Being Ready for Anything
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 The Five Paths as cumulative. Being ‘ready for anything’ Once the five powers have been attained the monk’s ‘spiritual personality’ has been rounded off and made unshakeable; it Is completely oriented towards a dharmic perspective. Once his spiritual faculties are powers, he is ‘fully equipped’ in terms of personal qualities and skills to do whatever work is necessary to attain Nirvana, and thus traditionally is seen as guaranteed to attain Nirvana within seven lifetimes and is known as a Stream Entrant;[1] on the Spiral Path a stage known as ‘Knowledge and Vision of Things as They Really Are’ (yathabhuta-nanadassana). On the Path of Accumulation, the monk accumulates ‘knowledge and merit’, making effort to understand how things are and to develop skill in practice. On the Path of Preparation, he goes for refuge more deeply, turning the spotlight on himself, and preparing to face ‘Things as They Really Are’ through balancing and intensifying his practice. By the time his mindfulness has become an unshakable power, he is able to turn it unblinkingly to anything and everything he chooses, and thus he commences the Path of Seeing. In physics, power is defined as ‘the ability to do work:’ the monk is now ready and able to do the spiritual spadework involved in seeing into the nature of reality; importantly taking on board and working creatively with his deep inner tendencies to Unawakening (anusaya). He has no ‘spiritual weaknesses;’ therefore, Reality cannot shake his mindfulness, confidence, wisdom, meditative concentration and ethical robustness; and whereas before he could only maintain mindfulness under certain conducive conditions, now there are no conditions under which he cannot maintain it. The Path of Seeing, and the remaining two paths, develop this insight all the way to Nirvana. Prior to stream entry, three ‘fetters’ held the monk back: The belief that there are elements within himself that are fixed and unchanging (Skt. satkayadrsti) The tendency to view practice as an end in itself (Skt. silavrata paramarsha) implying ‘going through the motions’ in his practice Vestiges of doubt that the Dharma is the way forward (Skt. vicikitsha) Sangharakshita paraphrases these as superficiality, habit and vagueness. At stream entry these fetters are gone; the monk is guaranteed to attain Awakening because he possesses 1) confidence in his ability to change, 2) wholehearted application to change, 3) clarity in the means to change. Right View Before stream entry the monk entertained one or more wrong views;[2]...
The Five Paths as cumulative
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 5 minute read This excerpt is taken from the chapter ‘Kindness front and centre‘ and follows on from Remembering Loving Kindness. The Five Paths as cumulative The simplest formulation of the Buddhist path is the Threefold Way, consisting of Ethics, Meditation and Wisdom. We try to be ethical by following Buddhist precepts in our daily life, for instance by being kind, generous, content, truthful and mindful. To intensify this practice, we then meditate. When we practice samatha meditations—such as the mindfulness of breathing and the metta bhavana—we cultivate skilful mental states that lead us into dhyana, where our mind and emotions are both highly skilful and have been made ready to take in reality; thus, dhyana provides the conditions for developing wisdom. Mindfulness as a foundation Let’s now look more closely at the Five Paths and how they might be cumulative, correlating with the Threefold Way. As we saw, the Five Paths seem to literally build upon the Satipatthana Sutta because the four foundations of mindfulness are the first element of the Path of Accumulation. The four bases of success When we start to make progress with the four foundations of mindfulness, we attain to the four bases of success; states of samadhi that are naturally associated with each foundation, namely: Mindfulness of body; our desire or intention (chanda) becomes more integrated and focused[1] Mindfulness of feeling; our skilful vigour / ethical robustness (viriya) becomes well established Mindfulness of mind; our mind (citta) becomes firmly established in the skilful Mindfulness of views; our investigation (vimamsa) of views is deep and thorough Mindfulness as a spiritual faculty These states of samadhi form the basis for the cultivation–as we transition to the Path of Preparation—of the five spiritual faculties, both of which naturally correlate with the cultivation of the four foundations of mindfulness,[2] and with the Threefold Way. It is logical to assume that: The spiritual faculty of Meditative Concentration will be developed through practising mindfulness of body[3] The spiritual faculty of Ethical Robustness – and ethical practice – will be developed through practising mindfulness of feeling[4] The spiritual faculty of Confidence – and meditation practice – will be developed through practising mindfulness of mind[5] The spiritual faculty of Wisdom will be developed through practising mindfulness of views[6] We can see this correlation in the following diagram and table: The fullsome development of the ‘Spiritual Personality’ Mindfulness as a spiritual faculty addresses two needs at this stage: the need for an increasing focus on the Three Jewels,...
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...
