Revoked: Apr 13, 2025

Sunday, April 13, 2025

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and the Fourth Jhāna

RIGHT MINDFULNESS
Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects

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 doubt is internally present, one is aware: “Doubt is present for me.” When doubt is not present, one is aware: “Doubt is not present for me.” When the arising of unarisen doubt occurs, one is aware of that. And when the abandoning of arisen doubt occurs, one is aware of that. One is just aware, just mindful, "there is a mental object.” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection

As we cycle through the five hindrances as arising and passing mental objects, we come to the last one, doubt. Some doubt is healthy, but this is the sort of doubt that prevents you from seeing clearly and is an obstacle to further progress along the path. It may take the form of self-doubt or doubting that you are practicing correctly. In meditation you can just be aware doubt is there, and let it go without buying in to what it is saying.

Daily Practice

The next time you feel the kind of doubt that impedes your ability to function well, take some time to examine it phenomenologically. That is to say, pay careful attention to what it feels like and how it is arising and passing away each moment, and learn to recognize it as just another mental factor that comes and goes. Understanding the transient nature of doubt gives you power to “ride out” its influence on your mind.

RIGHT CONCENTRATION
Approaching and Abiding in the Fourth Phase of Absorption (4th Jhāna)

With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, one enters upon and abides in the fourth phase of absorption, which has neither-pain-nor-pleasure, and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. The concentrated mind is thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability. (MN 4)

Reflection

The four stages of mental absorption described in the system of jhānas culminate with the attainment of a profound and imperturbable equanimity. In this state the mind is free of both craving and aversion, neither favors nor opposes any mental object, and is able to simply regard things as they actually are, undistorted by our projections and fears. Notice also that such equanimity has the effect of purifying mindfulness.

Daily Practice

Sitting quietly and allowing the mind to become more and more peaceful, progressively more unified, and gradually steadier will eventually culminate in the quality of mind described here. This is not a transcendent state but rather a natural, immanent state of mind. See if you can allow your mind to become still like tranquil water and watch the mind reflect whatever comes before it without distortion.

Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering
One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and Abiding in the First Jhāna

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation \\ Words of Wisdom - April 13, 2025 💠

“When you start to appreciate that God is everywhere or the Spirit is everywhere, then the question becomes why aren't I seeing it? And then you realize it's the eyes of the beholder. It's which level you're choosing to look at or which level your desires are allowing you to look at.

Because I said before if you're too hungry you just see what's edible. And it's only when you start to yearn to know your true self or yearn to see beyond or realize the ephemeral nature of all the stuff that you grab hold of in the world, that you start to turn your direction somewhere else.

And that's why they often say that despair is a prerequisite for spiritual awakening. Meaning despair that everything you're collecting isn’t going to be enough.”