Perception Without Thoughts

I know this might not be understood. But that’s fine.

There is perception without thoughts.

Thoughts are not yours. Nor is this body yours. There is only reality - six sense doors and respective inputs. In the monk free from the five hindrances.

When from the basis of the past, thoughts do not interfere perception, there is perception without thoughts.

Thus, O monks, do the ideal ones concentrate - in equanimity, in awareness and in wisdom.

Mind moments swell from moments to minutes, from khanika samadhi to upkar samadhi.

Panya

Sampajañña

This post is not for intellectual exercise. Kind of a personal note, in the vipassana practice of 'noticing' 'acknowledging'

Mental Contents Within Mental Contents

After a few insights, more or less based on non-self, mind suddenly took a leap into deeper understanding.

This is from the Mahasatipatthana Sutta when Buddha says something like :

"Mental contents in mental contents … "

(When I first read notes from mahasatipatthana sutta I came across phrases like Body in body, … mental contents in mental contents ... I felt helpless, I could not understand these phrases at all)

Now, in case of Anger for example, I see mental contents thus:
1.I saw that the apparent anger may be a projection of some insecurity inside
2. Insecurity/fear that is working this anger, creating a veil and keeping me away from the real cause/s of anger, keeps me a step away from reality
3. If I look closely at this anger->based on fear/insecurity, observing the sensations, I see clear connection of this anger with craving or aversion

Now having understood thus, I stop the cycle of ignorance (avijja) and come out of the anger!

As soon as I face/understand the real cause, anger gets uprooted, and mindfulness is established again in equanimity

Here, I see three layers of feelings - feeling within feelings. By the time I scrap the third layer and reach there, mindfulness is firmly established in equanimity

* Of course these words will make sense only with experience of
concentration practice
familiarity with sensations within sensations
practice in equanimous awareness
awareness of presence of a mental quality (that one can use as a basis of experience in the Now)

Thoughts lose a lot of their power over the 'mind'. One can choose what one wants to think, and does not think what one does not want to think.

With witnessing feelings within feelings, one faces the cause of suffering that so clearly lies within.
Sometimes suffering dissolves immediately transforming the physical cause too (say a pain that has appeared on the body), sometimes things change after sizzling a bit, sometimes it takes years.

If U have gathered courage to face it, with equanimity, suffering and its physical manifestation have to leave, sooner or later.

A second insight happened at meal time this morning, somewhat related. Makes the subject of my second post "Perception without Thoughts"

Also, I see how insights are building up, I remember how I understood much less around April 26, 2010 when I wrote the following post Mark It:

I wrote a post "Mark it" on April 26, 2010
Usually I stick around the nostrils to watch my breath. Traditionally some people watch the belly (in meditation) ha ha. So … I notice my attention shift to the belly, rising and falling with in and out breaths and the idea flashed through … notions of the body. The ref. is mahasatipatthanna sutta, I understood some, some identification trickled down, what could have been meant by ‘body in body’.

So I can say it was at this point, after years of practice, that I had begun to understand these terms - ‘body’, ‘sensations within sensations’ and now ‘mental contents’, kind of appropriately called it Mark It, kind of a new beginning (though I didnt realise then :)

I first read mahasatipatthana sutta at a meditation pagoda in 2003 (towards the end, in this video). I remember how helpless I had felt not understanding Buddha’s words. It has taken years to bring about this post, to answer questions (partly) that crossed my mind in 2003, with mahasatipatthana book in my hand, I never forgot those questions. Each day since then has been a stepping stone…and I know mahasatipatthanna sutta is several hundred phrases long, I have understood only two phrases, and that too only partially. Learning happens all at once, and in stages 
Still uncovering…

Letter to Meditator: Expectations as Hindrance

Look at how we grasp things.

It is a little less than inspiring to see power hungry people. It is not nice to see someone gorge hungrily on food, when they have already have had enough.

Something in us intuitively seeks balance.

I discovered it is not just the disliked object that we feel not so happy about, but also something larger, deeper, notional. We are afraid of the unnaturalness, the 'false' hunger. Our needs are actually a lot less than what we demand from life.

Wanting is endless. The chase after wants is tiring. Hard work is to be aware of these processes right in the beginning, before the wanting becomes a very strong habit pattern in the mind. Before we become a prey to a 'false' want. Sometimes this dunzie/false want lasts for a lifetime, say keeping up with a relationship we never wanted in the first place-yet how we cling! Or it could be keeping secure some denial we experienced as a kid. A lifetime of regret. Sometimes, a lifetime of chase for something we just 'thought' we wanted.
Is it okay to step back and see if we really want what we want? Take some time to question yourself, your beliefs, I mean just to get more real about our directions.
:) Takes practice.

Here is a short two minute video



One has to be really relaxed to chuck things out. Things inspired by a comparison, an advert, something we read ... desires that just creep in insidiously. We need to be aware at the time of mind taking that input, but it is difficult ... so take time out to review string mind moments when we were reactive. You will discover significant (yet funny things), like sometimes we begin to want, ironically, things that we hate - do you remember checking the facebook profile of someone you dont err like? Craziness!

