A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Sunday, June 4, 2023
Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and the Third Jhāna
RIGHT MINDFULNESS Establishing Mindfulness of Mind
A person goes to the forest
or to the root of a tree or to an empty place and sits down. Having
crossed the legs, one sets the body erect. One establishes the presence
of mindfulness. (MN 10) One is aware: “Ardent, fully aware, mindful, I
am content.” (SN 47.10)
When the mind is not uplifted, one is aware: “The mind is not
uplifted.”. . . One is just aware, just mindful: “There is mind. “And
one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)
Reflection
The word uplifted in the original text carries a sense of both greater and loftier.
Applying that to mind states, we might think of some states as more
open or spacious than others, because they are more expanded in scope,
encompassing a wider view. Or we might think of some states as more
ethically refined than others; kindness, for example, is more “uplifted”
than selfishness.
Daily Practice
As you sit in
meditation and observe mental states arise and pass away in your
consciousness, notice their quality. Notice in particular when your mind
feels contracted; see what that feels like exactly. Notice also when
the mental states that are present are ignoble or less than uplifted.
You are just noticing, not judging. Abide mindful and fully aware of
these states, "not clinging to anything."
RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the Third Phase of Absorption (3rd Jhāna)
With the fading away of joy, one
abides in equanimity. Mindful and fully aware, still feeling pleasure
with the body, one enters upon and abides in the third phase of
absorption, on account of which noble ones announce: "One has a pleasant
abiding who has equanimity and is mindful." (MN 4)
One practices: "I shall breathe in experiencing the whole body"; one
practices: "I shall breathe out experiencing the whole body." This is
how concentration by mindfulness of breathing is developed and
cultivated so that it is of great fruit and great benefit. (SN 54.8)
Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and Abiding in the Fourth Jhāna
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