Why JHANA (meditative absorption)?

Gary Sanders (Against the Stream), Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha (FFlittleD/flickr.com)

 

(tumblr.com/mbe020whlb1rhekwnol)

The Secular Buddhist and Full Contact Enlightenment seem to like the way I expressed my experience of meditative absorption (jhana) or access concentration. And a reader writes in: 

 

"Good article. [I'm] interested to know how [your] "the Buddha mastered them and found they weren't the 'be all, end all,' so why bother?" thinking came [about] for you... being that the Buddha spoke so highly of jhana and that it is the eighth factor of the Eightfold Path?"

There are two reasons why I previously thought the jhanas weren't all that. And I'm not really sure which came first, or if it even matters.
 

1. Most of the Western teachers I sit with seem to just gloss over the jhanas. It's been my perception that they do not place any real importance on the practice [of tranquility and  deep prerequisite "right concentration," or samma samadhi, the eighth factor, defined by the Buddha as the first four absorptions].

2. I just assumed that the jhanas were another practice the Buddha learned, mastered, and discarded (like other extreme ascetic practices) before going to sit under the Bodhi tree.

 

After reading books and listening to talks from Ayya Khema, Leigh Brasington, Daniel Ingram, and others, I have found great, almost indispensable, value in jhana practice, not just to sharpen the quality of my concentration, but really as part of my path.

 
The Buddha and jhana
Seth Auberon, Dhr. Seven, Amber Dorrian, Wisdom Quarterly

Deep meditation (mysecretpsychiclife.com)

  

(AlisonRyde/flickr.com)

Having edited the article, I have a different explanation. Siddhartha, who only became "the Buddha" after opening himself to the blissful absorptions, had NOT mastered them. He had rushed through them precisely without gaining mastery or lingering in the supersensual bliss and eventual equanimity they offer. One can move through them rather rapidly like a stone skipping on the surface of a very deep lake.
 

This explanation, which is not my own but that of advanced jhana masters like Ven. Dhammadipa and his teacher, the foremost living expert on Buddhist meditation, Pa Auk Sayadaw, resolves a historical problem.

That problem is understanding why Siddhartha's experience under the Bodhi tree makes it sound as if jhana were a new concept when he must have experienced the jhanas to some degree -- however lightly -- to have become disappointed with the teachings of his former teachers.
  
After all, those teachers called their highest jhanic attainments "enlightenment" and "nirvana" (moksha or "final liberation").

The worlds those rarefied jhanas lead one to be reborn in have staggeringly long average lifespans of as many as 80,000 aeons, or relative "eternities," which is nevertheless nowhere near one actual eternity.
 
Under the Bodhi tree the Bodhisat is said to have remembered a childhood absorption experience. And this led him to wonder why he had been meditating fearing pleasure divorced from sensuality? Problem: Buddhist history is told as if the ascetic Siddhartha had been immersed in the jhanas for years.

After all, had he not already used the first jhana, recalled from childhood, within those other dharmas (the Doctrines and Disciplines of Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta) to get to the equanimous immaterial (fifth through eighth) jhanas?
  
Technically yes, but not if he just zipped through the material (first through fourth) without mastering them or permitting himself to bask in the bliss they offer.

 

"Mastery" is defined in Buddhism as being able to enter them at will, emerge from them as predetermined, and to choose which to enter and abide in. One may, if one wishes, stay absorbed for seven days, and that can be done without breathing. Although Siddhartha climbed to the seventh and eighth jhanas with his teachers, he was striving toward a goal that was not to be found in these attainments. Those teachers taught that those attainments themselves were the goal -- the consummate accomplishment of liberation (moksha).

But the Bodhisat understood -- due to a great deal of past life experience with the absorptions -- that no jhana is bodhi (enlightenment), nirvana (the end of all suffering), or the final solution to the problem of rebirth (samsara). Jhanas are temporary liberations, not final liberation (moksha).
 
All of the jhanas are heavy good-karma and therefore lead to rebirth within samsara, to destinations corresponding to superhuman worlds beyond the Sensual Sphere.
 
Each jhana has three rebirth-levels corresponding to the level of mastery attained. Full mastery of the first jhana, for example, leads to a "heaven" or space plane called Great Divinity (the plane of Maha Brahma), whereas merely touching that jhana leads only to rebirth (if held at the dying moment) to rebirth in "7th Heaven" called Brahma's Retinue, a world of shining ones in space (parisajja brahma akasha deva loka, Large Chart: 31 Planes of Existence, p. 80).

Right Concentration

Moreover, in answer to your question, we are rarely taught that the Buddha "spoke highly of the absorptions." In fact for a few centuries now, Theravada teachers fearfully dissuade practitioners from taking up a serenity practice (samatha). They seem to suffering from the same obstacle Siddhartha faced that blocked his attainment of enlightenment. Who thinks jhanic bliss is a trap?
 
