Via Daily Dharma: Letting Go of Control

To maintain a deep, sustained practice of mindfulness is to consistently disidentify with the experience of self as willing agent, to let go of the obsessive need to discriminate, judge, and choose.

C. W. Huntington, Jr., “Are You Looking to Buddhism When You Should Be Looking to Therapy?”

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

RIGHT VIEW Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering What is the origin of suffering? It is craving, which brings renewal of being, is accompanied by delight and lust, and delights in this and that; that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for being, and craving for non-being. (MN 9) When one does not know and see sounds as they actually are, then one is attached to sounds. When one is attached, one becomes infatuated, and one’s craving increases. One’s bodily and mental troubles increase, and one experiences bodily and mental suffering. (MN 149)

Reflection The basic cause of suffering is craving, a thirst or hunger for something other than what is. These texts we are consulting will guide us through how to work with this systematically, using each of the sense modalities in turn. Today the matter at hand is sound. We hear sounds all the time, but we practice with sounds by noticing them with full awareness and then ignoring the impulse to follow or resist the sounds. Daily Practice Use sound as a primary object of practice. When sitting quietly, with the back erect, notice the sounds that you experience. They may be relatively loud and distinct, if you are practicing in the city, for example, but even in a silent meditation center there are gentle sounds to be discerned. Practice entails hearing these sounds and then letting them go. The key is not to become infatuated with them but to just let them pass through.  Tomorrow: Cultivating Compassion One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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