it the headlight, is it the steeling wheel, is it the motor? You can go on and on and on. This is a thing that has many little parts that are put together to make up this idea that this is one thing. The same thing happens with pain. What is pain? Is it heat, is it anxiety, is it dislike, is it vibration? And it can be made up of all of those things. But when it’s pain, it turns into "my pain." When you start taking it apart and saying "Well, this is heat, and here’s some vibration, and here’s some dislike of it, and this feeling arises, and all of these different parts." You start seeing that it’s not yours, its just part of a process that arises. It happens in the same way every time. Tell me how it happened.

With restlessness: what happens first, what happens after that, what happens after that? When you become familiar with how your mind becomes distracted, you start letting go a little bit more quickly because you’re recognizing this process. It’s not "me", it’s not "my restlessness", it’s not "my thoughts", it’s just a bunch of little things that are put together to make up this concept. Now, you’re taking the concept apart and you’re starting to see these little things arise. As you become more familiar with how they arise, you can let go of them more quickly, more easily, and that process is called dependent origination. There’s not very many people in this country that will teach dependent origination in a meditation retreat because people, to be quite honest, don’t really understand how it works. And you’ll be getting more of that later, I promise. But dependent origination - sometimes there’s five links that you look at, sometimes there’s seven, sometimes there’s nine, sometimes there’s eleven. It just depends on the situation and how clear your mind is at that time, how good your awareness of this process is at that time.

Now, one of the big things that’s happening in this country is everybody is talking about the importance of impermanence, suffering, and the not-self nature of everything. In the Mahavagga - that’s one of the books of the of discipline - and anytime that’s brought up, everybody thinks: "Oh, the book of discipline, rules for the monks!" It’s a lot more than that! It has a lot of suttas in it. It has a lot of direction in how to do the meditation. In the Mahavagga it says: "You can see anicca, dukkha, anatta, without ever seeing dependent origination, and you can never see dependent origination without seeing anicca, dukkha, and anatta." That’s a pretty powerful statement right there. That’s pretty important, actually. You can always see impermanence, suffering, and the impersonal nature of everything when you see the process of dependent origination and how it works. You will become more and more familiar as your mind begins to calm down. And, don’t be impatient. You play with this, you make this a game, and your awareness will take off, and you’ll be able to recognize these things. Not all of them at once, you’ll see one thing at a time, but that’s ok. The thing that you want to be aware of - that the weakest link in dependent origination is craving. You can recognize it because it does that in your mind and in your body. And as soon as you see that you can start relaxing and letting it go. Then the suffering doesn’t arise so much anymore. And you start gaining more of a sense of balance in your practice, in your everyday life.

Now we have to get back to the Sutta..."

February 19, 2006 at the DhammaDena Vipassana Center

Sutta translation (C) Bhikkhu Bodhi 1995, 2001. Reprinted from The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya with permission of Wisdom Publications, 199 Elm Street, Somerville, MA 02144 U.S.A, www.wisdompubs.org

Bhante's Talks are Now Available on DVD

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:21:00 +0000

Bhante's Talks are available on DVD.

If you had ever wanted to sit back and watch an hour or two talk of Bhante giving a commentary on a Sutta you may now do so. Many Videos are available on the internet but they are also available to be sent to your house so that they may be viewed on your DVD player.

This is made available by the BegintoSee Foundation for a nominal charge. All donations minus costs are used to pay the expenses of The Dhammasukha Meditation Center. Sadhu!

Please go to this link. Talks offered by the BegintoSee Foundation

Now Available Bhante's Talks are also professionally published by CreateSpace, a division of Amazon.com

A series of up to 9 talks are now available individually on Amazon.com . Each Talk is labeled with a DAY ? to represent the day of the retreat he usually gives each talk. As of now there up to 9 talks. They are called the TWIM Retreat Talk Series.

Check Talks on Amazon

Bhante Speaks to University Group in S. Korea

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 17:08:00 +0000

From most Ven. Vimalaramsi on his current S. Korea Trip:

This is an open talk that was given to an audience of over 100 Sangha members in South Korea at a Sangha University for Mahayana nuns and monks.

South Korean Sangha University Talk Nov. 2011

Well, first off, who am I? My name is Bhante Vimalaramsi; I’ve had over 37 years of meditation experience. 20 years of this was Vissudhimagga study. I completed the 16 insights of the Mahasi system and
this was not the experience of Nibbana described in the texts.

When asked to teach, I felt I could not teach the Mahasi method because it doesn’t work and the teachers admitted to me that this was so, when this happened.

In Kuala Lumpur, I was invited to come to the largest meditation center and there I met a meditation teacher who said I was doing the practice correctly but it was tainted by the Vissudhimagga. He told me to put the VM back onto the Reference shelf where it belongs and find the original suttas and examine them. The Bhikkhu Bodhi translation of the Majjhima Nikaya came out in 1995 . Before this, there was the I.B. Horner edition and then Rhys Davies, both husband and wife English versions of the texts.

It was then that the suttas came alive! I found out only part of the instructions were in the V.M. and some other key points also were in disagreement with the Suttas.

In the suttas Samadhi and Vipassana are to be practiced “yoked together” per MN 149:10.

With mindfulness of breathing, parts had been left out of the instructions.

The 1st part of the instructions in the Anapanasati Sutta says “on the in-breath and on the out-breath relax. This means to tranquilize the bodily formation on the in-breath and on the out-breath. Breathe in and relax; breathe out and relax.” Tranquilize both the mental and the bodily formations.

When I began this meditation, I realized I was supposed to be relaxing totally, and that this took two steps and not one. You see the brain has two hemispheres and they are surrounded by a membrane called the meninges. Whenever something arises to pull your attention away from the object of meditation, Craving arises. What is CRAVING?

CRAVING is the “I” like it, or “I” don’t like it mind and you can notice a symptom of this arising craving. When meditating, you must learn to recognize any symptom of arising craving in your head or in your mind. As you do the relax step, that membrane relaxes.

When you relax you feel a relief in your brain. When you let go of the tightness, at that point, you have no thoughts. Mind is very clear because there is no craving at that time, and you bring this pure mind back to your object of meditation.

ABSORPTION CONCENTRATION VS "TWIM"

VM says you practice absorption meditation, and when you come out of your one pointed absorption you then practice Vipassana. This is different from what the suttas tell us.

1. With Absorption, you place your attention on the object of meditation and eventually your attention will stay on the object, and this power you have built up will suppress any hindrances from arising.

2. With TWIM, Mind is on the object of meditation. When your attention is distracted by any arising formation, you let go of that distraction; recognize the tension; release the distraction, and then relax all other tension left over. Now, you bring back the attention with a pure mind, with the absence of any tension, to the object of meditation to continue your practice. These are the 6 r's! RECOGNIZE,RELEASE, RELAX, RE-SMILE, REPEAT, RETURN

1. The absorption method is telling you to come back without a pure mind and bring the craving (TENSION) back to the object of meditation again.

2. When practicing what the Buddha said, you should be coming back without this tension; reducing the tension systematically as you continue this practice.

This one step of relaxing changes where you go next AND how you will progress along the path.

If you practice for bliss, you will not have personality change happen. If you get angry when you come out of the meditation, it will remain the same as before you meditated. The Bliss experience is only temporary relief.

What is MINDFULNESS. This is another question.

Mindfulness means “remembering to observe HOW mind’s attention moves from one thing to another.”

When you practice with this careful observation, you are able to recognize tension and tightness as craving itself, and to let it go.

The BEING is made up of 5 things.

We have a BODY and it is from our head to our toes.

WE have FEELING which is Painful, Pleasant, or Neither Painful-nor-Pleasant.

We have PERCEPTION. This is the function of mind that names things. The eye sees color and form. Then eye-consciousness arises. The meeting of these three is eye-contact.

We have THOUGHTS.

AND we have CONSCIOUSNESS. Consciousness cognizes our experience in this existence.

Now, when a painful feeling arises, it doesn’t matter if it is mental/physical, the first thing mind does is it tries to THINK the PAIN away!

But thinking is one thing and Feeling is another…

The 6 R's

So first we RECOGNIZE that mind’s attention is distracted.

Then we RELEASE whatever we moved over to; Let it go; let it be there without any attention on it.

Then we RELAX the tension in our head and body and we RE-SMILE so that our mind is uplifted and you then bring back that wholesome mind with the RETURN step to your object of meditation. Then you REPEAT this cycle as needed during your meditation.

Whenever PAIN comes up in the body, you start to think about the pain. I wish it would stop! I wish I could make it stop. I wish I could make it go away!

So this is where personal desire is arising! This is the hindrances coming up - and this is a barrier to your meditation.

So we RECOGNIZE this and RELEASE the pain and allow it to just be there. This is the truth. It is there! Anytime you fight with the truth, any time you try to change the truth, you cause yourself more pain.

Now you RELAX the tightness in your head and you SMILE and then you RETURN to your object of meditation and REPEAT the cycle as needed.

DEPRESSION

In America there is a lot of Depression. But what is DEPRESSION?

You have a painful feeling arise. Then you try to make this feeling go away. And you begin to think about this and it gets even bigger! Every time this kind of feeling arises, you do the same thing; you re-act in the same way and give birth to the action of getting your "meds" out or going away from people alone somewhere OR you have a panic attack or have an arising Obsessive Compulsive behavior happen.

Ok. It’s a painful feeling. But it is not you. It is not your self. Yes. It hurts. But that’s ok because it is there and that’s the truth. If you smile - you will lighten up mind. You might not want to but then, I don’t care! Do it anyway!

This is how you retrain mind. Then when you do smile like this, you have chosen to respond with a wholesome action instead of re-acting through an unwholesome action that feeds the depression.

So in this case you are retraining mind!

What is Attachment?

For 20 years I felt Joy but I was always told , “ Don’t be attached!”

So I would push it away. I didn’t want to be attached. And then I would become unhappy. Was that following the Buddha’s teaching? No.

The more you smile, the more joy will arise in your mind in the future AND JOY is one of the enlightenment factors!

The lighter your mind becomes, the more you understand clearly. Anybody with any mental pain can help it by smiling and on occasion, LAUGH!

If you can laugh at your mind for being upset, then you are not upset anymore.

It changes everything.

It moves from being “this is MY PAIN, it’s me, it’s my fault” to “ It’s ONLY A PAINFUL FEELING and it will change, it will pass away!”

THIS IS THE 8 FOLD PATH!

So when you are smiling, you are practicing the entire 8-Fold Path at that time.

Right View is practiced by Harmonious Impersonal Perspective.

Right Thought is practiced by Harmonious Imaging. What kind of image do you hold in your mind? How about when you are smiling?

Right Speech is practiced by Harmonious Communication. This is not just your speech but in every way you communicate with your mind, speech. and actions.

Right Action is completed by practicing Harmonious Movement. Where is mind’s attention moving and how does this happen?

Right Livelihood is completed by creating a Harmonious Lifestyle. Do we have a good environment to live in, work in, be in school? Does our environment allow for us to get in some meditation?

Right Effort is completed through our Harmonious Practice of the 6Rs which is accomplished by going the cycle of releasing tension again and again and returning to the object of meditation.

Right Concentration is completed by Harmonious Collectedness becoming established in mind so that your observation becomes keen and sharp.

Right Mindfulness is completed through Harmonious Observation. Are you observing HOW mind’s attention moves? IS this an impersonal process or do YOU make this happen?

In MN-19 it clearly states that

“What you think and ponder on, that is the inclination of your mind.”

Think sadness = Sadness follows.

Think positive = Positive progress comes.

Think poor = Poverty becomes your reality.

