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...
Ethical feeling
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 2 minute read This excerpt is taken from the chapter on ‘Buddhist Practice’ and follows on from ‘The Metta Bhavana.’ Recognizing worldly and spiritual feeling Worldly feeling It might be helpful, when we are practising the metta bhavana, to bear in mind the meanings of worldly and spiritual feeling. When we are in the unskilful mental state of hatred and see our enemy and the experience is painful to us, this is worldly feeling. Likewise, when we are in the unskilful mental state of craving and get what we want and the experience is pleasant, this too is worldly feeling. Imagine you are walking down the street, and you see your enemy coming towards you: as a result, you experience a painful worldly feeling. You then have a choice: you can either act on the feeling and turn down a side street and avoid the person. Or, you can recognize the feeling as a worldly feeling and decide to not act on it. By not acting on it you will continue to experience it, that is, until you address the underlying cause: the unskilful mental state of aversion. By practicing the metta bhavana you can work on this mental state and come to see your former enemy as a human being, rather than as an ‘object in your way,’ and it is at this point that the painful worldly feeling will go away. Similarly, imagine seeing something you desire in a shop window: the newest iPhone or Android: as a result, this time you find yourself experiencing pleasurable worldly feeling. Again, you have a choice: you can either act on the feeling and go into the shop and buy the phone. Or, you can recognize the feeling as a worldly feeling, and not act on it. By not acting on the feeling you will be forced to address the underlying cause: the unskilful mental state of craving. By cultivating contentment, through practising being happy with what you have got, you will avoid the mire of compulsion and addiction, and the painful worldly feelings of unsatisfied avarice that comes with it. Spiritual feeling On the other hand, when we are in the skilful mental state of sympathetic joy and see our friend doing well and the experience is pleasurable to us, this is spiritual feeling. Likewise, when we are in the skilful mental state of compassion and we see somebody suffering and the experience is painful to us, this too is spiritual feeling. Imagine encountering a beggar in the street, who looks in...
The Metta Bhavana
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 9 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘Buddhist Practice’ and it explores the metta bhavana meditation practice in its practical aspect. It follows on from ‘Day-to-day mindfulness.’ The Metta Bhavana I want to move on now to the Metta Bhavana: the ‘root’ meditation in a set of four called the Brahmaviharas or ‘divine abodes.’ Metta is Pali for ‘Universal Loving Kindness’ and bhavana means cultivation.’ I explored the principles behind the emotion in Chapter 1; and in ‘Kindness as Constructive Imagination.’ It is worth reiterating that metta is an emotion and that the practice consists in whatever creative action will systematically bring that emotion about. It doesn’t matter, for instance, that we care about or are sincere in our wish to develop loving kindness: this may be no more than virtue-signalling (to ourselves and others) what a good person we would like to be. No, what matters is that we are effective in our practice and come to actually care what happens to ourselves and every ‘other’ in a real, powerfully passionate and robust way. The method doesn’t really matter: it is all about trying out different things until something works. There are, therefore, a few common methods that people tend to use to stimulate the emotion: Reciting the phrases: May I be well; May I be happy; May I be free from suffering; May I make progress’ and waiting for an appropriate response Imagining the person at their best; or during a happy time, and wishing on them a similar experience today Using imagery: such as imagining a flower opening in our heart; or a warm colour, symbolizing love, flooding the world And, based the idea explicated in ‘Kindness as Constructive Imagination:’ that our emotional response to a person in conditioned by our view of what they are, I suggest a further method: Aligning our view of each person with what they actually are: a living being, with hopes and fears, who is sensitive to their experience, who wants to be happy and not to suffer Structured practice or ‘radiation method’ There are two basic ways to do the practice: the structured practice in five stages or the ‘radiation method.’ In the former loving kindness is cultivated firstly towards oneself; then towards a good friend; a neutral person; a person we find difficult; and in the final stage we extend it out to encompass more and more living beings. In the radiation method we simply radiate it out to living beings in all directions. Here then are instructions for the practice of...
