Mi-Le: Reflections on the Way ((IC in BG and CK))

Arn · Unread post by **Arn** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:50 pm

The "Divine Abodes" - Kindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, Serenity

When there is no self, no attachment, then the ways of relating to others is through kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and serenity. These are not from a self; it is not that there's an idea that "I must have more kindness for everyone because I have a lot of aversion and I should not. I should have loving-kindness for all beings. I should feel compassion. I should be kind and joyful and sympathetic with people. I should be serene, too." These are not ideas for a selfish person, that is not the real practice. The desire to become someone who has lots of kindness and compassion and all that is still craving to be something.

But as the illusions of self fall away, then this is the natural way to relate. You do not become a vacuous zombie through understanding the Way. You still relate to each other but it is through kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and serenity, rather than through greed hatred and delusion.

Unselfish human beings, what do they generally manifest in society? You could explain kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and serenity as that which manifests through unselfish human beings. Then apply that to our own practice now. When there is knowing and seeing clearly, then that gives total opportunity for the practice of kindness, compassion and the rest. But it is not me, not mine, not Mi-Le the kind monk, Mi-Le the Good Guy. As soon as Mi-Le-delusions step aside and cease, kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and serenity can manifest. This is why the human state is a great blessing: when the self-view is relinquished what remains is a great blessing.

But it is not me. "I" am not a great blessing. All I can do in this conventional self is to let go of delusion. To be mindful and not get attached to things, to see clearly - that is what I can do. That is the practice of the Four Truths and development of the Middle Path. It amounts to that vigilant mindful seeing of things clearly. Then what happens is up to other things. There is no need to go around trying to become "Mi-Le the Good Guy" any more.

Goodness can manifest through this form if there is no delusion; and that is not a personal achievement or attainment at all, merely the Way things are. The Way it happens to be. It is the Way.

((Adapted from the works of Ajahn Sumedho))

Arn · Unread post by **Arn** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 2:25 am

Helping Others

Baldur's Gate was attacked by the undead the other day. By all accounts, the casualties were quite serious. Earlier today I arrived back in the city, and almost immediately I saw Sister Reine demonstrating non-self and a readiness to help yet again. She had an elven friend with her who also seemed prepared to assist.

Soon after that, Chiara came by. I have not encountered Chiara or her brother since we first met a couple of months ago, and it was good to see her again. But we had barely finished greeting each other before she received some sort of mental cry for help from a friend of hers. Chiara ran to the Palace District, fearing the worst, fearing another undead attack. Sister Reine, her friend, and I followed.

Chiara's friend in need was a wizard named Cosimo, and the cause of distress was not an undead attack at all. It was that his weasel was underfed and malnourished! Well, that was a situation that was remedied easily enough.

Later in the day, I had an opportunity to speak with Malast, who is a Sunite. He is worried about a dear friend of his, and wants very much to help her. Whether or not he will be able to, I believe his concern for others is borne out of compassion and selflessness.

It is such a blessing to be able to help others, isn't it? At a time when so many people have been hurt or killed, it is a miracle to be able to do something to dispel the suffering of other sentient beings. Those whose minds are unclouded by ignorance and delusion act naturally out of compassion and good-will, and take joy in doing so. This is true fearlessness. Those who are suffering and afraid, those whose minds are clouded by ignorance, cannot do this.

Our sensitive bodies receive a lot of information, and as long as there is ignorance then our bodies distort that information. It becomes all blocked and deformed. But when we are released from defilements and those blockages, then these bodies can be a real blessing to the world. We can begin to realize the human potential for enlightenment, our ability to be free from the distorted attachments and defilements of the mind which we create out of ignorance. When those are relinquished, then the human form manifests wisdom and compassion, loving-kindness, joy and serenity.