Think rich = Prosperity will take hold.

Anytime your mind goes away from the object of meditation, you need to run the 6Rs through, which is RIGHT EFFORT.

Stop Suppressing the Hindrances!

One of the things that has happened for a long time now in Buddhism is the harsh rejection and suppression of arising hindrances.

But they are your friends and they show you where your craving lies.

“What you do in the present moment, dictates what happens in the future.”

If you are rough with the hindrances you can expect them to come up again and to become more difficult for you.

But if you realize that attention is the food for the hindrance to grow, and you 6R it, then, when it fades away, JOY arises! Then, when JOY fades away, TRANQUIILITY arises in body and in mind. (This is a description of the first jhana)

The advantage of being able to recognize the hindrance is very big. When you can recognize a hindrance in practice, then, you will be able to see it in life and let it go in life!

This is not a maybe; this is a FOR REAL.

When you let go of hindrances, you begin to become uplifted and happy in life.

Life is supposed to be fun! Meditation is supposed to be fun.

You are learning HOW your mind works AND it’s very interesting.

The way the Buddha taught, we are supposed to bring our meditation into life and use it all the time.

Learning meditation is the training ground for life.

Collectedness equals a perfect level and quality of concentration, attention, stillness, alert to everything around you, just as it is.

Full awareness of everything around you means, full awareness of what mind’s attention is doing. You do NOT suppress hindrances! You let them be there and run the 6Rs.

What is Concentration?

In the Vissudhi Magga, it teaches absorption meditation.

In America, usually they say this means CONCENTRATION. As the instructions impress upon us “full awareness” the question becomes, “full awareness of what”?

The answer turns out to be: Full awareness of HOW mind’s attention moves.

Summing up!

To summarize the main point in this presentation, the RELAX step is separate from the RELEASE step -this was missing before. This accomplishes, very nicely, the purification of mind; and as we keep Right Effort going through using the 6Rs, we are RE-TRAINING the mind systematically every time we run through this cycle.

Now I have been talking enough here for awhile and it’s time for you to be asking some questions.

BHANTE VIMALARAMSI - S KOREA Nov 2011

More Information on Bhante can be checked on www.dhammasukha.org.

Talks are available HERE

Concentration Meditation Versus Tranquility Meditation - Which is right?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:38:00 +0000

Bhante addresses the question of what is Meditation and explains that there are two kinds of meditation. One-pointed Concentration (99% of what is out there) and Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation - which he teaches - and has discovered this to be what he believes to be the technique that the Buddha actually taught. Watch Part 2, following this, for exactly how this technique is practiced and for the Sutta references that prove this to be the case.

For part 2 of this presentation you can click here: Part 2

The Forgiveness Meditation by Bhante Vimalaramsi

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 07 May 2011 02:25:00 +0000

This is an excerpt from his new book Breath of Love that will be published later this year...

Forgiveness Meditation

Forgiveness meditation can be a useful tool for when somebody dies who may be close to you and it can relieve you of the accompanying suffering that might follow. But it can not only work with grief, but with many other memories from the past that you might be attached to that may be blocking your progress in the lovingkindness meditation.

Forgiveness meditation is a way of opening yourself up to the possibilities of true healing and love for yourself and others. The forgiveness meditation is a soft, gentle way of learning how to lovingly-accept whatever arises and to leave it be, without trying to control it with thoughts.

Sometimes in our lives, there can be a feeling of letting someone down by not doing enough to help them. Of course this is just mind saying “I should be better, I should have done better, I failed and I am not worthy and because of that I should suffer even more”.

The forgiveness meditation is not ever to be used as a club to beat away a feeling of sadness, or anger, or frustration or any other kind of feeling. Once again, the forgiveness meditation is a soft, gentle way of learning how to lovingly-accept whatever arises and to leave it be, without trying to control it with your thoughts.

Of course, these blaming kinds of unwholesome thoughts and feelings don't have anything to do with reality nor does anyone need to blame themselves for their friends or family members decision to take their own life, to die, or dive into depression, anxiety, or anger, which cause difficulties. It is always a difficult situation to have to cope with and there are a few things that those around this kind of a situation can do for yourself and, in the case of a death or suicide it can help the deceased person as well.

Begin to do the forgiveness meditation!

This meditation is done by sitting down and beginning the forgiveness process by forgiving yourself for:

1] not understanding,

2] for making mistakes,

3] for causing pain to myself or anyone else,

4] for not acting the way I should have acted.

The way you do this is by first forgiving yourself. This is done by taking each of these four statements, such as “I forgive myself for not understanding” and saying it over and over again then you place that feeling of forgiveness in your heart and radiate that feeling of soft acceptance to yourself.

The thing is, mind is tricky and you will sometimes have huge resistance to forgiving yourself and will come up with all kinds of thoughts to distract you and blame yourself. But when you see mind taking off and thinking unwholesome things then gently 6R those thoughts and feelings, then gently redirect your attention back to forgiving yourself again. Sit with that feeling of loving-acceptance for as long as it lasts, then make the statement again to help the loving-acceptance last even longer.

Mind will naturally have a lot of “yes but... yes but... yes but…” interruptions and try to distract you and condemn you and then make you feel guilty or sad or angry or whatever it wants to do. This is where patience needs to be cultivated, softly allow those distracting (hindrances) to be there and then gently bring your attention back to forgiving yourself. Do this softly with the 6R's.

Of course your mind will naturally go to the person who died or committed suicide. When that happens then softly, gently, start forgiving them for 1] not understanding, or 2] making mistakes, or 3] for causing pain and suffering to themselves and to you, or 4] for not acting in the way they should have acted.

See them in your mind's eye and look into their eyes and forgive them. Keep repeating one of these statements (whichever one that seems most appropriate at the time) or you can make up your own statement of forgiveness if it seems right. It is best not to get involved with a story with that person in your own mind. It is best to forgive them by using the same statement over and over again. "I forgive you for _______".

Then, place that forgiveness into your heart with the person who died and stay with that feeling or forgiveness for as long as it lasts (which at first will not be for very long - to be sure) and when mind becomes distracted softly, gently, 6R that distraction and start over again.

After a period of time (during that sitting) then change things around and hear that person forgiving you for _________. Still look into their eyes and hear them say “I forgive you for _______. I really do forgive you”.

Completing the Circle

This forgiveness meditation starts by forgiving yourself, then forgiving another person, then you hear them forgive you too. This is a complete circle. It will eventually make things change in your mind so there will not be any guilt or frustration or sadness or anger or making excuses for making mistakes and then feeling hard about yourself. Making excuses about anything means that one doesn't take responsibility for their own actions and this is a subtle attachment to be forgiven and let go of also.

There will develop a loving-acceptance and true feelings of love toward that person who caused so much pain. The pain will diminish until there is only a memory of that person without any experience of the grief.

Expanding Forgiveness into Your Life

Now, this is the sitting meditation but there is still more to the meditation and that is to forgive everything and everybody, all of the time. Use this forgiveness as your only object of meditation along with smiling. Forgive yourself for bumping into something or if cooking for cutting yourself or burning yourself or for making mistakes. Put forgiveness into everything all of the time.

Forgive thoughts for distracting you, forgive others for distracting you. In short forgive everything all of the time. When walking from one place to another forgive yourself and/or others. Any tiny distraction, forgive it. Forgive yourself for not remembering, forgive yourself for making mistakes. Forgive every thought, every memory, forgive every pain that arises. 6R and forgive ALL OF THE TIME!!! If you forget to forgive something then forgive yourself for forgetting and then start again.

Do you see what I mean? It may take some time before mind begins to let go of this attachment but patience leads to Nibbana! (eventually). I have helped people in this type of situation and for some of them it has taken as long as one year of doing nothing else but the forgiveness meditation before they finally let go of the suffering and pain. This doesn't mean that they still didn’t have the memories of what happened. They did. But they could reflect and remember without having any pain or suffering arise. And therein lies the true healing.

So please, if you want to do this type of meditation for yourself, it would be best to get and keep in touch with me at least for a little while so I can help you to stay on the path and get it firmly going.

Grief is very strange stuff because it will come up for periods of time even six months or a year after the event took place and strong sadness, frustration, anger etc can arise for no apparent reason. So it is necessary to keep this practice going for quite some time so the attachments will eventually let go.

Bhante Vimalaramsi turns the whole history of Buddhism upside down

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 23:39:00 +0000

The video of this talk is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4ixuxD2nU0

Neither the Abhidhamma or the Visuddhi Magga may even be the teachings of the Buddha! Bhante Vimalaramsi here disputes what we have taken for the real teachings of the Buddha for the last 1500 years!

He explains that Vipassana meditation as taught in Burma and Thailand is based on the Vissudhi Magga; but the Vissudhi Magga may not even be what the Buddha taught! Here Bhante traces out where the Vissudhi Magga actually came from. Bhante ONLY uses the Suttas as being the real basis for what the Buddha taught and questions both the Visuddhi Magga (and Vipassana) and Abhidhamma.

He is on his way right now to the Joshua Tree retreat to teach the dhamma as taught in the Suttas only.

Here is the transcript:

"Before he [Buddhaghosa] became a monk, he was a Vedic scholar.

He was not a meditator, but he became very prideful about his ability in Pali.

He started thinking he knew Pali better than his teachers did. His teacher read his mind. He said: “No you don’t and the only way you can overcome this unwholesome state you developed is by going to Sri Lanka.” For a 1000 years the Sri Lankan had put all of the commentaries in Sri Lankan, not Pali. So his teacher told him that he had to go to Sri Lanka and change all the Sri Lankan back into Pali. So, that is what he did. When he got to Sri Lanka the first book he wrote was called the Visuddhimagga. . . .

He was a not a meditator; he did not know what the Buddha taught as far as meditation, but he did know what the Vedas said about meditation, and to him meditation was meditation, right? He did not know what the Buddha said, he knew what the Vedas said, so he put what the Vedas said in this book. In this book he talks about 40 kinds of meditation. Through my studies I found 52. What he taught about meditation was absorption, concentration, and he taught all about access concentration and having a sign arise, nimitta . . . and you go through all of the jhanas that talked about in the Vedas. That is why appears as if it were the same as the Buddha’s teachings.

The problem with this kind of practice is when you get into access concentration the force of the concentration stop hindrances from arising. As a result you are not able to recognize hindrances when they arise. When you practice one-pointed concentration there is no personality change or development. There is a lot of pride. “I can get into the first jhana; I am really something great; you need to respect me.” That’s the kind of thinking there is even today. The problem with this practice is that it still have craving in your mind. Even today if you go to teachers of one-pointed concentration and ask them: “How does craving arise?” Or you ask them: “What is craving?” They can’t tell you. “Craving is desire.” “Let go of all desire.” [A gesture of” huh?] But they are serious; that is what they tell you. I know because I asked many, many very big monks this question and that’s the answer they give me. They don’t know how craving arises; they don’t know how to recognize it when it does arise; they don’t know how to let it go. Now, doesn’t that sound a little bit different from what I am teaching?

As a result of practicing absorption concentration you can never experience nibbana. Why? Because you still have hindrances, even though they might be pushed down very far. And you still have craving. If you have craving, you also have ignorance. So, what Buddhaghosa did was said: “:Yes this is right; you cannot attain nibbana by practicing absorption concentration.” So, through the commentaries he that read, he started making changes. And he came up with vipassana - insight knowledge. In the Visuddhimagga there are nine insight knowledges. In the sub-commentary written by Mahasi Sayadaw, there are 16 knowledges. And supposedly you are supposed to be able to attain nibbana by seeing anicca, dukkha, or anatta. After you get to what to what they call Sankharu – pekkha; that means “equanimity to formations.” That is the 11th insight knowledge. When you go through this knowledge - far enough - you get to a place where you will see anicca arise 4 or 5 times very, very quickly. Or dukkha arise 4 or 5 times very, quickly. Or anatta arise 4 or 5 times very, quickly. And then you have a black-out. When you come back you will see all the insight knowledges you have gone through; it will happen automatically and you have them in the right order. That’s what they call nibbana. I understand these insight knowledges all the way up to 16. That is not nibbana.

