Nirvana as Perpetual Self-Transcendence
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 2 minute read This excerpt is from Chapter 10 and follows on from Insight and Ethics. Nirvana as Perpetual Self-Transcendence ‘Staying right there’ means being steady in that insight, and ‘the ending of the mental fermentations’ is a synonym for Nirvana. I think what this scripture is saying is we attain Nirvana when we are steady in the insight that the higher mental state we are in (represented by any of the eleven states) is conditioned and volitionally produced, and thus is impermanent. We know it will decay (if the conditions that support it change;) we know we will need to keep bringing it into being volitionally (i.e., want it to continue be present; for the reason that it is helpful to living beings). The state of Nirvana then is not a static state but a dynamic one, one of perpetual self-transcendence. As insight arises you begin to no longer slide down the hill, or at least only to a lesser degree. As insight deepens the oscillations lessen until finally at Enlightenment it is as if you come to rest on the hilltop, a state which looks static but which is actually dynamic; when abiding in the elevated state the Enlightened person is constantly aware of its conditioned nature and of the need to counteract any tendency of the state to decay; it therefore does not decay. In dependence on knowledge and vision of things as they really are there arises disenchantment (Sanskrit: nirveda; Pali: nibbida) Disenchantment[1] As we begin to see into the nature of things as they really are, we begin to expect disappointment from that which is impermanent; we know it will eventually go and so, while we might enjoy the experience as it lasts, we become disenchanted with it. Buddhaghosa offers a simile; a man fishing thinks he has caught a fish; however when he puts his hand into the mouth of the net underwater, instead of pulling out a fish he grasps a snake with three marks on its’ head (i.e., the laksanas). Terrified, he uncoils the snake from his arm, swings it around his head a few times to weaken it, and then flings it back into the water; the man sees the dangers in Samsara. In dependence on disenchantment there arises dispassion (Sanskrit: vairagya; Pali: viraga) Dispassion As the person with insight becomes disenchanted with those things that he was formerly passionate about dispassion naturally grows for them. In dependence on dispassion there arises liberation (Sanskrit: vimukti; Pali: vimutti) ...
Insight and Ethics
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 2 minute read This excerpt is from Chapter 10 and follows on from Insight and the Spiral Path. Insight and Ethics Some Buddhists posit an experiential disconnect between the samatha practices of ethics (sila) and meditation (samadhi), and wisdom or insight, making statements like: ‘The attitudes, worldviews, motivations and teachings that best support sila and samadhi are not the best for approaching prajna (wisdom). When taken at face value, some teachings helpful for insight practice may contradict teachings oriented to ethics and concentration. This can be a barrier to insight practice.’ But I wonder if such statements are not based upon the misreading of anatta as ‘no self’ (i.e., no agent) instead of as ‘non-self’ (i.e., part agent), as evidenced by a passage in the same document; ‘there is no question of getting rid of a self, because there has never been one there to begin with.’ If there was a shift from (part) agency at the level of ethics and meditation to no agency at the level of insight that would be a problem, but I do not think that is the case; (part) agency carries all the way through ethics, mediation and wisdom, like the lettering in a stick of rock. Rather than the Buddhist path culminating in a still state at the bottom of a ‘spiritual well’ the path is more dynamic than that; in a Buddhist scripture called the Atthakanagara Sutta[1] a householder called Dasama asks the Buddha’s cousin Ananda a question: “Venerable sir, is there a single quality declared by the Blessed One (the Buddha)—the one who knows, the one who sees, worthy & rightly self-awakened—where the unreleased mind of a monk who dwells there heedful, ardent, and resolute becomes released, or his un-ended fermentations go to their total ending, or he attains the unexcelled security from the yoke that he had not attained before?” In other words, a single quality, that mindfully dwelt upon, leads to Nirvana. Ananda replies that there is, but he then goes on to describe not one but eleven elevated meditative states, each of which he describes as that single quality, that mindfully dwelt upon, leads to Nirvana. The eleven states are: the four dhyanas of form[2] the first three formless dhyanas the state of mind called ‘liberation of mind through loving kindness’[3] the state of mind called ‘liberation of mind through compassion’[4] the state of mind called ‘liberation of mind through sympathetic joy’[5] the state of mind called ‘liberation of mind through equanimity’[6] And, crucially, when the meditator has attained one or another of those states,...
