Hello Tom,
Tom Otvos:
Well, what I am trying to say is that there is a morality component to the "core teachings", a concentration component, and an insight/wisdom component. The Three Trainings. Each requires "work" to advance, and each requires a different kind of work. I am having a hard enough time keeping the concentration/insight balls in the air, that to keep the morality teachings front-and-center is pushing my limits.
That's a quite understandable viewpoint, Tom. From my point of view, you are correct to be looking at this from a very common sense-like manner. The training is gradual. There's nowhere where it says that everything
has to all come together all at once, at one time (even though it can seem this way when listening to various groups and teachers talk about it). I can tell you from experience that it doesn't happen that way ("all at once", that is). What
does happen (to use an example) is that you begin — with the help of mindfulness — to "see" (become aware of) the mental defilements as they arise. It is at this point, then, that you have a decision to take: to either allow them to overwhelm you, or to change your behavior as you see fit. Don't worry if you fall down a few times and are unable to stop yourself. This is how we all learn. Second chances abound.
Tom Otvos:
What would I do differently? Well, I don't kill or steal now, so I guess I am ok there. But honestly, I have a hard time being mindful throughout the day, and I still have little patience with people that don't live up to my expectations, and sometimes say it. If I were to really work at it, over time I am sure it would improve. But from the changes that I keep reading about as part of SE and beyond, I have to think that the mindfulness required to do that sort of thing is acquired, so I am willing to keep being me until "I" am no longer "me", if you get my drift.
Mindfulness is the key. And one of the keys to being able to maintain mindfulness (that I have discovered) is the practice of absorption contemplation. It helps to condition the mind for calm and tranquility — to bring on
passadhi, which is profound mental calmness as it is extended from sitting meditation/contemplation into your conscious everyday awareness — so that the mind can actually slow down enough to "see things as they are." (This is not to suggest that things go into slow motion. Only that once the mind is calm, it is now ready to look
rationally and realistically at whatever situation or circumstance it is that confronts it, and to deal with it in a rational and realistic manner rather than in a knee-jerk manner — if you see what I mean.)
To take this a little further, the training (through
samatha and
vipassana) is leading the person up to the point where he is finally able to begin dealing with purifying the
asavas. The
asavas are the mental influxes regarding four qualities — "sensuality, views, becoming, and ignorance — that 'flow out' of the mind and create the flood of the round of death and rebirth," according to the teaching. These
asavas can be worked on using meditation, or they can be worked on using mental restraint in the heat of the battle of having to deal with these confrontations in daily life. What is important is the "wisdom" (
panna) and "presence of mind" to be able to see these phenomena as they occur in real time so that they can be dealt with as necessary.
I hope that helps.
In peace,
Ian