They are very good at selling this idea: this is nibbana. But the actual experience does not agree with what it says in the sutta. So what they are teaching is not according to what the Buddha said; their teaching is according to a person that doesn’t meditate did - what he says is nibbana. But he has no direct knowledge. All he has is intellectual knowledge [dismissive gesture of the hand]. Now, if you want to practice insight meditation and you want to experience jhana, if you follow what the Buddha teaches, you will be able to experience both of those things at the same time.

So, you have to understand I studied the Visuddhimagga for 20 years.. I have had very many intelligent teachers [dramatic hand gesture of dismissal]. And when I started reading what the Buddha said as compared with what Buddhaghosa said, I found that there were very many differences. For instance, Buddhaghosa says: All [something] of dependent origination take place over three life times. Right before he starts talking about dependent origination he said that you need to be prepared to have the weight of all the oceans on your head because it is so difficult to understand. And then he goes on to explain it in a very, very complicated, hard to understand way. But you see by the way I am showing you, it is easy to understand as long as we have the teachings of the Buddha to explain it to us.

So, I went through all of the vipassana knowledges, I followed the Visuddhimagga for 20 years, and I found it not to be correct. So, I went to the original teachings and with the help of the Sri Lanka [Bhante Punnaji], I was able put the Visuddhimagga away and just use the suttas. And I have found over the years that I am a very, very unusual monk, because I use the suttas only. Everyone else wants to use what their teachers taught them. And most of what their teachers taught them is from the Visuddhimagga.

So now you see the differences. And you really see them because you are having the direct experience. You see them for yourself whether what I am teaching you is correct or not. By reading the suttas so you know what it says about each jhana, you know what the experience is. So you won’t have to believe me. I don’t want you to believe me. I want you to believe your own experience."

Indonesian Videos Posted for Bogor Retreat

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 21:01:00 +0000

Bhante Vimalaramsi just spent a month in Indonesia giving talks and conducting a 9 day retreat. The talks he gave have been posted on the Dhammasukha website. http://www.dhammasukha.org/Study/bogor-2010.htm

A talk was given in Surabaya, Indonesia on 11-25-2010 and was videotaped professionally, "The Miracle of Meditation".

A very interesting and very controversial talk - from 12-14-2010 of the retreat talks- is a discussion whether the Buddha taught Abhidhamma, and what is the Vissudhi Magga and why doesn't it match the Suttas?
Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4ixuxD2nU0

As always more information is available on www.dhammasukha.org

Posted by David at Dhammasukha

Course Outline and Listing for Bhante Vimalaramsi's Foundation of TWIM -updated

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 21:44:00 +0000

This is the course outline updated for Bhante Vimalaramsi's teachings edited by Sister Khema.
This blog has posted some of the topics from this series. To review the whole series please go to
the web site : 2010- Foundation Series on Buddhist Tranquil Wisdom insight Meditation (TWIM)

United International Buddha Dhamma Society (UIBDS)
Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center (DSMC), 8218 County Road 204, Annapolis, MO 63620
As taught by
Most Venerable Vimalaramsi Mahathera and Samaneri Khema
The Gift of Dhamma is Priceless!
SEPTEMBER 30, 2010 UPDATE
Annapolis, Missouri, USA
Title: Ongoing Training Syllabus updates
showing dates for all installments launched and
any changes in topics.

Dhamma Greetings to everyone once again!

For those following the foundation Training Course that began back in June, this is “ONGOING TRAINING SYLLABUS” which will show the dates of the installments so far launched.
I will try to keep updating any changed topics as we go along. I don’t anticipate many.
Please continue to ask questions as we go along and point out to me anywhere you are not getting enough information on a particular subject or where you need more simple wording.
I will be continuing this training manual development now until it is completed!
How long will this last? Until it’s done!

Hope you will hang in here with me as we continue. Although originally this was a Rains Retreat project, it is now a dedicated project that will continue until it is completed because of so much interest and encouragement.

It has made us all very happy that so many people are following this development around the world and more important, they are following the lead to using this meditation and taking it directly into life. Wonderful results are coming out of this. Keep this news coming. We want to know the practice is blooming.
Write to me any questions you have.
Much Metta and smiles to you all.
Rev. Sister Khema
Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center (DSMC)

TRAINING INDEX UPDATE- SEPTEMBER 30, 2010
PART 1
I- What is this Buddhism?
Support dhamma talk called “What is Buddhism?” posted at http://dhammasukha.org/Study/basic.htm and please note the film called Validation over at UTUBE on the internet. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk980jV7Ao )
Alternate ( http://www.flixxy.com/validation-short-film.htm )
1. FS-01-What is Buddhism? 01/10/2010
2. FS-02- What is Dana?- Complete explanation and exercise- 01/28/2010
3. FS-03-What is Sila?- includes inter-relationship of the Precepts and Hindrances . 02/18/2010
4. FS-04- What is Bhavana?- What is development? Part 1 3/1/10
5. FS-05-What is Bhavana? Part 2 –The Four Noble Truths and How can we use them? 3/1/10

II What is this Meditation?

6. FS-06-What is Meditation and What is Mindfulness?= FS-06 + an exercise for sense doors 4/30/10
7. FS-07-Why practice meditation? FS-07 plus an exercise about smiling 6/26/10
8. FS-08-What is TWIM? Why is it different? 7/8/10

III What is this BEING?
9. FS-09-What is a Human Being composed of? 5 Aggregates (khandas)/ 6 Sense doors (salyatana), the issue of Cognition 7/14/10
10. FS-10-How Contact happens (Phassa) 7/14/10
11. FS-11- 3 kinds of Feeling, ( Vedana) 7/14/10

IV What is the problem?
12. FS-12-What is Craving? ( Tanha) 8/16/10
13. FS-13-What is Clinging? (Upadana)- 9/7/10
14. FS-14- What is Habitual Tendency? ( Bhava) 9/22/10
15. FS-15- What is Birth (Jati) 9/25/10

16. FS-16- What is Ageing and Death, Sorrow, Lamentation, Pain, Grief, and Despair? (marana and kanika marana) 9/30/10
17. What is Action? (Kamma)

PART 2

V- What is the solution?
18. FS-17-Can we see the suffering?
19. FS-18-What is Purification of Mind?
20. FS-19-What kind of meditation should be done?
21. FS-20-What is Forgiveness Meditation?

VI- How to prepare for a meditation practice?
22. FS-21-What should I wear to meditate?
23. FS-22-Where should I meditate?
24. FS-23-How should I sit and for how long?
25. FS-24-What if pain comes up?
26. FS-25- How should I walk and for How long?

VII- What kind of things can block my progress?
27. FS- 26-What about Hindrances?
28. FS-27-What about Sloth and Torpor/Restlessness/Doubt
29. FS-28-How do we give the most effective 4 point report to a teacher?
30. FS-29-Q&A addressing other problems and solutions

PART 3
VII- 37 Requisites for Awakening
31. FA-30-What is Enlightenment versus Awakening?
32. FS-31-What are the 37 Requisites for Awakening? The leaves.
33. FS-32- 4 Foundations of Mindfulness
34. FS-33- 4 bases of Spiritual Power
35. FS-34- 5 Faculties
36. FS-35- 4 Steps of Right Effort and Using the 6R’s
37. FS-36- 5 Powers and continuing the 6Rs naturally
38. FS-37- 7 Factors of Awakening
39. FS-38- 8 Folds of the 8-Fold Path
40. FS-39- How are the 37 interconnected?
PART 4
VIII- Going Deeper- the Challenge of Human Cognition
41. FS-40- What is Human Cognition?
42. FS-41- What is the Impersonal Process of Dependent Origination?
43. FS-42- How did the Buddha study D.O.?
44. FS-43- How can we observe D.O.?
45. FS-44- What is the most direct way to see and understand the Three Characteristics of Existence?
46. FS-45- Did the Buddha leave us a progress chart?
PART 5
IX- Opening the doorway to Peace.
47. FS-46- Using the meditation in the World.
48. FS-47- What is the best way to share what we are learning?
49. OPEN TOPIC by request at the end
50. Second open topic
51. Third open topic.

PART 6
X- So, what’s next?
52. One for every week in the year!
(This gives you some idea of the material we will touch on. More may be added to accommodate your questions and discussion.)
Every so often there will also be what is called TRAINING NOTES that will be sent out too. These will occasionally appear in between the installments covering topics or questions outside of the syllabus. They come often arise from your questions. Notes will cover some interesting topics going on in Buddhism today.

Training Notes so far:

--Training note #1- Learn how to listen to what is being taught instead of reading it. 01/10/10

--Training Note #2- A few words about the continuing this training - 04/30/10

--Training note #3- Answering questions about the history of TWIM- 06/26/10
--Training note #6
This foundation training I attempting to bring out a full picture of what Buddhist training was and still can be by fully encompassing meditation practices on Generosity (Dana , Morality (sila) and Mental Development (bhavana).
The meditation instructions are given to you in the beginning so you can actively practice while you train. You will gain lots of insights with full understanding if you keep the entire set of information and use it.
The training starts at the beginning. If you come in late with us, that’s fine too. Just go to the website or into the Support group files and catch up. As you go along, please ask questions. I like to find answers for you.
First we learn The 5 Aggregates, the 6 Sense Doors which each of us is made up of. Then we begin to look at how each person experiences their existence in this life through feeling ( Human Cognition). We learn how Feeling arises and see why Feeling is not Emotion. By the way, this is great news leading to great hope of getting a handle on life instead of being beaten up by it!
We will try to give you clear and simple terms and language to use for communication with the teachers. Short definitions will define Craving and Clinging, their similarities/differences. Meditation and Mindfulness will become clearly defined and how they work together. Proper investigation is demonstrated the Buddha in the texts. Because things are so clear, most students comes to fully understand and then experience how the actual purification of mind as it is happening through this meditation. You will learn what the Four Noble Truths are for and eventually how they exist within each of the links of the impersonal process of Dependent Origination.
In short, you will learn how to practice the same experiment the Buddha did. The training is interspersed with exercises monks did in the beginning of all this. Referrals are given to supporting Dhamma talks, videos, and other references found on the website at www.dhammasukha.org All referrals are aligned with the same teaching approach.
As we study together, we’ll see examples of interactions between people in daily life and how clear understanding can change the outcomes those same situations in life and reduce suffering to various degrees.
Q: What happens after this information is given?
A: You’ll be instructed how to give a 4-point report about your meditation experience to a teacher so you can get advice on the next step. You will meet the Dhamma in a new way with the Buddha as a premier meditation teacher who spent 45 years refining into the simplest way possible, how to share with others what he uncovered and then taught.
Q: What is our responsibility for this course?
A: How much you get involved with this is totally up to you. If you are participating, your responsibility is to contribute questions, discuss them with us and dig deeper than you have before. When you write to us, please stay on topic. Don’t go far afield. Always, let us know what you want to better understand in these lessons. Keep asking questions. This is how to learn more.
Don’t be shy. Write to us and tell us if a topic needs to be more clearly written about, shortened or smaller words. Do you need better examples or want more Pali words? Tell us what you need. What other things about Buddhism do you want to know? All information will be considered and if not used immediately, it will be discussed in the future.
Most important, we need to know if you are understanding the Dhamma and beginning to use it in life. If this dhamma does not lighten your life and bring you more contentment and balance, then, what good is this practice?
All installments are edited by Venerable Vimalaramsi before posting They will be posted at the website www.dhammasukha.org and eventually, placed into the FILES section at the ‘dhammasukha’ yahoogroup list to locate easily in the future. We will remove other training installments to avoid any confusion.
Q: Does this mean we get to contribute to the writing of this new workbook?
A: Yes. This is a different approach to building a book. It means we acknowledge that this group of over 550 people is the best measure of how we are doing when we teach the Dhamma in today’s world. That’s key. Can you learn this and keep it going?
In the next few days, I will be posting the first lesson called 2010- FS-01- What is Dana?. This already happened if you are reading now!
Q: Is there anything else we need to know before we begin?
A: Yes. Over 75 people answered the poll to request this training. So, when you contribute questions, please set up your subject line in the email very carefully so I can pick it up fast. This helps us easily identify which installment your question, comment or suggestion is about.
For instance, for short let’s cut back the title of the first installment in the Syllabus to FS-01 What is Dana? OK?
Lesson one would be called “FS-01-What is Dana?
I will give you the title in the heading of each installment when I issue it out to you.
These installments are going to be translated into Spanish as we go along too thanks to Adrian Montoya in Chile. Big thanks over there!
Q: Are you going to give Glossary words like you did in past years?
A: Yes but not in the same structured way. I will put in an installment with glossary words every so often and try to bold the most important ones in the installments. Please keep a notebook or a file for the words in your glossary. The most important words for you to know will be given as we go along. You don’t need a Pali course to learn and practice Buddhist meditation. However, it does help to learn about the primary words that most traditions are talking about. People speaking English or other western languages can learn to practice very well in their own language. The Buddha knew this and encouraged monks to teach in the country they live in. however, this doesn’t always happen as it was meant to.
Write your questions onto the group list. You may continue individual questions about practice on the list also separate from this training. Remember! Stay light with this training. Have a fun journey. Above all else, keep practicing and keep smiling! Keep giving away smiles to others. Keep using this practice in daily life. Let’s keep going now. You are all doing great so far!
Metta (Loving Kindness) and smiles.
Rev. Sister Khema (DSMC)

