Practice log - Discussion
Actually, I think two posts ago I was just rephrasing Nickolai's Juxaposition blog post.
I love this stuffs
I guess its just a matter of momentum now- of clearing off defilements faster than they attach themselves and/or getting the mind used to thinking/being a new way.
This seems to be the case- but is it really so? I'm not entirely sure.
I love this stuffs
I guess its just a matter of momentum now- of clearing off defilements faster than they attach themselves and/or getting the mind used to thinking/being a new way.
This seems to be the case- but is it really so? I'm not entirely sure.
Katy wrote this. I appreciate it and I think it belongs in my practice log
katy steger:
HI there Oliver -
Your direct experience of that jhana and your direct friendship and your own practice --- those provide the body-authenticity detectable by your friends and the custom tailoring that you probably convey best. Then each friend, as they go along their practice, becomes independent through their own practice and experience.
I apologize to you for not writing clearly here: it's just a general caution about where simple curiosity even can go. But this doesn't make me avoid curiosity (that would be unskillful), now I just more cautious that my curiosity can turn into a a slight-to-growing longing. This "wanting" (tanha) "fourth to be my experience of life" was my two-week experience and arose from my initial curiosity, "Why do I not live in this jhana always? What holds that mental capacity back?", this questioning just slipped over the edge into "wanting". It's ok, too, because a person is experimenting directly, personally, in all of this practice. My practice is probably 95% mistakes sometimes! So, I hope to put my own mistakes are helpful to anyone else.
After seeing a presentation by a monastic who presented sensual bas-relief images of enjoined couples on stupas with bas-relief Buddhas carved above or below those couples (separated by bas-relief 'walls'), it is hard for me to ignore the role of salabhanjikas and yakshi, of fertility prominent in ancient cultures, and how one begins to choose to train in pīti (joy and/or rapture) and how one begins to choose to seclude oneself from kāma (sensual gratification, sexual longing).
How literally close sensuality is to pīti is clear in the suttas, how pīti is described after seclusion from sensuality "...The pain & distress dependent on sensuality do not exist at that time...." and "...rapture & pleasure born of seclusion..." , etc, that, to me, first jhana is capturing the sensation that one may detect in sexual arousal (pīti, alert happiness) and which one might normally have the habit of converting that pleasant sensation right away into longing for its escalation in sexual fullfilment. Instead of fulfilling it through exhausting the genitals, 1st jhana trains one to take up the sensation in mind, learning to sit in the pure sensation, secluded from sensuality, and, when separated from craving-fulfillment, can be seen to be a tremendous, energetic happiness, "pīti"); maybe it is like 'capturing' the brilliant shine on a fish's scales and never touching, even forgetting the fish. Maybe you experience this with your kechari practices.
Even the five-fold classification of pīti 'signs' is, to me, so clearly paralleling (but secluded from) sensual arousal-and-gratification: the practitioner is in first jhana learning they can experience this pure sensation and that in its refinement there is rapture without any contact whatsoever to sensuality, let alone sexual gratification. The volition in first jhana is to sustain that sensation, independent (secluded from) the sensual trigger.
This occurs in several non-buddhist practices (like taoist and vedic sexual "continence" (avoidance of ejaculation)), and, to me, one reason pīti starts the jhana training is that a person who is just starting on their jhana training journey is naturally going to compare their training states to the most wonderful gratification they may know up to that point: erection and orgasm. So, pīti, to me, is harvesting the sensation and showing the practitioner some thing like, "Hey, that gential orgasm is really small stuff in comparison to what the mind can do with that sensation when it is distilled by the composed mind...and it won't cause STDs, relationship fights, compulsion and violation, deadly mating rivalries, etc". This is also why I think some mahayana traditions actively have the practitioner imagine a consort during some concentration practices.
A brain well-trained in first jhana does has a refuge for mental sloth that may arise in later jhanas: well-formed first jhana (again, it is free from sensuality and is this tremendous joy) causes alertness. (Though eventually a person develops alertness in the other jhanas without going back to first).
So, the sensuality of stupas associated with early buddhism also indicates (and here I borrow from the monastic lecturer) that sensuality/sexual gratification was not shunned in itself nor absolutely (though monastics aspire to a fully adept practice and renounce sexualism, depending on the tradition). The suttas are clear that sensation is sensation, but that craving-gratification-willfully-grown-from-sensation leads to corrupt behaviour.
So, back to craving. I liked this essay, especially the detailed suite of actions following craving. Maybe four months ago I started asking in regards to my posts, "Why so many edits? This reflects my practice." So, after a several weeks of food modification, I began to color-font some edits to bring this habit more to my attention. Seeing craving, I can now see myself better in careless posting, acting in gratification of impatience (a form of agitation/excitement (chandaraga, below)). There are actual troubles that arise from even that gratification.