Insight on the Spiral Path
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 7 minute read This excerpt is from Chapter 10 and follows on from The Fourth Dhyana. Vipassana meditation In general, vipassana meditation takes place on a firm foundation of samatha meditation. ‘Vipasyana, the insight method of meditation, reveals our self and our world as they are beyond our assumptions and self-referencing emotions. It is direct experience, not abstract understanding, and contrasts with samatha methods such as mindfulness of breathing that prepare the mind for vipasyana by cultivating profound concentration and strong, positive emotional integration. Vipasyana is generally preceded by samatha practice, because if concentration is wavering, the mind will be unable to rest in the special object of vipasyana meditation. And when insight comes, a stock of calm, strength and happiness is needed in order to absorb its revelatory, visionary impact.’[1] Hence: In dependence on concentration there arises knowledge and vision of things as they really are (yathabhutajnanadarshana) Knowledge and vision of things as they really are On the basis of the fourth dhyana, the monk is now ready to reflect on the nature of reality. ‘Then with the mind composed, quite purified, quite clarified, without blemish, without defilement, grown pliant and workable, fixed, immovable, he directs his mind to …’[2] To some extent we have already been reflecting on the way that things are; in the sense of understanding that the bottom line for all sentient beings is that they desire happiness and do not want to suffer, and that the way that happiness is brought about is through wanting it for all beings—in the cultivation of metta towards them—and in bringing mindfulness to the situation to see precisely what needs to happen in order to bring it about. And we saw that we needed to understand how the mechanism of Conditionality pervaded all aspects of that process, so that a constructive approach to overcoming suffering could be followed, as represented by the dhyanas. With insight—or wisdom—practice, we now come to explore the more destructive aspect of Conditionality; the fact that whatever we possess; create; love; are attached to, to the extent that it exists in Samsara; Unenlightened Conditioned Existence, will eventually fall apart. This truth is expressed in the three laksanas (Sanskrit: trilakshana; Pali: tilakkhana), or marks of Conditioned Existence; that all such phenomena are impermanent (anicca), insubstantial (anatta) and thus unsatisfactory (dukkha). To understand how the former fits in with the latter, it will be useful to consider a metaphor. The Anatta Doctrine and the potential hill[3] The Buddha was born 2,500 years ago in India, into a...
The fourth dhyana
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 7 minute read This excerpt is from Chapter 10 and follows on from The Third Dhyana. Concentration Fourth dhyana In the fourth dhyana the experience of happiness fades and is replaced by one-pointed concentration; the monk has now developed the qualities of mindfulness and equanimity to an unshakeable degree; there are now no situations under which he can be distracted from being mindful or skilful by the experience of pleasure or pain, he is therefore as mindful and skilful as he possibly can be. His whole being is practically absorbed in bringing about Awakening—for himself and for others, and he is ready to deal with things as they really are. ‘Furthermore, with the giving up of (attention to) pleasure and pain and the earlier disappearance of elation and distress, the meditator enters into and abides in the fourth dhyana, which is beyond pleasure or pain and purified by equanimity and mindfulness. And they sit suffusing this very body with a completely pure and translucent mind, so that there is no place in their body that is not suffused with a completely pure and translucent mind.’[1] The Buddha gives a simile for the fourth dhyana of a man wrapped in a clean white sheet after having taken a bath: ‘Suppose a man were to sit enveloped from the head down with a white cloth, so that there would be no place in his body that was not enveloped with the white cloth. In this way, the practitioner sits suffusing their body with a completely pure and translucent mind, so that there is no place in their body that is not suffused with a completely pure and translucent mind.’[2] I have used ‘unshakeability’ as the quality characteristic of the fourth dhyana because it is at this stage that the meditator develops equanimity. The fourth dhyana subsumes within itself all of the qualities of the third dhyana, in that the person is unquestionably skilful, but what is added to that is that the monk’s skilfulness is maintained under ALL circumstances; whatever pleasure or pain they are experiencing, they remain in distracted; their focus of care and awareness is undiluted by anything that they might experience. The mind in the fourth dhyana is described as being ‘completely pure’ (Pali: parisuddha). We normally understand purity in terms of the essence of a person being unsullied, but while such essences feature in Hinduism and in other theistic religions, Buddhism does not recognize them (it only recognizes impermanent phenomena), therefore we need another explanation. The Samanaphala Sutta teaches that the mind in the fourth dhyana...
The third dhyana
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 11 minute read This excerpt is from Chapter 10 and follows on from The Second Dhyana. Calming down Pacification In the transition from the lucid confidence and inspiration of the second dhyana to the ‘calm abiding’ of the third dhyana, the mind is said to go through the stage of pacification (passaddhi).[1] Kamalashila identifies pacification with the process by which the rapture that characterizes the second dhyana is ‘contained’ by the subtler feelings of bliss which characterize the third. ‘Bliss is gentler and subtler. But though less dramatic, it is in its quiet way actually more intense. Rapture is traditionally compared to the delicious feeling of anticipation when you know that you are about to get the very thing you’ve always wanted. Bliss is more like enjoying the satisfaction of actually possessing it. Bliss is thus a deeper stage of integration in which the mind has begun to absorb the wilder and less refined sensations of rapture. With experience, you become less attached to these relatively coarse feelings and move towards a deeper, stronger state of happiness. The occurrence of rapture and bliss show that increased concentration is an intensely satisfying experience.’ [2] There is a strong idea in the West that the aim of meditation involves a withdrawal from the world into an unhindered and detached world of bliss; it is very common in the New Age narrative, which takes its’ cue from Hinduism, but Buddhism is not like that. In fact, personal happiness can be a trap, a beautiful prison. Flow Aristotle identified happiness as predominantly to do with activity. Based on the same idea, the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1975 identified the concept of flow. ‘A flow state, also known colloquially as being ‘in the zone’, is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by the complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting transformation in one’s sense of time.’[3] When a person has a set of challenges, and their skills out-match those challenges, they feel bored; when their skills are not up to the challenges they face, they feel anxious; But when their skills match their challenges they enter into the happy and absorbed state of flow. This is because spiritual pleasure arises on the basis of actual achievement; of meeting and addressing various real-world challenges. We can experience something similar to flow–called ‘hyperfocus’–when playing video games, but...
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