What does the selfish human being manifest? When I am thinking about myself, being caught in selfish attitudes and desires, then I manifest to others greed, hatred, and delusion. When we only think in terms of what I want, when I’m trying to get rid of what I don’t like about others, then the human being just becomes a kind of nuisance and an unpleasantness to the other creatures in this world. We can see how ignorant humanity has created so many problems in the world! All the corruption, greed, destruction of nature, the wars. There certainly are human beings who believe in the pattern of "survival of the fittest," but we don’t have to be like that. We can transcend that realm of the law of the jungle, the strong dominating the weak. This is the instinctual level of survival of the animal world. We can rise above that.

We can rise above our own psychic realm of "me as a sensitive personality" to wisdom and a transcendent understanding, rather than grasping at these forms as a person or me or mine. We need to be able to realize: this form is empty, it isn’t mine.

((Parts adapted from the works of Ajahn Sumedho))

Arn · Unread post by **Arn** » Tue Sep 22, 2015 8:25 pm

Practical Insight

At my monastery, we were sometimes told to be mindful all the time, whatever we were doing. Some of us interpreted this advice to mean that you should keep your mind focused all the time on your breath. But while walking, if you simply keep your mind on the breath you probably will get into some problems, such as losing your attention to your surroundings or forgetting your walking and you may have an accident.

Sometimes you may think “to be mindful all the time” means to pay attention only to what ever you are doing at that particular time. This, of course, is what any person who is serious enough in his or her work normally does. A painter, writer, bard, archer, guard, or farmer must pay attention to whatever they do at any time they are engaged in their work.

Not only human beings do this. You may have noticed cats paying total attention to their prey in order to catch them without disturbing their prey by making any mistakes. Tigers, wolves, and bears pay total attention to what they are going to catch. Unfortunately animals cannot remove their greed, lust, etc., or cultivate an iota of insight by merely paying total attention to their objects.

Paying attention to whatever you are doing at any time is not going to eliminate your greed, hatred, and ignorance. This, in fact, is exactly what you do in tranquillity meditation or concentration meditation. By paying attention to one thing at a time you cannot get rid of your psychic irritation. You may focus your mind on one single object for fifty years and still your psychic irritation will remain unchanged in your mind. One person may observe all the moral rules. Another may learn all the teachings by heart. Someone else may gain concentration. Another may spend his entire life in solitude. All of them might think that they can experience supreme liberation from all psychic irritation, which no ordinary person can attain. But none of them can have that experience without destroying all the psychic irritation. Therefore in addition to all they practice they also must remove all their psychic impurities in order to experience the bliss of emancipation from all kinds of pain.

What is missing in focusing total attention to one single object all the time is wisdom. Your total attention should be coupled with wise attention. What is wise attention? It is attention accompanied by the three wholesome roots. What are the wholesome roots? They are generosity, loving-kindness and wisdom. This means that when you pay attention to something always attempt to pay attention without greed, hatred or delusion, but with the thought of generosity, loving-kindness and wisdom. These three are called wholesome roots; greed, hatred and delusion are called unwholesome roots. Don’t let your mind be affected by unwholesome roots when you pay attention to something. Let the thought of generosity, loving-kindness and wisdom dominate your mind while paying attention to anything.

When you pay attention to pots and pans as you wash, you may not need any loving-kindness, generosity or wisdom towards them. You are cultivating mindfulness not for pots and pans, but for living beings. You should pay attention to any thought regarding yourself, or any other living beings. Have mindful reflection while wearing your clothes, eating your food, drinking your water, talking to someone, listening to sound, seeing an object, and walking or sitting.

When you pay total attention with wise consideration or mindful reflection, your greed, hatred and delusion fade away, because in your wise attention generosity, loving-kindness and wisdom are active. Your thoughts of generosity, loving-kindness and wisdom have the power of minimizing your greed, hatred and delusion while you are engaged in any activity. While paying attention to something, without wise consideration or wise attention, you may inadvertently develop greed, hatred and confusion. You may see an object, for instance. That object may happen to be attractive, beautiful or pleasing to your eyes or it may be unattractive. At that time if you do not have wise attention, you may then end up cultivating greed or resentment for the object or you may get utterly confused ideas about the object. Or you may think that the object is permanent instead of realizing that it is impermanent, satisfactory instead of unsatisfactory, or having a self instead of being selfless.