Mental Proliferation (Papanca)
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 10 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘Augmentative Conditionality; The Spiral Path‘ and it follows on from an exploration of the early stages of that path. Mindfulness of mind As well as cultivating the appropriate creative emotional response to feeling, the monk works the other aspects of his mind so that they too conduce to skilfulness; he trains his attention to be sharp and ever present. And through reflecting on the veracity of his thoughts, he trains them to be in line with reality and thus to fostering universal well-being. Thought and reflection In the Dvedavitakka Sutta the Buddha says; ‘Whatever a monk keeps pursuing[1] with his thinking and reflecting, that becomes the inclination of his mental states and emotions (his citta)’[2] We probably all recognize that the more we reflect upon an idea, the more that thought becomes a habit: the Buddha warned the Kalama people against adopting ideas just because: They have heard them repeatedly They have been handed down in a tradition or lineage Of hearsay They see a scripture as authority Of sophistry or logical inference Of prolonged consideration Of getting carried away by a view they identify with [alternatively, ‘nor on indulgence in the pleasure of speculation’] Someone made a plausible impression on them [alternatively, ‘nor on (something that) looks plausible’] They have respect for a certain spiritual teacher[3] He taught instead that only when they know in their hearts that an idea leads to well-being and not to suffering should they adopt it: the list above indicates that the reason why we adopt one idea over another is often more down to habit, emotion or association than to such conscious examination. Vitakka and vicara Two Buddhist terms are in common use which are associated with thought: vitakka (Pali; Sanskrit: vitarka) and vicara (Pali and Sanskrit.) Opinions differ as to how best to translate them: many suggest ‘thinking of’ and ‘thinking about’ respectively. In my own view, they are best translated as ‘opining’ (in the sense of holding an opinion) and ‘reflecting’[4] (however, as they also refer to responses to imagery, in this case they might be rendered ‘visioning’ and ‘imagining’.) Some, like Leigh Brasington,’[5] argue that the terms are synonymous in that they both mean ‘thinking: I think this reasoning is lazy; some argue that in the first dhyana each is only concerned with attention,[6] but there is good reason to think otherwise: the most cogent explanation is that vitakka represents the capacity of the mind to turn towards a view (the Pali vi- means ‘split or...
Day-to-day mindfulness
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 4 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘Buddhist Practice’ and it explores day-to-day mindfulness. It follows on from ‘Mindfulness of Breathing: focus on detail.’ Day-to-day mindfulness The Mindfulness of Breathing develop awareness within the most conducive conditions; that mindfulness can then be applied to our day-to-day activities. In terms of mindfulness of the body we need to try and preserve the principles we learned in the Grounding Meditation, by attending to the state of our body and looking after it as we go about our daily business. Our body needs to be a vehicle that we are looking after, that will thus support our mind and emotions in their activity to bring about happiness. It is helpful if we are mindful of our body as we go about in the world, by moving in a way in which our spine is balanced and takes our weight as we move, and by minimizing the amount of muscular tension employed in our bodily activities. Our bodily use would be inspired by ideas developed by F. M. Alexander in the Alexander Technique; ideally, we would retrain ourselves to move naturally, as children and animals do, with grace and poise; at the very least, we would look after our body through regular trips to the gym or through taking Epsom salt baths. Other aspects of day-to-day mindfulness might include organizing our lives better so that for instance we know where we have left our car keys, as outlined in Maitreyabandhu’s Life with Full Attention. In general, any mental action or remembrance that helps us avoid unnecessary suffering is an aspect of day-to-day mindfulness. Certainly, it can help our mind feel more secure, and thus reduce mental suffering, when we ‘spell out’ to ourselves our situation; where we are, what we are doing, how we are feeling, and so on. This activity of ‘noting’ is a key tool in Theravada Buddhist meditation where the practitioner endeavours to make everything more conscious and it certainly has its use, although it does not cover every aspect of practice. In day-to-day mindfulness there is a sense in which we need to be appreciating our surroundings for the experience they have to offer, as illustrated in the ‘raisin exercise’ commonly used in week one of a secular mindfulness course. We come out of automatic pilot and consciously experience what is in front of our noses, thus maximizing the pleasure of sensory experience, though not at the expense of other sources of happiness–for ourselves or others. Mindfulness of the body’s posture and physical movement The monk...
