Remembering loving kindness
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 6 minute read This excerpt is taken from the chapter ‘Kindness front and centre‘ and follows on from Mindfulness and the Five Paths. Remembering loving kindness as a central aspect of the path When Sangharakshita gave a seminar on the Precious Garland[1] in 1976 he laid a foundation for what was to become his central exposition of the Dharma,[2] namely that the path consisted of five elements: Integration Positive Emotion Spiritual Death Spiritual Rebirth Spiritual Receptivity[3] Where he links integration with mindfulness and positive emotion with the four right efforts. As we saw earlier, the Path of Accumulation consists of: The four foundations of mindfulness, which represent establishing the appropriate domains of mindfulness The four right efforts,[4] which represent energy being put into 1) overcoming the four foundations as sources of suffering and 2) establishing them as sources of happiness The four bases of success,[5] which represent the states of meditative concentration that are achieved when our efforts have been successful[6] Sangharakshita is concerned to dispel a common view that one only has to bring mindfulness to a situation for it to naturally resolve. He points out that, because the four right efforts follow on from the four foundations of mindfulness in the teaching of the Five Paths, this indicates that not everything can be achieved by force of mindfulness, the effort to develop the skilful also needs to be involved. ‘In a way (the Five Paths) goes a bit against the Theravada teaching, which does seem, perhaps one can say, a bit dry; if you just try to do everything by force of mindfulness, everything by force of awareness: so that isn’t the Mahayana path, clearly.’[7] Mindfulness on its own has an effect, he says, although it is not a very great effect, compared to when it is combined with the four right efforts.[8] ‘So, it’s as though, when one is practising simply awareness, and simply mindfulness, you are just watching, you’re just the observer. The mere fact of your watching, the mere fact of your observing–body, feelings, thoughts, and thinking as it were of higher things. This has its overall effect, but it’s not a very great effect, and not a very deep effect. …. But when you’re practising the four great efforts you are ‘doing’ something in a much more radical way. You’re bringing about much greater changes. You’re actually making a positive direct effort to throw out the unskilful, to bring in the skilful to an ever greater and greater degree. So this is a much more intensive form of practise.’[9] Linking the four right...
Kindness As Constructive Imagination
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 10 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘The Evidence Bases in Religion, Science and Politics,’ in which I explore how kindness is developed through paying attention to what living beings truly are: a process Tse-Fu Kuan calls ‘Constructive Imagination.’ Feeling and emotion Metta—Universal Loving Kindness–is one way that we redirect our emotions along the most wholesome pathway; it is, however, very important first to be clear about the difference between feeling (vedana) and emotion–as an aspect of ‘mind’ or citta. Sangharakshita: ‘When Buddhist psychology refers to developing mindfulness of feelings, however, something rather different is meant from the “getting in touch with one’s feelings” with which psychotherapy is concerned–something less complex, perhaps more useful. Indeed, being able to identify feelings (in the sense of vedana as defined by the Buddhist tradition) is what makes it possible for us to follow the Buddhist path. The Pali term vedana refers to feeling not in the sense of the emotions, but in terms of sensation. Vedana is whatever pleasantness or unpleasantness we might experience in our contact with any physical or mental stimulus. ‘To understand what we would call emotion, Buddhism looks at the way in which that pleasant or painful feeling is interwoven with our reactions and responses to it.’[1] Feeling as vedana, then, is just experience: specifically the experience of pleasure, pain or neither. On the other hand, the etymology[2] of the word ‘emotion’ is connected with ‘moving out,’ in the sense of ‘responding.’ Emotion, then, is that aspect of the mind or psyche (Pali: citta) which ‘moves in relation to experience.’ Citta encompasses the sum total of how the psyche moves in response to experience: it therefore includes thinking, emotion and the distribution of attention: It is useful to consider the above diagram. In the teaching of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (satipatthanas,) the Buddha says we need to bring mindfulness to four areas, if we are to bring happiness into the world, avoid suffering and ultimately attain Nirvana.[3] These foundations are body (kaya,) feeling (vedana,) mind (citta) and views (dhammas) and they all condition each other. Usually that conditioning, when taken between feeling and emotion, involves moving towards pleasurable experiences that are desired and away from painful experiences that are undesired—and maybe not responding at all to neutral experiences. Emotion then is most of the time an unconscious and reactive response to feeling; while feeling and the emotion feel to be one thing, they are actually distinct. Feeling is just what is presented to us in the moment: thus, it is something we...
Safetyism
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… 37 minute read Chapter 2 The views expressed below on safeguarding are the personal views of the author and should not be assumed to represent the views of other members of the Triratna Buddhist Order or any organisation run by members of the Order. Despite our personal views, all order members undertake to abide by the Safeguarding policies of the Buddhist organisations in which we are active. Safetyism ‘Safety is obviously very important. But it is also a principle that, absent countervailing considerations, admits no limit to its expanding dominion. It tends to swallow everything before it. Once you indulge the vitalist perspective with some sympathy, your gaze is shifted and it becomes easier to see the ideological work that “safety” does in our society. Those who invoke safety enjoy a nearly nonrebuttable presumption of public-spiritedness, so a stated concern for safety becomes a curtain behind which various entities can collect rents from perfectly reasonable behavior. The trick is to formulate rules that are at odds with our natural reasonableness (for example, setting the speed limit below the speed dictated by the features of the road). That way you can guarantee a certain rate of infraction, and therefore revenue. If one cares about safety (and who doesn’t?), one does well to take a skeptical look at the safety-industrial complex, and its reliance on moral intimidation to pursue ends other than safety. To do this thoroughly, one must venture beyond the mental universe of risk reduction altogether. That universe takes its bearings from the least competent among us. This is an egalitarian principle that is entirely fitting in many settings, a touchstone of humane society that we rightly take pride in. (One of the people closest to me is significantly disabled, and I am often moved with gratitude for the accommodations our society makes for her.) But if left unchallenged, the pursuit of risk reduction tends to create a society based on an unrealistically low view of human capacities. Infantilization slips in, under cover of democratic ideals. I will insist, on the contrary, that democracy remains viable only if we are willing to extend to one another a presumption of individual competence. This is what social trust is built on. Together, they are the minimal endowments for a free, responsible, fully awake people.’ —Mathew Crawford[1] Safeguarding within a religious community I am a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order, which was founded in 1968 by an Englishman, Sangharakshita. Since that time, over 3,000 people have been ordained into the Order. Our ordination follows a tradition which dates back to time of...
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