Cattāri Brahmavihārā

Posted by: Michael | 08/29/2018

Total Dedication

In what ways do you offer less than 100 percent dedication to awakening?

Learn what drains and diminishes your effort. Notice the effect of daily habits and entertainments on your meditation. Observe the effects that watching TV, engaging in gossip, or surfing the Web might have on your concentration. If you discover that an activity increases distraction or reduces your energy, you can do something different — engage in more supportive pursuits. Confront any obstacles that sap your strength and determination for practice.

Excerpt From: “Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhana and Vipassana” by Pa-Auk.

This. Why is it that I fail to dedicate myself completely to the task of awakening when it is truly the only thing of value here in samsara. Why do I give myself a pass if I’ve fasted or sat in meditation for an hour? Are there not 23 more hours in a day?

Every day when I sit in meditation memories of past wrongdoing arise: do I think I can escape their consequences? When hell fire and states of woe may lie in wait for me on the other side of death’s door how can I afford to pass my days in sloth and indulgence? Do I truly care for myself?

May I recollect at all times that I am practicing and planting seeds. May I not waste precious time and practice well while this opportunity remains.

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Posted in Aditthana, Buddha, Buddhism, Daily Practice, Dhamma, Practice at Work, Theravada | Tags: apaya loka, commitment, dedication, Hell, naraka, niraya

Posted by: Michael | 08/28/2018

Saddha – Faith

I’ve been exploring the teachings on the indriya and iddhi bala and realize that I may have been taking the faculty of faith for granted. Rather than applying myself wholeheartedly to the practice I have been more or less of a dilettante precisely because I have lacked true conviction that the practice will bear fruit for me. You see, I believe in the efficacy of the Dhamma-vinaya when it comes to everyone else but for me…well, it seems to be a different story altogether.

It seems that before I can really make progress with the Four Elements I need to calm and tether the mind. I spent forty minutes this morning watching as the mind progressively strayed farther and farther from the breath but at this point I believe it isn’t the technique, rather it’s my own kamma. And, why should I be surprised really? If I had been a great meditator in past lives I most likely wouldn’t have been reborn in my present circumstances which are nonetheless blessed.

May I cultivate the causes for the development of wisdom and concentration with faith and zeal.

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Posted in Buddha, Buddhism, Dhamma, Formal Meditation, Theravada | Tags: faith, Four Elements meditation, iddhi bala, indriya bala, saddha

Posted by: Michael | 08/27/2018

Mundane Morality

I drove upstate with my wife and kids to visit my father this weekend. Turns out he was having a surgery on Friday morning which he neglected to tell me he needed a ride to but I was, fortunately, able to be there to take him and to stay with him and ensure he was taken care of as the anesthesia wore off and the pain and nausea kicked in. I am thankful that I was able to be there because, if my aunt hadn’t answered his phone, we would have canceled the trip.

All of this is to say that I am always happy to help my parents in any way I can but any good kamma that results is still just worldly. Yes, I get joy simply from the act but I have been contemplating more deeply just how bottomless is this samsara and how each of us has done all of these good things and better in the course of infinite lives. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not proposing for a minute that we give up on making merit. Rather that, to truly take advantage of this precious opportunity, we need to make headway towards the Deathless.

What this looks like to me is more of an inclination towards developing insight and wisdom. Funny but it doesn’t actually seem to mean that I let up on samatha or brahmavihara practice. Rather, I feel like I need to bring more investigation and curiosity to my experience. And I suppose that’s what this contemplation really is: the realization that merit is great but that it alone does not a refuge make.

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Posted in Buddha, Buddhism, Dhamma, pañña, Parami, Theravada | Tags: merit, Puñña, samsara

Posted by: Michael | 08/23/2018

Stronger

Khanti parami…

Great Middle Way

17190505_1481685678529848_2194111065249882605_n Patience under insult is the greatest strength,

because people who are patient do not harbor hatred,

and they gradually grow more peaceful and stronger.

Patient people, since they are not malicious,

will surely gain the respect of others.

—Buddha Shakyamuni, Sutra in Forty-Two Sections

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Posted by: Michael | 08/22/2018

Apaya Loka

The one hope I have for staying out of the apaya loka and being able to serve other beings as well, is to gain purchase on the Path. Clearly, samatha alone will not suffice but my lackluster commitment to buddho and the breath means that developing the requisite concentration and one-pointedness for the development of wisdom just will not happen. As such, every spare minute of the day where my mind is not otherwise occupied I intend to follow the breath at the nose with buddho or with counting. I hope the simple act of training the mind, of tying it to the post of the breath along with training in sila will make my short sessions of vipassana bear fruit. May I meet with success.

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Posted in Anapanasati, Buddha, Buddhism, Buddho, Dhamma, Formal Meditation, Four Elements, Sila, Theravada | Tags: apaya loka, hell realms, naraka, niraya

Posted by: Michael | 08/20/2018

Taste without Greed

As the Buddha describes, “He takes his food experiencing the taste, though not experiencing greed for the taste.”²⁰ With the development of wisdom, you will understand that sensual desire is not pleasure; it is suffering; it is a force that inhibits the deep peace and rest you seek.

Excerpt From: “Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhana and Vipassana” by Shaila Catherine.

My exploration of the approach of Burmese masters like the Venerables Ledi and Pa Auk Sayadaws is proving to be fruitful. After a 30+ hour fast and the Uposatha observance I succumbed to a desire for a sense pleasure I had forsworn but, rather than allow myself to get caught up in the charybdic maw of guilt and remorse I have turned to see how I might investigate it. Clearly, just as I imputed desirability to the action before it was undertaken I am now projecting aversion onto the act and its fruition. What is done is done and I can no more recall the kamma than I can turn back time.

