Mindfulness by Bhante Gunaratana Adapted from Voices of Insight
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³Mindfulness´ is the English translation of the Pali word sati Sati is an activity What exactly .
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is that? There can be no precise answer, at least not in words Words are devised by the .
symbolic levels of the mind, and they describe those realities with which symbolic thinking deals Mindfulness is pre-symbolic It is not shackled to logic Nevertheless, mindfulness can .
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be experienced²rather easily²and it can be described, as long as you keep in mind that the words are only fingers pointing at the moon They are not the thing itself The actual experi.
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ence lies beyond the words and above the symbols Mindfulness could be described in .
completely different terms than will be used here, and each description could still be correct
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Mindfulness is a subtle process that you are using at this very moment The fact that this .
process lies above and beyond words does not make it unreal²quite the reverse Mindfulness .
is the reality that gives rise to words; the words that follow are simply pale shadows of reality
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So, it is important to understand that everything that follows here is analogy It is not going .
to make perfect sense It will always remain beyond verbal logic But you can experience it .
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The meditation technique called vipassana (insight) that was introduced by the Buddha about twenty-five centuries ago is a set of mental activities specifically aimed at experiencing a state of uninterrupted uninterrupted mindfulness
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When you first become aware of something, there is a fleeting instant of pure awareness just before you conceptualize the thing, before you identify it That is a state of awareness .
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Ordinarily, this state is short-lived It is that flashing split second just as you focus your eyes .
on the thing, just as you focus your mind on the thing, just before you objectify it, clamp down on it mentally, and segregate it from the rest of existence It takes place just before you .
start thinking about it²before your mind says, ³Oh, it¶s a dog ´ That flowing, soft-focused .
moment of pure awareness is mindfulness In that brief flashing mind-moment you .
experience a thing as an un-thing You experience a softly flowing moment of pure .
experience that is interlocked with the rest of reality, not separate from it Mindfulness is .
very much like what you see with your peripheral vision as opposed to the hard focus of normal or central vision Yet this moment of soft, unfocused awareness contains a very deep .
sort of knowing that is lost as soon as you focus your mind and objectify the object into a thing In the process of ordinary perception, the mindfulness step is so fleeting as to be .
unobservable We have developed the habit of squandering our attention on all the .
remaining steps, focusing on the perception, cognizing the perception, labeling it, and mo st
of all, getting involved in a long string of symbolic thought about it That original moment of .
mindfulness is rapidly passed over It is the purpose of vipassana meditation to train us to .
prolong that moment of awareness
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When this mindfulness is prolonged by using proper techniques, you find that this experience is profound, and it changes your entire view of the universe This state of .
perception has to be learned, l earned, however, and it takes regular practice Once you learn the .
technique, you will find that th at mindfulness has many interesting aspects
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The Th e Charact Characte erist istics of Mindfulness Mindfulness is mirror-thought It reflects only what is presently happening and in exactly the .
way it is happening There are no biases .
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Mindfulness is nonjudgmental observation observation It is that ability of the mind to observe without .
criticism With this ability, one sees things without condemnation or judgment One is .
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surprised by nothing One simply takes a balanced interest in things exactly as they are in .
their natural states One does not decide and does not judge One just observes Please note .
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that when we say, ³One does not decide and does not judge,´ what we mean is that the meditator observes experiences very much like a scientist observing an object under a microscope without any preconceived notions, notions, only to see the object exactly as it is In the .
same way, the meditator notices impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness
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It is psychologically impossible for us to objectively observe what is going on within us if we do not at the same time accept the occurrence occ urrence of our various states of mind This is especially .
true with unpleasant states of mind In order to observe our own fear, we must accept the fact .
that we are afraid We can¶t examine our own depression without accepting it fully The same .
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is true for irritation and agitation, frustration, and all those other uncomfortable emotional states You can¶t examine something fully if you are busy rejecting its existence Whatever .
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experience we may be having, mindfulness just accepts it It is simply another of life¶s .
occurrences, just another thing to be aware of No pride, no shame, nothing personal at .
stake²what is there, is there
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Mindfulness is an impartial watchfulness It does not take sides It does not get hung up in .
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what is perceived It just perceives Mindfulness does not get infatuated with the good mental .
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states It does not try to sidestep the bad mental states There is no clinging to the pleasant, .
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no fleeing from the unpleasant Mindfulness treats all experiences equally, all thoughts .
of all, getting involved in a long string of symbolic thought about it That original moment of .
mindfulness is rapidly passed over It is the purpose of vipassana meditation to train us to .
prolong that moment of awareness
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When this mindfulness is prolonged by using proper techniques, you find that this experience is profound, and it changes your entire view of the universe This state of .
perception has to be learned, l earned, however, and it takes regular practice Once you learn the .
technique, you will find that th at mindfulness has many interesting aspects
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The Th e Charact Characte erist istics of Mindfulness Mindfulness is mirror-thought It reflects only what is presently happening and in exactly the .
way it is happening There are no biases .
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Mindfulness is nonjudgmental observation observation It is that ability of the mind to observe without .
criticism With this ability, one sees things without condemnation or judgment One is .
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surprised by nothing One simply takes a balanced interest in things exactly as they are in .
their natural states One does not decide and does not judge One just observes Please note .
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that when we say, ³One does not decide and does not judge,´ what we mean is that the meditator observes experiences very much like a scientist observing an object under a microscope without any preconceived notions, notions, only to see the object exactly as it is In the .
same way, the meditator notices impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness
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It is psychologically impossible for us to objectively observe what is going on within us if we do not at the same time accept the occurrence occ urrence of our various states of mind This is especially .
true with unpleasant states of mind In order to observe our own fear, we must accept the fact .
that we are afraid We can¶t examine our own depression without accepting it fully The same .
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is true for irritation and agitation, frustration, and all those other uncomfortable emotional states You can¶t examine something fully if you are busy rejecting its existence Whatever .
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experience we may be having, mindfulness just accepts it It is simply another of life¶s .
occurrences, just another thing to be aware of No pride, no shame, nothing personal at .
stake²what is there, is there
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Mindfulness is an impartial watchfulness It does not take sides It does not get hung up in .
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what is perceived It just perceives Mindfulness does not get infatuated with the good mental .
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states It does not try to sidestep the bad mental states There is no clinging to the pleasant, .
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no fleeing from the unpleasant Mindfulness treats all experiences equally, all thoughts .
equally, all feelings equally Nothing is suppressed Nothing is repressed Mindfulness does .
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not play favorites
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Mindfulness is nonconceptual awareness Another English term for sati is ³bare attention ´ It .
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is not thinking It does not get involved with thought or concepts It does not get hung up on .
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ideas or opinions or memories It just looks Mindfulness registers experiences, experiences, but it does .
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not compare them It does not label them or categorize them It just observes everything as if .
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it were occurring for the first time It is not analysis, which is based on reflection and .
memory It is, rather, the direct and immediate experiencing of whatever is happening, .
without the medium of thought It comes before thought in the perceptual process .
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Mindfulness is present-time awareness awareness It takes place in the here and now It is the .
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observance of what is happening right now, in the present moment It stays forever in the .
present, perpetually on the crest of the ongoing wave of passing time If you are remembering .
your second-grade teacher, that is memory When you then become aware that you are .
remembering your second-grade teacher, that is mindfulness If you then conceptualize the .
process and say to yourself, ³Oh, I am remembering,´ remembering,´ that is thinking
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Mindfulness is non-egotistic alertness It takes place without reference to self With .
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mindfulness one sees all phenomena without references to concepts like ³me,´ ³my,´ or ³mine ´ For example, suppose there is pain in your left leg Ordinary consciousness would .
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say, ³I have a pain ´ Using mindfulness, one would simply note the sensation as a sensation .
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One would not tack on that extra concept ³I ´ Mindfulness stops one from adding anything to .
perception, or subtracting anything from it One does not enhance anything One does not .
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emphasize anything One just observes exactly what is there th ere without distortion .
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Mindfulness is awareness of change It is observing the passing flow of experience It is .
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watching things as they are changing It is seeing the birth, growth, and maturity of all .
phenomena It is watching phenomena decay and die Mindfulness is watching things .
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moment by moment, continuously It is observing all phenomena² physical, mental, o r .
emotional²whatever emotional²whatever is presently taking place in the mind One just sits back and watches .
the show Mindfulness is the observance of the basic nature of each passing phenomenon phenomenon It .
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is watching the thing arising and passing away It is seeing how that thing makes us feel and .
how we react to it It is observing how it affects others In mindfulness, one is an unbiased .
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observer whose sole job is to keep k eep track of the constantly passing show of the universe within Please note that last point. In mindfulness, one watches the universe within The meditator .
who is developing mindfulness is not concerned with the external universe It is there, but in .
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meditation one¶s field of study is one¶s own experience, one¶s thoughts, one¶s feelings, and one¶s perceptions In meditation, one is one¶s own laboratory l aboratory The universe within has an .
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enormous fund of information containing the reflection of the external world and much more An examination of this material leads to total freedom .
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Mindfulness is participatory observation The meditator is both participant and observer at .
one and the same time If one watches one¶s emotions or physical sensations, one is feeling .
them at that very same moment Mindfulness is not an intellectual awareness It is just .
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awareness The mirror-thought metaphor breaks down here Mindfulness is objective, but it .
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is not cold or unfeeling It is the wakeful experience of life, an alert participation in the .
ongoing process of living Mindfulness is extremely difficult to define in words²not because .
it is complex, but because it is too simple and open The same problem crops up in every area .
of human experience The most basic concept is always the most difficult to pin down Look .
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at a dictionary and you will see a clear example Long words generally have concise .
definitions, but for short basic words like the and is, definitions can be a page long And in .
physics, the most difficult functions to describe are the most basic²those that deal with the most fundamental realities of quantum mechanics Mindfulness is a pre-symbolic function .
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You can play with word symbols all day long l ong and you will never pin it down completely We .
can never fully express what it is However, we can say what it does .
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Three Three Fundam Fundamen enta tall A ctivi ctivitties There are three fundamental activities of mindfulness We can use these activities as .
functional definitions of the term: (1) mindfulness reminds us of what we are supposed to be doing; (2) it sees things as they really are; and (3) it sees the true nature of all phenomena
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Let¶s examine these definitions in greater detail 1
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M indfulness indfulness
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reminds you of what you are supposed to be doing. In meditation, you put your
attention on one item When your mind wanders from this focus, it is mindfulness that .
reminds you that your mind is wandering and what you are supposed to be doing It is .
mindfulness that brings your mind back to the object of meditation All of this occurs .
instantaneously and without internal dialogue Mindfulness is not thinking Repeated .