POST NOTE:
The Guiding Teachers for this course:
Most Venerable “Bhante” Vimalaramsi Mahathera is one of three founders and President of the United International Buddha Dhamma Society (UIBDS) in 2003 and the current Abbot for Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center (DSMC) in Missouri, USA. He began the Buddhist American Forest Tradition in 2005 and internationally announced it in 2008 when he was inaugurated as the first lifetime representative for the United States of America to the World Buddhist Council in Japan. The USA has never been represented before on this council. His discovery journey in Asia took him 12 years with master teachers and elders. After figuring things out, he has been teaching the Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation (TWIM) for 15 years and other meditation for over 35 yrs. He is well-known worldwide for his first book on the Anapanasati Sutta. You can come to DSMC for personal retreats in meditation development from Mid-May through October each year. Venerable is the spiritual head for DSMC. He oversees various temporary and full ordination programs where men and women are trained equally.
Samaneri Khema is the international secretary for Most Ven. Vimalaramsi, one of the founders of UIBDS. She has been studying and practicing for over 11 years. After two years as 8 preceptor wearing white, she took her novice vows as a nun and is now a 4th year Samaneri Nun. She is the Chairperson for UIBDS and current co-administrator for DSMC. In 2003 Sister built the first Dhamma Sukha Website and began supporting students online overseen by the Abbot. She built the support group structure beginning that year also. Her public talks and teaching began in 2009. She developed the “online retreat” concept attended by many in 2004-2008 and expanded online training and writing in 2009- 2010. She is responsible for developing support materials for meditation and coordinating internet teams for translations for the center and assisting visiting monks and nuns with Dhamma English training. There is a vast media coordination effort for DSMC meditation information developing now on the West coast of the US and spreading worldwide. Today all parts of the website combined are visited over thousands of times per month and growing.
Page last edited : September 7, 2010 by SK

For more info: www.dhammasukha.org

Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center and Anathapindika's Park Complex
8218 County Road 204, Annapolis, MO 63620 Contact PH: 573-546-1214
Email: sisterkhema@dhammasukha.org

"What is Clinging" by Rev Sister Khema and Bhante Vimalaramsi

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 23:26:00 +0000

2010- Foundation Series on Buddhist Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation (TWIM)
As taught by
Most Venerable “Bhante” Vimalaramsi Mahathera and Samaneri Khema

Sep 7, 2010, Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center, Annapolis, MO

FS Trainingà 2010-FS-13- What is CLINGING?

Q: You have been away for awhile.
A: Yes. It’s been a challenging summer Rains Retreat. New adjustments to having more people helping on the land and the challenge of finishing the very first new year round large building at the same time as supporting the summer program.

Q: Oh Good.
A: What about you “Q”? How is it going now with your meditation practice?

Q: I have been attempting to keep the practice going, as you recommended, all the time. I’ve been observing what’s going on in my mind even at work during my days. It’s getting very interesting.
A: What’s happening? How long are you staying on your object of meditation before mind’s attention gets pulled away?

Q: About 4-5 minutes now.
A: Good. What do you do when the attention gets pulled away?

Q: I run the cycle of Right Effort using the 6R’s and the result is more living in harmony, in my opinion. I can notice the release of tension now and the lightening of mind with the release /relax steps and I notice the drop that happens into a deeper level.

My mind lightens up considerably when I smile on the return step. Also, I‘m beginning to realize the little energy jerk you talked about concerning CRAVING just as it begins. But there is much more happening too.

A: That’s right “Q”. There’s still more.

Last time we mentioned CLINGING slightly. I told you that CLINGING comes in right away following the point where CRAVING hits.

Remember I told you that the usual way of describing CRAVING is to say that it always manifests as tension and tightness in mind and in body? I said that it is the “I” like it or “I” don’t like it mind first appearing just after a pleasant or painful feeling arises. Remember that? Immediately following this, the link of CLINGING dives into a story in your mind about “WHY” I LIKE IT or WHY I DON’T LIKE IT.

Q: How does that happen?
A: Each time you run a story in your mind about all the ideas, concepts, opinions, assumptions, and imagination about “WHY” you like or dislike something. this is CLINGING in action and when it hits, the tension and tightness progressively increases.

CLINGING moves us further along the line of human cognition from FEELING towards our personal reactions revealing themselves in the form of played out emotional states. Emotions are not FEELINGS. They arise further down the line of cognition. They surface like a flower blooming out of a bud. Emotions arise within a substructure of CRAVING and CLINGING.

Feeling is impersonal. It is always one of three things: Pleasant, Painful, or Neutral. Emotions, on the other hand, are descriptive states of mind like anger, anxiety, sadness, panic, fear, depression, grief and the like. In order for these states of mind to exist, one must first like of dislike a feeling and then expand this into ideas, imagination, concepts and so forth. This is where we get into trouble because we identify with these stories as they were ourselves. We take them personally.

Q: How can we observe this clinging?
A: Recently a student sent me an example of being bitten by CRAVING and CLINGING. He witnessed first hand how fast CLINGING can overwhelm a person. During the event he noticed how CRAVING hit him and how CLINGING expanded into a very personal matter. Because he was enlightened by some new training knowledge, he was able to STOP and choose a new response in this situation that involved Generosity. By persmission, I am relaying this for you to see now.

Dear Rev. sister Khema,

Resolved early this morning: One of my first acts of renunciation needs to be giving up "I" as the center of the universe.

Deliberate generosity of spirit in thought, word, and deed is something new for me. Later this morning I had a big opportunity to use loving kindness:

As my wife and I were crossing a side street, a car stopped to let us get to the other side; but the van behind the car was not so generous. The driver in the van wanted to continue going on the avenue road, but had been forced to wait for the car to let us pass [walking across the street].

After we safely reached the curb, the car made the turn into the side street, and the van could proceed forward; but not before the driver of the van yelled an obscenity at the top of his lungs. It was no doubt intended for the car's driver, but I was so shocked that I got angry at the van's driver. I stopped and looked at the van as it drove away. At that moment, if it were in my power, I would have punished that person. I had taken everything personally!

A few minutes later, when I realized what was going on in my mind, and felt the suffering I had created for myself arising, [the tension and tightness] I began to send thoughts of loving kindness to the van driver. I did so for awhile, because the van's driver is also suffering.

Forgetting to take "I" out of the equation is not being mindful and also dangerous [for my own mental and physical health].

Loving Kindness Meditation is my path. Following the breath may come later. But opening the heart, based on what you've written, is an essential first step to opening the mind.

Wishing you a nice weekend, metta, and lots of smiles, E.B.

Q: WOW! He did uncovered the very nature of altruism here! What a good lesson, eh?
A: Exactly. This proves that with only a little new knowledge about how things work, things can begin to change.

This is what I mean when I talk to you about bringing the Buddhist Teaching home. Taking the practice into life is essential to seeing the magical changes that can happen. I was very proud about how this particular student woke up just by applying the first few installments of this training and acting through a different perspective.

Q: So CRAVING and CLINGING, if recognized early enough, can be the difference between the reaction of a lion or a lamb?
A: You bet it can.

This is why our Abbot and teacher persistently points out to us that we need to understand Buddhism is about CHANGE. Sometimes you have to be brave enough to take a deep look into what the heart of your own particular craving is. The student must dare to open the gateway into mind and let out all the garbage behind it that, up until now, has barred the way to uncovering a pure mind state. Experiencing pure mind offers us a great space for creative peaceful responses to occur rather than reactions.

By committing to the practice of meditation to development of our observation skill we will uncover where pure mind is and how powerful it can become by following the instructions of the Buddha. It takes courage, commitment and determination to do this. Although the instructions are simple, because of old habits, it isn’t always easy to follow through. It takes patience.

Q: When a painful feeling comes up, it is just “A” FEELING and not “ME”. It is not MINE. It is not MY SELF. It is just A FEELING. Right?

A: Yes. When the energy of CRAVING hits, personality jumps in with the “I don’t like it” mind. All progress stops!

Then CLINGING jumps in and mind runs a story about WHY you don’t like it. At that point you are off to the races and you are not meditating anymore. Instead, you are thinking and analyzing! See?

Q: So to reach the greatest calm, what should be done is running the 6R’s as soon as the tension is noticed. LET GO, run the cycle and keep it going?

A: Right. Keep the wholesome attention on the meditation object going. As you do this, just notice how things are happening. Don’t get involved, just notice.

Q: But don’t ARISING phenomena have information for you about enlightenment that you need to investigate?
A: NO. Actually they don’t.
What is most important is seeing “HOW” did this phenomena arise and HOW did this tension and tightness arise, and, “HOW’ can it be released. That is the vital question. HOW does this happen? That is what this Harmonious Practice is training you to realize and mind realizes how all this works, it will eventually release automatically. You are learning to replace an unwholesome tendency with a new wholesome tendency that will eventually set you free.

Q; I heard once that ‘the truth will set you free”.

A: Apparently the Buddha understood this too. Haha. That is very well aligned “Q”.

The Buddha tried many routes to reach the cessation of Suffering. On the night of his enlightenment he found a direct route into Release so that Joy, Tranquility and Happiness could arise after letting go of all tension and tightness in mind and in body.

