Robin Woods:
Thanks Ian. I'm looking forward to studying what you wrote this weekend with care. I'm woefully ignorant of Buddhism. I just found that the noting practice temporarily stopped me suffering. So I persisted with it. Hour after hour after hour. Probably didn't even understand the implications of what I was doing.
Robin: "I'm woefully ignorant of Buddhism [i.e. the Dhamma]." Oh my. That's what I was afraid of. The good news is: this is a fixable deficiency. It just takes time and a dedication to practice and to learning everything you can about how your mind works and processes information.
Robin: "Probably didn't even understand the implications of what I was doing." Yes, you're not alone in this. Because of the questionable way in which much of this material has been taught in the past extending to the present, practitioners are not fully aware of what it is that they should be seeking to learn. There is no shortcut to learning about the Dhamma except to take it one step at a time. And after a period of time practicing and studying this, the concepts begin to fall into place within the mind and a realization occurs which is nothing short of profound! When this realization occurs, you WILL know it! And what is more, you will know that you are free of the causes of
dukkha (including mental dis-
eases such as depression) forever.
By the way, here is a link to Analayo's book in PDF format (1.2 Mb) that you can download and read:
Satipattana, The Direct Path to Realization. There's a lot in this that presumes a reader's familiarity with the Dhamma, so take it slow and easy and look up any concept that you are unfamiliar with in order to become clear about its importance to your understanding.
Robin Woods:
Just out of interest, what do you think happens when our bodies die? The only thought which causes me trouble at the moment is the very paranoid one(!!!) that this mindfulness is tampering with with Nature/God in some fundamental way and that it will result in some kind of 'punishment' after death. That Vipassana is a kind of Promethean arrogance and not to accept the 'normal' beer and titties pleasures of this world is to overreach oneself - which might lead to 'Hell'?
I did warn you I was crazy! ;-)
Robin: "Just out of interest, what do you think happens when our bodies die?" If you had had an opportunity to read the discourses (
MN 72, for instance), you would know how Gotama answered such questions when he was asked. Many of these kinds of questions are answered in the discourses if people will just bother to read them. To speculate about that which one is uncertain of is to become involved in a thicket of views. That thicket of views can take one down many pathways, each one of which, out of fear, may lead to a falsehood and thereby be deceptive.
When the body dies, the body dies. Awareness remains. What happens when you fall asleep at night each night? Is not your awareness of the body dropped? I am reminded by a quotation from Master Po in the television series "Kung Fu," who said: "Is your mind not free to seek its own course, to soar even to the heavens though you turn and spin within a prison [of the body]." Stop and think about that the next time you are troubled by a vexing thought. What is it that hinders one from seeking satisfaction (the release of
dukkha)? Answer: None other than oneself!
Robin: "I did warn you I was crazy!" Not crazy, just deluded. There's a difference. Delusion is easily cured by exposure to and realization of that which is true. Therefore, it is necessary to know that delusion
can be (and ought to be) let go of. This is what the Dhamma teaches. Freedom from greed, anger and delusion. Is this not something that everyone seeks to achieve?
Robin: "...that this mindfulness is tampering with with Nature/God in some fundamental way and that it will result in some kind of 'punishment' after death." Those of us who grew up in the West and were raised with the fire and brimstone version of Christianity forced down our throats by do-gooder, well-intentioned people in our lives have been suffering under this psychological ball and chain most of our lives. Yet, when one stops to take a step back and examine this paradigm, one finds that it is based upon a premise that, if it were true, would be contradictory of the whole of the teaching of Christianity.
Consider the wisdom of Master Po once again who said: "When the tiger and the man are two, he [the man] may die. Yet when the tiger and the man are one there is no fear, there is no danger. For what creature, one with all nature, will attack itself?" He prefaced this with the following: "When the heart knows no danger, no danger exists. When the soul becomes the warrior, all fear melts. That prevails which refuses to know the power of the other. Where fear is, does not danger also live. Where fear is not, does not danger also die."
What Master Po is pointing at are phantoms created within the mind. Phantoms that have no other existence than that they were created in the mind of the observer. When you know the truth, phantoms cannot invade your thought to distract you from what is true.
One last thought from Master Po to leave you with in regard to this view you have been incubating about mindfulness:
"Seek always peace. Wear no path for the footsteps of others, unless the soul is endangered. We are all linked by our souls. To endanger one endangers all."
His use of the word "soul" is unfortunate (as far as the Dhamma understands this in relation to a permanent "self" or "soul" of which none can be found). Perhaps a better word might have been "spirit" (which if you bother to look it up in a dictionary, relates to the breath; and how synchronistic is that, as in "mindfulness of the breath" or
anapanasati).
spirit - [L.
spiritus, breath, courage, vigor, the soul, life, in LL(Ec), spirit <
spirare to blow, breath ...] 1 a) the life principle, esp. in human beings, originally regarded as inherent in the breath or as infused by a deity. b) soul (sense 1).