How, though, does the quote above relate? I think it has everything to do with the reality that we can remain equanimous in the face of pleasures and pains if only we practice correctly to develop wisdom and equipoise.

May I always meet with true teachers of the Buddhadhamma until safety is won.

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Posted in Buddha, Buddhism, Dhamma, Fasting, Sensual Desire, Taṇhā, Theravada, Upekkha, Uposatha | Tags: desire, equanimity, equipoise, Ledi Sayadaw, Pa Auk Sayadaw

Posted by: Michael | 08/18/2018

Practicing Imperturbability

I have been trying to dedicate myself to the practice of the Four Elements meditation as taught by the Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw but have been struggle by against my own laziness and something I might provisionally describe as fear.

My journey to the Pa Auk method began when I picked up the Venerable Ledi Sayadaw’s book The Requisites of Enlightenment and his descriptions of the precariousness and preciousness of this birth really lit a fire under my bum. Unfortunately I feel that my faculties are out of whack now and the overflowing of effort is resulting in restlessness and, strangely enough, sloth and torpor.

So, under these circumstances and facing a spouse who seems to want to deliberately try to upset and destabilize me I can see no better quality to cultivate than equanimity or imperturbability. By sticking with buddho at the nostrils and coordinating it with the breath I can at least regain some calm and present a façade of imperturbability to my wife’s jabs and at least prevent the arising of unwholesome kamma.

This, in conjunction with the difficulties I’m facing trying to put the teachings into practice should serve to humble me if I had any pretensions about my spiritual development. I’m really still a deluded worldling but I can at least work on my paramis with the hope that in this life or another to come I can Delos samadhi and pañña and start to put an end to this mess once and for all.

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Posted in Buddha, Buddhism, Buddho, Dhamma, Formal Meditation, Four Elements, Theravada, Upekkha | Tags: equanimity, imperturbability, Venerable Ledi Sayadaw, Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw

Posted by: Michael | 08/16/2018

Self-Care

315. Just as a border city is closely guarded both within and without, even so, guard yourself. Do not let slip this opportunity (for spiritual growth). For those who let slip this opportunity grieve indeed when consigned to hell.

Self-care isn’t sleeping in. It’s wishing yourself well enough to get up early and do your pujas and meditate.

Self-care isn’t allowing your mind to pursue sense pleasures with the tenacity of a hungry dog. It is restraining the mind, tying it to the post of kamatthana and sending it to bed when all else fails.

Self-care isn’t cultivating freedom of desire. It is cultivating freedom from it.

I didn’t care for myself enough this morning to wake early enough to meet my practice commitments and I broke my other aditthana as well. Laxity isn’t self-care when when the world is aflame. Who knows if I will meet the Dhamma again in my next thousand births. Why then am I willing to squander this opportunity and trade diamonds for offal and excrement?

Unfortunately, I don’t even have time for guilt. I have to pick myself up, dust myself off and redouble my efforts. I’m standing on a precipice overlooking an endless abyss: of utter fear and a desire to save myself don’t arise then what a fool am I.

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Posted in Aditthana, Buddha, Buddhism, Dhamma, Sensual Desire, Theravada | Tags: rebirth, samsara, self-care

Posted by: Michael | 08/15/2018

Buddho and the Four Elements

I had made an aditthana to practice with buddho for the next three years and, despite new discoveries, I intend to keep it. However, I also plan to add Venerables Pa Auk and Ledi Sayadaws approach to cultivating wisdom through a vipassana style investigation of the properties of the Four Elements in the body. In this way I hope to be able to cultivate one pointedness through buddho while planting the seeds of pañña so that the unique and liberative teachings of the Buddhadhamma aren’t lost on me.

This morning, for example, I spent the first third on metta bhavana, the second on buddho recitation unhooked from the breath as described by Ajahn Martin and the last part investigating air (pushing) and earth (hardness). It wasn’t easy but I’m getting the sense that lay, guerrilla practice has to be like this: there’s just too many defilements and not enough free time to devote to a single practice so it’s all about planting seeds and applying antidotes. In this way, metta clears the heart, buddho concentrates the mind and vipassana gives rise to wisdom. Or, that’s the hope at least.

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Posted in Buddha, Buddhism, Buddho, Dhamma, Four Elements, pañña, Theravada | Tags: Four Elements, Ledi Sayadaw, Pa Auk Sayadaw, vipassana

Posted by: Michael | 08/14/2018

No Turning Back

Even if we cannot actually remove the suffering of others how beautiful and skillful is this aspiration.

I take upon myself the burden of all suffering. I am resolved to do so, I will endure it.

I do not turn or run away, I do not wince, I am not terrified, nor afraid. I do not turn back or despond. […]

All beings I must set free. The whole world of living beings I must rescue from the terrors of birth, aging, disease, death and rebirth; of all kinds of moral transgression; of all states of woe; of the whole cycle of birth-and-death; of the jungle of false views; of the loss of wholesome doctrine; of the concomitants of ignorance; from all these terrors I must rescue all beings.

—Nagarjuna, Precious Garland

Great Middle Way

Image result for arya nagarjuna I take upon myself the burden of all suffering. I am resolved to do so, I will endure it.

I do not turn or run away, I do not wince, I am not terrified, nor afraid. I do not turn back or despond. […]

All beings I must set free. The whole world of living beings I must rescue from the terrors of birth, aging, disease, death and rebirth; of all kinds of moral transgression; of all states of woe; of the whole cycle of birth-and-death; of the jungle of false views; of the loss of wholesome doctrine; of the concomitants of ignorance; from all these terrors I must rescue all beings.

—Nagarjuna, Precious Garland

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