During his 45 years of teaching it’s true he did offer over 50 objects of meditation to various people to use during training. However all of those objects were used as balancing points while traveling down the same route to experience this cessation of suffering through complete understanding of what suffering is, what the cause of it is, what cessation looks like, and how to reach a state of cessation of suffering.

In the end, when examined closely, all meditation objects are used to reach the same goal, that is, the waking up and Liberation of the Mind. This liberation (vimutti) occurs because of Knowledge and Vision ( knowing by seeing) which then develops into Knowledge and Wisdom ( that is the higher knowledge by seeing and understanding this Impersonal Process of Dependent Origination, the Four Noble Truths and the Three Characteristics of ALL Existence in a nutshell along with their inter-relationship).

Wisdom (panna- pronounced pan-ya)~n~a) means ‘seeing clearly this impersonal process of Dependent Origination as it is going on beginning with seeing it happen during phenomenological events in life.

To be wise means to recognize this process and to thoroughly understand of the Four Noble Truths as they occur within it too.

Q: When will we be learning all the links that are in this impersonal process?
A; Ah! Even though you may not realize it yet “Q”, you have touched on several of the links in this process already.

Thus far, you have learned something about 9 of the links of the Impersonal Process of Dependent Origination. They have sometimes been presented to you within other contexts outside of D.O. Sneaky, huh?

They are:
1. IGNORANCE (avijja) meaning here, no knowledge of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS, D.O. and the Three Characteristics of Existence;

2. FORMATIONS which occur as mental, verbal or bodily formations (SANKHARA);
3. CONSCIOUSNESS (VINNANA);

4. MENTALITY/MATERIALITY (NAMA-RUPA);
5. SIX SENSE DOORS (SALAYATANA);

6. CONTACT (PHASSA) ;

7. FEELING (VEDANA) ;

8. CRAVING (TANHA) ; AND

9. CLINGING (UPADANA);

( Please note: So far, if I missed any of these in detail, they will be covered in the prime lesson on this process later on)

In brief, we have touched on FORMATIONS as being mental, verbal, or bodily in nature. Each of us has CONSCIOUSNESS which allows mental awareness of what is going on in our existence to operate. For our purposes here, MENTALITY/MATERIALITY involves the material sense door, the actual eye for instance, and that sense door’s mental process such as the eye’s mental process involved in actually seeing a sight. The SIX SENSE-DOOR BASE includes the internal doors of the physical Eyes, Ears, Nose, Tongue, and Body, and the internal sense door is MIND. The external part of the sense doors means the sights, sounds, odors, tastes, tangibles and the mind objects realized by the physical doors. CONTACT arises when any sense door meets with it’s own sense door’s object, and that sense door’s consciousness arises; the meeting of these three is that sense door’s contact. With contact as condition, FEELING arises and appears as being impersonally pleasant, painful or neutral. With feeling as condition, CRAVING arises, which manifests as arising tension and tightness in mind and in body and appears as the “I like it” or “I don’t like it” mind. With craving as condition, CLINGING arises, which jumps further into the personal nature of attachment or aversion and increases the grasping symptom first felt at craving.

Q: how does this play out in life?

A: An example of this would be how a meditator moves into CRAVING and CLINGING via the EYE sense door.

· The EYE impersonally meets COLOR and FORM and EYE CONSCIOUSNESS arises.

· The meeting of these three is EYE CONTACT.

· With EYE-CONTACT as condition, EYE-CRAVING arises;

· With EYE-CRAVING as condition, CLINGING arises and so forth on down the line of cognition…

· This happens in the very same way in reference with each of the sense doors.
(refer to MN-38:19 &20
( We have not covered all of this line of cognition just yet. Sit tight! it’s coming up. )

Q: So, CLINGING puts more energy into this line of human cognition, into personally grasping and the idea of personal attachment and it keeps this going stronger then just the initial jumpstart with CRAVING, right?

A: Right. CLINGING is an expansion of the initial tension and tightness first caused by CRAVING.

Q: So where does this go next?

A: It moves on to the HABITUAL TENDENCY link (bhava) just before the birth of any action takes place and this is what we will look at next. This link will show us why we really are not as alive as we were when we were young. It will show us where we get caught up in re-acting instead of responding in life situations. It can be a trigger source for war on any level if it not recognized and dealt with properly

Metta and smiles,
Rev. Sister Khema

Next installment: 2010- FS-14: “What is HABITUAL TENDENCY?”

The Gift of Dhamma is Priceless !
brought to you by
United International Buddha Dhamma Society (UIBDS)
Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center (DSMC), 8218 County Road 204, Annapolis, Missouri 63620www.dhammasukha.org

What is Craving by Rev Sister Khema

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:25:00 +0000

2010- Foundation Series on Buddhist Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation (TWIM)
As taught by
Most Venerable Vimalaramsi Mahathera and Samaneri Khema

July 16, 2010, Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center, Annapolis, MO

Trainingà 2010-FS-12 “ What is CRAVING?” ( final revision )

A: I think I told you that one of the things Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation (T.W.I.M.) training tries to develop easy definitions for you to remember to help your meditation.

When you get to the cognitive link of CRAVING, this is an important link to remember.

The definition for CRAVING (tanha) goes like this.

“CRAVING always manifests as tension and tightness arising in Mind and in Body.”

Craving gives us the cue to LET GO and RELAX!

The student trains to recognize how their body and mind slightly change as CONTACT and FEELING arise. Something happens. As we train, mind calms down. It stops jumping around so much. Gradually, closer observation reveals a change in tension and tightness at the earliest possible moment and then the student proceeds to use the RELEASE and RELAX steps of the 6R’s cycle.

A: Remember the 6R’s?
Q: Yes. I try to keep them going now.

A: Good “Q”.
Ever how the meditation practice is a MIND yoga that is all about noticing HOW Mind’s attention moves from one object to another? This is very important to see. What happens first? What happens second? This holds the secret of heavy suffering.

As Mind’s attention moves, this gives the student a cue to Release and Relax first before flowing through all of the 6Rs.

Let’s go over the 6R’s one more time.

Q: OK.
A: How do they run?

Q: RECOGNIZE how mind’s attention moves off the object of meditation. RELEASE whatever is arising and just let it be there, and then RELAX any leftover tension in mind or body.
A: Right. DO this is one flowing motion.

Q: Then RE-SMILE to lighten up mind and sharpen awareness as you gently RETURN mind’s attention back over to the object of meditation and keep wholesome meditation going.
A: Right. REPEAT the cycle as needed.
Q: Got it!

A: SO the entire cycle should run through like rolling your Rs.

The entire cycle runs like this.
RECOGNIZE, RELEASE, RELAX, RE-SMILE, RETURN, REPEAT.

This practice is equivalent to keeping Right Effort going all the time; a Harmonious Practice.

Q: So what happens with the CRAVING?
A: CRAVING is like a tiny jerk as energy first kicks in and tension and tightness arise in the body and mind.

This tension and tightness is the hallmark of what needs to be let go of. You are attempting to investigate a state of no tension or tightness, remember?

In order to understand the importance of letting go here, we first have to understand what is going on. To do this, we have to stop and look at the BRAIN. The presence or absence of tension in the brain can be seen with equipment that monitors the brain.

Q: Time for Anatomy now?
A: Yes, just a bit.

Looking at the Brain, there are two lobes. Each of these lobes is surrounded by a thin membrane called the Meninges. As mind’s attention is disturbed tension arises. The meninges tightens pulling the lobes closer together. A person will show this happening within their facial structure. You can see it.

As we perform the relax step to release the tension and tightness, the membrane loosens and eventually, the student can sense the slight separation between these lobes. One will notice this as it is occurring. When we take mind’s attention back to the meditation object while in this relaxed state, mind will drop down a little deeper each time to do allow a deeper investigation.

On the night of His enlightenment perhaps this is what changed within the Buddha’s practice. He was finally able to experience “aware jhana” states. This was different from his earlier experience in “absorption jhana states”. This explains how the Buddha entered into the deeper states described in the texts.

This ‘aware jhana’ allowed him to realize more information about each of these levels of understanding. Later he taught people how they could be useful in daily life to help reduce suffering. How useful they become for each person is determined by the degree that person sticks to the practice while following the meditation instructions.

Q: Can you tell me more about CRAVING?
A: Yes. CRAVING is the first point in the line of human cognition where personality enters in and the star of the show becomes “I”.

Our usual way of describing it is to say that it is the “I” like it or “I” don’t like it mind first obviously appearing. Immediately following this is the link of CLINGING which then proceeds to explain WHY I LIKE IT or WHY I DON’T LIKE IT.

Q: How?
A: Each time you run a story in your mind about all the ideas, concepts, opinions, assumptions, and imagination about WHY you like or dislike something, the tension and tightness increases more and more.

This moves us further along the line of cognition from FEELING into the emotional states. Emotional states are re-actions.

Q: Is this where the “I” come in?
A: Yes “Q”. THIS is where YOU come in!

This is where the EGO, “I”, “MY”, “MINE” or ‘taking things very personally’ jumps in the way of seeing clearly what is actually going on. This is where we mistakenly take the unessential as being the essential in a situation instead of only seeing the essential as the essential.

Q: Is this why CRAVING is at the root of suffering?
A: Yes.

If we can step back and observe what is happening, seeing it as it really is, we give ourselves the space to decide how to RESPOND to a situation correctly. But if we are taking the situation personally, we are likely to just RE-ACT to it based on the fact it feels very re-stimulating just like something else that once happened to us in the past.

Q: Sounds like this could be a problem for people in relationships and interactions in life.
A: Quite so.

But most people remain ignorant of how all this works. They are never informed about how this is operates. Therefore, they cannot see how by letting go, relaxing, and impersonally observing what is going on could help them to understand what’s really happening. This is what Ignorance is about. The root word here is IGNORE. What is being ignored? This impersonal process.

You see, Ignorance means unintentionally ignoring and not understanding how the Four Noble Truths work, this impersonal process we are discussing concerning human cognition. Also, they haven’t had the opportunity to have the Three Characteristics of Existence pointed out to them.

Q: What were the Three Characteristics again?
A: They are Impermanence (anicca), Suffering (dukkha), and the Impersonal nature of everything (anatta).
Q: I remember now.

The suffering or un-satisfactoriness is caused greatly by taking personally what is going on and the impermanent nature of everything increases the levels of tension, stress and even depression.

A: That’s right. You got it! And CRAVING sets this off.

The solution here is to LET GO and RELAX!

Let whatever is arising just be there and smile through it. Let go of all tension and tightness and after emptying out precisely as the Buddha instructed and relax; then come back to the object of meditation and proceed onward with a lighter mind.

Life will get a lot lighter if you do this for a few days. Try it.

Metta and smiles to you all.
Rev. Sister Khema

P.S.

Next installment: 2010- FS-13: “What is CLINGING?”

What is TWIM - Meditation as taught by Bhante Vimalaramsi

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:46:00 +0000

This article is by Sister Khema

2010- Foundation Series on Buddhist Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation (TWIM)
As taught by
Most Venerable Vimalaramsi Mahathera and Samaneri Khema

July 8,2010
Annapolis, MO

Title: ‘2010- FS-08- What is TWIM? Why is it different?’

Dhamma Greetings.
A question has been asked. What is TWIM and why is it different?

Q: Can you answer this?
A: I can.

TWIM is a Buddhist meditation that yokes together serenity (samatha) and Insight (vipassana) into one practice. This approach is different because it opens the way to the deeper levels of meditation faster and easier than before. After mind’s attention has moved away from the object of meditation, and shifted interest towards an arising hindrance, one releases that hindrance and then, immediately relaxes any remaining tension or tightness in mind or body, before moving back to the object of meditation and continuing on. This step of relaxing moves the meditator down a step into a deeper experience and observation level.