Mindfulness of Breathing: focus on detail
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 2 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘Buddhist Practice’ and it explores the mindfulness of breathing meditation practice. In this twelve minute meditation, I introduce the idea of focusing on the detail in the breath: as only way of really knowing that we are being aware; and to give ourselves a break from our day-to-day concerns. It follows on from ‘Mindfulness of Breathing.’ VIDEO LEAD THROUGH Following the details of the breath In ‘digging into’ and trying to understand the principle behind the Mindfulness of Breathing myself, I came across another way of doing the practice, and like all methods it has benefits and drawbacks. One thing that I noticed with people doing the four-stage practice was that I thought it was far too easy to sit say for twenty minutes going through the stages in a way where one was vaguely aware of the breath as ‘an overall thing’ while missing the specifics of the experience, and at the end of the meditation one’s mind was not that sharper than when one began. Some benefits would be gained, for instance one would probably become more ‘collected’ around the breath—the contents of one’s psyche more integrated, as well as calmed in general, but one’s mind would not necessarily be that much more brighter and alert than it was before, and brightness and alertness are qualities contributing to dhyana and to Awakening in general. While practising the Mindfulness of Breathing in this way can be effective, there is a danger that our awareness can lack specificity, and hence sharpness. The purpose of the Mindfulness of Breathing is to develop mindfulness and awareness. In a real sense the object of the meditation is not the breath but awareness itself. We need to know whether we know what is happening with the breath (‘knowing whether we know’ is called ‘Reflexive Self-Consciousness’). If we can say in any moment that we are experiencing particular sensations, then we know that (in that moment) we are being aware. If there is any doubt, and we cannot say we know, therefore we are unaware. The Sutta’s original instructions ask the monk to ‘know whether the breath is long or short.’ This indicates watching out for the details of the breath. If we are only generally aware that we are breathing, our awareness may be of an idea of the breath, rather than the breath itself. But if we know what the details of the breath are, we know we are present to our experience. A brief meditation following the details of the...
Contacting the tangible
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 11 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘Buddhist Practice’ and it explores a physical warm-up for meditation followed by a grounding meditation. Link to led meditation on video. Grounding meditation When a Zen monk dressed in black robes walks slowly down a gravel path, he is practising walking meditation. He feels the contour of the rock pressing though his sandals; the sensations of his robes fluttering about him in the breeze, deliberately sensing everything tangible in his experience. Moving slowly helps him limit the amount of information coming in, thus he can pay close attention to the details of his experience, sink deeply into what he is experiencing and come into an intimate relationship with the world around him.[1] Grounded in our present moment experience in this way, life tends to be pleasurable; of course, the monk spends long hours sitting in zazen[2] without moving, which requires great discipline. In most secular mindfulness eight-week courses,[3] body awareness is central. The idea of mindfulness is introduced as coming into more intimate contact with our experience; in week one people practise the ‘raisin exercise’, spending five minutes or so investigating every aspect of the experience of a raisin; putting it into their mouth, sensing its texture; its smell; its taste; savouring how it feels in their mouth, and so on. The theory is that our western lives are so driven, we are so obsessed with ‘doing’, that much of the time we run on ‘automatic pilot’, ceasing to notice just what we are experiencing, and missing a large part of our lives. We might imagine that we are getting things done and this may sometimes be the case, but certainly on automatic pilot we abandon a level of colour and richness to our lives. The eight-week course encourages us to wake up from automatic pilot and purposefully bringing awareness to our present moment experience, while holding back from making judgements about it, thus experiencing the ‘being’ mode, where our life is grounded in lived experience. In this way mindfulness gets our mind back on our side. In this way Buddhist and secular mindfulness practice begin with an attempt to ground ourselves in our experience; that is, in the experience of sensation. A feeling of grounded-ness is the effect of being in touch with the tangible, leading to an increasing feeling of confidence. Meditation is the most efficient way of working on the four foundations. In meditation we cease doing our normal activities, retiring to a quiet place where we won’t be disturbed, in order to look carefully into our...
Intention, Motivation, Acceptance, Reinforcement
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 6 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘The Undiscovered Foundations’ and it explores further ways in which the Four Foundations of Mindfulness condition each other: such as through the processes of intention, motivation, acceptance and reinforcement. It also explores how the Foundations combine: for instance as sources of tension, relaxation, and so on. This excerpt follows on directly from Mindfulness and Conditionality: views. ix Secondary conditional relations These twelve ‘processes’ illustrate the primary processes in play between the four foundations. For completion, it is important also to extend the Conditionality model to include all the ‘secondary’ processes that exist between the foundations and the primary processes associated with them. Here are some examples; INTENTION Intention is the process by which emotion is conditioned by the presence of views. Views—–Intention—–>Emotion Our emotion—in the sense of our wanting—can be quite vague; we vaguely want to amass pleasurable experiences and to avoid painful ones. The clearer our view is about what will bring us happiness, the more we can form an intention. For instance, we might be clear that it will be beneficial to us to meditate at 7am every morning and might set an intention to do just that. This intention will condition our emotion to do so. However, although on the surface we might think we have set a clear intention, other views lurk beneath the surface, such as the unarticulated view that ‘comfort is the way forward.’ This view sets up a countervailing intention that leads us to want to stay in bed. If that intention is the stronger, then we stay in bed. Intention that leads to happiness An Enlightened person who holds Right View[1] possesses Skilful Intention because their views always lead to emotions which bring about happiness, for instance loving kindness. However, short of Enlightenment a person will exhibit unskilful emotions, which is evidence that they do not possess Right View and that their intentions consequently are not always skilful. Such people need to make a conscious effort to make skilful intentions and stick to them, if the world is to be as happy a place as it might be, and they do so by examining their views, conscious and unconscious. Intention that leads to suffering Obviously, an intention that leads to suffering is one that arises from a wrong view about what pursuits will lead to happiness. Although we might make an intention to do something skilful, like quit smoking or meditate regularly, we often fail, due to our subconscious intentions to do something...