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practice in meditation establishes this function as a mental habit, which then carries over into the rest of your life A serious meditator pays bare attention to occurrences all the time, .
day in, day out, whether formally sitting in meditation meditation or not This is a very lofty ideal toward .
which those who meditate may be working for a period of years or even decades Our habit of .
getting stuck in thought is years old, and that habit will hang on in the most tenacious
manner The only way out is to be equally persistent in the cultivation of constant .
mindfulness When mindfulness is present, you will notice when you become stuck in your .
thought patterns It is that very noticing which allows you to back out of the thought process .
and free yourself from it Mindfulness then returns your attention to its proper focus If you .
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are meditating at that moment, then your focus will be the formal object of meditation If you .
are not in formal meditation, it will be just a pure application of bare attention itself, just a pure noticing of whatever comes up without getting involved²³Ah, this comes up now this, and now this
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and
and now this ´ .
Mindfulness is at one and the same time both bare attention itself and the function of reminding us to pay bare attention if we have ceased to do so Bare attention is noticing It .
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reestablishes itself simply by noticing that it has not been present As soon as you are notic.
ing that you have not been noticing, then by definition you are noticing and then you are back again to paying bare attention
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Mindfulness creates its own distinct feeling in consciousness It has a flavor²a light, clear, .
energetic flavor By comparison, conscious thought is heavy, ponderous, and picky .
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But here again, these are just words Your own practice will show you the difference Then .
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you will probably come up with your own words, and the words used here will become superfluous Remember, practice is the thing .
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M indfulness
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sees things as they really are. Mindfulness adds nothing to perception and it
subtracts nothing It distorts nothing It is bare attention and just looks at whatever comes .
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up Conscious thought pastes things over our experience, loads us down with concepts and .
ideas, immerses us in a churning vortex of plans and worries, fears and fantasies When .
mindful, you don¶t play that game You just notice exactly what arises in the mind, then you .
notice the next thing ³Ah, this .
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and this
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and now this ´ It is really very simple .
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3. M indfulness sees the true nature of phenomena. Mindfulness and only mindfulness can
perceive that the three prime characteristics that Buddhism teaches are the deepest truths of existence In Pali these three are called anicca (impermanence), dukkha (unsatisfactoriness), .
and anatta (selflessness²the absence of a permanent, unchanging entity that we call soul or self) These truths are not presented in Buddhist teaching as dogmas demanding blind faith .
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The Buddhists feel that these truths are universal and self-evident to anyone who cares to investigate in a proper way Mindfulness is that method of investigation Mindfulness alone .
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has the power to reveal the deepest level of reality available to human observation At this .
level of inspection, one sees the following: (a) all conditioned things are inherently transitory; (b) every worldly thing is, in the end, unsatisfying; and (c) there are really no entities that are unchanging or permanent, only processes
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Mindfulness works like an electron microscope That is, it operates on so fine a level that one .
can actually directly perceive those realities that are at best theoretical constructs to the conscious thought process Mindfulness actually sees the impermanent character of every .
perception It sees the transitory and passing nature of everything that is perceived It also .
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sees the inherently unsatisfactory nature of all conditioned things It sees that there is no .
sense grabbing on to any of these passing shows Peace and happiness cannot be found that .
way And finally, mindfulness sees the inherent selflessness of all phenomena It sees the way .
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that we have arbitrarily selected a certain bundle of perceptions, chopped them off from the rest of the surging flow of experience, and then conceptualized them as separate, enduring entities Mindfulness actually sees these things It does not think about them; it sees them .
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directly
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When it is fully developed, mindfulness sees these three attributes of existence directly, instantaneously, and without the intervening medium of conscious thought In fact, even the .
attributes that we just covered are inherently unified They don¶t really exist as separate .
items They are purely the result of our struggle to take this fundamentally simple process .
called mindfulness and express it in the cumbersome and inadequate thought symbols of the conscious level Mindfulness is a process, but it does not take place in steps It is a holistic .
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process that occurs as a unit: you notice your own lack of mindfulness; and that noticing itself is a result of mindfulness; and mindfulness is bare attention; and bare attention is noticing things exactly as they are without distortion; and the way they are is impermanent (anicca), unsatisfactory (dukkha), and selfless ( anatta) It all takes place in the space of a few .
mind-moments This does not mean, however, that you will instantly attain liberation .
(freedom from all human weaknesses) as a result of your first moment of mindfulness
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Learning to integrate this material into your conscious life is quite another process And .
learning to prolong this state of mindfulness is still another They are joyous processes, .
however, and they are well worth the effort
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The Four Noble Truths by Traleg Kyabgon Adapted from T he Essence of Buddhism: An Introduction to Its Philosophy and Practice The Truth of Suffering
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The first of the Four Noble Truths is suffering, which is the usual translation of the Sanskrit word duhkha (Pali, dukkha ) We should qualify that translation by saying that this does not .
mean that the Buddha didn¶t acknowledge the existence of happiness or contentment in life
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The point that he was making is that there is happiness and also sorrow in the world; but the reason why everything we experience in our everyday life is said to be duhkha is that even when we have some kind of happiness, it is not permanent; it is subject to change So unless .
we can gain insight into that truth and understand what is really able to give us happiness, and what is unable to provide happiness, the experience of dissatisfaction will persist
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Normally we think our happiness is contingent upon external circumstances and situations, rather than upon our own inner attitude toward things, or toward life in general The Buddha .
was saying that dissatisfaction is part of life, even if we are seeking happiness and even if we manage to find temporary happiness The very fact that it is temporary means that sooner or .
later the happiness is going to pass So the Buddha said that unless we understand this and .
see how pervasive dissatisfaction or duhkha is, it is impossible for us to start looking for real happiness
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According to the Buddha, even when we think we are trying to find real happiness, we are not doing it effectively, because we don¶t have the right attitude and we don¶t know where to look for it The Buddha was not against happiness; rather, he gave us a method of finding out how .
to overcome that sense of dissatisfaction, and this method is part of the last Noble Truth (We .
shall come to that soon ) .
The key to understanding the truth of suffering is what the Buddha called the ³three marks´ of everything that exists All conditioned phenomena,1 he said, are pervaded by these three .
marks: impermanence ( anitya), dissatisfaction or suffering ( duhkha), and insubstantiality (anatman, ³without self´) According to the Buddha, if we do not understand how conditioned .
phenomena are marked by these three aspects, then we will not be able to understand the first Noble Truth We may do all we can in order to avoid facing the fact that everything is .
contingent and transient²we may try to hide ourselves from it, and we may even spin out all kinds of metaphysical theories of an unchanging, permanent, substantial reality to avoid this all-pervasive nature of ephemerality Also, if we do not understand that conditioned .
phenomena are unsatisfactory, we will not think about restraining ourselves from overindulgence in sensory gratifications, which makes us lose our c enter and become immersed in worldly concerns, so that our life is governed by greed, craving, and attachment
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All of these things disturb the mind If we do not understand that everything is .
insubstantial²anatman²then we may believe that there is some kind of enduring essence or
substance in things, or in the personality, and because of this belief we generate delusion and confusion in the mind
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The Origin of Suffering The second Noble Truth is the origin of suffering, which means that once we have realized that suffering or dissatisfaction exists, we next h ave to find out where that suffering comes from: does it originate within, or does it come from some kind of external situation or condition? The Buddha said that when we start to examine ourselves and see how we respond to situations, how we act in the world, how we feel about things, then we will realize that the cause of suffering is within This is not to say that external social or economic conditions .
don¶t create suffering; but the main suffering that afflicts us is created by our own mind and attitude
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The Buddha said that if we want to overcome dissatisfaction, which is intimately linked with our experience of suffering, then we have to deal with craving, grasping, clinging, and attachment²all these exaggerated forms of desire Now, some people think that Buddhists .
encourage the idea of eradicating desire altogether, but that is not what the Buddha said He .
said that we should try to overcome excessive and exaggerated forms of desire, which manifest as craving, grasping, and so on, because they make our condition worse by increasing our sense of dissatisfaction and discontentment It is the more obsessive types of .
desire that the Buddha said we should try to overcome As long as we have these strong forms .
of desire, they will always be accompanied by aversion, hatred, resentment, and so forth, because when we can¶t get what we want, we become frustrated, angry, and resentful Or, if .
we find some obstacles in the way of satisfying our desire, we want to eliminate them, eradicate them, or attack them We may even resort to violence and deception in order to .
satisfy our greed and craving So the Buddha said that we need to deal with these extreme .
forms of desires; but we should not aim to eradicate desire altogether, because we can use desire in all kinds of positive ways as well
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The Goal: The Cessation of Suffering The third Noble Truth is the goal First we find out about the human condition, how it is .
pervaded by a sense of dissatisfaction, then we look at the cause of that dissatisfaction, and after that we look at the goal, which is the attainment of nirvana Some people think nirvana .
is some kind of absolute reality that is transcendent and otherworldly But the Buddha said .
that one can attain nirvana while still living in this world; this is called ³nirvana with
remainder ´ One can also attain nirvana at the time of death, which is called ³nirvana without .
remainder ´ So it is possible to achieve nirvana in this very lifetime Achieving nirvana means .
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that one¶s mind is no longer afflicted by delusion and emotional afflictions The mind .
becomes tranquil, and one¶s experience of happiness is no longer dependent upon external situations and circumstances Therefore, one¶s reaction to things is less extreme, and one is .
able to maintain a sense of tranquillity and peace, even when faced by adverse circumstances
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This is so because the one who has attained nirvana has overcome the three root delusions of attraction, aversion, and ignorance When the mind is no longer governed by strong .
emotional reactions of either attraction and aversion, we can be at peace and tranquil even when things are not going right We maintain a sense of fortitude and face things .
courageously
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The Path: The W ay Out of Suffering Having realized that this is the goal²to achieve a permanent happiness that is not based upon external changing conditions²we then have to find out how to apply ourselves in order to achieve that goal This is what the fourth Noble Truth explains The fourth Noble Truth is .
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the path, and this is the essence of Buddhist practice Known as the Eightfold Noble Path, it .
is oriented toward developing three things in an individual: moral sensitivity, meditation or the concentrated mind, and wisdom Through the practice of moral sensitivity we become .
better individuals, able to overcome our egocentric tendencies We become more .
compassionate and more sensitive to the needs of o thers Through the practice of meditation .
our mind becomes more focused, more resilient, and more aware, which in turn gives rise to wisdom
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The Eightfold Noble Path consists of Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration
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The first two truths of Right Understanding and Right Thought correspond to the development of wisdom Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood all develop our .
moral sensitivities The last three²Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right .
