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.
Over the past few years, I've begun a contemplative study of Jean-Marc Lepain's Archeology of the Kingdom of God, a philosophical work that explores Baha'u'llah's metaphysics in depth. It's a complex and thoughtful book, inviting a new kind of inquiry—one that examines the architecture of spiritual reality and the soul's unfolding within it. Rather than summarizing the entire work, I've decided to share my findings gradually, beginning here, with chapter 2.
This chapter focuses on the Kingdom of Abha. 'Abdu'l-Baha refers to it often, yet its meaning is rarely unpacked in everyday conversation. What is the Kingdom of Abha? What kind of reality does it name? And why does it matter to our spiritual life? This post offers a simplified overview of Lepain's insights, organized into five sections.
We have no fixed identity because we are constantly under construction, year by year, day by day, really moment by moment. The Buddhists would have it, then, that if you can dream it, you can be it.
Robert E. Buswell Jr., “A Buddhist-Themed Commencement Address”
RIGHT LIVING Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures
Sensual misconduct is unhealthy. Refraining from sensual misconduct is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning sensual misconduct, one abstains from misbehaving among sensual pleasures. (MN 41) One practices thus: “Others may engage in sensual misconduct, but I will abstain from sensual misconduct.” (MN 8)
Sensations cognizable by the body are of two kinds: things to be cultivated and things not to be cultivated. Such sensations as cause, in one who cultivates them, unhealthy states to increase and healthy states to diminish, such sensations are not to be cultivated. But such sensations as cause, in one who cultivates them, unhealthy states to diminish and healthy states to increase, such sensations are to be cultivated. (MN 114)
Reflection
Sensual pleasures come in many forms, some obvious and overt, some more delicate and suggestive. All have the potential for leading us into misbehavior, which is defined as acting in ways that cause harm or are laced with greed, hatred, and delusion. The pleasures of physical sensations are particularly seductive, and it is conducive to overall health and well-being to be capable of abstaining from misconduct whenever possible.
Daily Practice
We practice observing physical sensations in formal sitting meditation, when we can remove ourselves somewhat from everyday sights and sounds that can be so distracting. By paying close attention to very subtle sensations, such as those accompanying the inbreath and outbreath, we learn that all sensations are impermanent, thus giving us the ability to avoid misconduct when facing more challenging enticements later.
Tomorrow: Developing Unarisen Healthy States One week from today: Abstaining from Intoxication
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Thoughts are not a problem. None of us would want to be thoughtless individuals. None of us would want to lose the capacity to use our minds wisely. But are you using your mind wisely or are you caught in habitual patterns?
Shaila Catherine, “Knowing Our Thoughts as Thoughts”
However the seed is planted, in that way the fruit is gathered. Good things come from doing good deeds; bad things come from doing bad deeds. (SN 11.10) What is the purpose of a mirror? For the purpose of reflection. So too mental action is to be done with repeated reflection. (MN 61)
When you are doing an action with the mind, reflect on that same mental action thus: “Is this action I am doing with the mind an unhealthy bodily action with painful consequences and painful results?” If, on reflection, you know that it is, then stop doing it; if you know that it is not, then continue. (MN 61)
Reflection
The mind is always in motion, either taking in information from the senses and processing it, or conjuring up thoughts and images, memories and plans, from its own interior reaches. It is valuable to learn how to watch what your mind is doing, for in this way you gain the ability to discern whether your mental actions are healthy or unhealthy and helpful or unhelpful to the agenda of well-being and happiness.
Daily Practice
Practice and develop the skill of metacognition: that is, being aware of what you are thinking as you are thinking it. The same goes for being aware of the entire range of mental activity, including remembering, imagining, and associating one mental object with another. In addition, measure your mental activity in terms of how harmful or beneficial the consequences of your actions are, and adjust your actions as appropriate.
Tomorrow: Abstaining from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures One week from today: Reflecting upon Social Action
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