The fear is that meditators will become attached to the joy and cling detrimentally to the conditioned phenomena of meditative experience.

What is more important, samadhi or vipassana, concentration or insight? The question is misleading because suggests a false dichotomy. It is not one OR the other.

There is no mindfulness without concentration, no concentration without mindfulness. And without mindfulness there can be no insight. Mindfulness helps everything, but it is concentration, whether as access or absorption, that purifies and intensifies heart/mind to breakthrough.

What is more important, the top half of the pyramid or the bottom half?

The top half, obviously! Is it "obvious"? No, the top half! What top without a bottom, what height without a foundation, what upstairs access without a firm downstairs? There is no elevated part without a supporting foundation part, except in the abstract. In practice, no one gets to liberating-insight without a necessary and sufficient amount of concentration. The weaker the mind/heart's ability to focus and stay on the object of insight, the less likely any breakthrough is to be expected.

But here's the thing. Getting to the pinnacle of insight does not technically take mastery in absorption, although mastery in absorption certainly makes it much more likely!
 
Without mastery up to the fourth absorption, the sustained practice of Dependent Origination (going backward from current circumstances to their origin rooted in karma and past lives) or seeing existential phenomena such as particles and mind-moments (kalapas and cittas) is very difficult and unsustainable.

 

Can it happen, can it be accomplished? Yes. As unlikely as it is, it can. Access concentration, which is inferior to full absorption even to the weakest level of the first jhana, is enough. This is a technical point; however, it is taken as gospel. No one is allowed a choice. Access is all that is offered nowadays as if absorption were impossible.

Although access is technically enough, it does not mean most meditators will succeed; it only means that at least one person has succeeded.

For example, a person may win a battle against a titan with just a sling and a single stone. But every human who embarks on such a battle would be wise to arm him or herself far better than that!
 
Fear of what jhana might be or lead to with no actual experience of it is like a sinister plot to make sure no one succeeds in reaching stream entry. In a popular misconception of Mahayana, this might seem a welcome thing. Gawd forbid anyone actually enter upon becoming enlightened before having "saved" everyone else.
 

Mara Devaputra, the arch-angelic Cupid/Lucifer figure residing in the highest Sense Sphere world, known as Brahma's Retinue, wants no one to attain stream entry or jhana. For that entails escape from samsara and his influence, be it temporary (by higher rebirth) or permanent (by making an end of rebirth).

Since the jhanas lead to rebirth beyond the Sense Sphere, in the Fine Material and Immaterial Spheres, Mara does not want anyone attaining jhana. Strangely, Mahayana speaks only of six planes of existence when the historical Buddha spoke of 31 such planes, most of them deva worlds of light.
 
The six planes Mahayana teaches are merely those within the Sense Sphere. Why is that?

And within Theravada meditation circles, why are various monastic communities and communities of practitioners still opposing the Buddha's teachings and his urgings that we establish ourselves in at least the first four absorptions? It is one of the bases of success.
 

Parable of the Raft

(Mark Downey/danitadelimont.com)

  
In the "Parable of the Raft," the Buddha says that if one wants to cross over from this shore fraught with dangers over to a further shore beyond danger, one should gather just enough wood and material for a raft and strive diligently with just the strength of one's paddling limbs to get across. That might be enough. That would be viriya, a "virile" effort and exertion. Such outbursts are rarely fruitful. Instead, persistent balanced-effort is the gradual path the Buddha taught. Or one might die trying by such an outburst. One might find that poorly fabricated raft is not nearly enough to cross over the great flood (ogha, samsara). Yes, "enough" concentration is enough, but more is safer and gives one greater certainty that the goal will be reached.
 

(stepoutsidenow)

Sadly, not everyone can attain absorption, so access concentration becomes the only route available. But this is no reason to disparage absorption or dissuade others from following the gradual path the Buddha taught. If someone only has a flimsy foundation, one may try to use it. Or it may be wiser to make it more stable before trying, and failing, and giving up. A human life is an extraordinarily rare opportunity to reach the goal. Maybe that is why some of us were reborn here. It is easier to glimpse nirvana from the lower deva worlds, BUT it is less likely that one will have the impetus to strive for it. Who needs "the end of suffering" when living on a plane without much overt suffering. Obvious suffering in the human world reminds us of the true nature of samsara (that all things are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and impersonal) and the great danger inherent in it. Danger? Until stream entry there is an ever-present danger of falling into unfortunate realms (rebirth destinations) for indeterminate periods of time during which one forgets the goal because one is simply trying to survive and endure the misery. Then one neglects the goal when reborn in fortunate superhuman worlds, so that it can be aeons before one gets back to any vision of freedom through enlightenment and nirvana.