Concentration²foster our meditative capabilities
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Right Understanding means understanding the Buddhist view, which, as we saw, is the middle view between eternalism and nihilism As the Buddha said, knowing how the world .
arises due to causes and conditions enables us not to fall into the extreme of nihilism The .
other aspect of the middle view is knowing how everything ceases when causes and
conditions cease Therefore, we do not fall into the extreme of the substantialist, essentialist, .
or eternalist view, because we realize that, even though things come into being through causes and conditions, nothing that exists on the physical or mental plane endures when those causes and conditions are no longer present
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Right Thought is associated with seeing how our thoughts and emotions are closely linked, and how indulging in negative forms of thought leads to the development of negative emotions such as hatred and jealousy Conversely, thinking in a positive way has an effect on .
our emotions, whereby we start to become more loving, more caring, and more sensitive to others
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Right Speech means that if we are not aware²as normally we are not²then we don¶t know what we are saying or doing Inadvertently, we indulge in all kinds of negative forms of .
speech such as lying, backbiting, haughty speech, and gossip It is important to become .
aware of our speech, because what we say and how we say it have a direct influence on the kind of person we become If we are always using harsh words, then we naturally become .
very aggressive
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Right Action relates to seeing how what we do is beneficial or harmful to ourselves and others This is involved with developing skill in the way we act in the world Instead of .
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thinking that we already know what is the right thing to do and what is the wrong thing to do, in a clear-cut manner, it is important to look closely at the way we act We should not simply .
rely on some preestablished rules or social norms; instead we should see how we as individuals act in the world and what the effects of our actions are upon ourselves, the environment, and other people
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With respect to Right Livelihood, the Buddha said that there is nothing wrong with making money and looking after one¶s family, but we must know how to make a living in a way that does not cause harm to others or ourselves So, for example, we do not engage in an .
occupation that involves cruelty to animals or human beings, or one that obliges us to use deception or inflict physical or mental pain on others If these things are involved, then we .
should give up that form of livelihood
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Right Effort has four aspects The first effort has to do with prevention: making an effort .
through meditation to ensure that one does not yield to unwholesome thoughts and emotions, and trying to prevent these from arising in the mind Unwholesome thoughts .
originate in attachment, aversion, and ignorance The second effort is to reduce the .
unwholesome thoughts and emotions that have already arisen in the mind The third effort is .
to develop wholesome thoughts and emotions, and this also is done in meditation Even if .
they are not yet present, we should make an effort to arouse them The fourth effort is to .
cultivate further those wholesome thoughts and emotions that h ave already risen in the mind
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Right Mindfulness is associated with becoming more attentive to our thoughts, emotions, feelings, speech, and behavior in meditation Whatever we experience, we become more .
conscious of it and more attentive to it, so that we gain more insight into the workings of the mind and how the mind influences our actions in everyday life
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Right Concentration also develops from meditation The mind becomes more focused and .
less distracted Even if we hear or see or think of something, the mind does not become .
distracted but is still able to maintain a state of concentration
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So that is the Eightfold Noble Path, which leads the individual from this condition of samsara2 to the attainment of nirvana, or enlightenment As we can see, the Four Noble .
Truths are both descriptive and prescriptive They describe the condition we are in²what .
sort of conditions are prevalent and what the problems are They also prescribe in terms of .
how to improve our situation, overcome our sense of dissatisfaction, and attain enlightenment through following the Eightfold Noble Path and its training in morality, meditation, and wisdom
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As I have said, the Four Noble Truths are the essence of all of the Buddha¶s teachings
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Without understanding them, we cannot proceed All the later interpretations of the original .
Buddhist teachings are based on the understanding of the Four Noble Truths There may be .
different ways of understanding how we can train in meditation, wisdom, or morality, but there is no disagreement in terms of the importance of the understanding of the Four Noble Truths All other practices are based upon or elaborate these fundamental teachings of .
Buddhism
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Notes 1
³Conditioned phenomena´ (Skt , samskrita; Pali, sankhate) means everything that exists is .
mutually conditioned owing to causes and conditions; things come into existence, persist for
some time, and then disintegrate, thus suggesting the impermanent nature of the empirical world
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Samsara (Skt ) is cyclic existence, in which²owing to the corrupting influence of the mental .
delusions of hatred, desire, and ignorance²sentient creatures are compelled to wander from one life form to another without respite until they meet up with the spiritual path
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The Eightfold Path by Chögyam Trungpa Adapted from T he M yth of Freedom and the Way of M editation
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There seem to be so many sidetracks in relating to our life-situations, sidetracks of all kinds by which we are seduced: ³Food, gas and lodging, next exit ´ We are always promised .
something if we turn right at the next exit as we travel down our highway There are so many .
colorful advertisements We never want to be just where and what we are; we always want to .
be somewhere else We can always turn right at the next exit, even though we really k now we .
are stuck on our highway anyway, that we really have no choice about it Where we are is .
embarrassing, and so we would like to hear somebody say that there is an alternative whereby we do not have to be ashamed of ourselves: ³I¶ll provide a mask, just put it on ´ Then .
you can get off at that exit and you are ³saved´ by pretending to be what you are not You .
think people see you as a different person, the one wearing the mask of what you would like to be
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Buddhism promises nothing It teaches us to be what we are where we are, constantly, and it .
teaches us to relate to our living situations accordingly That seems to be the way to proceed .
on our highway without being distracted by the sidetracks and exits of all kinds The signs .
say: ³Tibetan Village, next exit;´ ³Japanese Village, next exit;´ ³Nirvana, next exit;´ ³Enlightenment, next exit²instant one;´ ³Disneyland, next exit ´ If you turn right, everything .
is going to be OK You get what you are promised But after having gone to Disneyland or .
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having taken part in the Nirvana Festival, then you have to think about how you are going to get back to your car, how you are going to get home This means you have to get back on the .
highway once more It is unavoidable I am afraid that this portrays our basic situation, the .
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process in which we are constantly involved
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I am sorry not to be presenting any glamorous and beautiful promises Wisdom happens to .
be a domestic affair Buddha saw the world as it is and that was his enlightenment ³Buddha´ .
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means ³awake,´ being awake, completely awake²that seems to be his message to us He .
offered us a path to being awake, a path with eight points, and he called it ³the eightfold path ´ .
The first point the Buddha made has to do with ³right view ´ Wrong view is a matter of .
conceptualization Someone is walking toward us²suddenly we freeze Not only do we freeze .
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ourselves, but we also freeze the space in which the person is walking toward us We call him .
³friend´ who is walking through this space or ³enemy ´ Thus the person is automatically .
walking through a frozen situation of fixed ideas²´this is that,´ or ³this is not that ´ This is .
what Buddha called ³wrong view ´ It is a conceptualized view which is imperfect because we .
do not see the situation as it is There is the possibility, on the other hand, of not freezing that .
space The person could walk into a lubricated situation of myself and that person as we are .
Such a lubricated situation can exist and can create open space
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Of course, openness could be appropriated as a philosophical concept as well, but the philosophy need not necessarily be fixed The situation could be seen without the idea of .
lubrication as such, without any fixed idea In other words, the philosophical attitude could .
be just to see the situation as it is ³That person walking toward me is not a friend, therefore .
he is not an enemy either He is just a person approaching me I don¶t have to prejudge him .
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at all ´ That is what is called ³right view ´ .
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The next aspect of the eightfold path is called ³right intention ´ Ordinary intention is based .
upon the process we have just described Having conceptually fixed the person, now you are .
ready either to grasp or attack him Automatically there is an apparatus functioning to pro.
vide either a waterbed or a shotgun for that person That is the intention It is a thought .
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process which relates thinking to acting When you encounter a situation, you think; and .
thinking inclines toward acting In your constant alertness to relate the situation to your .
security, the intention is worked between two jaws The emotional element, concerned with .
pleasure or pain, expansion or withdrawal, is one jaw; the heavy, physical aspect of the situation is the other Situations keep you chewing your intention constantly, like gristle .
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Intention always has the quality of either invitation or attack
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But according to Buddha there is also ³right intention ´ In order to see what this is, we first .
must understand what Buddha meant by ³right ´ He did not mean to say right as opposed to .
wrong at all He said ³right´ meaning ³what is,´ being right without a concept of what is right .
³Right´ translates the Sanskrit samyak, which means ³complete ´ Completeness needs no .
relative help, no support through comparison; it is self sufficient Samyak means seeing life .
as it is without crutches, straightforwardly In a bar one says, ³I would like a straight drink ´ .
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Not diluted with club soda or water; you just have it straight That is samyak No dilutions, .
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no concoctions²just a straight drink Buddha realized that life could be potent and delicious, .
positive and creative, and he realized that you do not need any co ncoctions with which to mix it Life is a straight drink²hot pleasure, hot pain, straightforward, one hundred percent .
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So right intention means not being inclined toward anything other than what is You are not .
involved in the idea that life could be beautiful or could be painful, and you are not being careful about life According to Buddha, life is pain, life is pleasure That is the samyak .
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quality of it²so precise and direct: straight life without any concoctions There is no need at .
all to reduce life situations or intensify them Pleasure as it is, pain as it is²these are the .
absolute qualities of Buddha¶s approach to intention
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The third aspect of the eightfold path is ³right speech ´ In Sanskrit the word for speech is vac, .
which means ³utterance,´ ³word,´ or ³logos ´ It implies perfect communication, .
communication which says, ³It is so,´ rather than, ³I think it is so ´ ³Fire is hot,´ rather than, .
³I think fire is hot ´ Fire is hot, automatically²the direct approach Such communication is .
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true speech, in Sanskrit satya, which means ³being true ´ It is dark outside at this time .
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Nobody would disagree with that Nobody would have to say, ³I think it is dark outside,´ or, .
³You must believe it is dark outside ´ You would just say, ³It is dark outside ´ It is just the .
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simple minimum of words we could use It is true .
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The fourth aspect of the eightfold path is ³right morality´ or ³right discipline ´ If there is no .
one to impose discipline and no one to impose discipline on, then there is no need for discipline in the ordinary sense at all This leads to the understanding of right discipline, .
complete discipline, which does not exist relative to ego Ordinary discipline exists only at the .
level of relative decisions If there is a tree, there must be branches; however, if there is no .
tree, there are no such things as branches Likewise, if there is no ego, a whole range of .
projections becomes unnecessary Right discipline is that kind of giving-up process; it brings .
us into complete simplicity
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We are all familiar with the samsaric kind of discipline which is aimed at self-improvement
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We give up all kinds of things in order to make ourselves ³better,´ which provides us with tremendous reassurance that we can do something with our lives Such forms of discipline .
are just unnecessarily complicating your life rather than trying to simplify and live the life of a rishi
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³Rishi´ is a Sanskrit word which refers to the person who constantly leads a straightforward life The Tibetan word for ³rishi´ is trangsong (drang sron) .
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T rang means ³direct,´ song means
³upright ´ The term refers to one who leads a direct and upright life by not introducing new .
complications into his life-situation This is a permanent discipline, the ultimate discipline .