You may then ask how your generous thoughts can get rid of your greedy thoughts, because the greedy thoughts want to cling to the object, or grasp it. When you perceive the object with greed, your mind will cling to it and not open to any thought of letting go of greed. You may not want to take your eyes away from the object. In fact, at that time your mind temporarily becomes blind to any thought of generosity. Even if you wish to let go of the attachment to it you may do so with great reluctance. You may feel that you are generous. But your generosity is only to fulfill your greedy purpose, like gaining something in return, or gaining recognition or becoming famous by being generous. Greed has very strong glue in it. At the very first contact with the desirable object the mind sticks fast to it. Letting go of that object is as painful as cutting off of a limb or some flesh of your body, and you cannot let go of that object from your mind.

This is where you really need your wise attention. This is where you must learn to see impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and selflessness in the object you are watching. Your wise consideration indicates that neither the object you perceive nor your feeling or sensation regarding the object remains the same even for two consecutive moments. You will not have the same sensation later on. You change, the object you perceive changes. With wise attention you will see that everything is impermanent. This knowledge of impermanence allows you to let go of your resentment. When you see with wisdom that everything that is unsatisfactory is impermanent, then you see the connection between unsatisfactoriness and greed. As you are attached to an impermanent object you will be disappointed with the change of the object that you are so attached to. When you have wise consideration you see that which is impermanent and unsatisfactory is without self.

Then you might think “Ah! Since this object is going to change, I must be quick and smart to take the advantage of this object right now and enjoy myself as quickly as possible before it disappears. Tomorrow it won’t be there." Here you must remember haste makes waste. If you make a hasty decision and do something foolish, you will regret it later on. Sometimes you are attracted to a person, for instance, and grab hold of him or her without giving much consideration to him or her, and later on you will find many faults in that person. In any such hasty decision there is no mindfulness. You cannot beat the change nor can you stop it by making any foolish attempt.

When your mindfulness is well developed, then even in haste you make a right decision. The only thing that makes sense in rushing to beat impermanence is to step back and check your own mind and see whether or not you make the decision with wise consideration. When you are mindful you will know how to take the advantage of the current moment so that you will not regret it later on. Any mindful decision you make will make you happy and peaceful and never make you regret it later on.

Always remember that mindfulness is the state of mind full of generosity, loving-kindness, and wisdom together with compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity. Any time you pay attention to anything you must ask whether your mind is full of these factors. If not, you are not mindful.

When you have generosity in the mind you will let go of any attractive sight, sound, smell, taste, touch and thought without any hesitation. You should certainly recognize them to be attractive in the conventional sense. Know that it is because of their attractiveness that people become attached to them and get involved in them. The deeper they get involved in them the deeper is their suffering. When you have loving-kindness in your mind you will not try to reject any sight, sound, smell, taste, touch and thought if they happen to be unattractive. Mindfully perceive them with the thought of impermanence. When any sight, sound, smell, taste, touch or thought appears to be identical with self, look at it as an unreal concept inculcated in your mind by conditioning through generations of wrong notions and look at it with wisdom.

Mindfulness is not carefulness. It is not smartness. Anybody can be careful and smart. A man walking on a wire three hundred feet above ground is careful. Think of acrobats performing all kinds of balancing feats. Numerous adventurers who climb very steep mountains, across rocks, slippery places, rivers, and so on are very careful. Many thieves are very smart and outwit guards. Many murderers, bandits, and criminals are very smart. None of them can be considered to be mindful.

Mindfulness is that state of mind which reflects upon itself not to get caught in greed, hatred, and ignorance, which cause suffering to yourself, to others, or to both.

When we ask people not to cultivate resentment some people ask us how can you live without resentment? This is the miracle of mindfulness. When you practice mindfulness you can learn to do most difficult things easily. Not becoming resentful, lustful, or confused is very difficult. Through constant training in mindfulness you learn to live without resentment, lust or confusion. Moreover to be mindful is more difficult than to be unmindful, and you learn to do that more difficult one more easily than the easier one. My monastery teaches:

For the good to do what is good is easy

For the bad to do what is bad is easy

For the bad to do what is good is difficult

For the noble to do what is bad is difficult.