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The death of dear children (sutra)

Wisdom Quarterly translation of Visakha Sutra, Inspired Utterances (Udana 8.8)

The Buddha fearless mudra (Saksit_s/flickr.com)

This have I heard. On one occasion the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī at the Eastern Monastery, in the palace of Migāra's mother. 

A dear and beloved grandson of Visākhā, Migāra's mother, had died. So Visākhā went to visit the Buddha with hair and clothes wet [marks of mourning].

Grief stricken she went in the middle of the day, bowed, and sat down. The Buddha said to Migāra's mother:

"Visākhā, why have you come here with wet hair and clothes in the middle of the day?"

Going to the Buddha (Nevil Zaveri/flickr)

"My dear and beloved grandson has died," she explained.
 
"Visākhā, would you like to many children?"
 
"Yes, venerable sir, I would like to have as many children and grandchildren as there are people in [the city of] Sāvatthī."
 
"But how many people in Sāvatthī die in the course of a day?"
 
"Sometimes ten people die in Sāvatthī in the course of a day, sometimes nine... eight... seven... six... five... four... three... two... Sometimes just one person dies in Sāvatthī in the course of a day. Sāvatthī is never without people dying."
 
"Then, Visākhā, what do you think: Would you ever be free of wet clothes and hair?"

"No, venerable sir. Enough of my having so many children!"
 
"Visākhā, those who have 100 dear ones have 100 sufferings. Those who have 90 dear ones have 90 sufferings. Those who have 80... 70... 60... 50... 40... 30...20 ... ten... nine... eight... seven... six... five... four... three... two... Those who have one dear one have one suffering.

"Those who have no dear ones have no sufferings. They are free from sorrow, free from stain, free from lamentation, I tell you."
 

Blissful and blameless (health.com)

Realizing the significance, the Buddha exclaimed: "The sorrow, weeping, and many similar kinds of suffering exist in the world, exist dependent on something dear. They do not exist when there is nothing dear.

"Blissful and sorrowless are those for whom nothing in the world is anywhere perceived as dear. Therefore, one who aspires to attain the stainless and sorrowless (nirvana) should not seek to make anything anywhere in the world dear.

• More: MN 87; Psalms of the Nuns 3.5; 6.1.

Cold world? No, the warmest!

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

The Buddha, like all arhats, reclines into final bliss of nirvana (Saksit_s/flickr)

 

But how could anyone avoid becoming attached to dear things in the world? In fact, on reflection, nothing is dear except that we make it so.

 

The proof? Something is called "dear" only because it is dear to someone, not because of anything it intrinsically possesses. IF this were not so, THEN there would be no release from attachment to the dear.  No one would be freed from grasping and clinging or what we refer to as "attachment."

Of course, for most people this is not the problem. The problem the idea that anyone would recommend that we not be attached to things so dear as children, as relatives, as friends.

 

Most people, most of the time, ARE going to be attached. And rightly so. The Buddha promoted and persuaded multitudes to care for one another, to cultivate loving-kindness (metta, love, friendliness, warmth for others) and compassion (karuna, actively helping relieve the suffering of others).

 

But he went further. He taught that to be happy, one should also cultivate joyful-appreciation (mudita) and after all three of these are developed, equanimity (upekkha).

 

This is where people stop understanding. Equanimity is misinterpreted as "indifference." But it really means non-bias. That is, those three beautiful karmic impulses are sent to ALL without distinction. This is how the practice is brought to fulfillment, perfection, fruition. The goal is more than social. But it is social.

"Enlightened" society? Progressive but not enlightened.

The world will not be enlightened, societies will not be, not cities, towns, or villages. Individuals, pairs, small groups of practitioners see the light (nimitta), develop the eight attainments (absorptions), make their way skyward to the deva-worlds, or go beyond ALL suffering to the supreme goal of nirvana.

 

With us, with our attachments, we FEAR nirvana as cold "nothingness," as annihilation, as "emptiness," as oblivion. And we do not see it, we do not strive for it, we turn away toward the world and pat ourselves on the back for choosing the eternal bodhisattva path. The work of a "savior-martyr" is never done, for there are too many beings to save for it to ever be done. 

 

That is why the historical Buddha never spoke of anyone abandoning the goal in favor of becoming another Maitreya (Messiah). It is one sure way not to cultivate the path, not to develop the necessary factors to make the best use of a human life, which is to directly know-and-see the truth. Then one could really be useful, could raise a hand in fearless-mudra and allay the suffering of others.

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Bodhi (Enlightenment) Day 2012

Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, David Nguyen, Wisdom Quarterly (Shaka Jodo-e, Dec. 8, 2012)

"The Legend of Buddha," an animated film by Pentamedia Graphics Ltd., qualified for contention at the 2005 Oscar Awards in the Best Animation Film category.