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We simplify life rather than get involved with new gadgets or finding new c oncoctions with which to mix it
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The fifth point is ³right livelihood ´ According to Buddha, right livelihood simply means .
making money by working, earning dollars, pounds, francs, pesos To buy food and pay rent .
you need money This is not a cruel imposition on us It is a natural situation We need not be .
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embarrassed by dealing with money nor resent having to work The more energy you put out, .
the more you get in Earning money involves you in so many related situations that it .
permeates your whole life Avoiding work usually is related to avoiding other aspects of life as .
well
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People who reject the materialism of American soc iety and set themselves apart from it are unwilling to face themselves They would like to comfort themselves with the notion that they .
are leading philosophically virtuous lives, rather than realizing that they are unwilling to work with the world as it is We cannot expect to be helped by divine beings If we adopt .
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doctrines which lead us to expect blessings, then we will not be open to the real possibilities in situations Buddha believed in cause and effect For example, you get angry at your friend .
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and decide to cut off the relationship You have a hot argument with him and walk out of the .
room and slam the door You catch your finger in the door Painful, isn¶t it? That is cause and .
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effect You realize there is some warning there You have overlooked karmic necessity It .
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happens all the time This is what we run into when we violate right livelihood .
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The sixth point is ³right effort ´ The Sanskrit, samyagvyayama, means energy, endurance, .
exertion This is the same as the bodhisattva¶s principle of energy There is no need to be .
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continually just pushing along, drudging along If you are awake and open in living .
situations, it is possible for them and you to be creative, beautiful, humorous, and delightful
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This natural openness is right effort, as opposed to any old effort Right effort is seeing a .
situation precisely as it is at that very moment, being present fully, with delight, with a grin
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There are occasions when we know we are present, but we do not really want to commit ourselves, but right effort involves full participation
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For right effort to take place we need gaps in our discursive or visionary gossip, room to stop and be present Usually, someone is whispering some kind of seduction, some gossip behind .
our back: ³It¶s all very well to meditate, but how about going to the movies? Meditating is nice, but how about getting together with our friends? How about that? Shall we read that book? Maybe we should go to sleep Shall we go buy that thing we want? Shall we? Shall we? .
Shall we?´ Discursive thoughts constantly happening, numerous suggestions constantly being supplied²effort has no room to take place Or maybe it is not discursive thoughts at .
all Sometimes it is a continual vision of possibilities: ³My enemy is coming and I¶m hitting .
him²I want war ´ Or, ³My friend is coming, I¶m hugging him, welcoming him to my house, .
giving him hospitality ´ It goes on all the time ³I have a desire to eat lambchops²no, leg of .
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lamb, steak, lemon ice cream My friend and I could go out to the shop and get some ice .
cream and bring it home and have a nice conversation over ice cream We could go to that .
Mexican restaurant and get tacos µto go¶ and bring them back home We¶ll dip them in the .
sauce and eat together and have a nice philosophical discussion as we eat Nice to do that .
with candlelight and soft music ´ We are constantly dreaming of infinite possibilities for all .
kinds of entertainment There is no room to stop, no room to start providing space Providing .
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space: effort, non-effort and effort, non-effort²it¶s very choppy in a sense, very precise, knowing how to release the discursive or visionary gossip Right effort²it¶s beautiful .
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The next one is ³right mindfulness ´ Right mindfulness does not simply mean being aware; it .
is like creating a work of art There is more spaciousness in right mindfulness than in right .
effort If you are drinking a cup of tea, you are aware of the whole environment as well as the .
cup of tea You can therefore trust what you are doing, you are not threatened by anything .
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You have room to dance in the space, and this makes it a creative situation The space is open .
to you
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The eighth aspect of the eightfold path is ³right samadhi,´ right absorption Samadhi has the .
sense of being as it is, which means relating with the space of a situation This pertains to .
one¶s living situation as well as to sitting meditation Right absorption is being completely .
involved, thoroughly and fully, in a non-dualistic way In sitting meditation the technique .
and you are one; in life situations the phenomenal world is also part of you Therefore you do .
not have to meditate as such, as though you were a person distinct from the act of meditating and the object of meditation If you are one with the living situation as it is, your meditation .
just automatically happens Understanding
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K arma: Cause and Effect
by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield Adapted from S eeking the Heart of Wisdom: T he Path of Insight M editation
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The law of karma is one of the most important laws governing our lives When we .
understand it and live our understanding, when we act on what we know, then we ,
experience a sense of wholeness and peace K arma
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is a Sanskrit word (kamma in Pali) that means ³action ´ The law of karma refers to the .
law of cause and effect: that every volitional act brings about a certain result If we act .
motivated by greed, hatred, or delusion, we are planting the seed of suffering; when our acts are motivated by generosity, love, or wisdom, then we are creating the karmic conditions for abundance and happiness An analogy from the physical world illustrates this: if we plant an .
apple seed, the tree that grows will bear apples, not mangos And once the apple seed is .
planted, no amount of manipulation or beseeching or complaining will induce the tree to yield a mango The only meaningful action that will produce a mango is to plant a mango .
seed Karma is just such a law of nature, the law of cause and effect on the psychophysical .
plane
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The Buddha used the term karma specifically referring to volition, the intention or motive behind an action He said that karma is volition, because it is the motivation behind the .
action that determines the karmic fruit Inherent in each intention in the mind is an energy .
powerful enough to bring about subsequent results When we understand that karma is .
based on volition, we can see the enormous responsibility we have to become conscious of the intentions that precede our actions If we are unaware of the motives in our minds, when .
unskillful volitions arise we may unmindfully act on them and thus create the conditions for future suffering
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The law of karma can be understood on two levels, which indicate the vast scope of its implications in our lives On one level, karma refers to the experience of cause and effect over .
a period of time We perform an action, and sometime later we begin to experience its .
results We plant a mango seed, and many years later we taste the fruit The other level of .
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understanding karma has to do with the quality of mind in the very moment of action When .
we experience a mind state of love, there comes naturally along with it a feeling of openness and joy that is its immediate fruit; similarly, when there are moments of greed or hatred, in addition to whatever future results will come, we also experience the painful energies that arise with those states Our direct awareness of how the karmic law is working in each .
moment can be a strong motivation to develop skillful states of mind that create happiness for us in the moment, as well as produce the fruit of well-being in the future
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Another dimension of the law of karma helps in understanding how individual personalities develop While it is true that there is no enduring entity, no unchanging self that can be .
called ³I,´ it is also quite obvious that each of us is a uniquely changing and recognizable pattern of elements This comes about because each of us has in our own way, both .
consciously and unconsciously, cultivated different mind states If we cultivate loving.
kindness, we experience its taste in the moment and at the same time are strengthening it as a force in the mind, making it easier for it to arise again When we are angry, we experience .
the suffering of that anger as present karma and are also strengthening that particular pattern of mind Just as we condition our bodies in different ways through exercise or lack of .
it, so we also condition our minds Every mind state, thought, or emotion that we experience .
repeatedly becomes stronger and more habituated Who we are as personalities is a .
collection of all the tendencies of mind that have been developed, the particular energy configurations we have cultivated
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We tend not to pay attention to this conditioning factor of our experience, thinking instead that once an experience has passed it is gone without residue or result That would be like .
dropping a stone in water without creating any ripples Each mind state that we experience .
further conditions and strengthens it
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The great inspiration of the Buddha¶s teaching is that we must each take ultimate responsibility for the quality of our lives Given certain volitional actions, certain results will .
follow When we understand that our lives are the unfolding of karmic law, that we are the .
heirs to our own deeds, then there grows in us a deepening sense of responsibility for how we live, the choices we make, and the actions we undertake
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A ttachment by Ezra Bayda Adapted from At Home in the M uddy Water: A Guide to Finding Peace within Everyday Chaos
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The most troublesome beliefs are related to our attachments, which are often hard to identify Attachments are simple beliefs²fantasies, in fact²that have become solidified as .
³truth´ in our mind They also partake of the energy of desire, which is based on the .
underlying belief that without some particular person or thing, we can never be free from suffering Attachment also takes the form of avoidance; we believe we can¶t be happy as long .
as a particular person, condition, or object is in our lives To experience negative attachment, .
just think of your least favorite food or person
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We all develop attachments to the persons or things we believe are essential to our happiness Often we¶re more attached to our belief than we are to the actual person or thing .
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The belief fuels our anxious efforts to attain or keep this someone or something If we .
succeed, we might experience an ephemeral excitement But because we¶ll always be anxious .
about losing what we gained, our satisfaction is short-lived
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In order to practice with attachment, we have to first see our belief with clarity, precision, and honesty Next, we have to see that not only is this belief false, but clinging to it is the .
source of our unhappiness It¶s because we are attached that we are unhappy .
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For example, it¶s easy to see how we are attached to other people, truly believing that our happiness somehow depends on them We can also easily see how we are attached to food, .
pleasure, or comfort We maintain the belief that our emotional well-being is inextricably .
linked to having what we believe will make us happy But holding these beliefs guarantees .
that we cannot be deeply satisfied, because we will always be anxious at the thought of losing what we believe makes us happy If we wish to be really happy, we have to give up our at.
tachments
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In other words, we have to make the choice between happiness and attachment Do we want .
to be attached or do we want to be happy? The answer is very clear²we want to be attached! For example, even though we can see that our desires give us ephemeral pleasure at best, we still cling to them We won¶t give up the belief that they will in fact eventually make us happy .
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Will money or position make us happy in the sense of a deep or abiding satisfaction? Even when we experience that they won¶t, we often still pursue them, because we still believe that they could Will another person make us happy? This is a little more difficult to see, because .
we all cling to the desire to feel appreciated, loved, secure, connected, and we believe that someone can provide this Even when we see that someone can¶t give us what we want and .
require, we still believe they can! This belief is our attachment, the source of our suffering As .
long as we see another person through the filter of our fear-based requirement that they make us feel a certain way, we are setting ourselves up for reaction and disappointment
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Do our core beliefs that we are unworthy, unlovable, and incomplete make us happy? Just the opposite, yet our attachment to our core beliefs remains one of the strongest
attachments, and also one of the most difficult to see, because what we are attached to is so close to home It¶s our defining identity as a self We feel a sense of stability in the familiar, .
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even when it makes us miserable
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We can find attachments everywhere: to our accomplishments, to identities based on how others see us, to our occupation, to where we live, to what kind of car we drive We can .
certainly find our attachments to another person being a particular way, based on the belief that we need them to be a certain way for us to be happy But love, or the happiness that we .
naturally derive from love, is not based on need And to the extent that we are attached to the .
fulfillment of our needs, we cannot really love
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Freedom from attachment requires that we first see the ways in which we¶re attached In .
particular, we have to see how attachments arise out of beliefs For example, physical pain .
presents an opportunity to look at our attachment to comfort and the beliefs we hold around it The belief that life should be free from pain might express itself in thoughts such as ³This .
is too much´ or ³Nobody should have to put up with this ´ Underlying those thoughts is the .
belief that we can¶t feel happiness while we¶re feeling discomfort I certainly used to believe .
this, but now I know that it simply isn¶t true In fact, attachment to the belief that we can¶t be .
happy while in pain may be a greater source of suffering than physical discomfort itself Until .
we see this belief for what it is, a belief that may not even be true, we¶ll remain attached to physical comfort, guaranteeing our dissatisfaction
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I¶m not talking about becoming totally free of attachment, but about loosening our clinging
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We can move from the demand that we get some particular thing to the less emotion-based preference for that thing For example, suppose we are attached to our health If we become .