This simply means that which is most difficult at the beginning becomes easy through constant practice.

((Adapted from the works of Venerable Henepola Gunaratana))

Arn · Unread post by **Arn** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 9:26 pm

Contemplation of Death

Suppose that you were convicted of a crime that calls for execution, and in seven days you will be hanged. What would go through your mind? This is my question for you. If in seven days you will be executed, what will you do? If you think about it and take it a step further, you will realize that all of us right now are sentenced to die, only we don’t know when it will happen. It could be sooner than seven days. Are you aware that you are under this death sentence?

If you were to violate the law of the land and be sentenced to death, you would certainly be most distressed. Meditation on death is recollecting that death is going to take us and that it could be very soon. But you don’t think about it, so you feel you are living comfortably. If you do think about it, it will cause you to have devotion to what is truly important. So my teacher taught us to practice the contemplation of death regularly. Those who don’t contemplate it live with fear. They don’t know themselves.

Now, I have met monks of the Order of the Long Death who take this too far and contemplate death practically to the point of worship. The contemplation taught by my monastery is not obsession. It is awareness, neither rejecting nor craving death.

If you are aware of death, you will want to find a solution to suffering. But generally, people don’t like to hear such talk. Doesn’t that mean they are far from the Way? We should contemplate death, but people get upset by such talk. They do have some knowledge of this fact, but the knowledge isn’t yet clear.

((Adapted from the works of Ajahn Chah))

Arn · Unread post by **Arn** » Mon Sep 28, 2015 4:22 pm

非我

"色身(色)非我(不是我)。假若色身是我，这个色身不会让它自己有不适。对于色身可以说，'让这色身这样。让这色身不这样。' 然而，正因为色身非我，色身自己遭受不适。并且对于色身不能说 '让这色身这样。让这色身不这样。'

"感受(受)非我 . . . 。

"辨识(想)非我 . . . 。

"心理造作(行)非我 . . . 。

"意识(识)非我。假若意识是我。这个意识不会让自己有不适。对于意识可以说，'让我的意识这样。让我的意识不这样。' 然而，正因为意识非我，意识自己遭受不适。并且对于意识不能说 '让我的意识这样。让我的意识不这样。'"

Hidden: show

((Adapted from the Anattalakkhana Sutta))

Arn · Unread post by **Arn** » Wed Sep 30, 2015 10:48 pm

The Mind and Not-Self

One of the patients at the Temple of Ilmater has a mental illness that makes him a danger to others and himself. It is a sad situation, but Brother Ameris and Telia are once again showing selflessness and making every effort to help him. The patient suffers from delusions, memory loss, a lack of control over his own actions. His mental condition reminds me that the things which we usually take to be our "selves" are not-self.

If our minds were truly ours, or "self," we could will our minds to stay clear and calm at all times, or be free from discomfort and painful thoughts, or be happy instead of sad. But we cannot. Our minds are subject to change, like everything else in the world.

We cannot will away anger or sadness or lust. We struggle with them, or become absorbed in them, or maybe watch them mindfully. But we cannot turn them on or off at a whim. Our minds are subject to change even more so than our bodies. If you pay attention, you can notice how your thoughts and moods can change at the slightest contact with a sense object. What we take to be "our" minds are not-self.

But even though we don't have total control over our minds, we can observe our mental processes and become less deluded by them. Most people don't notice that feeling is a phenomenon that arises when consciousness and sense faculty make contact with a sense object. Most people see a pleasant sight or hear an unpleasant sound and habitually follow the resulting feelings, becoming attracted or repulsed. So we live reactionary lives, habitually chasing pleasure and running from pain. But instead, we can be mindful of feeling before it gives rise to desire or aversion. We can see thoughts, ideas, and feelings as objects in the space of our minds, instead of just having a gut reaction to them.