Mindfulness and the Five Paths
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 4 minute read This excerpt is taken from the chapter ‘Kindness front and centre‘ and follows on from Kindness and the Five Paths. Mindfulness and the Five Paths Throughout the Pali Canon we see mindfulness described in a number of ways; in the Satipatthana Sutta it is described as a foundation (satipatthana.) Elsewhere it is described as a spiritual faculty (satindriya,) a power (satibala,) a factor of Awakening (sati bojjangha) and a limb of the Noble Eightfold Path (samma sati.) The Five Paths essentially combine these five forms of mindfulness into one coherent path. Firstly, we have the Path of Accumulation: this is where we build up punja-jnana, merit and knowledge. In other words, we accumulate a basis of positive karma through practicing skilful action and developing knowledge (jnana). At this stage the monk practises the four foundations of mindfulness, the four right efforts and the four bases of success. Secondly, there is the Path of Preparation: this involves the monk preparing himself for the stage of Insight. The Mahayanacommentaries talk of the monk deepening his insight into emptiness and becomes more aware of the impermanent nature of existence and of the ‘faults of Samsara’. As his own plight and that of the beings around him appears more tenuous, he will gravitate towards taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. At this stage the monk practises mindfulness as a spiritual faculty and a power, in order to cultivate the five spiritual faculties and develop them into the five powers (a power is a spiritual faculty made unshakeable.) Thirdly, there is the Path of Seeing: this involves the monk gains insight, seeing clearly the nature of reality: the equivalent of stream entry in Nikaya Buddhism. At this stage the monk practises mindfulnessas a factor of Awakening. Fourthly, there is the Path of Practice: this involves the monk practising the transcendental Noble Eightfold Path, on the basis of that insight. At this stage the monk practises perfect mindfulness. Fifthly, there is the Path of No More Learning: this marks the attainment of Buddhahood. The compilers of the Five Paths must have had good reason to structure the path in the way that they did: the Five Paths effectively: Combine all of the Buddhist teachings on mindfulnessinto one coherent system Reassert the importance of developing samatha (the Paths of Accumulation and Preparation) in preparation for developing vipassana(the Path of Seeing) Assert that the Path of Vision (the Path of Seeing) precedes the Path of Transformation (the Path of Practice) Critique the idea that mindfulness is solely concerned with bringing awareness to mental phenomena (as in, practising...
Kindness and the Five Paths
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 6 minute read This excerpt commences the chapter ‘Kindness Front and Centre.’ Kindness and the Mahayana Five Paths The path to Nirvana—as expressed the Satipatthana Sutta—can tend to be interpreted by Theravada commentators as narrowly focusing upon renunciation; mindfulness of the body and its movements; the mechanical noting of experience within slow walking meditation, and through that practice, noticing how the nature of everything one experiences is subject to impermanence, insubstantiality and inherent suffering (the three lakshanas.) That path also offers challenging insight meditations – such as the meditation on the stages of decomposition of a corpse – for more serious practitioners.[1] The drawback of this approach, though, is that practices and meditations which focus on emotional development, such as the metta bhavana and devotional practices tend to be either side-lined or treated nominally. This narrow and somewhat intellectual approach is attractive to those who identify their Buddhism with wanting a certain personal meditative experience, along with, hopefully, the eventual confirmation of a certain level of spiritual attainment: Buddhism as ‘spiritual materialism.’ Wanting to cater for this desire among westerners for spiritual attainments – in the view that it somehow furthers Buddhism, Eastern teachers have perhaps wilfully ignored certain inconvenient truths, like the centrality of emotional development in life and on the path. However, Mahayana Buddhism – and particularly its expression in Tibetan Buddhism – restores this focus and puts kindness back front and centre. Alienation When Sangharakshita returned to Britain in the 1960s, he observed that Westerners were being taught mindfulness in this narrow way and that it was leading them into states of alienation. Subhuti relates Sangharakshita’s views concerning some of the causes of alienation and we might recognize these same patterns in many young people today. Image by coombesy on Pixabay. When we find that certain feelings are unacceptable, we suppress our real emotions, and ‘assume we experience what we think others want us to feel.’ This pattern extends to thoughts: ‘As to thoughts, we are not so much alienated from them as fail to have any thoughts at all,’ because so many agencies are telling us what to think. ‘The state of alienation … coupled with a wrong understanding of Buddhism, … leads to the extreme zombie-like states witnessed by Sangharakshita.’[2] That wrong understanding of Buddhism can be due to a corrupted form of objectivity: ‘Sometimes, for instance, mindfulness itself is interpreted as standing aloof from experience, watching one’s body, feelings, and thoughts as though from a distance–here the practice of mindfulness is the systematic cultivation of alienation!’[3] Or a wrong view about ethics may...
Visitors since 20 March 2024
Users Today : 5
Users Yesterday : 18
This Month : 1073
Total Users : 16230Subscribe via Patreon
Subscribe to my YouTube channel