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sick or disabled, especially for a long time, we may experience our attachment, at least in part, in the form of anger Our attachment to a picture of how life should be, h ealthy in this .
case, takes the form of an emotion-based demand When life doesn¶t meet this demand, we .
feel angry Only as we work with our attachment can we see through the demands that we¶re .
placing on life As the demand loses its hold, we can enjoy it as a preference Having .
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preferences isn¶t a problem, nor is enjoying them What is problematic, and what gives rise to .
suffering, is enslavement to our attachments to such an extent that they run our life
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The practice of working with attachment first requires that we experience the prison of our attachments
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Second, we have to see that we don¶t want to get out of this prison, that we prefer believing our beliefs to being free Third, we have to observe ourselves and²with clarity, precision, and .
honesty²come to know all the beliefs that maintain a particular attachment
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Fourth, we need to see with equal clarity that our beliefs are not th e truth; they are just beliefs This is much easier said than done It¶s at this point that we can understand why we .
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hold on to our beliefs and why we¶re afraid to give them up We begin to see how we use our .
beliefs as a shield against feeling our fears
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Then we must enter the experiential world, where we begin to drop our beliefs and allow the fear of losing our belief-based identity to arise But who wants to reside in this sinking quiver .
of groundlessness? No one does However, only when we¶re able to reside in the physical .
experience of groundlessness²no longer clinging to our believed thoughts²can we disconnect the circuitry of our conditioning and diminish the power of our attachments But .
it may take a large dose of disappointment to make this understanding real
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In this way, we gradually begin to experience a genuine life, without the beliefs and beyond the terror This is the path of practice When we fully see through and experience our at.
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tachments, the result is freedom When we see through our fears, the result is love When we .
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see without our filters, judgments, and desires, the result is appreciation and the quiet joy of being
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At any given moment, you can ask the questions: Where do my attachments lie right now? What someone or something do I believe I can¶t be content without? The Three Mark s of Existence by Pema Chödrön Adapted from When T hings Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult T imes
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There are three truths²traditionally called three marks²of our existence: impermanence, suffering, and egolessness Even though they accurately describe the rock-bottom qualities of .
our existence, these words sound threatening It¶s easy to get the idea that there is something .
wrong with impermanence, suffering, and egolessness, which is like thinking that there is something wrong with our fundamental situation But there¶s nothing wrong with .
impermanence, suffering, and egolessness; they can be celebrated Our fundamental .
situation is joyful
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Impermanence is the goodness of reality Just as the four seasons are in continual flux, .
winter changing to spring to summer to autumn; just as day becomes night, light becoming dark becoming light again²in the same way, everything is constantly evolving
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Impermanence is the essence of everything It is babies becoming children, then teenagers, .
then adults, then old people, and somewhere along the way dropping dead Impermanence is .
meeting and parting It¶s falling in love and falling out of love Impermanence is bittersweet, .
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like buying a new shirt and years later finding it as part of a patchwork quilt
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People have no respect for impermanence We take no delight in it; in fact, we despair of it .
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We regard it as pain We try to resist it by making things that will last²forever, we say² .
things that we don¶t have to wash, things that we don¶t have to iron Somehow, in the process .
of trying to deny that things are always changing, we lose our sense of the sacredness of life We tend to forget that we are part of the natural scheme of things
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Impermanence is a principle of harmony When we don¶t struggle against it, we are in .
harmony with reality Many cultures celebrate this connectedness There are ceremonies .
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marking all the transitions of life from birth to death, as well as meetings and partings, going into battle, losing the battle, and winning the battle We too could acknowledge, respect, and .
celebrate impermanence
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But what about suffering? Why would we celebrate suffering? Doesn¶t that sound masochistic? Our suffering is based so much on our fear of impermanence Our pain is so .
rooted in our one-sided, lopsided view of reality Whoever got the idea that we could have .
pleasure without pain? It¶s promoted rather widely in this world, and we buy it But pain and .
pleasure go together; they are inseparable They can be celebrated They are ordinary Birth .
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is painful and delightful Death is painful and delightful Everything that ends is also the .
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beginning of something else Pain is not a punishment; pleasure is not a reward .
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Inspiration and wretchedness are inseparable We always want to get rid of misery rather .
than see how it works together with joy The point isn¶t to cultivate one thing as opposed to .
another, but to relate properly to where we are Inspiration and wretchedness complement .
each other With only inspiration, we become arrogant With only wretchedness, we lose our .
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vision Feeling inspired cheers us up, makes us realize how vast and wonderful our world is .
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Feeling wretched humbles us The gloriousness of our inspiration connects us with the .
sacredness of the world But when the tables are turned and we feel wretched, that softens us .
up It ripens our hearts It becomes the ground for understanding others Both the .
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inspiration and the wretchedness can be celebrated We can be big and small at the same .
time
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Can we also celebrate egolessness? Often we think of egolessness as a great loss, but actually it¶s a gain The acknowledgment of egolessness, our natural state, is like regaining eyesight .
after having been blind or regaining hearing after having been deaf Egolessness has been .
compared to the rays of the sun With no solid sun, the rays just radiate outward In the same .
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way, wakefulness naturally radiates out when we¶re not so concerned with ourselves
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Egolessness is the same thing as basic goodness or buddha nature, our unconditional being It¶s what we always have and never really lose
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Ego could be defined as whatever covers up basic goodness From an experiential point of .
view, what is ego covering up? It¶s covering up our experience of just being here, just fully being where we are, so that we can relate with the immediacy of our experience Egolessness .
is a state of mind that has complete confidence in the sacredness of the world It is .
unconditional well-being, unconditional joy that includes all the different qualities of our experience
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So how do we celebrate impermanence, suffering, and egolessness in our everyday lives? When impermanence presents itself in our lives, we can recognize it as impermanence We .
don¶t have to look for opportunities to do this When your pen runs out of ink in the middle .
of writing an important letter, recognize it as impermanence, part of the whole cycle of life
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When someone¶s born, recognize it as impermanence When someone dies, recognize it as .
impermanence When your car gets stolen, recognize it as impermanence When you fall in .
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love, recognize it as impermanence, and let that intensify the preciousness When a .
relationship ends, recognize it as impermanence There are countless examples of .
impermanence in our lives every day, from the moment we wake up until we fall asleep and even while we¶re dreaming, all the time This is a twenty-four-hour-a-day practice Recognize .
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impermanence as impermanence
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Then we can recognize our reaction to impermanence This is where curiosity comes in .
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Usually we just react habitually to events in our lives We become resentful or delighted, .
excited or disappointed There¶s no intelligence involved, no cheerfulness But when we .
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recognize impermanence as impermanence, we can also notice what our reaction to impermanence is This is called mindfulness, awareness, curiosity, inquisitiveness, paying .
attention Whatever we call it, it¶s a very helpful practice, the practice of c oming to know .
ourselves completely
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When suffering arises in our lives, we can recognize it as suffering When we get what we .
don¶t want, when we don¶t get what we do want, when we become ill, when we¶re getting old, when we¶re dying²when we see any of these things in our lives, we can recognize suffering as suffering Then we can be curious, notice, and be mindful of our reactions to that Again, .
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usually we¶re either resentful and feel cheated somehow, or we¶re delighted But whatever our .
reaction is, it¶s usually habitual Instead, we could see the next impulse come up, and how we .
spin off from there Spinning off is neither good nor bad; it¶s just something that happens as .
a reaction to the pleasure and pain of our existence We can simply see that, without .
judgment or the intention to clean up our act
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When egolessness arises, we can recognize it as egolessness²a fresh moment, a clear perception of a smell or a sight or a sound, a feeling of opening to emotions or thoughts rather than closing off into our narrow limited selves When we perceive the spaciousness in .
our lives, when we sense a gap in the continual conversation we have with ourselves, when we suddenly notice what¶s in front of us, when we take a fresh, clear, unedited look at reality, we can recognize it as egolessness It doesn¶t have to be a big deal Egolessness is available all .
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the time as freshness, openness, delight in our sense perceptions Curiously enough, we also .
experience egolessness when we don¶t know what¶s happening, when we¶ve lost our reference point, when we get a shock and our mind is stopped We can notice our reactions to that .
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Sometimes we open further; sometimes we quickly shut down In any case, when egolessness .
occurs in our lives, we can recognize it as egolessness We can notice, be curious, be mindful .
of our reactions and of what happens next
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Often peace is taught as the fourth mark of existence This isn¶t the peace that¶s the opposite .
of war It¶s the well-being that comes when we can see the infinite pairs of opposites as .
complementary If there is beauty, there must be ugliness If there is right, there is wrong .
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Wisdom and ignorance cannot be separated This is an old truth²one that men and women .
like ourselves have been discovering for a long time Cultivating moment-to-moment .
curiosity, we just might find that day by day this kind of peace dawns on us, and we begin to understand what all the books have been talking about
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So don¶t take anything for granted, and don¶t believe everything you¶re told Without being .
cynical or gullible, look for the living quality of the dharma Recognize impermanence and .
suffering and egolessness at the kitchen-sink level, and be inquisitive about your reactions
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Find out for yourself about peace and whether or not it¶s true that our fundamental situation is joyful
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Koans by Philip Kapleau Adapted from S traight to the Heart of Zen: Eleven Classic K oans and T heir Inner M eanings
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Much has already been written on koans, yet there remains misunderstanding and confusion as to what koans actually are In essence, koans are a form of spiritual practice unique to Zen .
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Since the days of the great Zen masters of ancient China, they have been used to help Zen students realize, refine, and embody the Buddha¶s teachings Literally they are often baffling .
verbal expressions, puzzling or frustrating to logic, built around o r taken from the sayings and doings of the ancient Zen masters, or occasionally from mythic/historical events in the life of the Buddha Several books of koans, collections put together during th e great T¶ang .
era, are in regular use in Zen training centers today, the two most central being the M umonkan,
or Gateless Barrier , and the Hekiganroku, or Blue Cliff (sometimes translated as Blue Rock) Record.
Koans are not intellectual puzzles or conundrums, nor are they tricky and clever; rather, they are direct and profound Every koan points to our True Face and True Home To realize the .