But this takes attention and wisdom. I found that someone with a serious mental illness may not have the concentration and attention needed for a meditation such as the empty mind.

So sometimes it might be more effective to replace a sense object if it is giving rise to unwholesome states of mind. Telia was able to do this with her singing the other day, when the patient was suffering from a traumatic delusion. Her song was able to replace the delusional thought as a sense object. Once the patient focused on her singing instead of his delusion, his suffering ceased. It was a wise technique appropriate to that time and circumstance.

I am continually impressed and inspired by the dedication, resourcefulness, and selflessness of the Ilmateri. Working together, may we dispel the misery of the world.

Arn · Unread post by **Arn** » Wed Oct 07, 2015 12:19 am

Anger is Not-Self

We all have things we feel like we should do. We have to learn this, or buy that, or accomplish something or other. We have to rectify a wrong, or score the next big catch. When will we be done with our jobs? When can we put up our feet and say, "What had to be done, has been done"?

As long as we remain attached, there will always be something else, won't there? We have to realize that these feelings, these thoughts, these bodies, they aren't us. They don't belong to us. Now what does that mean?

I remember once when I was very young, I was carrying two bucketfuls of water back to the monastery. When I got back, I had to wait for someone to open a door to let me in. They knew I was there. I thought to myself, "I'll probably be waiting for a minute." And all of a sudden, I felt such anger and impatience!

I was about to bang on the door, my arm was actually halfway up to the door, when I suddenly understood what my teacher meant when he said, "Feeling is not-self."

I asked myself where that anger came from. It wasn't there, and suddenly it manifested. No one asked it to come. It came on its own, and now I couldn't make it go away. Such a thing couldn't be "mine." Why would I identify with it and follow it? And yet people do. People feel anger, sadness, lust, they follow or react to whatever emotions arise.

We try to control so much, don't we? We try to control our families, try to make them happy and safe. We try to control our bodies, make them healthy and fit. We even try to control our minds, pushing away anger or welcoming it, chasing highs or fearing rejection. But we can't control our thoughts.

Sometimes we anticipate the future. "Next time I'll do this." "If that happens again I'll say what's really on my mind." So on and so forth. But this controller, it comes from a sense of self. It makes us feel like we always have to be doing something.

How many of you have taken the ferry across the Chionthar River? When you get on the ferry, you trust the ferryman to get you across. There's nothing to do. There's no building, you can't really do anything, there are no people to help. It's the same with meditation. There's nothing to achieve, nothing to control; all of that comes from the illusion of self. Thinking just gets in the way.

We tend to worship thinking. "My thoughts are right, your thoughts are wrong," all of that comes from ignorance. I can tell you who's right and who's wrong. Both of your thoughts are wrong! When the mind is free of ignorance, completely free of the anxieties and concerns of self, then there is clear thinking.

Arn · Unread post by **Arn** » Fri Oct 09, 2015 9:03 pm

Kindness

Several days ago, Brother Ameris noted that my ways are strange to him, but he was kind enough to say that he respects them.

It is true that I write about not-self, mindfulness, meditation, and other teachings from my monastery that are against the grain. But in truth, those can be set aside.

My monastery simply teaches kindness.

慈

喜乐、平安，
愿一切众生心有喜乐。
一切众生，
无论软弱、强壮、
长、大、
中等、短小、
精细、粗显、
可见、不可见、
远、近、
已出生的、将投生的:
愿一切众生心有喜乐。

愿人们不相互欺骗、
不鄙视任何地方的任何人，
不以怒意、敌意，
愿他人受苦。

如一位母亲
舍命保护亲子、独子,
他更应对一切众生
长养无量之心。
以对全宇宙的善意，
长养无量之心:
自上、自下、周遭，
无障碍、无敌意、无恨意。
无论站、行、
坐、卧，
凡清醒时，
他应当确立此念。
这称为即时即地的
梵住之心。

Hidden: show

((Adapted from the Karaniya Metta Sutta))

Arn · Unread post by **Arn** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 5:19 pm

Genuine Humility

When we cultivate the thought of holding others as supremely dear, it is important to understand that we are not cultivating the kind of pity that we sometimes feel towards someone who is less fortunate than ourselves. With pity, there can be a tendency to look down upon the object of our compassion, and to feel a sense of superiority. Holding others dear is in fact the reverse of this. By recognizing how indispensable others are for our own spiritual progress, we appreciate their tremendous importance and significance, and therefore we naturally accord them a higher status in our minds.

