Browsing DhO and noting…

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CJMacie, modified 8 Years ago at 4/16/15 7:23 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 4/16/15 7:23 AM

Browsing DhO and noting…

Posts: 856 Join Date: 8/17/14 Recent Posts
This topic must have come up previously, but I haven't seen it, so…

Opening "Recent Posts" and noting how attention jumps around, what attracts it – this thread because I posted there, any response? There's a new one – is the author or the last poster "interesting"? That thread had a good discussion going, but heady (hard work to understand)… This other one had a good brawl going – in the mood for that (any subtle urge for looking for something to "correct" or criticize? – what's been going on in life today that relates to that urge?).

Seeing the name of a poster, and noting associations – maybe developed expectations of him/her; then noting as these change, one way or another, across time and multiple threads; especially when the going gets hot.

Especially, as recently, finding I had erred in memory and got called on it – researching , reviewing the topics / posts that were mis-remembered, misinterpreted and noted using language "I had noted…" or "failed to note…" this or that, which now properly "noted", leads to this or that corrective understanding and/or corrective response…

This use of 'noting' relates to more complex formations / fabrications ("mind door") than raw sensory sensations ("5 sense-door"), but seems legitimate as arising mental phenomena (broad sense of "sensation").

Would this kind of noting qualify as"pragmatic" practice, or be taken as too theoretical or "conceptual"?
Matt, modified 8 Years ago at 4/16/15 7:33 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 4/16/15 7:33 AM

RE: Browsing DhO and noting…

Posts: 316 Join Date: 1/14/14 Recent Posts
Chris J Macie:
...

Would this kind of noting qualify as"pragmatic" practice, or be taken as too theoretical or "conceptual"?


IMHO, Pragmatic.  Noticing why we click on something is an exercise in mindfulness, AKA what is present in our mind at it's moment of assertion.
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Jake , modified 8 Years ago at 4/16/15 7:55 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 4/16/15 7:55 AM

RE: Browsing DhO and noting…

Posts: 695 Join Date: 5/22/10 Recent Posts
Definitely pragmatic.
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Bill F, modified 8 Years ago at 4/16/15 5:34 PM
Created 8 Years ago at 4/16/15 5:34 PM

RE: Browsing DhO and noting…

Posts: 556 Join Date: 11/17/13 Recent Posts
Thank you for sharing, Chris. You gave me something to think about and implement today. Pragmatic meaning useful, pragmatic buddhism then perhaps meaning what is actually useful to remove suffering in oneself or others, it strikes me as obviously pragmatic.
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CJMacie, modified 8 Years ago at 4/17/15 7:44 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 4/17/15 7:33 AM

RE: Browsing DhO and noting…

Posts: 856 Join Date: 8/17/14 Recent Posts
An after thought, and high-lighted by responses here…

Trying to use such noting when reading thorugh DhO (or anywhere) can work to minimize the stress here in this individual mind, even tho it's possibly conditioned by stress perceived in what others have written.

In writing, on the other hand, the stakes are higher – the stress in here may be projected out and infect others, which always doubles back on oneself in the end. That's, as they used to say, what sets the 'wheel of samara' to turning. Not really worth it.

That I'm acutely aware of in terms of my samatha practice (jhana). An early memorable dharma insight came, in the first days of my very first retreat (2008), when Gil Fronsdal gently, repeatedly encouraged allowing a sense of refuge, of safety in the mind. Feeling unsafe (e.g. having a guilty conscience, "remorse"), constantly looking back over one's shoulder, so to speak, the mind can't possibly relax its defenses. But when it does let go (of chasing after or running from), it can naturally fall into a vast, refreshing stillness. Gil called that, as Jack Kornfied often does, the mind dropping into the heart. Gil's not one to talk about jhanas a lot, but later I found that image of his (safety --> release) to be a key factor in developing and maintaining deep concentration -- after which, noting becomes really sharp.

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