The Buddha, according to the oldest records, reached supreme enlightenment on the full moon day in May (roughly corresponding to the Indian month of Vesakha), which coincidentally was the day he was born and also the day he exited the world into final nirvana.

But these sources are not relied on by all traditions. The much larger and often more devotional Mahayana school, which encompasses Chinese Pureland, Japanese Zen, Nicheren, Tendai, and Shingon, Tibetan Vajrayana, or what used to be referred to generally as "Northern" Buddhism (as the Dharma traveled out of India into China, Japan, Korea, and parts of Vietnam).

This Buddhist school or vehicle -- as distinguished from the older Theravada (Teaching of the Elders or Theras and Theris) and the now defunct "Hinayana" (derogatory "Lesser Vehicle") schools like the Sarvastivada -- commemorates Siddhartha's knowledge-and-vision of nirvana. More than that it is the celebration that Siddhartha did not  merely become an arhat, or "fully enlightened person," but a Supremely Enlightened Teacher (samma sam buddha).

He might have remained silent (pacceka buddha) without having developed the ancillary qualities and abilities needed to effectively establish the Dharma, teaching it directly to others, and leaving a stable monastic and supportive lay-Buddhist legacy that continues long after a buddha's attainment of the goal.

Mahayana Buddhists observe the occasion not as a thrice-blessed day as it is celebrated by Vesak-observing countries (Burma, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and elsewhere). Instead, Bodhi Day allows celebrants to focus on the essence of the Buddha's achievement -- bodhi, "enlightenment," "awakening," transcending ignorance and all of the other causes of suffering.

This is best done by meditating, studying the Teachings on the path to enlightenment, chanting and/or memorizing sutras, and other acts of merit such as countering the Three Poisons of the heart/mind with the antidotes of letting go/unselfishness, friendliness/compassion, and mindfulness/cultivating right view. 

For all that, it is still a celebration, which means special foods, offerings to monastics and intensive practitioners, and readings^.

^{How did he do it, and how might I?}

Austere days of struggle (dhammawheel.com)

What might be important is reflecting on what finally made Siddhartha's spiritual efforts fruitful. He had tried devotion to teachers, the yogis Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputra (not a Jain as Wikipedia currently states but simply a shraman of which there were at least six prominent schools).
 
With them Yogi Siddhartha gained valuable skill in samadhi (intense concentration) but not enlightenment and liberation from samsara. He had tried extreme pleasure as a prince in the palace. He now tried severe asceticism -- starvation (anorexia mirabilis), holding his breath, not lying down, rarely eating, not caring for the body, exposure to the elements, and seclusion. Both were counterproductive.

 

He discovered the Path by setting off alone, taking food and rest sufficient to support his spiritual (metaphysical) endeavors, and utilizing the purity/intensity of heart-mind brought about by samadhi to support mindful insight-practices, which includes contemplation.

Crucially, he recalled that as a child of seven, he had spontaneously entered meditative absorption (jhana, zen, dhyana, seon, ch'an) under a tree during a planting festival. He had been running from that sort of bliss or joy (piti) for six years of practice since leaving the palace. Although his two teachers had taught samadhi as the goal by way of the eight jhanas, they did not encourage or allow him to develop these absorptions deeply.

It was enough to attain each and move quickly to the next absorption until reaching what they in their respective schools or dharmas (doctrine-disciplines) were regarding as the utmost attainment, as liberation (moksha), as freedom from rebirth (samsara), as nirvikalpa samadhi as if rarefied states of consciousness were nirvana.

But Siddhartha, due to so many exertions in past lives as a yogi, a Himalaya-dwelling hermit, realized, intuited, or felt that this attainment was not the ultimate, not real liberation from samsara, not the unexcellable goal of nirvana.

Reclining Buddha entering nirvana with arhats, Nanzoin Temple (Jepster/flickr)

 
Foolishly today many of us, following in the footsteps of ancient Brahminical and "Hindu" (a recent all-encompassing tradition systematized by Adi Shankara from very ancient texts and Vedic/Brahminical traditions existing at least from the time of the Indus River Valley Civilization up to and including lip service to the Buddha and Mahavira, the founders of the two most popular shramanic traditions that rejected the Vedas, Buddhism and Jainism), mistake the goal of the shramanic Buddha and that of Vedic Brahmins.

This is significant because Mahayana Buddhism, so thoroughly influenced by Brahmanism (precursor of modern "Hinduism"), hold up what Brahmins held up as the ultimate attainment as if it were nirvana.

But the Buddha corrected the teachers of his day, rejecting what the Brahmins taught and what his two wandering yogi teachers had taught him, in favor of what he found by his own efforts as a bodhisattva striving to become a samma sam buddha, a Supremely Enlightened Teacher.