*sigh* There's so much "telegraphing" by what we do and see done, detectable by the senses, but it's hard to be alert to what is actual when blinded by craving.
Anyway, again, I find if where I have chosen for myself, with sincerity and gentleness, to watch a craving for an extended period like 24-hours (such as in following Gotama's recommendation to eat once a day and/or before noon), that the feeling "craving" is well isolated (just as pīti is isolated and well-known in first jhana): tanha -- the stress in the head, the obscuration of actuality, the alienation from what it as it is. Craving is detected as anything from it's simple unpleasant pull (such as aversively craving to get out of a simple conversation) or the "locking on" and massive din of addiction.
I definitely see why buddhist meditation is called "science of mind" and why Gotama addressed a number of religious questions of his time as "unanswerables".
That is kindly put... 
I think you are right about me needing to reword your post before giving it to friends.
I have no issue desiring 4th jhana. (...) but once I'm in jhana there is no issue with desiring. Curiosity takes over.
My issue is sometimes just getting into the first jhana!
How literally close sensuality is to pīti is clear in the suttas, how pīti is described after seclusion from sensuality "...The pain & distress dependent on sensuality do not exist at that time...." and "...rapture & pleasure born of seclusion..." , etc, that, to me, first jhana is capturing the sensation that one may detect in sexual arousal (pīti, alert happiness) and which one might normally have the habit of converting that pleasant sensation right away into longing for its escalation in sexual fullfilment. Instead of fulfilling it through exhausting the genitals, 1st jhana trains one to take up the sensation in mind, learning to sit in the pure sensation, secluded from sensuality, and, when separated from craving-fulfillment, can be seen to be a tremendous, energetic happiness, "pīti"); maybe it is like 'capturing' the brilliant shine on a fish's scales and never touching, even forgetting the fish. Maybe you experience this with your kechari practices.
Even the five-fold classification of pīti 'signs' is, to me, so clearly paralleling (but secluded from) sensual arousal-and-gratification: the practitioner is in first jhana learning they can experience this pure sensation and that in its refinement there is rapture without any contact whatsoever to sensuality, let alone sexual gratification. The volition in first jhana is to sustain that sensation, independent (secluded from) the sensual trigger.
This occurs in several non-buddhist practices (like taoist and vedic sexual "continence" (avoidance of ejaculation)), and, to me, one reason pīti starts the jhana training is that a person who is just starting on their jhana training journey is naturally going to compare their training states to the most wonderful gratification they may know up to that point: erection and orgasm. So, pīti, to me, is harvesting the sensation and showing the practitioner some thing like, "Hey, that gential orgasm is really small stuff in comparison to what the mind can do with that sensation when it is distilled by the composed mind...and it won't cause STDs, relationship fights, compulsion and violation, deadly mating rivalries, etc". This is also why I think some mahayana traditions actively have the practitioner imagine a consort during some concentration practices.
A brain well-trained in first jhana does has a refuge for mental sloth that may arise in later jhanas: well-formed first jhana (again, it is free from sensuality and is this tremendous joy) causes alertness. (Though eventually a person develops alertness in the other jhanas without going back to first).
So, the sensuality of stupas associated with early buddhism also indicates (and here I borrow from the monastic lecturer) that sensuality/sexual gratification was not shunned in itself nor absolutely (though monastics aspire to a fully adept practice and renounce sexualism, depending on the tradition). The suttas are clear that sensation is sensation, but that craving-gratification-willfully-grown-from-sensation leads to corrupt behaviour.
So, back to craving. I liked this essay, especially the detailed suite of actions following craving. Maybe four months ago I started asking in regards to my posts, "Why so many edits? This reflects my practice." So, after a several weeks of food modification, I began to color-font some edits to bring this habit more to my attention. Seeing craving, I can now see myself better in careless posting, acting in gratification of impatience (a form of agitation/excitement (chandaraga, below)). There are actual troubles that arise from even that gratification.
*sigh* There's so much "telegraphing" by what we do and see done, detectable by the senses, but it's hard to be alert to what is actual when blinded by craving.
The fruits of craving
[indent]
Ananda Pereira
Gentleness, serenity compassion, through liberation from selfish craving-these are the fundamental teachings of the Buddha.