Although most meditative approaches reach gradual levels of calm, this practice appears to move down into the level of tranquility more easily and systematically allows skilled observation to sharpen. This can yield very clear insights.

Q: Isn’t all calm and stillness the same?
A: No. Tranquility has many graduated levels a meditator goes through.

It’s like this. In the outside world there is a lot of “vibration”. When you first meditate you experience “stillness”, which is simply the absence of that high energy vibration. As you continue, you experience “calmness/relief”(pamojja). Then you come upon a light Joy (piti). As joy fades away, a deeper calm called “tranquility’ (passadhi)arises. As this fades away too, “happiness” (sukha) remains which is a very warm, quiet contentment. As your curiosity and interest grows, the practice moves into levels of equanimity which also have their own developmental levels which culminate with the liberation of mind. These will be discussed later on.

Basically, what TWIM has done is to re-introduce an existing step in the instructions for the Buddhist meditation found in the texts. In the past, this step was often blended in with other parts of the instructions. The result was different. For me, this reminded me of my grandmother’s angel cake recipe?

Q: How on earth does this resemble a cake?
A: Her cake recipe called for 11 eggs. The blending called for separating the eggs into whites and yokes. You were instructed to whip the cold egg-whites until they were stiff and then blend in the other ingredients gently and put it into a pan and bake it. The cake came out nearly 12 inches high and very light and fluffy!.
But, if you took those same 11 eggs and threw them into a bowl along with all the ingredients together, and whipped it up and put it into the oven, this would not come out the same. Although it contained the same ingredients, the cake would not be light and fluffy, it would only have similar sweetness, and be 2 inches high.

Q: Ah. I see what you mean. Not the same.
A: Right.

On the one hand it can take a long time to connect the teachings of the Buddha together and practice meditation in a temple. On the other hand, this approach trains the meditator how to observe clearly the Four Noble Truths, the Impersonal Process of Dependent Origination and the Three Characteristics of Existence in a way that is then useful in daily life.

Q: Is anything else different?
A: This teaching approach being reclaimed here applies many perfected exercises and drills that the Buddha used during his 45 years of teaching.You are also introduced to refined versions of progress charts, analogies and advice the Buddha gave while teaching and guides who are in training are challenged to bring out how the Buddha taught by using his words directly out of the texts. After all, he seems to have established a proven method in the beginning.

You remember I spoke earlier to you about how the Four Noble Truths can be used?

Q: Yes, I do.
You said that they could actually be 1) used to summarize the teaching; 2) used as a 4-step pattern of investigation; 3) helpful in solving challenges in daily life and; 4) used as a proven teaching method for the Buddha Dhamma.

A: Excellent job “Q”! I’m impressed you remembered that!

Q: How does TWIM use the Four Noble Truths?
A: TWIM trains you how to use all four aspects of these Noble Truths.
Q: How?
A: The Four Noble Truths are:
1) There is suffering; TWIM RECOGNIZES the suffering.
2) There is a cause of suffering; TWIM reveals Craving and Clinging very nicely as the cause of suffering.
3) There is a cessation of suffering; TWIM demonstrates the state of cessation by teaching the student how to observe relief from craving as it occurs during the practice.
4) There is a path to the cessation of suffering; TWIM demonstrates each fold of the 8-Fold Path by showing 4 variations of it’s use.

Q: How do these Noble Truths help the meditator progress?
A: Because TWIM practice follows them very closely to help reveal insights.
First the student is taught the nature of suffering at the gross level. Then they are taught how to see the suffering when it is present AND to notice the nature of it’s cause comes to be.

It’s important to remember that a person cannot let go of something if they do not know what it is!
Therefore we must intimately understand CRAVING and CLINGING. Suffering must be seen and understood beginning with a gross level definition and proceeding deeper from there.

On the gross level, Suffering is best defined as “un-satisfactoriness of how things are”. A being usually wants to keep things nice if they are nice. We may want to MAKE them stop or change if they are not so nice.

Q: Yeah. I can see how that is.
A: To go just a little bit deeper, what do you think would be a principle ‘symptom’ of this un-satisfactoriness ?

Q: I think there must be tension and tightness in body.
A: That’s right. Tension and tightness are symptoms of Suffering and stress is an outcropping of this. Stress is being identified as a chief cause for mental and physical health challenges today.

Q: I heard that too. It might help if we had a way to notice these symptoms as they are happening. Then maybe we could do something about it.

A: Right. This is what the Buddha worked on. It was not just about the complete end of suffering at death. He was also interested in all the gradual levels of relief a person could experience if they had proper understanding. Gaining a better understanding of what is happening, step by step, helps people to reach the complete cessation of suffering. The Buddha discovered how teaching people the truth about what is really going on leads them to experiencing gradual levels of relief along the way.

Q: This sounds very hopeful.
A: Yes. There are many levels of relief a person can achieve through practice and understanding. This is why the practice is so valuable for life.

Let’s see how far we are right now “Q”. I have presented you with how this practice is a little different, gave you a brief picture of SUFFERING and talked about some of the symptoms that come up. That is the First Noble Truth.

Q: What’s next?
A: What happens next is part of a process. Because it is process WE do not control this.

Let’s say that with PAINFUL-FEELING as condition CRAVING arises. If you look closely at CRAVING, you will notice that whenever a painful feeling arises, mind jerks a little into a not liking position. This link is actually not a personal link. Rather it is an automatic reaction to a painful feeling. This automatic reaction brings about a shift in the inclination of mind.

As this gets revved up, it is true that personality enters in at this point. Desire or aversion causes arising tension which generates more energy to turn the wheel of suffering. This is where the energy begins. Each time craving occurs, it triggers the arising of tension and tightness to spring forward into CLINGING which has personal opinion in it.

Q: This is true when you say there is a tiny shift in tension when CRAVING begins and then a growing tension as CLINGING begins to happen.
A: Right. So, it stands to reason that personal concepts and opinions, like, “I like it because blah, blah, blah, and so forth’ therefore determine the degree of suffering a person goes through.

This is the cause of the birth of the tension that leads into suffering and this is the Second Noble Truth.

Q: So far we have suffering which is un-satisfactoriness showing itself by arising tension and tightness which increases or decreases depending on our personal opinions and involvement about this attachment or aversion. This is the heavy CLINGING.
A: That’s right. We will get into the deeper examination of these “LINKS” in this process as we continue on with training.

Q: Interesting. What about the Third Noble Truth?
A: Next we look at what life would be like if this tension and tightness were not involved.

Consider how it would be if life just flowed along and there was no attempt to control it, no struggling? Without over concern and emotions, there would be space for creative solutions and responses to happen. This is a description of the ideal cessation of suffering. This is the Third Noble Truth.

Q: OK. There would not be so much tension and tightness in mind and body anymore if things were not taken so personally and that would be better for the mental and physical health of the being?
A: Right. Cessation represents a state of living without suffering present anymore. This would be like someone not trying to control things but instead just allowing life to flow moment-by-moment. This would be leaving behind old opinions or habits from the past. In short, seeing just how it is and then not re-acting anymore; just responding.

Q: An interesting idea.
A: I thought so too and I wondered if that was really possible today in this fast moving world?

The Buddha figured out how a person could experience this kind of cessation, even if only for a few moments at first to confirm it was a real state. Then he managed to expand this state for longer periods of time and gained deeper understanding. The result was that he experienced a light, content, comfortable form of happiness without tension even while doing his daily work. This happened because he figured out a way to observe and study these states.

Q:TWIM ?
A: Exactly. T.W.I.M.. The very name signals it’s intention for outcome. Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation. TWIM.

“Tranquil”(passadhi) indicates the tranquilizing step of the cycle of 6R’s practice. An express degree of serenity is developed so you can fully attain “knowledge and vision” or “know by seeing” how things actually are”.

“Wisdom” (pan~na) indicates the person will realize how everything is working by understanding and then seeing how it happens, step-by-step, through an impersonal process the Buddha later called Dependent Origination. The person learns through direct experience what can be done to relieve the suffering. After practicing for a time, fears and anxiety melt away because the person knows what will happen next! There will be few surprises in the future.

“Insight” (vipassana) means that the meditator will attain clear understanding of universal laws that affect their perspective of life. Without these insights people struggle blindly and endlessly because they do not know what will happen next. Without understanding, they are caught in an unclear dream state.

“Meditation” (bhavana) is the vehicle used for mental development which allows a person to see for themselves what’s going on. The Buddha’s practice teaches a person to use the Four Noble Truths for investigation to directly experience how the Impersonal Process of Dependent Origination affects their experience and perception of life.

Armed with this new information, life has no more secrets and it becomes easier for a person it to smile and lovingly accept things just as they are.

Q: This sounds a little hard.
A: The Buddha’s teaching was always ‘easy to understand and immediately effective. But, it isn’t necessarily simple to carry it out and keep it going.

Q: Why is it so hard to keep it going?
A: Because people have old habits. Mind is no exception to this rule. Old tendencies cause reactions and so we find ourselves automatically reacting instead of responding to challenging interactions in life. This often leads us into war instead of peace.

I was 50 yrs. old when I began this practice and it took me some time to get it going rather well and understand how it could be used in life. I would start out meditating on an object of meditation, like sending out METTA, and a thought would float up and pull mind’s attention away.

Q: What did you do?
A: All was not lost because I could TWIM!

I now understood the importance of Right Effort and what is needed to stay more focused. I practice the 6Rs to fulfill those steps in Right Effort described by the Buddha.

I RECOGNIZE how mind’s attention is pulled off my object of meditation ( or whatever task I am focused on doing);
Then I RELEASE the thought as being unimportant, just let it go and RELAXany remaining tension or tightness.
Then I RE-SMILE and RETURN attention over to the object of meditation ( or in life, whatever I am doing when this happened) and then I continue sending the Loving Kindness to my spiritual friend ( or into whatever I am doing….)
Finally, I REPEAT this cycle as I need to and continue to purify mind through this retraining process.

Q: Is this part of why TWIM is a different kind of practice?
A: Yes. TWIM does not get involved with arising phenomena and intentionally move mind ’s attention in this way. If it is pulled away, it runs the 6R’s cycle and keeps going with the meditation. Also, TWIM can be taken into life VERY easily and kept going for a real life-changing experience. There is no separation of Life and Meditation here. Meditation is Life!

You will notice how mind’s attention moves on it’s own. As this happens, you do not stop meditating to move the attention over to what is arising. The phenomena has no important information for us.

In this way a steady flow of meditation continues all the time instead of breaking off. What is important to come to see is HOW arising phenomena happens!

Therefore, it’s perfectly OK to just let arising thoughts or feelings be and allow them to fade away on their own as they occur.

Q: But isn’t it important to understand Impermanence (anicca)?
A: Certainly. Impermanence (anicca) is the arising and passing away of every phenomena. In this practice, every time we run the 6Rs cycle, we witness impermanence. We are always sharpening our observation practice to eventually see how this happens.

We already have a basic grasp of what suffering (dukkha) is. As we continue to practice, we will gain a full understanding of the impersonal nature of everything (anatta). Every time we run the 6Rs cycle, we see how the impersonal harmonious perspective has less tension in it and how this can change our whole experience.

The point is that we don’t have to step outside of flow of the meditation by moving attention away to arising phenomena and getting involved with them. We can keep the flow of meditation going and just let things be while noticing how everything works in the same way each time it arises.

Within the cycle of the 6Rs, this practice includes an experiential examination of the Four Noble Truths, the Impersonal Process of Dependent Origination AND Three Characteristics of Existence. All ecome perfectly clear to us if we keep up our curiosity, energy and interest.