Rohatsu, Jōdō-e (Danny Fisher)

Nirvikalpa samadhi is Hinduism's Advaita, "non-duality." It's what we joke about in the punchline "Make me One with everything." That oneness or non-duality is NOT enlightenment, not nirvana, not liberation from samsara.
 
Is it any wonder, therefore, that Mahayana exalts itself successfully opposing a strawman tradition it set up as Hinayana -- teaching, like the Brahmins, that "Nirvana is Samsara" when it is almost by definition the opposite? (Almost since nirvana cannot be known or defined by concepts, but only known by experience).

And rather than focusing on the historical Buddha, the Brahmins created Mahayana Buddhism in India within 200 years of the Buddha's passing -- created a tradition wherein all the many gods of the previous pantheon became Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Then of these Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, who went on to become Kwan Yin, soon assumed the position of greatest prominence, subordinating insight-wisdom in favor of promoting emotional-compassion.
  
That may not have been what the world really needed (to gain freedom), but it is certainly what it wanted. Sexism in the Judeo-Christian world met with a similar backlash, leading to the rise of the Virgin Mary as the supreme figure of day-to-day veneration. The Buddha was not sexist, nor was Jesus, but the worlds they taught certainly were, and the temple priests (Brahmin/Hindu and Philistine/Jewish) they corrected were.
 

Bodhi is enlightenment. Nirvana is supreme and ultimate liberation from samsara and all the suffering/disappointment inherent in conditioned existence

<sup>That is the real Bodhi Day reflection so that we may all one day be free.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception
Sr. Kathleen Deignan, CND (MonasticDialog.com)</sup> 
I have always thought it an interesting coincidence that the feast of the Immaculate Conception and the feast of the Buddha’s enlightenment, Bodhi Day, both share this date, December 8. Koans: engaging riddles, provocative questions that if lived awaken insight and a fuller understanding of life...
Bodhi Day 2012 (David Victor Vector)
^{Happy Bodhi Day! (Danny Fisher)}

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RAVE: An Anthem for War (video)

[Mystic Wisdom] Quarterly

(GowlerMusic) Electroacoustic piece of music set to the poem "Anthem for Doomed Youth" by the late British poet-soldier Wilfred Salter Owen.

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
  
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
  
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Owen died on the battlefield in WW I after writing "Dulce Et Decorum Est" (ironically "It is Sweet and Fitting [to Die for Patriotism]"). He was a great loss to humanity in light of what Europe might have produced if the youth of that generation had not been sacrificed.

HardFest HARD Day Of The Dead, Nov. 3rd, 2012, LA State Historic Park. Tickets (harddayofthedead.com)

Day of the Dead

Dev and Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Candy Eye (lilminx16/deviantart.net)

While the world is at war, promoted and prosecuted by the US military-industrial complex like MLK Jr. recognized, all I can do is dance to EDM. And the Mexican "Day of the Dead" (the Latin American Halloween) is being celebrated with a rave.

  

Next to the old Occupy Wall Street encampment under the occupied Los Angeles skyline, next to China Town, we will gather as in years before. I'm still in search of a peak experience worthy of a Buddhist monastic or the Buddha himself. When the lights are going off and the DJ is dropping a big fat beat, I'm almost there. Almost.

  

Back in the day

If I leave my body, will I see the larger Spirit World, the realm of devas.? If I dance so hard I can no longer feel my feet, will I elevate into spatial dimensions beyond our limiting atmosphere? In meditation, I close my eyes and see subtle light. I feel the unseen and touch emptiness. Sometimes Buddhism is the only thing that make sense, you know?

  

The Day of the Dead, when ancestors are honored and there is time to reassess and appreciate current relations, we will be with all our brothers and sisters under the Moon. But somewhere I know war is being fought for corporations and nothing else, no national security, no higher ideals. They're monsters, my brother among them. What can I do but dance, celebrating the Five Precepts while others are negligent, holding my head under a twice-colored cloud and focusing my mind.

The Buddha said, "Not having been, they come to be; once having been, they cease." What was he talking about? Everything, all conditioned-things. There is that Farther Shore beyond the beyond. We wish the killing would stop and the loving start so we could all arrive there. "Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O, what an awakening, yes!"

"Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate bodhi swaha!" is the epitome of the Heart Sutra.

• Spirituality: Compassion can't be lost in translation

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The Buddha's First Sermon (sutra)

Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly translation (Dhammachakapavattana Sutra, SN 56.11)

(My-Third-Eye/flickr.com)

PREFACE: Seven weeks after the great enlightenment, the former ascetic Prince Siddhartha, now the fully awakened Buddha, set out to teach his five former companions. He realized that they were still stuck in the futility of struggling by severe asceticism near India' holy city on the Ganges, Varanasi. He had previously practiced with them undertaking the most extreme penances and painful observances. He abandoned this well worn path to "spirituality" when he realized it would never lead to awakening to the Truth and liberation from all suffering. He discovered that cultivating absorptions and insight (jhana and vipassana) through proper concentration and mindfulness (samma samadhi and samma sati). In this sutra the Buddha sets in motion the Wheel of the Truth (the essential limbs, or spokes, of which lead to the hub of nirvana). This is the True Wheel, the path to the liberation he had experienced seven weeks earlier.