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essence of a koan is to realize the primal condition of one¶s own mind²a state of awareness, freedom, wisdom, and compassion Viewed from this innate condition of Being, a koan is the .
clearest formulation of an essential truth²the truth of one¶s own nature In essence, koans .
are tools designed by the spiritual geniuses of ancient China to help us realize the truth of our own nature and the nature of all living things, and to do so in the midst of our ordinary l ives
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Working on koans under the guidance of an awakened and disciplined teacher is a concrete way of bringing to life the four bodhisattva vows chanted daily in all Zen centers, zendos, and monasteries: All beings without number I vow to liberate Endless blind passions I vow to uproot
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Dharma gates beyond measure I vow to penetrate The great way of Buddha I vow to attain
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It is a tried and true way to awaken one¶s own sleeping buddha heart and mind and to liberate them to work for the welfare of others The heart of Zen is not a mechanical pump It .
is a roaring lion, and it is radiant
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Not everyone practicing Zen necessarily finds koan training to be his or her best mode of practice Some people work on koans for a while and then choose to work on one .
fundamental question or do shikantaza, the practice of pure attention Most practitioners start .
with breath-counting or following the breath and begin koan training or shikantaza later
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There is no set path Still, as koans reveal so much of Zen tradition and its uniquely creative .
style, dynamic spirit, and profound wisdom, commentaries on them can benefit anyone with a genuine interest in spiritual practice
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Actually everything, just as it is, is a koan, the expression of perfection To realize this .
perfection is the working out of a living koan All koans²and there are many of them² .
express this perfection in different forms, but all of them reveal the essential perfection of existence lying beyond the realm of ever-changing appearances Every koan points to our .
Original Mind and is designed to bring us to the realization of it You could say that all koans .
have a fundamental purpose²to lead us to our own real home, the one we knew before our parents gave birth to us
Bardo:
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The Experience of Nowness
by Francesca Fremantle Adapted from Luminous Emptiness: Understanding the T ibetan Book of the Dead
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Originally bardo referred only to the period between one life and the next, and this is still its normal meaning when it is mentioned without any qualification Later Buddhism expanded .
the whole concept to distinguish six or more similar states, covering the whole cycle of life, death, and rebirth But it can also be interpreted as any transitional experience, any state that .
lies between two other states Its original meaning, the experience of being between death .
and rebirth, is the prototype of the bardo experience, while the six traditional bardos show how the essential qualities of that experience are also present in other transitional periods
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By refining even further the understanding of the essence of bardo, it can then be applied to every moment of existence The present moment, the now, is a continual bardo, always .
suspended between the past and the future
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Bardo can have many implications, depending on how one looks at it It is an interval, a .
hiatus, a gap It can act as a boundary that divides and separates, marking the end of one .
thing and the beginning of another; but it can also be a link between the two²it can serve as a bridge or a meeting place that brings together and unites It is a crossing, a stepping-stone, .
a transition It is a crossroads where one must choose which path to take, and it is a no.
man¶s-land belonging to neither one side nor the other It is a highlight or peak point of .
experience and at the same time a situation of extreme tension caught between two opposites It is an open space filled with an atmosphere of suspension and uncertainty, .
neither this nor that In such a state, one may feel confused and frightened, or one may feel .
surprisingly liberated and open to new possibilities where anything might happen
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Such moments as these occur continuously in life, unrecognized; this is the inner significance of the bardo states as the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche taught He .
spoke of them as periods of uncertainty between sanity and insanity or between the confusion of samsara and the transformation of confusion into wisdom ³They are the .
heightened qualities of different types of ego and the possibility of getting off ego That¶s .
where bardo starts²the peak experience in which there is the possibility of losing the grip of ego and the possibility of being swallowed up in it ´ .
Wherever there is the death of one state of mind, there is the birth of another, and linking the two there is bardo The past has gone and the future has not yet come; we cannot catch that .
in-between moment, yet it is really all there is ³In other words, it is present experience, the .
immediate experience of nowness²where you are, where you¶re at ´ .
According to this tradition, the six bardos are the bardo of this life (or birth), the bardo of dream, the bardo of meditation, the bardo of dying, the bardo of dharmata (or reality), and the bardo of existence (or becoming) Other traditions recognize some additional ones, but .
the principle is the same The bardos are distinguished from each other in this way because .
they indicate different modes of consciousness, just as the waking consciousness differs from the dreaming consciousness These states can last for a short or long period of time, as long .
as a whole lifetime in the case of the first one, yet they all share the mysterious and immensely powerful quality of ³in-betweenness ´ Or we could say that, by learning to see .
these stages of our lives as bardos, we can gain access to that power, which is always present, unnoticed, in every moment of existence
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The Heart Sutra Commentary by Zen Master Seung Sahn Adapted from T he Compass of Zen
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The Maha Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra
iving that all five skandhas are empty saves all beings from suffering
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does not differ from emptiness, emptiness does not differ from form
Form is emptiness, emptiness is form
No appearing, no disappearing
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No taint, no purity
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No increase, no decrease
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All dharmas are marked with emptiness
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No cognition²no attainment
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Nirvana
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Unexcelled perfect enlightenment²anuttara samyak sambodhi.
Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhi svaha! ²From the Heart S utra
The Heart S utra has only two hundred seventy Chinese characters, yet it contains all of Mahayana Buddhism¶s teaching Inside this sutra is the essence of the Diamond S utra, the .
Avatamsaka-sutra, and the Lotus S utra. It contains the meaning of all the eighty-four thousand
sutras It is chanted in every Mahayana and Zen temple in the world In Korean temples and .
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in our Zen centers in the West, the Heart S utra is chanted at least twice every day, in the morning and at night, and during retreats it is chanted more Sometimes if you find that your .
mind is not clear, and meditation does not help so much, you must read this sutra Then your .
mind will become clear M aha
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means big, great Prajna means wisdom, and paramita means ³going beyond,´ or .
perfecting Hridya means heart And the Chinese characters for Heart S utra are shim gyong, or .
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³mind road ´ So this sutra is the ³great path for the perfection of wisdom ´ .
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The word maha in the title of this sutra points to something of very great size What is truly .
numberless in time and space? Someone may say that the ground is the biggest thing When .
you really stop to think about it, the oceans seem to be the biggest thing²there is more water than land Or is the sky the biggest thing? Maybe space is the greatest thing we know of .
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Perhaps sky and space together are the number one biggest thing! The universe is infinite in time and space, and contains infinite worlds²is that the biggest thing? Everybody probably thinks that this is so But an eminent teacher said, ³This whole universe covers my body, yet .
my mind can cover the whole universe ´ This is a very important point The universe covers .
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and surrounds our world and everything inside it, so it must be truly big But in the instant .
that you think of the universe²´universe´²you have already covered the whole universe with your mind Therefore our mind is bigger than the infinite time and infinite space of this .
universe How wonderful! The Heart S utra points to this biggest thing: mind It shows how we .
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can discover and cultivate the proper use of the biggest thing, so that is why this little sutra is called maha. Perceiving that all five skandhas are empty sa ves all beings f rom suffering and distress. There is suffering everywhere we look in the world All beings are in pain and distress But .
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where does suffering come from? People are struck with a hopeless love for somebody, or they pursue the desire to obtain some material things People have ambition to become .
things that they feel will complete their life, or to be recognized and approved by others But .
no matter how hard we struggle for these things, even when we get them, we cannot keep them And this causes all our suffering But originally this suffering does not exist It all .
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comes from our mind, as a mirage rises up from a hot road and appears real If I am suffering .
over some matter, and then I die, my suffering also disappears When we realize this²that .
suffering is merely the product of our minds, and does not have some independent existence²then there is no longer any suffering and distress
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So, what is this mind that is so great? If you are thinking, you cannot find your mind anywhere If you cut off all thinking²which means if you cut off all attachment to your .
thinking²then your true nature appears everywhere The Buddha first taught that what we .
call mind or ³I´ is only the five skandhas of form, feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness These skandhas, or aggregates, are constantly changing; they are only heaps .
of mental energy Since human beings are attached to form, feelings, perceptions, impulses, .
and consciousness, then when they inevitably change, we get suffering We never get out of .
the suffering world This is because we believe that these things are real, and that they are the .
real ³I ´ This is a central teaching of Hinayana Buddhism .
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However, the Heart S utra¶s opening line shows that these skandhas are originally empty
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Since that is so, where is suffering? What can possibly suffer? Here is a cup o f orange juice If .
you have ³cup,´ then you can keep this orange juice here But if this cup breaks, how can the .
orange juice remain? You cannot keep the juice there, yah? Suffering is the same as that
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Where does suffering abide? If you are attached to the five skandhas of form, feelings, perceptions, impulses, or consciousness, then suffering has a place to stay But the Heart .
S utra
shows the view that these five skandhas are empty Mind is completely empty: where .
can suffering possibly stay? So this teaching about emptiness is very, very important to attain When you practice the way of the perfection of wisdom, you attain the view that all .
five skandhas are actually empty Attaining this view saves us from all suffering and distress .
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Merely understanding these views cannot help you²you must attain something
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Form does not differ f rom emptiness, emptiness does not differ f rom form. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. The Heart S utra teaches that ³form is emptiness, and emptiness is form ´ Many people don¶t .
know what this means²even some long-time students of meditation But there is a very easy .
way to see this in our everyday lives For example, here is a wooden chair It is brown It is .
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solid and heavy It looks like it could last a long time You sit in the chair, and it holds up .
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your weight You can place things on it But then you light the chair on fire and leave When .
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you come back later, the chair is no longer there! This thing that seemed so solid and strong and real is now just a pile of cinder and ash which the wind blows around This example .
shows how the chair is empty: it is not a permanent, abiding thing It is always changing It .
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has no independent existence Over a long or short time, the chair will eventually change and .
become something other than what it appears So this brown chair is complete emptiness .
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But though it always has the quality of emptiness, this emptiness is form: you can sit in the chair, and it will still hold you up ³Form is emptiness, and emptiness is form ´ .
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But why is it necessary to understand this? The reason for this is that many human beings are attached to name and form, and this attachment to name and form is the cause of nearly all suffering If we want to cure human beings of this attachment, then we must apply name.
and-form medicine We must begin by showing that names and forms are not real and .
permanent: they are always changing, changing, changing If you are rich, you must see that .
the riches you covet are empty If you are attached to fame and other people¶s approval, you .
must see that these things that you struggle and suffer for are empty Most people treasure .
their bodies; they use a lot of money to make their bodies strong or beautiful But someday, .
soon, when you die, this body will disappear You cannot take this empty body with you, .
however much you treasure it You cannot carry fame with you You cannot carry money You .
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cannot carry sex You cannot carry anything! Nowadays, many people are very attached to .
these things They treasure names and empty appearances above nearly all else, harming .
themselves and others just to protect them They want to get money, or a good reputation, or .
a good relationship They struggle desperately to get high positions People always subject .
