"It is health that is the real wealth, and not the pieces of gold and silver."
~ Mahatma Gandhi
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ABD- One of the main things that attracted me to it was that it encourages you to question everything, don’t believe anything, but try it out and experience it yourself. Come to your own conclusions.
ADVAITA BDH DHRMA
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ABD
Religion is like a language you choose to learn. Why do you choose to learn a language? Reasons vary but its generally accepted that the selected language is what speaks to the learner. And that it is not the 'right' language. There are other languages as well. The selected language is merely what relates best to the learner.
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B I'm an atheist, skeptical, biased towards evidence, involved in serious studies on the science of the mind, psychology, neuroscience, etc. Therefore, Buddhism is the best 'language' for me.
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B So where does the idea come in where a difference in opinion automatically means you should be angry
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B Have you tried letting go meditation? You let everything go whatever you come across during meditation. It could be anger, greed, jealously, frustration etc but you simply let them go through mindfulness.
LET GO MEDITN- SAG-JF SADNESS ANGER GREED JLSY FRUSTN BXMS
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IRRITN FRUSTN ANGR#
B Keep up the practice. Little by little things won't bother you as much. Or if they do bother you, you won't let it drive your actions as much. Through meditation and reflection you'll start to see that these moods pass, these moods of anger. And so you don't have to do anything for the feelings to go away. Just let them be. Don't encourage the feelings. Let them be.
If you're about to say something rude, leave. Learn to see when the anger is bubbling up.
Little by little, keep up the practice. And it's good that you asked this question. It means you care. That's essential, caring is essential.
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B AJAHN NAYANMOLI
summary notes on some Dhamma essays written by Ajahn Nyanamoli, who has a YouTube page called Hillside Hermitage. I'm posting in case anyone is interested, or might find them useful. Keep in mind that I'm not a sotapanna, so I'm not claiming to know what I'm talking about. Also, for reference, I think many of the essays are descriptions of and/or elaborations on the Mulapariyaya Sutta (MN1):
"A monk who is a Worthy One, devoid of mental fermentations — who has attained completion, finished the task, laid down the burden, attained the true goal, destroyed the fetters of becoming, and is released through right knowledge — directly knows earth as earth. Directly knowing earth as earth, he does not conceive things about earth, does not conceive things in earth, does not conceive things coming out of earth, does not conceive earth as 'mine,' does not delight in earth. Why is that? Because he has comprehended it, I tell you."
Papañca-Saññā-Saṅkhā Summary
All dhammas have intentional significance. That is, all dhammas point to or signify other phenomena. For example, a perception of a rock will signify ‘rock as an object, external to myself’. Or a red octagon will have the significance of ‘stop’. This is known in Pali as ‘nimita’, i.e. signs, tokens, or characteristics.
Ignorant action follows the grain of the significance (i.e. pointing) of dhammas. For example, acting out of sensuality or ill-will, getting lost in thought, etc.
Such action proliferates the emotional significance which dhammas have for oneself. They become more pressuring, and more difficult to restrain oneself in regards to.
Restraint and appropriate attention / peripheral awareness go against the grain of the significance of dhammas. Doing so starves away the emotional significance which has been conditioned towards dhammas.
The arahant has completely removed all such emotional significance. He is therefore no longer pressured, at all, by anything.
Resistance and Designation Summary
Perceptions are determined by matter. This means that matter is inaccessible to perception, because any percept one has is on account of matter, and so cannot be that matter.
When one takes for granted the significance of ‘matter’ within a percept, one conceives the significance of matter within perception, to be that matter on account of which one perceives. Thus matter ‘finds footing’ in perception.
Since the putthujjana is responsible for such conceiving, the matter is his creation, and he thinks: it is ‘my’ ‘matter’. Since matter determines perception, he conceives perception to be his own as well. Since he assumes matter and perception to be owned, he assumes the existence of an owner – Self-view exists.
When he ceases to conceive a percept of matter as matter, knowing instead that matter is inaccessible to perception, he ceases to regard it as his own. He is not responsible for that matter (as he was responsible for conceiving it), so it cannot be his. Ceasing to regard matter as his own, he ceases to regard perception (and the other aggregates) as his own, as perception is determined by that matter which he does not own. He therefore ceases to assume an owner-creator of experience – Self-view ceases.
Determining Determinations Summary
Determinations are ‘that because of which’ one perceives, feels and cognises. Therefore, no perception, feeling, or cognition can ever be that determination, because of which one perceives, feels and cognises.
Not knowing/understanding that there is nothing external to the aggregates, the putthujjana assumes that there exists something external to the feeling, perception, and cognisance which is felt, perceived, and cognised.
This external thing is taken (or conceived) by the putthujjana to be the determination for the feeling, perception and cognisance. But since, in reality, there is only feeling, perception, and cognisance, this assumed external determination of the feeling, perception and cognisance must itself be a feeling, perception, or cognisance.
Through conceiving, determinations ‘find footing’ in feeling, perception, and cognisance. In other words, determinations exist for the putthujjana, on account of his conceiving of feeling, perception or consciousness as the determination of feeling, perception and consciousness. Their existence is a mistake, but they exist as a mistake. With ignorance as condition, determinations manifest.
