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Monday, October 15, 2012

KARMA CLASS: My Tongue Fu

Seth Auberon and Amber Dorrian and Seven, "Karma Class," Wisdom Quarterly
"Take that, #$%@%!" "Sticks and stones, @#$%-&)(@r!, sticks and stones!" (cpa.psu.edu)
  
Ever notice that, judging by the Ten Courses of Unwholesome Karma (Action), the most dangerous part of a person is his or her tongue?
  
The mind as the source of intention, and therefore karma, is capable of many misleading deeds. (Intention means what we will to do, not what we wish would happen as a result of doing). The body misbehaves, too. But it is the tongue that we really need to watch out for.

"How can I say this more skillfully?"
Intentional actions merely constitute "karma" (action with the capacity to bring about results in the future). The Buddha singled out these ten as "courses." That is, they are conduct capable of guiding one to an unfortunate rebirth all by themselves.

How? If they come to fruition around the time of passing from one existence to the next, they may serve as the basis of rebirth-linking-consciousness. They act as a corridor, a course, a fairway, a path, a set of wardens dragging one along to some unwished for destination.

"I was worried for a moment," we may say, "but thank goodness I don't actually believe in rebirth in any literal sense." We have three choices: Annihilationism, Eternalism, or the Middle Way that avoids both of these extremes in view. Are we only physical and therefore die utterly at death? Then we can do whatever we want and expect no result. Are we eternal with both physical and beyond-physical components? Then we should plant seeds of future experience we want growing and avoid those unwished for ones. The Buddha actually rejected both points of view, science vs. religion. Beings are not technically eternal but the stream-of-being will go on and on without no foreseeable end until it is brought to an end as unsatisfactoriness comes to an end. The view that there is nothing before and nothing to follow is patently mistaken and a very dangerous view to hold, one that in and of itself can lead to catastrophic results. That is, however, where most Westerners rest their bets, relying on professors and unseen scientists as their authorities. (Fortunately, try as we might, few of us actually believe that we came from nothing only to go to nothing.) Few have insight into the liberating Middle Way the historical Buddha taught.
  
Of the ten three are bodily, three are mental, whereas four are verbal. We can hardly help the way we think, our patterns having become so ingrained that we feel helpless against them. Even our bodies seem to react by instinct, by genetics, by physiology, and the habitual patterns we have trained them in. But the mouth and the deadly weapon in it! They are all ways of expressing intention (the will to carry out some act aiming for a desired end):
  1. taking life
  2. taking what is not given
  3. misconduct with regard to sensual pleasures
  4. false speech
  5. slanderous speech
  6. harsh speech
  7. idle speech
  8. covetousness
  9. ill will
  10. wrong view
The questions to ask, then, regard practical definitions for these ten. They are not self-explanatory. The Buddha had something very specific in mind. As with other lists, that information is packed away. Only when the information is unpacked do the lists suddenly seem useful. What is the Path?

Paranormal Investigation: The Afterlife (video)

ParanormalTVchannel; Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

 
A real apparition (answers.com)
For five years a medium group and scientists witnessed more psychokinetic phenomena than any other experiment in the history of paranormal investigations. This included conversations with the dead that were recorded, written messages on sealed film, video footage of spirit faces and spirit forms materializing.
 
There is not only this world but worlds beyond. We have this life and many (more miserable) lives to come. 
  
Samsara's Six Sensual Spheres, Tibetan thangka
Enlightened beings make an end of ALL suffering by making an end of this endless round of rebirth (samsara).
  
How can one make an end of the "endless"? The Buddhist path analyzes what fuels the fire of this impersonal process called samsara ("the continued wandering on from birth to birth and death to death") then removes its principal supports: delusion, craving, aversion, fear. 
  
Besides, it is "endless" only in the sense that in and of itself it would never come to an end. Like a self-renewing hamster wheel, it would cycle on endlessly, hamster after hamster. Saying that it does not end, technically speaking, is wrong. It is constantly ending. It is radically impermanent: What arises almost immediately passes away moment by moment.
  
Each moment of existence breaks down into three blended phases or sub-moments: arising, turning, and passing away. The macro mimics the micro, for as above so below. Not only sub-moments but entire phases of our lives go like this: youth, aging, and decrepitude, birth, maturation, and death.

Many of us exist in realms bound by addiction.

Meditation is making me crazy!

Wisdom Quarterly editors interview a new meditator
 (whiteshutterbox/flickr.com)
AngerDespairTranquilityRainbow: struggle for inner peace (David Stuart/Zazzle.ca)
  
"Though one may conquer a thousand times a thousand adversaries in battle, yet one is indeed the nobler victor for conquering oneself. Self-conquest is far better than the conquest of others.
  
"Not even a deva, mara, or brahma [angel, demon, or god] can turn into defeat the victory of a person who is self-subdued and ever restrained in conduct" (Dhammapada, Chp. 8, vv 103-105).
  
Crazy?
Yoga says unite with the breath (spiritus, prana), unite with GOD (godhead, Brahman), unite with wisdom (transcendental knowledge, jnana).

I say meditation is driving me crazy! I feel settled and calm, but when I begin to sit, my mind races and my emotions bubble up until all I want to do is stand up. Can this be normal? I'd rather have peace of mind than a sitting-practice.
  
And do you?

Well, no. That's where it all falls down. I'd like more peace of mind, but sitting cross-legged doesn't seem to be the way to it.

At first it can seem like quite a strain. Relax. Let your mind wander. But look at the wandering rather than participating or getting "caught up" in it.

Let it wander? I thought the whole point was to bring it back?

It is. But you can't very well bring it back if it hasn't wandered. And when it is brought back -- gently, smiling, with tremendous love for it -- it will settle down and become quite useful. The mind is miraculous. We expend it until, spent, it is of little use to us and often becomes quite harmful.

Sit. Watch the exhales as you utterly let go. Let go each time you exhale. Do this and see what happens.

But I thought I had to watch the entire length of the breath. Isn't that the point?

It is. But begin by watching the breath go out and with it let it take your cares, concerns, and angst. Rather than trying to control the process, let go.

It seems hard.

Friendship immediately makes an end of enemies.
Any idea may seem hard, but in practice it just is -- pardon the expression -- what it is. Which is just practice. When you approach Peaceful Mind, you will become annoyed with anyone interfering with your meditation practice. Why? Because meditation will have started becoming a fountain of very pleasurable interest and effervescent joy. It's like when you thumb through those magazines or flip through the musical selections on your phone, you don't want to be disturbed. They are sources of soothing ease. Imagine a more powerful source.

Sitting?

Meditation. Mindful (present moment) awareness of what is. Whatever is. Wherever and whenever it is -- standing, laying down, walking, running... There is always a space for awareness. "Stand in the place that you are," as Guru REM teaches.

It's like a war in there, in  my head.
  
Better to overcome yourself in that war than a thousand adversaries in a thousand wars. Befriend yourself and you will put an end to that "enemy" then and there.

"Spiritual" advice replete with thousands of verses is of no value if it has no useful meaning, no practical purpose. A single line is more valuable if hearing it one is pacified.

"Although a thousand lines one composes,
A tome of meaningless lines, one supposes,
For far better would be a single useful one
If by hearing a person is thereby calmed."
(Wisdom Quarterly translation, Dhp. 8:101)