So one has to get rid of digressions, that actually run much deeper than we think. As you progress, you will discover we need a lot less than what we have been chasing.

Personally, I have discovered, I have made superior progress in my materialistic goals when I removed expectations that halter me, this took literally several weeks of relaxation. I had to take expectations off layer by layer, sometimes painfully. And let go. I had to come to understand areas that caused constant stress and were actually running opposite to some larger goals. Had to cut a lot off my back. took a lot of revisiting. Yet the key was to be aware in the now, and see what direction is my mind taking, and steer it and question it if it is a 'false' direction am going in.

Its not that you would always do something you 'like'. But at least you will be able to be in a non-dual mind state. Like you might me writing a report you really want, and clearly that is the direction mind is taking. And then there is a digression of wanting something to eat. At this point before walking off the report: I would have considered this (when did I eat last, is this hunger 'real' or false distraction). If it is real hunger I wont call it distraction, and I will in all probability come back to my report, starting from where I left it.

Removing these expectations are like removing hindrances. It will also help you face unpleasant tasks more effectively. You will see the clarity, and the difference between need and desire. It is more effective and more in the face looking at Facts, and drawing inspiration from your goals.

Am writing this to you, after shedding some weight. After a terrificly irritating incident. I write to you after succeeding in revising my expectation and achieving a personal positive end. This small victory gave me courage to write this. Am thankful for this clear articulation on mental process, and hope it benefits you shed some unnecessary weight. It helps in meditation:)

Lv

Give me Comfort

I have so many times heard monks say things like " I have anger, but I dont entertain it"

Buddha mentions something about not accepting gifts (of anger or hateful words)
Ref: Akkosa Sutta — Abuse

So the first thing, right now, that gives me comfort is to not give energy to thoughts, to let them pass.


(and second is dhamma companionship, may it be:)
Ref:Upaddha Sutta — Good Friendship

What about it?

What you come to know in meditation is usually no different from the facts you already know about. Sometimes, you already 'know' about what you are going to realise. What is different is the intensity, the quality of knowing.

Quality of knowing (difference between the knowing of an inventor, and of the person who copies the formula and applies it in the laboratory to testify results) is one aspect of knowing that is usually not generally recognised, at least not in the same way it is recognised/required in meditation, u know. In schools though each talented teacher would appreciate and inculcate a better quality of knowing, a better/living appreciation of the same facts in the pupil ... but the field is too vast to begin with in context of meditation. In meditation one needs a dynamic mind, a persistent and objective mind. A mind predisposed to be free from biases, at least an inclination for it. An open mind-a quality that is helped from a loving empathetic attitude, from being positive and not selfish. All these things help.

Meditation makes all the difference between intellectual word play, and actual experiential understanding. One does not get actual experiential understanding of the mystic concepts as the immediate step from the intellectual induction. One progresses slowly on this path, from intellect to experiential understanding, until one begins to advance.

So even if you 'know', see if you can 'apply'

You will find yourself revisiting facts, you will look at same things differently, as if not just with greater depth, but greater vastness, with vision and clarity of detachment. Things bereft of essence, wisdom of non-self

Holocaust

Something made me think of Danger(as a challenge, not as a thing to turn the mind blue), and Shell(protective) at the same time.

Death of a monk is possible. It is as possible as an average lay man's, in circumstance that may lead to death. Danger for a monk is possible too, sometimes monks are externally even more exposed to danger. Then what is the difference between a monk and a lay man?

Monk may have a shell. Lay man will have nothing, but the set of circumstance.

Monk can pause.

Monk is prepared, in fact s/he has been preparing all the time.

Where is the Love?

She got cellulitis, severe. Spread rapidly by the second day ended.
I took her to the doc. Hm, he identified that it was not a simple infected wound but Cellultis. Gave intravenous antibiotics and dressed the wound, indifferently. I came back and checked the symptoms and looked up the medicines on the web and felt satisfied with the doctor’s diagnosis.

Now the wound kept getting worse. I asked my grandmom, “Dear, do you like the doctor?” She shook her head. So on the third day we went to another doc. He did a minor surgery, just in time.

The wound and the swelling receded. And then today it started swelling again. I had by now read so much about cellulitis … I called the doc who wasn’t available. Within a few hours I knew it will get much worse. I opened the bandage and cleaned the wound … I found the skin around the wound had turned all black and I gently massaged the skin, and then the whole foot. I kept speaking kind words and suddenly I notice that after an hour of massage the skin is healthy and grandmother who was crying with pain was now smiling.

The skin that had a dead bluish hue, now seemed perfectly good brown. I think we feel more alive when someone we love lends us a touch. I kept up touching her lovingly. Soon the swelling was gone, for the first time in ten days.

To heal we ought to feel loved.