Mindfulness and Conditionality: views
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 6 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘The Undiscovered Foundations’ and it explores the way in which views condition the other Foundations of Mindfulness. This excerpt follows on directly from Mindfulness and Conditionality: mind. viii Mindfulness of views conditioning happiness / Awakening Views When we are trying to transform our views to be sources of happiness, we need to bear in mind that when the condition of views is in place—as it always is, it affects body, feeling and mental states, contributing towards Awakening or suffering in the future, through the processes of perspective, mood and thought. The Satipatthana Sutta teaches the monk to develop mindfulness of his views with regard to: The five hindrances By becoming clear about which mental states lead directly to suffering, or hinder it being overcome, and are therefore unconducive to Awakening, he is motivated to root them out. The fluid nature of his person By becoming clear that his personality is fluid, being made up of five impermanent qualities, called heaps (skandhas)—namely form, feeling, apperception, volition and consciousness, he is motivated to let go of all notions of an unchanging self. Fetters that arise to spiritual development in relation to sense experience By becoming clear that the source of happiness for himself and others does not lie in sense experience (including mental imaginings) but rather in cultivating skilful mental states in meditation, leading to pleasant spiritual feeling. The seven factors of Awakening By becoming clear about the spiritual qualities that do lead to Awakening–namely mindfulness, investigation of phenomena, ethical robustness, joy, tranquility, meditative concentration and equanimity. The four Noble Truths By becoming clear (developing insight into) how suffering is overcome, he realizes the four Noble Truths. In practising mindfulness of views, the monk ensures that the views he holds about everything pertinent are in line with reality and conducive to wisdom, to Awakening, to Nirvana. The above categories form a kind of ‘inverse hierarchy’ in terms of views. Before he can do anything, the monk needs to be clear he is in a mental state which is going to hinder his progress before he even starts. Secondly, he needs to understand that he can change. Thirdly, he needs to know to look for that change not in the ’outer world’ of the senses but in the ‘inner world’ of skilful mental states. Fourth, he needs to clarify which positive qualities he needs to develop if he is to attain Awakening. And finally, he needs to underpin his practice with wisdom, by understanding the nature of reality (in...
Mindfulness and Conditionality: mind
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 16 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘The Undiscovered Foundations’ and it explores the way in which Mind conditions the other Foundations of Mindfulness, including the poorly understood concept of worldly and spiritual feeling: which can be roughly correlated with conscience or lack of it. This excerpt follows on directly from Mindfulness and Conditionality: feeling. vii Mindfulness of mind conditioning happiness / Awakening Mind When we are trying to transform our mind to be sources of happiness, we need to bear in mind that it will always affect the other foundations. When the condition of mind is in place—as it always is, it will always affect body, feeling and views, contributing towards Awakening or suffering in the future, through the processes of manifestation, ethical feeling and reflection. Body and feeling come in the category of experience; we are presented with them as experience in each moment, and as such in that moment there is nothing we can do about them, but experience them. Mind and views, on the other hand, are not experience as such, because we can choose to develop one mental state (or view) instead of another, as we do when we meditate (or reflect). Mind and views are responses to experience. We saw in the previous section how an appropriate response to ethical feeling depended on correctly identifying worldly and spiritual feeling. This could only be achieved once we had correctly identified the skilful and unskilful mental states that fostered them. Once a worldly feeling has been identified the mental state which opposes its progenitor needs to be developed; the pain of seeing our enemy is caused by the mental state of aversion, hence the mental state of loving kindness needs to be developed to counteract it, and thus alleviate the pain. Likewise, if we identify a worldly feeling of bliss as originating in a mental state of unawareness, we need to cultivate mindfulness until our unawareness becomes painful to us. By being aware of the effect of our body, feelings and views have on our mental states (as a source of happiness and well-being for ourselves and others) we aim maintain these in the best state we can. These are the conditions for happiness and suffering concerning mind. MANIFESTATION Firstly, there is manifestation. Mind and Body are interconnected, and so our mental and emotional states will manifest[1] tangibly within the body, and the world (through the operation of karma). Mental and emotional states —–Manifest—–> Body / World An angry state of mind will be apprehended as tension in...
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