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.
Uncertainty is unnerving because it’s unpredictable but also because it demands a lot of us. If the future does not yet exist and we are creating the future in the present, then we have tremendous responsibility to actually engage.
Whatever a person frequently thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders healthy states, one has abandoned unhealthy states to cultivate healthy states, and then one’s mind inclines to healthy states. (MN 19)
Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts the mind, and strives to develop the arising of unarisen healthy mental states. One develops the unarisen awakening factors of tranquility and concentration. (MN 141)
Reflection
Sometime we may find ourselves falling into tranquil and focused states of mind quite naturally, but more often this is a practice that needs to be deliberately cultivated. When we know the value of such states, it is useful to induce them whenever we can. Usually this is just a matter of remembering to do so and then going through certain exercises of focusing on a single object and returning to it consistently when you drift.
Daily Practice
It is worthwhile calling to mind and developing the awakening factors of tranquility and concentration, grouped together here because each entails the other. A focused mind is naturally tranquil, and a tranquil mind is focused. Get in the habit of putting aside some time—at least 20 minutes—whenever you can, devoting it to accessing and sustaining a state of peaceful alertness, quiet concentration, and focused tranquility. It feels good.
Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and Abiding in the Third Jhāna One week from today: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States
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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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