Q: I am beginning to see the value of this practice now.
A: Also, the pattern of Right Effort we call Harmonious Practice is completed within this 6R’s cycle. This approach to meditation was brought out to help students realize how Dependent Origination was operating and how it can become useful in daily life.

Slowly the student is introduced to this impersonal process of cognition and all of the important pieces of it. There is no shortage of insights in this practice. All of this is accomplished by sharpening your non-judgmental, pure observation skills during the meditation. These skills will be super useful in daily life also.

Q: Well it seems to be quite a good idea to try. Thank you for answering these two questions. What is going on next time we meet?

A: We will answer a little more deeply what the Being is made up of and HOW the 5 aggregates interplay so he can experience existence in this life. We will walk through some of the links of cognition as they happen.

Metta and smiles.
Rev. Sister Khema

Get Bhante's Book on Amazon - Make sure it is the BegintoSee seller so you will get the 2006 edition vs the older ones and your purchase will benefit his work. Go to Amazon.

Why the $@(% can't we just be Happy!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 22:08:00 +0000

Mark

This is an interesting conversation about what Bhante V was suggesting us to do. Bhante is always saying smile and have fun. Yes -butttt....what does THAT mean!! What is he really saying here. And how does this relate to meditation! I mean its nice and all but I am not 3 yrs old!

Today I was picking up my mail and noticed that a nearby park that I frequented was having a little party and fair so I stopped in.

It was a great day and interesting things going on- But then this thread came to mind...

So - am I happy?

Nope

Was I having fun??

Not really

So I thought let me FOLLOW the instructions - Smile and have fun.

I noticed my mind was not in the present ...really. There was this leaning toward the future- the next thing... What will I do next- Is there something here I am missing? Why are people looking at me! Who are these people? Is there somewhere else I should be that will be more fun? What am I missing!!!!

Hold on - Lets just relax and have fun and BE HAPPY.

I mean WHEN will we ever be Happy if not NOW!

I tried to consider WHY I COULD NOT BE HAPPY AT THIS MOMENT...

I just couldn't think of any good reason NOT to be Happy. (Darn...)

So I just started to relax and smile and at least "pretend" I was happy right now. (I couldn't think of why I shouldn't be really)

Gradually as I just came into the present I notice some very pleasant feelings start to come up my back. I started to really smile. And as I felt better I reminded myself to KEEP it going! Smile and be Happy and continue doing it and I did and I was!

So I really was "happy" for a few moments in time. But I wonder if that's really why WE (meditators) justify NOT being happy because we have been told it's all IMPERMANENT - Don't be Attached! You can't be happy because the Buddha said life is suffering so watch it!

We know to be happy is a fool's game. You can't do it for more than a few moments because it disappears. But that's why we have to try and not give up.

Maybe its better to just relax and have some ice cream and smile more

And Keep it going!

David

Check more stuff at Dhammasukha

We are told that we should help people - BUT will we step up?? Do we really want to change and grow?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 28 May 2010 04:09:00 +0000

   Over and over the people in the spiritual super market are always telling people that to properly live a "right" life you must help people and give where you can. We all know we should... but how do we do it??

   Do we sign up for a soup kitchen? That's nice but we never have that much time. And even if you do a little volunteering it just doesn't have that much affect on our life.

   So the Gurus tell us to give so how do we do it?

   I have wondered about this and finally have come up with the answer. You give when the situation presents itself!

   Every now and then there appear to you people or situations which call out for you to step in and help. They are rare and don't come up often but when they do they can change your life and address your desire and need to go beyond your "comfort" limits.

   How many times in New York (Sorry to pick on NYC) do you hear about the story of someone just walking by somebody on the ground bleeding to death after being stabbed. Isn't this the situation where help is needed NOW?? So why do people immediately turn away?

   I personally have tried to help in the last year where I could... Here are the stories.

GETTING INVOLVED

   At night I heard some yelling out my window in a parking lot close by. It was 1:30am. I got up to look out to see what was happening.
   There was a man that had gotten out of the passenger side of an old El Camino pickup truck like car. He was bent over and blocking the guy who was driving from getting out of the car. The Man was basically screaming at the driver to "watch out- don't f*^$$ with me; I will f*&&^ you up!" Over and over.
   I watched this go on and noticed nobody else in my building was taking notice-however I knew they must be hearing this as many windows were open. The driver finally got out and appeared to be about 18 and big kid in baggy pants and wasn't really making any threatening gestures but was just taking what the older man was dishing out. From their racial types they were not related and that's for sure.

   Now the older man was yelling at the kid as they faced each other was making a lot of gestures at him. I was now wondering if this was going to escalate and perhaps it was now time to take some action.

   What went through my mind was:
   1. What if they find out who "told on them". Would they come and get me if I called the police?
   2. What would the other residents think that I tried to get involved. "Oh -just let them kill each other..." Stay out of it. Let them resolve it.
   3. "Don't worry it will NOT escalate and it will just stop. Maybe if I just close the drape the whole thing will go away!"

   Clearly it wasn't going to stop and the young man now may be at risk as the older man got more and more animated.

   Then BAM -right into the young guys NOSE. A hard right into his face and he recoiled and did not even fight back. He just let it happen but he did jump back.

   I thought - OK - Now what do I do?? Will it stop? Is this it. What if he throws another punch...
   So- that was it. Just do it! I just dialed 911 and in about 30 seconds there were two police cars in the back and both of the guys were sitting on the ground. The situation was over and it appeared no one really got hurt. There were no arrests but nothing occurred after that.

   So I got involved - Certainly no one else of around 30 other people did ANYTHING at all! I wonder how many people thought, "Somebody ELSE will call the Police!" Right??? Where is that Somebody else!

"I AM SO TIRED!!"

   I pulled up to a gas station in a poorer part of town after having a rather nice lunch at an Asian Fusion type restaurant. I was feeling pretty good. It was sunny and a great day. I popped my gas lid but heard something-is that crying?
   An older black lady was on the other side of my pump and was crying and was completely distraught.
   I wondered whether I dare look and see what's going on- thus getting involved in the drama... Other customers at the station were all looking like they did not hear anything as the woman continued to bawl "I'm so tired! I can't take any more of this!"
   I thought - Well- I better see if I can help here. It doesn't look like some trick by someone -but don't we always think we going to be taken advantage of. Some Con job in process. "Just help me get something to eat!" and you give them a few dollars and then they go buy a beer... More FEAR. Any excuse to just stay out of it!
   So I asked her what was going on. "I just need $4 - I am out of money! My rent just went up to $551 and now I only have $750 to pay for everything. Here - look..." and she dug out of her purse her two cards showing what government assistance she got and what was left after they were spent. She did everything she could while she was crying to try to make the case to show me she was telling the truth.
   Ok- I went ahead and pulled out my wallet and gave her $10. All the time wondering whether I was being taken advantage of ... Once I did this she went and paid the cashier and came back still pretty distraught and thanked me. I was still pumping my gas so I couldn't just avoid it all and take off as I suspect most people would! I thought, "What else can I do" I don't want to just split if there is something else that I could do to try to help so I thought I should just ask her more about what was happening to her and let her tell me the story as I suspect she has nobody to talk to. So she told me more about her desperate situation. She didn't care about not getting food -she could just eat cheerios- but being totally stuck without transportation would be awful. She poured the story out.
   Finally, my gas was in and I was ready to leave and told her to take care. She said she wanted to give me a hug and did and thanked me again. I got a hug from a stranger-weird. I hope no one was watching...what will people think???

   As I drove away I thought was there anything else that could have been done?? I beat myself up about only giving her $10 and thought I could have given her 20-40 . It would not be any big deal to me certainly and it seemed it might really help her. After going out on a limb like this I always go back and review what I did to see if either I was being taken advantage of or there was more I could have done- AND then beat myself if there was something left undone!

   We are so full fear of doing the right thing! What will people think? Will I be taken for a ride??

STARBUCKS INCIDENT -We got a domestic in process!

   I was sitting at a Starbucks around 9am and it was a particularly great morning as I sat outside sipping my Tall Coffee and having a sausage sandwich. After awhile though I started to hear some honking - Just a "Beep, Beep" and then another "Beep, Beep".
   I wondered what that was all about and got up to look over a wall that was between me and the sound in the parking lot. It appeared that some young guy was behind a white older car which was honking. He was looking around and rooting through some luggage which evidently had been pulled out of the car and just deposited for some strange reason right behind the car. The car could not get out and the young guy was just ignoring the honking.
   This went on for some time and I thought there must be something more and continued to watch as the guy went to the passenger's window and started yelling at the driver. Then the honking got louder and more desperate. Based on what I saw out my bedroom window the other night I realized these things just don't go away -they get worse...
   Of course all the other customers -and there were a lot of them- were observing this situation and trying to beat it to their car and get out of there before they could figure out what was happening.
   Again knowing now that no one else would do anything I got up and went and found out who the manager was and told them he had a problem in the parking lot and suggested to just call the police and let them figure out what was going on. He came out and I went with him to see what was going on:
   Evidently this guy had been dropped off here by his EX-girlfriend -she was driving and doing the honking and trying to leave but he was blocking the way. It seemed she was giving him a ride and trying to get rid of him.
   She yells out through a crack in the window that she has a restraining order. The Starbucks Manager told the guy he had to let her out and if he did it quickly he would not call the police. But the guy refused and just stayed there without reallying reacting. The manager left to make the call. I stayed and told the guy that if the police come and he is still here AND he does have an order against him it would go very bad for him. I walked away and looked back and he must have thought about it and was getting his stuff and starting to walk away. The girl drove her car away as the man walked away dragging all this luggage down the street.
   I was ready to leave and exited but as I went down the street I saw the police talking to the guy. Ouch. Oh well- As you reap- you shall sow.
   I felt pretty good. The girl did not get hurt and just was delayed. Nothing happened. I am getting tired playing Mr Police Guy!!! Ha Ha.

LITTLE GIRL GETS SICK ON THE FLIGHT

   The last story is going from Missouri to San Jose. A young family got on the plane last and the three children got split over the seats next to me. The teen sat between me and another man and started listening to his ipod. I looked over and a 7 yr old sweet little girl was sitting next to her older sister with an airbag to her mouth. She looked bad. It was hot and it would have helped to have had someone try to get some air pointed on her from the vent above but they appeared to no be aware of it up there. The mother was not paying attention in the seat in front of her, and I was too far away and I really wasn't sure whether it was my place to do anything. The girl did throw up into the airbag as the plane took off and finally the mother came around and got her cleaned up and got the stewardess to get her something to drink. As we continued the flight the girl was sitting there pretty much by herself with nothing to do in an aisle seat and this was going to be a 4 hr flight! She looked pretty depressed. I felt sorry for her and wanted to help somehow. Having two nieces of my own of her age I knew the solution- give her my Iphone and let her play games. "Wow - that's pretty extreme don't you think??" Hand your phone to someone you don't know??? Hello??

   I thought - will I every get my phone back?? Will it get damaged? What will other passengers think of my bold actions? Will I be arrested?? Ha Ha! I finally caught the mother's eye and pointed at my phone and said "GAMES and pointed at the girl". She nodded enthusiastically and I passed the phone through other passengers to the girl who finally gave us a smile. I yelled at her to push the menu button. Her sister grabbed the phone and figured out the menu and helped her with it. THEN to my horror she started playing with it and the little girl could not get it back- But all was well - her sister gave it back after a few minutes.
   After a few hours they just gave me the phone back and the mother had rearranged the seats to sit with and keep her company.
   The end of the story was that the little girl threw up once again when we landed. Airsickness- "Oh she always does that!"