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their minds to the worst kind of abuse and suffering just to try to get and then keep these empty, impermanent things Nowadays many humans are very attached to sex But none of .
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that is necessary All form is empty, so thinking that you can get any thing or keep anything is .
a fundamental delusion This line teaches that point .
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The most important thing is, what do you want in your life, right now? What you want in this very moment makes your mind, and that mind makes your life It determines this life and .
your next life By perceiving that all things are originally empty, you can put it all down and .
just live, without suffering over these impermanent things
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No appearing, no disappearing. No taint, no purity . No increase, no decrease. The Heart S utra is known for its very interesting way of describing our true nature It uses .
³no´ many times When you attain true emptiness, there is no speech or words Opening your .
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mouth is already a big mistake So words and speech cannot describe our original nature But .
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to teach people still caught in words-and-speech delusion, sometimes words-and-speech medicines are necessary The Heart S utra recognizes both these points So it describes our .
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true nature by completely describing what our true nature is not. You cannot say what it is, but you can give a sense of what our true nature is not like ³It¶s not this or this or this or this .
or this It¶s not like that or that or that Understand?´ Ha ha ha ha! This is a very interesting .
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technique The Heart S utra only says ³no,´ because this is perhaps the best that words and .
speech can do
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This line points right to the fact that, in our original nature, nothing ever appears or disappears There is no such thing as taint or purity, because these are merely qualities .
created by the thinking-mind And in original nature there is neither increase nor decrease .
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Our true nature is completely still and empty It is the universal substance of which .
everything else is composed How, then, could it ever appear or disappear, or be tainted or .
pure? More importantly, since our true nature is the same as the universe, how could it ever increase or decrease? Infinite in time and space, it has none of the characteristics that apply to things we can describe with speech and words
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All dharmas are mark ed with emptiness. No cognition, no attainment. Nir v ana. The Heart S utra says, ³All dharmas are marked with emptiness ´ But all dharmas are already .
empty and nonexistent even before you say this Name and form are already empty How can .
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you even mention dharma, and then say it¶s empty? That is a big mistake! In the true experience of emptiness, there are no words and no speech, so there is also no dharma When .
you open your mouth to say ³All dharmas are marked with emptiness,´ that is already no longer emptiness So be careful The point of this is that if you just understand words and .
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speech, and keep only an intellectual understanding, this sutra and any other sutra cannot help your life Some actual attainment of what these words point to is necessary .
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So when we say that everything is empty, we are saying that therefore there is also no cognition and no attainment This point of emptiness is the Absolute There is nothing, so .
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what could you possibly attain? These words in the Heart S utra are only wonderful speech and words But however interesting or wonderful the speech and words are, if you just .
understand them conceptually, they cannot help your life Again, you must truly attain .
something You must attain that there is actually nothing to attain Everything is already truth, .
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exactly as it is You are already complete But be careful! Merely understanding these .
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beautiful words is one thing, and attaining them is quite another
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The Heart S utra begins with the Hinayana experience of emptiness and takes it one more step The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path of Hinayana reflect a path which perceives that everything is suffering, and which then leads to stopping suffering, stopping birth and death This is nirvana There are no opposites: no coming or going, no high or low, good or .
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bad, birth or death So in the true experience of emptiness, you perceive that there is already .
no birth or death, no coming or going How can you stop something that doesn¶t even exist? .
There is already no suffering: how can it have an origin, and how can it possibly be extinguished? That is why the Heart S utra talks about ³no suffering, no origination, no
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stopping, no path ´ It completely ³hits´ the opposites-thinking of the Four Noble Truths that .
there is suffering, and an origination of it, and a stopping of it, and a path So Mahayana .
Buddhism teaches that there is one more step from Hinayana teaching If you only stop at .
this point, at complete emptiness, you only attain nirvana Mahayana Buddhism¶s view .
means taking another step Unexcelled perfect
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enlightenment²anuttara samyak sam bodhi.
Anuttara samyak sambodhi is a Sanskrit phrase meaning ³unexcelled perfect enlightenment ´ It .
is simply another way of saying ³truth ´ When you see, when you hear, when you smell, when .
you taste, when you touch, when you think²everything, just-like-this, is the truth Before, .
just at the point of nirvana, there is no cognition, and no attainment with nothing to attain
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So the bodhisattva depends on Prajna Paramita, and attains nirvana But then these three .
words appear: anuttara samyak sambodhi. Before, there is no attainment; now, all buddhas attain anuttara samyak sambodhi. What does this mean? If you just attain true emptiness, this is only nirvana It is an experience of complete stillness .
and bliss: there is no subject or object, no good or bad, no coming or going, no life or death
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There is nothing to attain But Mahayana means your practice continues ³beyond´ this point, .
so that you attain no-attainment You must find nirvana¶s function in th e world The name for .
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that is unexcelled perfect enlightenment If you attain no-attainment, then you attain truth .
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Your mind is empty and clear like space This means your mind is clear like a mirror: If a .
mountain appears before the mirror, there is only mountain; water appears, and there is only water; red comes, red; white comes, white The sky is blue The tree is green A dog is .
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barking, ³Woof! Woof!´ Sugar is sweet Everything that you see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and .
think is the truth, just as it is Nirvana means attaining emptiness, which has nothing to .
attain Anuttara samyak sambodhi means using the experience of emptiness to attain truth .
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With an empty mind, reflect this world, just as it is That is Mahayana Buddhism and the .
Great Bodhisattva Way
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Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhi sv aha! So there is yet one more step If you attain emptiness, and then attain truth, how does this .
world¶s truth function to help other beings? All buddhas attain anuttara samyak sambodhi, or unexcelled perfect enlightenment This means that they attain truth They can see that the .
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sky is blue, and the tree is green At the end of the sutra we are told that there is a great .
transcendent mantra, a great bright mantra, an utmost mantra, a supreme mantra: Gate,
gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhi svaha. It can be translated as ³Gone, gone, gone to the other
shore beyond ´ So this mantra at the end of the Heart S utra means only action Up until this .
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point, everything is just speech and words about attaining emptiness and truth It is all a lot .
of very interesting description But this mantra means you must just do it Some kind of .
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action is necessary if you want to help this world For the bodhisattva, there is only .
bodhisattva action When you attain unexcelled perfect enlightenment, you must attain the .
function of this enlightenment in the world That is what we call moment world From .
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moment to moment, perceive suffering in this world and only help all beings That is a very .
important point
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Attaining truth alone is not enough If someone is thirsty, give them something to drink If .
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someone is hungry, give them food When a suffering person appears before you, you only .
help, with no thinking or checking The early part of this sutra has no ³do-it,´ just good .
speech about attainment and no-attainment But if you attain something, you must do it .
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That is the meaning behind Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhi svaha. Step by step, we attain how to function compassionately for others, to use truth for others, spontaneously, from moment to moment This is the whole point of the Heart S utra. From moment to .
moment, when you are doing something, just do it
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Lovingk indness
by Sharon Salzberg Adapted from Lovingkindness: T he Revolutionary Art of Happiness M etta, which
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can be translated from Pali as ³love´ or ³lovingkindness,´ is the first of the
brahma-viharas, the ³heavenly abodes ´ The others²compassion, sympathetic joy, and .
equanimity²grow out of metta, which supports and extends these states
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In our culture, when we talk about love, we usually mean either passion or sentimentality It .
is crucial to distinguish metta from both of these states Passion is enmeshed with feelings of .
desire, of wanting or of owning and possessing Passion gets entangled with needing things to .
be a certain way, with having our expectations met The expectation of exchange that .
underlies most passion is both conditional and ultimately defeating: ³I will love you as long as you behave in the following fifteen ways, or as long as you love me in return at least as much as I love you ´ It is not a coincidence that the word passion derives from the Latin word .
for ³suffering ´ Wanting and expectation inevitably entail suffering .
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By contrast, the spirit of metta is unconditional: open and unobstructed Like water poured .
from one vessel to another, metta flows freely, taking the shape of each situation without changing its essence A friend may disappoint us; she may not meet our expectations, but we .
do not stop being a friend to her We may in fact disappoint ourselves, may not meet our own .
expectations, but we do not cease to be a friend to ourselves
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Sentimentality, the other mental state that masquerades as love, is really an ally of delusion
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It is a facsimile of caring that limits itself only to experiences of pleasure Like looking .
through the lens of a camera that has been smeared with a little Vaseline, sentimentality puts things into what is called ³soft focus ´ We cannot see the rough edges, the trouble spots, or .
the defects Everything appears just too nice Sentimentality finds pain unbearable and so .
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rejects it
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Our vision becomes very narrow when we need things to be a certain way and cannot accept things the way they actually are Denial functions almost as a kind of narcotic, so that vital .
parts of our lives end up missing
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When we practice metta, we open continuously to the truth of our actual experience, changing our relationship to life Metta²the sense of love that is not bound to desire, that .
does not have to pretend that things are other than the way they are²overcomes the illusion of separateness, of not being part of a whole Thereby metta overcomes all of the states that .
accompany this fundamental error of separateness²fear, alienation, loneliness, and despair²all of the feelings of fragmentation In place of these, the genuine realization of con.
nectedness brings unification, confidence, and safety
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In Buddhism there is one word for mind and heart: chitta. Chitta refers not just to thoughts and emotions in the narrow sense of arising from the brain, but also to th e whole range of consciousness, vast and unimpeded As we open to the experience of chitta, we come to an .
understanding of who we are, with an ability to care for ourselves Through the force of love, .
the presumed boundaries between ourselves and others crumble into ash as we touch them
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What unites us all as human beings is an urge for happiness, which at heart is a yearning for union, for overcoming our feelings of separateness We want to feel our identity with .
something larger than our small selves We long to be one with our own lives and with each .
other
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If we look at the root of even the most terrible addictions, even the most appalling violence in this world, somewhere we will find this urge to unite, to be happy In some form it is there, .
even in the most distorted and odious disguises We can touch that We can draw near and .
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open up We can connect, to the difficult forces within ourselves, and to the different .
experiences in our lives We can break through the concepts that keep us apart This is the .
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true nature of love and the source of healing for ourselves and our world This is the ground .
of freedom
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Metta is the ability to embrace all parts of o urselves, as well as all parts of the world
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Practicing metta illuminates our inner integrity because it relieves us of the need to deny different aspects of ourselves We can open to everything with the healing force of love When .
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we feel love, our mind is expansive and open enough to include the entirety of life in full awareness, both its pleasures and its pains We feel neither betrayed by pain nor overcome by .
it, and thus we can contact that which is undamaged within us regardless of the situation
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Metta sees truly that our integrity is inviolate, no matter what our life situation may be We .
do not need to fear anything We are whole: our deepest happiness is intrinsic to the nature .
of our minds, and it is not damaged through uncertainty and change
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In cultivating love, we remember one of the most powerful truths the Buddha taught²that the mind is naturally radiant and pure It is because of visiting defilements that we suffer .