 

The Buddha addresses the Group of Five

SARNATH, India - Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was in Varanasi at the Resort of Seers (Isipatana) in the Deer Park. There he addressed the group of five ascetics.

  

"Recluses, these two extremes should be abandoned by anyone who has gone forth from household life. What two?

   

"There is devotion to indulgence, coarse pleasures associated with sensual desire, which is inferior, base, vulgar, ignoble, and leads to disappointment on the one hand, and on the other hand there is devotion to asceticism, which is just the same.

  

"The middle way discovered by [me] avoids both extremes. This path leads to vision, knowledge, peace, direct experience, discovery, to nirvana (final liberation). What middle way? 

  

"It is this ennobling Eightfold Path, namely:

1. right view
2. right intention
3. right speech
4. right action
5. right livelihood
6. right effort
7. right mindfulness
8. right concentration.

The Four Noble Truths

I. "Disappointment as an Ennobling Truth is this: Birth is disappointing as are aging, sickness, death, association with the unpleasant, dissociation from the pleasant, not getting what one wants is disappointing -- in brief, the Five Aggregates of Clinging are disappointing.

II. "The origin of disappointment as an Ennobling Truth is this: Craving produces renewal of being [rebirth] accompanied by enjoyment and lust and delighting in this and that. What craving? Craving for sensual desires, craving for [eternal] existence, and craving for nonexistence.

  

III. "Cessation of disappointment as an ennobling truth is this: It is remainderless fading and ceasing, letting go, relinquishing, rejecting and abandoning of such craving.

   

IV. "The path leading to the cessation of disappointment as an ennobling truth is this: It is this ennobling Eightfold Path...

  

"'Disappointment as an ennobling truth is this.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing (knowledge and vision of the Dharma), understanding, discovery, the light that arose in regard to things never heard by me before. 'Disappointment as an ennobling truth can be diagnosed.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing, understanding, discovery, the light that arose in regard to things never heard by me before. 'Disappointment as an ennobling truth has been diagnosed.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing, understanding, discovery, the light that arose in regard to things never heard by me before.

  

"'The origin of disappointment as an ennobling truth is this.' Such was the knowing-and seeing... 'This origin of disappointment as an ennobling truth can be abandoned.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing... 'This origin of disappointment as an ennobling truth has been abandoned.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing... in regard to things never heard by me before.

  

"'The cessation of disappointment as an ennobling truth is this.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing... 'This cessation of disappointment as an ennobling truth can be verified.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing... 'The cessation of disappointment as an ennobling truth has been verified.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing... in regard to things never heard by me before.

  

"'The way leading to the cessation of disappointment as an ennobling truth is this.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing... 'The way leading to the cessation of disappointment as an ennobling truth can be developed.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing... 'The way leading to the cessation of disappointment as an ennobling truth has been developed.' Such was the vision... in regard to things never heard by me before.

  

"As long as my knowing-and-seeing of things just as they are was not purified with regard to these 12 aspects, in three phases for each of these Four Noble Truths, I did not claim in this world with its light beings (devas), its killers (maras), its creatives (brahmas), in this generation with its wandering ascetics (recluses) and Brahmin priests, with its princes and people to have discovered the supreme enlightenment.

  

"But as soon as my knowing-and-seeing of things just as they are was purified with regard to these 12 aspects, in the three phases for each of these Four Noble Truths, then did I claim in this world... to have discovered the supreme enlightenment. Knowledge and vision arose in me: 'My heart's deliverance is assured. This is my last birth. Now there is to be no renewal of being.'"

  

That is what the Blessed One said. The group of five were glad, and they approved of his words.

   

Now during this teaching there arose in the ascetic Kondañña the purified and stainless vision of the Truth: "Whatever is subject to arising is also subject to falling away."

   

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Our 10,000-fold world-system

When the Wheel of Truth had been set rolling by the Buddha, the earthbound devas raised this cry: "At Varanasi, at the Deer Park in the Resort of Seers, the matchless Wheel of Truth has been set rolling by the Blessed One, not to be stopped by any recluse or deity, death-angel or divinity, or anyone in the world!"