One determines one’s ‘assumed-determinations’ by assuming a feeling, perception, or cognisance to be that because of which such determinations are there, namely, the ‘real’ determination, e.g. matter.
That because of which (the real) determinations are, cannot be determined. I.e. one cannot get ‘under’ the real matter and influence (determine) it with one’s intentions. One cannot even perceive or attend to the real matter.
Understanding the determination (e.g. matter), one will cease to assume that it can be accessed (intentionally influenced, perceived, felt, or cognised). With the cessation of assumption of access to determinations, one will cease to assume perception, feeling, or cognisance to be the determination. Ceasing to assume perception, feeling, or cognisance to be the determination, determinations cease. With the cessation of determinations, the assumed-aggregates cease, and one becomes an arahant.
Infinity of the Mind Summary
The structure of the mind is inherently infinite, i.e. there is no limit to the degree to which the phenomena which make it up can be in the foreground or background (i.e. peripheral). This feature is described as the ‘brightness’ of the mind in the suttas.
The inherently ‘bright’ mind is superimposed by defiling obstructions, i.e. avijja or ignorance. These obstructions are said to make the mind finite. However, the infinity of the mind is structurally precedent to ignorance regarding it, while they are both there simultaneously present. This means that ignorance does not affect the mind, it just covers it up, so to speak.
The infinity of the mind is atemporal. Every phenomenon that is present, there is a context peripheral to it. On the other hand, eternity is a temporal notion that implies a thing endures infinitely within time. One could regard the structural infinity of mind as a ‘vertical’ feature and eternity as a ‘horizontal’ notion.
The uninstructed worldling confuses the notion of infinity (no beginning, no end) with the notion of eternity, or rather identifies the two. In this way, a present experience is regarded as eternal or permanent. What a puthujjana does not see is that eternity implies infinity, but the infinity does not imply eternity. In other words, because he equates infinite with eternal, his citta is regarded as permanent; he regards his Self as permanent.
If one would be able to see the infinity without eternity, or even to see it as impermanent, the notion of Self, and everything else that depended upon it (which required the notion of permanence), would cease without a remainder. Knowing infinity as something present (i.e. arisen) but impermanent (for the very reason that it has arisen on its own accord), clears the mind of any obstructions, any superimposed interferences with the infinite structure.
Not Perceiving the Feeling Summary
Feeling cannot be thought, it cannot be perceived. What one perceives is one’s perception, what one feels is one’s feeling. Feeling and perception are simply there, superimposed, independent and different in nature.
One has to learn how to feel, or how to know ‘that because of which’ (determination, e.g. body) the feeling is. This means knowing how to discern feeling from that which perception is. This cannot be done by separating feeling and perception and examining them individually.
If the superimposition of these two completely independent simultaneously present domains is understood, the assumption of an independent thing, outside of feeling and perception ceases to be ‘a bridge’ for the two.
Thus, that ‘[assumption of a] thing’ which identifies (as the same, different, both, neither) the unidentifiable feeling and perception makes them manifest in that identity—feeling and perception come to exist. The identity feels, the identity perceives—I feel, I perceive. (Self is identity assumed between aggregates?)
One can be aware of what one feels; one can also be aware of what one perceives. Through understanding that because of which one is aware of, one knows the feeling and perception structurally cannot overlap or merge or be ‘bridged’ or identified; This makes the assumption in regard to feeling and perception (as the same, different, both-the-same-and-different, neither-the-same-nor-different), redundant, irrelevant, not worth maintaining. Why? Because it does not and it cannot make any difference to the structural order of things (feeling feels, perception perceives) ... Fully understanding that whichever way one’s thought (assumption) goes, the feeling cannot be identified as (the same, different, both-the-same-and-different, neither-the-same-nor-different from) perception, leaves that feeling and that perception just standing there—indifferent to each other.
It is the nature of the superimposition that breeds this indifference, since concern is in its nature always in relation to something.
Thus, one thinks it is this sight (sounds, smells, …thoughts) that is felt. Because of that feeling one sets upon to ‘affect’ those sights (sounds, smells, …thoughts), sets upon to change them, modify them, adjust them, pursue them, avoid them; one gets entangled in the sights (sounds, smells, …thoughts) on account of what one feels when they are. Knowing that feeling is just there, being felt; and perception is just there, being perceived, makes further entanglement impossible, and any entanglement that was there is made redundant, disowned, dropped down, never to be picked up again. Why? Because it was structurally impossible to get entangled in the first place, but until one has fully understood that, one’s ‘not-knowing-that-one-cannot-be-entangled’ was one’s entanglement. When one understands that the arisen things cannot structurally relate to each other—feeling feels the feeling, perception perceives the perception — concern becomes impossible or inconceivable—suffering completely ceases, never to arise again.
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MARANASATI
ULTIMATE HYPOXIA
B ON CALL FROM DTH
THE SECOND U R CONCEIVED U R LIABLE TO DTH
APPRECATE LYF WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF DTH
LAST MEAL, LAST DAY , LAST BREATH CONTEMPLATION
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