"Thus it is, Ananda, that because of sensation (vedana) comes craving (tanha); because of craving, pursuit (parlyesana); because of pursuit, gain (labha); because of gain, decision (vinicchaya); because of decision, excitement (chandaraga); because of excitement, clinging (ajihosana); because of clinging, enclosing (pariggaha); because of enclosing, avarice (macchariya); because of avarice, guarding (arakkha); and because of guarding there come to be the seizing of stick and weapon, disunion, strife and quarrelling slander, lying and many other unskillful things", (Maha Nidana Sutta, Digha Nikaya).
A man sees a block of land (vedana), and desires to own it (tanha). He finds out who the owner is and negotiates for a transfer (pariyesana). He buys the Land (labha) and decides exactly what he is going to plant (vinicchaya). Having so decided, he thinks about the money he will make, and the things he will be able to do with the money, and his thoughts excite him (chandaraga).
Thus excited, he clings to these pleasant dreams and to the land that will make them come true (ajihosana). He encloses the land with a wall or fence (pariggaha) and having so enclosed it he becomes selfish, feeling intensely and personally the intrusion of outsiders (macchariya). He employs security guards, buys a gun, and prepares to protect his property from the rest of the World (arakkha). And this, as we know, leads to strife of various kinds, from civil litigation to murder.
It is the same with other possessions. We cannot help perceiving things, but when we desire them the other consequences follow inevitably. There is no point in telling the owner of an estate that he should not protect it with fences or employ watchers to guard it. Having committed himself by acquiring it, he must do these things in order to ensure his profits. It is 'common sense," and the lawrecognizes his rights. This is the man-made Law. Its roots lie deeply bedded in craving. Men accept it as "common sense" because craving is common to all men, and they have no sense.
To the Buddhas and the Arahats, who did have sense, all this is stark lunacy. They say the truth clearly, all the time. Some of us may glimpse it now and then, hazily. The trust is that it is impossible to hold things, and that the effort to do so is both foolish and dangerous. The only thing that a man can be said to own is his character, even this is not an unchanging entity, but at least he has the power to conduct its changing, so that it changes for the better. Here there is no need of fences, watchers and guns: for there is no external force, however powerful, that can affect a man's character against his will. When a man is set on evil, as Devadatta was not even a Buddha can swerve him from his purpose. So also is the character of a man who is set on good. Opposition only strengthens such character.
But, there is always sensation (vedana): and so long as we are not Arahats, there is always craving (tanha). Craving and its inevitable results are man's real enemies, not otherrnen. If there was no craving there would be no pursuit' no gain, no decision, no excitement of desire, no clinging, no enclosing, no selfishness, no guarding, no seizing of weapons, no strife and no bloodshed. Craving is like the root of a long creeper whose fruits are deadly poison.
The Buddha and the Arahats saw this truth dearly, all the time. That is why they urged the utter destruction of craving, as the only means of deliverance. It can be destroyed utterly, never to spring up again. Buddhas and the Arahats were living examples of this supreme achievement, even though to us the task may seem impossible. Enmeshed as we are in craving, its deadly tendrils woven into the very texture of our being, the destruction of craving may seem like the destruction of all that is worthwhile. For, in our insanity, we have created false ideals out of it.
A man is said to tie worthless unless he has ambition. The pursuit of beauty is encouraged as wholesome and right. Poets have even confused beauty with truth. Parents tell their children that they must work hard and "get on inthe world", What is behind it all?
The Buddha's teaching may seem cold and alien, suicidal even, especially when we are in the act of pursuing, holding, enclosing or guarding something that we desire very greatly. It is the coldness of truth. If it seems alien, it is because we are sstill lunatics, and the teaching is same. If it seems suicidal, it is because craving forms the greater part of our being. In our rare and hazy glimpses of the truth we must admit that the teaching is true.
Such a glimpse may come on a Vesak day, because of its associations. On this day, so significant to all followers of the Buddha, there is, for a while, a turning away from false, craving-born ideals, and an attempt to see the true ideal. May that vision be clear, and may the memory of it linger. It is the only thing that counts. Until such time as craving is destroyed, this glimpse of truth may serve as 'guide'. It may help us least to control that which must ultimately be destroyed. Seeing "desirable" things, we may at least curb the tendency to pursue them, knowing where that pursuit will lead.[/indent]
[indent]
Ananda Pereira
Gentleness, serenity compassion, through liberation from selfish craving-these are the fundamental teachings of the Buddha.
"Thus it is, Ananda, that because of sensation (vedana) comes craving (tanha); because of craving, pursuit (parlyesana); because of pursuit, gain (labha); because of gain, decision (vinicchaya); because of decision, excitement (chandaraga); because of excitement, clinging (ajihosana); because of clinging, enclosing (pariggaha); because of enclosing, avarice (macchariya); because of avarice, guarding (arakkha); and because of guarding there come to be the seizing of stick and weapon, disunion, strife and quarrelling slander, lying and many other unskillful things", (Maha Nidana Sutta, Digha Nikaya).