  

On hearing the earthbound devas' cry, the devas inhabiting the six celestial paradises in space within the Sensual Sphere took up the cry until it reached beyond Great Brahma's Retinue in the Fine-Material Sphere. So indeed at that hour, at that very moment, the cry soared up to the World of Great Brahma. And this 10,000-fold world-system shook and quaked, and an unbounded radiance surpassing the very nature of the light beings was displayed throughout this entire world-system.

  

Then the Buddha exclaimed: "Kondañña knows! Kondañña knows!" And that is how that venerable one acquired the name Añña-Kondañña -- "Kondañña Who Knows."

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What is "non-duality"? (video)

Amber Dorrian and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Non-duality (Sanskrit, advaita) is oneness, not-two-ism, and the whole is often called "God." This realization, while satisfying and fulsome, is NOT enlightenment, is not nirvana, is not the end of all suffering.

There is an object of perception. We see (or otherwise perceive) it. Therefore, we conclude, there must be a perceiver distinct from the perception.

Although it seems this way, it is an illusion. There is. That much can be said. But what is there? Perception goes on. But who is there?

The Buddha laid out a never-before-heard Middle Path that avoids two extremes in views -- one that things are eternal vs. another that asserts that things are annihilated. But how could it be that it is neither one way nor the other?

To the wise the Buddha explained what really happens, contrary to appearances. "Things" (conditional phenomena, i.e., things that depend on component parts for their existence) do not really arise. Illusion arises. Never having been they certainly cannot be annihilated.

While this may be true for "things" throughout the universe, there are five that arise much closer to home: groups known as form, feeling, perceptions, formations, and consciousness.

These things are clung to as self, as the property of a self, as the manifestations of self. When the Buddha mindbogglingly proclaimed that, ultimately speaking, there is no-self (an-atta), he was not at all saying there is nothing.

Things are "empty" (shunyata), that is, devoid of self-existence, identity, continuity. They are impersonal. When we let go, we reduce suffering (the anguish associated with the conjoining of impermanence and clinging).

We (as conglomerates sustained by nourishment, composite entities with five very general components, processes), conventionally speaking, may refer to the aggregates of clinging as ourselves, knowing full well that they do not constitute any kind of self.

This is possible to achieve through deep learning, but it is only really useful when understood through insight (vipassana) on foundations of virtue and concentration (samadhi). Samadhi (the jhanas) is not enough.

What is Duality?

Perceiver vs. perceived, self vs. external phenomena -- this is the fundamental duality. In Vedic Hindu terms, it is the separation of us and the ALL (Brahman, GOD, the ultimate reality). That separation is painful, a severe form of alienation. The solution, then, is given by seers and pundits: It is a blissful reunion (yoga), binding with the supreme (Brahma). It is perceiving the inter-connectedness of ALL in Mahayana Buddhist terms.

But Mahayana was a movement much influenced by Brahmins in India. It relies on the assumptions of a self (atman, atta, soul, self, ego).

This union, this yoga or "yoking" of little-self with the Grand-Self (God or the entire cosmos as an expression of Brahman, the Godhead or ultimate reality behind Maya, the illusion). It runs contrary to the historical Buddha's teachings but is very much in line with the previous Brahminical views espoused in the Vedas and promoted by priests all the way down to Adi Shankara, who formalized "Hinduism" out of the disparate teachings of India based on the Vedas (Knowledge Books, sacred Indian texts).

Non-Duality Panel, Part 1

If one experiences our inter-connectedness, that will be wonderful and is likely to inspire compassion and a liberating feeling of unselfishness. But the way to liberation the Buddha was teaching was selflessness, the realization that nothing can be identified as a self (not even consciousness, which is an ever-changing and insubstantial process rather than any kind of substance).

The moral to the story is that not all spiritual experiences, of which there are many, are fundamental to awakening/enlightenment (bodhi), and liberation (moksha) from rebirth-and-suffering (samsara). What the Buddha designated as nirvana (the unconditioned element as distinct from all conditional phenomena) is very specific; many other traditions simply call their highest experience "nirvana" as if it were referring to the same accomplishment.

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Ke$ha and Britney on The End of the World

Wisdom Quarterly (April 2011)
Ke$ha wrote the lyrics, Britney Spears sings them. Their advice for the end of the world? "Just dance." Translation: Don't pay attention. Add, "Make a lot of good karma," and we agree.

What if the world ends? What if it doesn't? The "world" as we know it is a series of rapidly forming and disintegrating moments. Because we do not pay close enough attention, we do not normally notice the incessant rise and fall of physical and mental phenomena. But together they form the "world." So long as there is life, there is rising and falling. This is not only true on the subatomic level, it is true on the level of history and our lives. It cannot be otherwise in the world of composite things. All things are things, composed of other things. There is only one exception -- nirvana. Liberation from all suffering is no plane (loka), condition (ayatana), heaven (sagga), or immaterial sphere (arupa loka), and yet it is not "nothingness" (akincanyayatanaupaga). What then is there to worry about? Only ignorance. The ultimate truth sets one free, whereas ignorance means bondage, incessant rebirth, and suffering. The only thing between one and the truth is a lack of absorbed-concentration (serenity) and wisdom (liberating-insight). Otherwise, change is the only constant.