   In the meantime the boy next to me yelled out "Darn!" and put the ipod down with disgust.
   I assesed the situation... "Out of power?", I asked? YES, he agreed. Interestingly I had packed a special ipod battery that provides more power on demand. I got it out of my bag and gave it to him and he powered back up- with a lot of "thank yous!" Ha Ha. Uncle David to the rescue!
   And I never got arrested!

SO HOW DO WE HELP?
   I really feel happy about going out of my comfort zone and taking the risk of making a fool out of myself or being taken advantage of by situations like the above. I feel I grew a little bit and passed the tests that I had been given and look forward to more opportunities to help. I hope you will too.

What is the so called Wisdom Eye? Do I have to let go of Vacations to be Awakened? and other thoughts.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:36:00 +0000

What is the Wisdom Eye spoken of in the Suttas?

The Wisdom eye is simply the "knowing" of what you see. When you know something is hot by looking at something glowing you see it with the Wisdom Eye.

When you see the links of Dependent Origination clearly-- you see them and are CONSCIOUS of them--- but you also UNDERSTAND what you are seeing.

Perhaps a better word is "Understanding".

The Wisdom Eye is not some third eye mumbo jumbo, when the Buddha talks about it, but the understanding of what you see. We are not talking about a physical location. (Yes pineal glands and these things may be the physical organs but we are not talking about that in terms of Wisdom Eye)

Don't read too much into it. Perhaps you could say its the part of "YOU" that arises out of the void that is the understanding. The other parts are Craving Clinging etc.

What is the MIND?

Mind is the sense door like Eye is the sense door. A "Mind" without an object is like an EYE without a sight to see.

MIND does not know -it is only the sense organ that receives the data.

If you see an EYE rolling around on a table you would know that it is really nothing without Forms and Consciousness to cognize anything. Same thing with a "Mind" . It is nothing -maybe its just a brain on the table! It needs mental formations to see.

CONSCIOUSNESS is that which knows what is seen. When the color and form arise in the mind there is consciousness which is like the LIGHT that shines through the darkness that "lights" up the forms. Without consciouness there would be nothing seen.

Then you go to PERCEPTION which is a separate factor but that occurs right after the contact which puts a CONCEPT onto to that which is seen. The idea of a Cup etc. or Drowsy if it is a mental state. It has memory in it. You PERCEIVE what something is -in the conceptual world that is.

That's the interesting thing about all this, is that it is all very separate factors that only through meditation can you possibly understand. You will drive yourself a bit crazy to think about it too much. I know I have! But I keep trying!

What really happens when we think about going on Vacation?!

One thing you might try is that every time you have a desire to do something fun- really LOOK at the process of what just occurred in your mind.

This is where the link of CRAVING lives.

When you are working away on the job you eventually get bored and you get this image of - for example- a beach in Hawaii. You just see the sand and the water and the sun. Then there is the pleasant feeling - so subtle- then the "I Like it!" - This occurs quick but there is a tension there as soon as you perceive this pleasant image. Then you start to think about how nice it would be to go there and what you would do if you were there. This is the CLINGING. This may eventually lead to book a trip on the internet and Birth will arise so watch out!

You do know what I am talking about! That mind wandering away to something it would rather be doing !

Now, if you can bring Mindfulness up to LET GO of that desire right there you will make a huge leap in your progress... and your attachment to the world for that matter.

If you start to try to let go you will at first think: "BUT I like that beach ! I don't want to Let Go! What if by letting go I don't think about it again! How Sad!" What if I NEVER WANT anything again -oh my life will be so miserable!" I will be so bored by not wanting anything nice. What about all my nice travel emails!"

Sometimes you just have to STEP UP and just DO IT!

Let Go and see what happens!

Of course what you will really experience, if you really let go of the Craving of "I Want That", is FREEDOM. And there is plenty of nice pleasant experiences when your mind doesn't CRAVE. Don't worry. Pleasant experience has nothing to do with CRAVING. But you can certainly CRAVE it when it isn't happening and THERE you bring in SUFFERING because you don't have it.

When that craving for it stops you have CESSATION of the pull of the tension to go toward the experience AND guess what that is - PEACE. Very cool feeling.

So next time you wander off on Vacation Planning try letting it go once.

That is when the desire comes up recognize it is there and release it. Then Relax any tension that is left that keeps you thinking about it. Then notice you have a peaceful quiet state that is free from suffering!

I have just described most of the "6r" process that Bhante Vimalaramsi talks about. It works!

In this way you will see and let go of Craving with the Wisdom Eye. And then you will be AWAKE!

Get a copy of Bhante Vimalaramsi's book here and support Dhammasukha in the process and it doesn't cost anything. Support Dhammasukha on Amazon

A Miracle in Australia of Metta and a Jellyfish

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:02:00 +0000

Greetings fellow Dhamma Travelers,

A student of Bhante V's who learned the meditation by sending kind and gentle thoughts to her beloved dog "Jaz" who then went on to develop her practice into deeper states, and all this through email correspondence with Bhante's students and Yahoo group! As Bhante points out the (way he teaches) practice is immediately effective when practicing using the relax step as called out in the Suttas. Relaxing all tension and tightness when it arises in your Breath or Lovingkindness practice is absolutely a must.

But on to the story! One of the purported 11 benefits of the Metta (Lovingkindness Meditation) is that "Poisons and Weapons will do no HARM"

Bhante, laughlingly said that this was a benefit that he wasn't anxious to test!

But we may have a test, of sorts, through his student's experience below!

Here in her own words is her story at the beach in Australia where it is now Summer.

---------------------------------------------------

Got a story to share.. i went to the beach and while in water got stung by a jelly fish. They quite deadly around herre. I came out of the water.. it was burning and in less than a min it became like a ballon. I asked my husband to leave me alone and continue to go swim. I sat down quietly relaxed my muscles.. and thought what would Bhante do. Started sending love to the swollen area and guess what, in 10 min there was no sign of the jelly fish stung. My husband came back and all the redness and all those little spots gone. I did not want to end go hospital and just thought to try this. And it worked.. Metta is just so powerful.. goes beyond me.

Looking forward to your email.. and with big smile :))))

-----------------------------------------

Another part of this story is that when using her dog as her Metta meditation object the dog's cancerous lumps just disappeared which had worried her greatly. More miracles from Metta practice!

Keep practicing!

David

How to Handle Distractions -Relaxing is very important

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:13:00 +0000

This message was offered recently to a meditator having problems with her mind drifting away...

Hi Arelyz

I can offer a few thoughts on this. This was something I was really seeing in my sitting yesterday and it struck me how when Bhante says something he really means just that! Ha Ha. I guess that's why he likes to remind us how many times you are going to have to hear something.

You say your attention just "goes away"

Yes definitely - very true. And it could be very likely you will only see that for quite awhile in your meditation- but here is what really happens as I saw yesterday so clearly.

What is a distraction? It is the arising of something at a sense door. At any of your 6 senses (mind is 6) When you hear something your attention may or may not be drawn to that sound. Or see a light behind your eyelids or feel an itch or something. Just the senses coming up to be clear here.

And you don't necessarily go "out" to every sound or feeling -just randomly you might say. So don't pay any special attention to any of the sense doors. Not at all. But don't push away either.

If your attention is drawn to the sound there is a slight pull or pressure somewhere in your head area. You will notice quickly within a moment your attention is now on the sound. Or it might be a mental image itself of a beach and then your mind starts thinking about going there.

and it is at this point you have to 6r.--- recognize I am listening to something and I have gone away from my object of meditation. Let go and relax and notice your attention relaxing. Smile a little bit and return back to your object.Don't try to 6r all sounds. Just ones that pull you. Smiling really helps. just a little one.

Where should you be. Your awareness (attention and perception) that is.

Your object of meditation is in a clear space free from tension. You know the outside world is there but it doesn't matter. Your mind is sitting with the feeling of metta. or your spiritual friend or whatever.

When that distraction arises there will be the slightest tiniest pressure like a sucking feeling that pulls your attention away. Bhante talks about the membrane of your brain contracting. Definitely a tightening that seems near the exterior of your head.

It became very clear to me the other day. I also had the thought my head was like a ballon and there were these very slight pressures from a small finger pressing on the ballon from the top.

Now if your mind goes away and it is gone for more than a few seconds- there will probably be words turning into thoughts and you will see yourself thinking

Of course this is all dependent origination. Contact, feeling and then you see yourself listening in a mental image which is Craving or "I". Then there is a "ruminating or a pause and then thoughts come and you will be gone pretty strongly at that point. Or you might get upset (habitual tendency) and then you might move your body (birth of action) and then there is lamentation and death (of action). Ha Ha. You don't want that do you?

The key is to have a very strong controlled Mindfulness or be paying very CLOSE attention to your object of meditation. Notice any possible "Leakage" from your object of meditation to where you are starting to wander away to a sense door. And let go right there. Don't let it continue. Relax. And if in doubt Relax your head . Then when you are satisfied your attention has left what it was looking at put back that little tiny smile on.

Just let your mind be very comfortable on your object. Have the idea you can stay being aware of your object for the next 1000 years! Forever. You are not going anywhere. Going somewhere is just restlessness.

One problem is people start feeling very comfortable when there mind doesn't wander away and then they think "I am doing very well now" What will happen next??

Boom! -Gone as the mind starts to think.

Or you get bored and think "There is nothing happening and I guess I have perfected this meditation for now" Maybe I can quit now and do it again tomorrow and see other things (more interesting) !

Well if you just sit in the clear space and you stay very patient YOU WILL go to a DEEPER Level and see more things. This is why if you are doing well, you keep going!

Why stop if you have a clear mind which took you an hour to build up. Don't waste it and go DEEP! Dive Dive!

Patience and carefulness is certainly the key

Hope this helps ...

david

Those Pesky Hindrances -How to Release them (Not Suppress them)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:12:00 +0000

Here is a message posted to a meditator with a question about how to handle her mind wandering away...

Hi Arelyz

You say your attention just "goes away"

Yes definitely - very true. And it could be very likely you will only see that for quite awhile in your meditation- but here is what really happens as I saw yesterday so clearly.

And you don't necessarily go "out" to every sound or feeling -just randomly you might say. So don't pay any special attention to any of the sense doors. Not at all. But don't push away either.

Where should you be. Your awareness (attention and perception) that is.

It became very clear to me the other day. I also had the thought my head was like a ballon and there were these very slight pressures from a small finger pressing on the ballon from the top.

Now if your mind goes away and it is gone for more than a few seconds- there will probably be words turning into thoughts and you will see yourself thinking

Of course this is all dependent origination. Contact, feeling and then you see yourself Listening in a mental image which is Craving or "I". Then there is a "ruminating or a pause and then thoughts come and you will be gone pretty strongly at that point. Or you might get upset (habitual tendency) and then you might move your body (birth of action) and then there is lamentation and death (of action). Ha Ha. You don't want that do you?

One problem is people start feeling very comfortable when there mind doesn't wander away and then they think "I am doing very well now" What will happen next??

Boom! -Gone as the mind starts to think.

Or you get bored and think "There is nothing happening and I guess I have perfected this meditation for now" Maybe I can quit now and do it again tomorrow and see other things (more interesting) !

Well if you just sit in the clear space and you stay very patient YOU WILL go to a DEEPER Level and see more things. This is why if you are doing well, you keep going!

Why stop if you have a clear mind which took you an hour to build up. Don't waste it and go DEEP! Dive Dive!

Patience and carefulness is certainly the key

Hope this helps ...

David