A man sees a block of land (vedana), and desires to own it (tanha). He finds out who the owner is and negotiates for a transfer (pariyesana). He buys the Land (labha) and decides exactly what he is going to plant (vinicchaya). Having so decided, he thinks about the money he will make, and the things he will be able to do with the money, and his thoughts excite him (chandaraga).
Thus excited, he clings to these pleasant dreams and to the land that will make them come true (ajihosana). He encloses the land with a wall or fence (pariggaha) and having so enclosed it he becomes selfish, feeling intensely and personally the intrusion of outsiders (macchariya). He employs security guards, buys a gun, and prepares to protect his property from the rest of the World (arakkha). And this, as we know, leads to strife of various kinds, from civil litigation to murder.
It is the same with other possessions. We cannot help perceiving things, but when we desire them the other consequences follow inevitably. There is no point in telling the owner of an estate that he should not protect it with fences or employ watchers to guard it. Having committed himself by acquiring it, he must do these things in order to ensure his profits. It is 'common sense," and the lawrecognizes his rights. This is the man-made Law. Its roots lie deeply bedded in craving. Men accept it as "common sense" because craving is common to all men, and they have no sense.
To the Buddhas and the Arahats, who did have sense, all this is stark lunacy. They say the truth clearly, all the time. Some of us may glimpse it now and then, hazily. The trust is that it is impossible to hold things, and that the effort to do so is both foolish and dangerous. The only thing that a man can be said to own is his character, even this is not an unchanging entity, but at least he has the power to conduct its changing, so that it changes for the better. Here there is no need of fences, watchers and guns: for there is no external force, however powerful, that can affect a man's character against his will. When a man is set on evil, as Devadatta was not even a Buddha can swerve him from his purpose. So also is the character of a man who is set on good. Opposition only strengthens such character.
But, there is always sensation (vedana): and so long as we are not Arahats, there is always craving (tanha). Craving and its inevitable results are man's real enemies, not otherrnen. If there was no craving there would be no pursuit' no gain, no decision, no excitement of desire, no clinging, no enclosing, no selfishness, no guarding, no seizing of weapons, no strife and no bloodshed. Craving is like the root of a long creeper whose fruits are deadly poison.
The Buddha and the Arahats saw this truth dearly, all the time. That is why they urged the utter destruction of craving, as the only means of deliverance. It can be destroyed utterly, never to spring up again. Buddhas and the Arahats were living examples of this supreme achievement, even though to us the task may seem impossible. Enmeshed as we are in craving, its deadly tendrils woven into the very texture of our being, the destruction of craving may seem like the destruction of all that is worthwhile. For, in our insanity, we have created false ideals out of it.
A man is said to tie worthless unless he has ambition. The pursuit of beauty is encouraged as wholesome and right. Poets have even confused beauty with truth. Parents tell their children that they must work hard and "get on inthe world", What is behind it all?
The Buddha's teaching may seem cold and alien, suicidal even, especially when we are in the act of pursuing, holding, enclosing or guarding something that we desire very greatly. It is the coldness of truth. If it seems alien, it is because we are sstill lunatics, and the teaching is same. If it seems suicidal, it is because craving forms the greater part of our being. In our rare and hazy glimpses of the truth we must admit that the teaching is true.
Such a glimpse may come on a Vesak day, because of its associations. On this day, so significant to all followers of the Buddha, there is, for a while, a turning away from false, craving-born ideals, and an attempt to see the true ideal. May that vision be clear, and may the memory of it linger. It is the only thing that counts. Until such time as craving is destroyed, this glimpse of truth may serve as 'guide'. It may help us least to control that which must ultimately be destroyed. Seeing "desirable" things, we may at least curb the tendency to pursue them, knowing where that pursuit will lead.[/indent]
Anyway, again, I find if where I have chosen for myself, with sincerity and gentleness, to watch a craving for an extended period like 24-hours (such as in following Gotama's recommendation to eat once a day and/or before noon), that the feeling "craving" is well isolated (just as pīti is isolated and well-known in first jhana): tanha -- the stress in the head, the obscuration of actuality, the alienation from what it as it is. Craving is detected as anything from it's simple unpleasant pull (such as aversively craving to get out of a simple conversation) or the "locking on" and massive din of addiction.
I definitely see why buddhist meditation is called "science of mind" and why Gotama addressed a number of religious questions of his time as "unanswerables".
And I am also amazed how I can write 4 lines in a post and get 3 expansive and elegant posts back, lol. Thats pretty good dividends.