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Nirvana for Sale? Popularity of Mindfulness

"Mindfulness" Grows in Popularity - and Profits

If I breathe in and breathe out, I'll be good. But if I sell the Buddha's technique, I'll be great.

   
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP, June 11, 2012) In what's become a daily ritual, Tim Ryan finds a quiet spot, closes his eyes, clears his mind, and tries to tap into the eternal calm. 

   

In Ryan's world, it's a stretch for people to get this relaxed. He's a member of Congress.

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Increasingly, people in settings beyond the serene yoga studio or contemplative nature path are engaging in the practice of mindfulness.
 
[Mindfulness meditation is] a mental technique that dwells on [non-judgmental] breathing, attention to areas of the body, and periods of silence to concentrate on the present [moment] rather than the worries of yesterday and tomorrow. Marines are doing it. Office workers are doing it. Prisoners are doing it.

   

Meditation hall, Forest Refuge (IMS), one of the priciest ways to glimpse nirvana in the US.

   
The technique is drawing tens of thousands to conferences and learning experiences across the nation and world, and studies have shown it to reduce the symptoms of certain diseases and conditions.

   

Ryan has written a book, A Mindful Nation, pushing mindfulness as an elixir that can tone down political divisions in Washington, get American schoolchildren learning better, and return the country to an era of richer personal experience.

   

"You still forget your keys, you still call people by the wrong name, you still stub your toe, but you can train your mind to be more in the present moment," Ryan said.

   

Benefits in stress reduction and improved performance have prompted U.S. corporations including Google, Target, Procter and Gamble, General Mills, Comcast, BASF, Bose, and New Balance to offer mindfulness training and encourage its use at work.

   

The practice's critics, including some psychologists and [non-Buddhist] religious scholars, say the approach is little more than Buddhist meditation repackaged and rebranded for a secular, and often paying, audience.

   

"The commercialization of Buddhism has been happening as long as Buddhism has existed," said Rachelle Scott, an associate professor of religion at the University of Tennessee and author of Nirvana for Sale.... More

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Heart Sutra Mantra.

Om gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha!! This is from the Heart Sutra mantra, which speaks of transcending thoughts and concepts to reside in the pure essence of being at peace and at one with all. Oneness that is beyond all dualities. In my understanding, to be able to reside in that place of balance between somethingness and nothingness, regardless of circumstances is tasting the enlightenment of Nirvana.

~Peace to all beings~

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Buddhism Inc.

DISCLAIMER: This post is heavily laden with sacrasm and satire about the odd ways that people use Buddhist buzz words that are apparently "en vogue" with our pop culture to sell just about anything. In the end this subject doesn't have any real impact on my own practice but it is a bit annoying and silly in the absurd so I thought I'd write about it in a humorous way. I hope you enjoy!!

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Do you ever get tired of carrying your karma around all over samsara jumbled up in your mind? Do you wish that there was a better way to organize your karma as you travel along the middle lane of the Dharma Highway to Nirvanaville? Well, your worries. are. over!! The future has arrived!!

Introducing the Nirvana Organizer Bag from Zen Class Travel!!!! You say you've never heard of Zen Class but have heard of First Class and Business Class when traveling? No problem!! Zen Class is where Zen Buddhists meditate at their home on the desired day of travel. They meditate so deeply that they are magically transported through the air to their desired destination!! It's as easy as that--so why not become a Zen Buddhist today to take advantage of the Zen Class Travel!! But WAIT!!! Don't order yet--when you order now you'll also get the Nirvana Organizer Bag. You don't want to be caught in Nirvanaville without IT.

James: So there you have it--another odd yet humourous example of a product being sold using Buddhism. The Zen Class Travel isn't an actual class of travel on airlines but the name of the company who pumps out this "Nirvana Organizer Bag." I was just having fun with the name. :) Actually, I find the whole thing quite odd really but then again I've learned over and over not to be surprised by samsara. Now if I could just find one of those "Easy Buttons" advertized on t.v. Let me explain, the advertisement for my non-American t.v. viewing audience.

There is an office materials supply company here called, "Staples" and they have a new advert up that explains that shopping with them is like pushing an, "easy button" which easilly takes care of any office needs you might have. So all this has me wondering how long it will be before some scam/business man comes out with an, "easy button" to enable instant enlightenment--with one simple, easy, push of the button!! No, I clearly realize that it's not that easy--I was just playing with the concept of this cross-pollunation between Buddhism, business and advertising.

~Peace to all beings~

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