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The word defilement is a common translation of the Pali word kilesa, which more literally translated means ³torment of the mind ´ We know directly from our own experience that .
when certain states arise strongly within us, they have a tormenting quality²states like anger, fear, guilt, and greed When they knock at the door and we invite them in, we lose .
touch with the fundamentally pure nature of our mind, and then we suffer
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By not identifying with these forces, we learn that these defilements or torments are only visitors These forces are adventitious, not inherent They do not reflect who we really are .
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The defilements or the kilesas inevitably arise because of how we have been conditioned But .
this is no reason to judge ourselves harshly Our challenge is to see them for what they are .
and to remember our true nature
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We can understand the inherent radiance and purity of our minds by understanding metta
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Like the mind, metta is not distorted by what it encounters Anger generated within ourselves .
or within others can be met with love; the love is not ruined by the anger Metta is its own .
support, and thus it is free of inherently unstable conditions The loving mind can observe joy .
and peace in one moment, and then grief in the next moment, and it will not be shattered by the change A mind filled with love can be likened to the sky with a variety of clouds moving .
through it²some light and fluffy, others ominous and threatening No matter what the .
situation, the sky is not affected by the clouds It is free .
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The Buddha taught that the forces in the mind th at bring suffering are able to temporarily hold down the positive forces such as love or wisdom, but they can never destroy them The .
negative forces can never uproot the positive, whereas the positive forces can actually uproot the negative forces Love can uproot fear or anger or guilt, because it is a greater power .
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Exercise: Phrases of Lovingkindness In doing metta practice, we gently repeat phrases that are meaningful in terms of what we wish, first for ourselves and then for others We begin by befriending ourselves The .
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aspirations we articulate should be deeply felt and somewhat enduring (not something like ³May I find a good show on television tonight´) Classically there are four phrases used: .
³May I be free from danger ´ .
³May I have mental happiness ´ .
³May I have physical happiness ´ .
³May I have ease of well-being ´ .
I will describe these phrases here in detail, and you can experiment with them, alter them, or simply choose an alternative set of three or four phrases Discover personally in your own .
heartfelt investigation what is truly significant for you
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³M ay
I be free from danger.´ We begin to extend care and lovingkindness toward ourselves
with the wish that we may find freedom from danger, that we may know safety We .
ultimately wish that all beings as well as ourselves have a sense of refuge, have a safe haven, have freedom from internal torment and external violence
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There is a nightmarish quality to life without safety When we live repeatedly lost in .
conditioned states such as anger and greed, continually being hurt and hurting others² there is no peace or safety When we are awakened at night by anxiety, guilt, and agitation²there is .
no peace or safety When we live in a world of overt violence, which rests on the .
disempowerment of people and the loneliness of unspoken and silenced abuse²there is no peace or safety This deep aspiration is the traditional beginning ³May I be free from .
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danger ´ Other possible phrases are ³May I have safety´ and ³May I be free from fear ´ .
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³M ay
I have mental happiness.´ If we were in touch with our own loveliness, if we felt less
fearful of others, if we trusted our ability to love, we would have mental happiness In the .
same vein, if we could relate skillfully to the torments of the mind that arise, and not nourish or cultivate them, we would have mental happiness Even in very positive or fortunate .
circumstances, without mental happiness, we are miserable Sometimes people use the .
phrase ³May I be happy´ or ³May I be peaceful´ or ³May I be liberated ´ .
³M ay
I have physical happiness.´ With this phrase we wish ourselves the enjoyment of health,
freedom from physical pain, and harmony with our bodies If freedom from pain is not a .
realistic possibility, we aspire to receive the pain with friendliness and patience, thereby not transforming physical pain into mental torment You might also use a phrase such as ³May I .
be healthy,´ ³May I be healed,´ ³May I make a friend of my body,´ or ³May I embody my love and understanding ´ .
³M ay
I have ease of well-being.´ This phrase points to the exigencies of everyday life²concerns
such as relationships, family issues, and livelihood With the expression of this phrase we .
wish that these elements of our day-to-day lives be free from struggle, that they be accomplished gracefully, and easily Alternative phrases could be ³May I live with ease´ or .
³May lovingkindness manifest throughout my life´ or ³May I dwell in peace ´ .
Sit comfortably You can begin with five minutes of reflection on the good within you or your .
wish to be happy Then choose three or four phrases that express what you most deeply wish .
for yourself, and repeat them over and over again You can coordinate the phrases with the .
breath, if you wish, or simply have your mind rest in the phrases without a physical anchor
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Feel free to experiment, and be creative Without trying to force or demand a loving feeling, .
see if there are circumstances you can imagine yourself in where you can more readily experience friendship with yourself Is it seeing yourself as a young child? One friend .
imagined himself sitting surrounded by all the most loving people he had ever heard of in the world, receiving their kindness and good wishes For the first time, love for himself seemed .
to enter his heart
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Develop a gentle pacing with the phrases; there is no need to rush through them or say them harshly You are offering yourself a gift with each phrase If your attention wanders, or if .
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difficult feelings or memories arise, try to let go of them in the spirit of kindness, and begin again repeating the metta phrases:
³May I be free from danger ´ .
³May I have mental happiness ´ .
³May I have physical happiness ´ .
³May I have ease of well-being ´ .
There are times when feelings of unworthiness come up strongly, and you clearly see the conditions that limit your love for yourself Breathe gently, accept that these feelings have .
arisen, remember the beauty of your wish to be happy, and return to the metta phrases
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Pure Perception by Dilgo Khyentse Adapted from T he Heart T reasure of the Enlightened Ones: T he Practice of View, M editation, and Action
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Samsara is nothing other than how things appear to you; If you recognize everything as the deity, the good of others is consummated
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Seeing the purity of everything confers the four empowerments on all beings at once; Dredging the depths of samsara, recite the six-syllable mantra
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What, then, is meant by pure perception? The way we usually experience the outer world, our bodies, and our feelings is impure, in the sense that we perceive them as ordinary, substantially existing entities From this erroneous perception come the negative emotions that .
perpetuate suffering However, take a closer look at all these appearances; you will find that .
they have no true existence From a relative point of view they appear as a result of various .
causes and conditions, like a mirage or a dream, but in reality nothing that arises from causes and conditions has any true existence whatsoever In fact, there is not even anything to .
appear As it is said, ³He who realizes voidness is the true sage ´ .
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If you continue investigating, you will find that there is nothing anywhere, not even a single atom, that has a verifiable existence Now, to see things otherwise, as truly existing, is the .
deluded perception underlying samsara²but even that deluded perception itself has never actually left the realm of voidness Ignorance, therefore, is no more than a transient veil .
devoid of intrinsic existence When you recognize this, there is no impure perception; there is .
only the limitless display of the Buddha¶s body, speech, mind, and wisdom Then there is no .
longer any need to try to get rid of the three worlds of samsara or to suppress suffering, because neither samsara nor suffering actually even exist Once you realize that samsara is as .
void as a mirage, all the karmic patterns and negative emotions that lie at its root are severed Voidness, however, is not just nothingness or empty space, for as the Prajnaparamita says, ³Form is voidness, voidness is form; voidness is no other than form, and form is no other than voidness ´ When you realize this true voidness of phenomena, you will spontaneously .
feel an all-embracing, nonconceptual compassion for all beings who are immersed in samsara¶s ocean of suffering because they cling to the notion of an ego
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This troublesome ego which is so concerned about itself has in reality never begun to exist, it does not exist anywhere now, and so it cannot cease to exist Not the slightest trace of it can .
be found When you recognize the void nature, therefore, any notion of there being an ego to .
dissolve vanishes, and at the same time the energy to bring about the good of others dawns, uncontrived and effortless
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Featured excerpt from In the Face of Fear, edited by Barry Boyce and the Editors of the S hambhala S un Introduction
I believe the Buddha¶s teachings are what we need right now They are made precisely for .
times like these For all of us who are suffering groundlessness, fear, or loss²because of the .
world¶s problems or just our own²Buddhist wisdom is the right medicine
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The Buddha is sometimes called the Great Physician Twenty five hundred years ago, he .
made a precise diagnosis of the human condition²our condition It is as accurate and .
relevant today as it was then He diagnosed our problem as dukkha, which we generally .
translate as ³suffering ´ Then he discovered its cause, and he proposed a cure Today we call .
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this diagnosis and cure the Four Noble Truths
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Famously, the Four Noble Truths describe suffering, the c ause of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and a path to the cessation of suffering But when we say that the Buddha .
promised an end to suffering, we have to be careful Buddhist practice does not offer an end .
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to change, loss, or even pain These are basic facts of life, generally beyond our control We .
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do not have the power to banish them from our lives
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What we can change is the way we react The Buddha¶s great discovery was that most of what .
we call suffering, dissatisfaction, or unhappiness is really the product of our own reactions, of our own mind To that suffering he did promise an end This book will help you apply the .
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Buddha¶s wisdom so that you can lessen the suffering of living in difficult times In the .
process you may discover resources of love, skillfulness, and happiness you didn¶t know you had in you
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Life is stressful and insecure for many of us these days If we haven¶t actually lost our job or .
our home, we fear we might If we run a business, we worry about how to keep it afloat If we .
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have a family, we are anxious about our children¶s future For those of us approaching .
retirement, we wonder whether our savings will sustain us in our old age
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Beyond the immediate difficulties, we fear for the world¶s long-term prospects The relatively .
peaceful and prosperous life we have enjoyed since the end of the Second World War²long enough to seem all but permanent²seems questionable as we look ahead into the twentyfirst century And to these fears and stresses we add all the normal, inescapable difficulties of .
everyday life²the profound challenges of sickness, a death in the family, or problems in our relationships
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Much as we¶d like to change all this, we probably can¶t What we can change²if we¶re given .
the right tools²is the way we experience, understand, and deal with these realities
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According to the Buddha, that¶s not just half the b attle, it¶s pretty much the whole battle We .
have the freedom to choose how we react to the world, and if we choose wisely, we can find joy, love, and happiness even in difficult times We can transform our world by transforming .
how we experience it In doing so, we benefit ourselves and all those around us .
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This book will take you on a journey It¶s a practical journey, aimed at helping you deal with .
whatever difficulties come up Buddhism is renowned for its array of proven techniques, its .
skillful means, and you will learn how to apply them in your life But you will also find that .
this journey is profound While this book is not about exalted concepts like ³enlightenment,´ .
you still might catch a glimpse of that as you work through the daily challenges of life
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Buddhism doesn¶t separate the sacred and the secular; enlightenment is far more ordinary and accessible than you might think, and it¶s grounded nowhere else but in the gritty realities of life
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