Revoked

Sunday, February 4, 2024

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States

RIGHT EFFORT
Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States

Whatever a person frequently thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders unhealthy states, one has abandoned healthy states to cultivate unhealthy states, and then one’s mind inclines to unhealthy states. (MN 19)

Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts the mind, and strives to abandon arisen unhealthy mental states. One abandons the arisen hindrance of sluggishness. (MN 141)

Reflection

Unhealthy or unhelpful states come up all the time. The early teaching was not simply to be aware of everything but also to discern what is unhealthy and learn how to abandon it. Alertness is a more helpful mental state than sluggishness, and it is therefore beneficial to remain alert as much as possible. Rest and sleep when appropriate, but when you are awake practice being really alert and fully conscious.

Daily Practice

There is nothing morally wrong with sluggishness of mind. The problem is just that it prevents the mind from working well and is therefore a hindrance to seeing clearly. When you feel drowsy or sleepy, or you feel your mind getting dull, explore how many ways you can dispel this temporary state and restore a sense of alertness. It is a matter of raising the level of energy in the body and/or the mind.

Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and the Second Jhāna
One week from today: Developing Unarisen Healthy States

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Saturday, February 3, 2024

Via FB \\ The Metta Bhavanna

Via Daily Dharma: Cultivate Spaciousness

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Cultivate Spaciousness

The important thing is not to try to have an experience of spaciousness. The important thing is to be spacious with whatever’s happening, to cultivate the capacity to be easy with what’s here, open to what’s here, spacious around what’s here.

Martin Aylward, “The Power of Not Knowing”

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Breaking Open Instead of Breaking Down
By Scott Tusa

Compassion allows us to bear witness in a way that softens us and opens us, rather than breaks us down.

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RIGHT MINDFULNESS
Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling

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 feeling a neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling, one is aware: "Feeling a neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling" … one is just aware, just mindful: "There is feeling." And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection

Pleasant and painful feelings are apparent enough, but the third kind of feeling, one that is neither pleasant nor painful but neutral, can be harder to detect. Some say most feeling is neutral, and only a few feelings are obviously pleasant or painful. Others say that most feelings are either pleasant or painful, only appearing neutral with insufficient attention, and that with greater discernment they will resolve into pleasant or painful. Try out both points of view and decide for yourself.

Daily Practice

Feeling tone is a component of every mind moment. While breathing in and out, notice the changing textures of feeling throughout the body. Feelings are fleeting, numerous, and varied. It is against the backdrop of pleasant and painful feelings that you can begin to notice feelings like tingling, perhaps, that don't register as obviously pleasant or unpleasant yet still make up the strands of experience.

RIGHT CONCENTRATION
Approaching and Abiding in the Second Phase of Absorption (2nd Jhāna)

With the stilling of applied and sustained thought, one enters upon and abides in the second phase of absorption, which has inner clarity and singleness of mind, without applied thought and sustained thought, with joy and the pleasure born of concentration. (MN 4)

Reflection

Trying to attain these stages as some form of accomplishment is actually antithetical to the states of mind accessed by jhāna. One of the reasons the jhānas have not been emphasized in western meditation circles until recently is precisely because of the danger inherent in the striving or comparing mind. Never mind stage one, two, three, or four—just sit quietly and allow the contentment of the tranquil mind to formlessly arise.

Daily Practice

As you sit quietly and your mind becomes increasingly calm and stable, it is natural for the pleasant sensations that arise from the mind being free of the hindrances to gradually morph into the pleasant sensations that come simply from the mind being focused. This unified tranquility is actually a natural state for the mind, which is much more at home in serenity than it is in our hectic, multitasking life.

Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering
One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and Abiding in the Third Jhāna

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#DhammaWheel

Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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Via Daily Dharma: Lessons from the Mata Sutta

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Lessons from the Mata Sutta

Looking deeply into yourself as a reality, you see you’re connected with everyone. In your self, I see your father. In your self, I see your mother. In your self, I see your ancestors.

Cuong Lu, “The Collective Dimensions of Happiness”

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