Whenever I interact with someone,
May I view myself as the lowest amongst all,
And, from the very depths of my heart,
Respectfully hold others as superior.

The idea of seeing oneself as lower than others should not be misconstrued as a way of neglecting ourselves, ignoring our needs, or feeling that we are a hopeless case. Rather, it stems from a courageous state of mind where you are able to relate to others, fully aware of what ability you have to help. So please do not misunderstand this point. What is being suggested here is the need for genuine humility.

There are ways in which one can practice viewing oneself as lower than others. To take a single example, we all know from experience that when we focus on a particular object or individual, according to the angle from which we view it, we will have a different perspective. This is, in fact, the nature of thought. Thoughts are capable of selecting only isolated characteristics of a given object at a particular time. Human thought is not capable of comprehensively viewing something in its entirety. The nature of thought is to be selective. When you realize this, you can view yourself as lower than others from a certain point of view.

((Adapted from the works of the Dalai Lama))

Arn · Unread post by **Arn** » Wed Nov 04, 2015 9:23 pm

Dealing With Problems In Meditation

You are going to run into problems in meditation. Everybody does. Problems come in all shapes and sizes, and the only thing you can be absolutely certain about is that you will have some. The main trick in dealing with obstacles is to adopt the right attitude. Difficulties are an integral part of your practice. They aren't something to be avoided. They are something to be used. They provide invaluable opportunities for learning.

The reason we are all stuck in life's mud is that we ceaselessly run from our problems and after our desires. Meditation provides us with a laboratory situation in which we can examine this syndrome and devise strategies for dealing with it. The various snags and hassles that arise during meditation are grist for the mill. They are the material on which we work. There is no pleasure without some degree of pain. There is no pain without some amount of pleasure. Life is composed of joys and miseries. They go hand-in-hand. Meditation is no exception. You will experience good times and bad times, ecstasies and frightening times.

So don't be surprised when you hit some experience that feels like a brick wall. Don't think you are special. Every seasoned meditator has had his own brick walls. They come up again and again. Just expect them and be ready to cope. Your ability to cope with trouble depends upon your attitude. If you can learn to regard these hassles as opportunities, as chances to develop in your practice, you'll make progress. Your ability to deal with some issue that arises in meditation will carry over into the rest of your life and allow you to smooth out the big issues that really bother you. If you try to avoid each piece of nastiness that arises in meditation, you are simply reinforcing the habit that has already made life seem so unbearable at times.

It is essential to learn to confront the less pleasant aspects of existence. Our job as meditators is to learn to be patient with ourselves, to see ourselves in an unbiased way, complete with all our sorrows and inadequacies. We have to learn to be kind to ourselves. In the long run, avoiding unpleasantness is a very unkind thing to do to yourself. Paradoxically, kindness entails confronting unpleasantness when it arises. One popular human strategy for dealing with difficulty is autosuggestion: when something nasty pops up, you convince yourself it is pleasant rather than unpleasant. The tactic taught by my monastery is quite the reverse. Rather than hide it or disguise it, the Way teaches us to examine it to death. The Way advises you not to implant feelings that you don't really have or avoid feelings that you do have. If you are miserable you are miserable; this is the reality, that is what is happening, so confront that. Look it square in the eye without flinching. When you are having a bad time, examine the badness, observe it mindfully, study the phenomenon and learn its mechanics. The way out of a trap is to study the trap itself, learn how it is built. You do this by taking the thing apart piece by piece. The trap can't trap you if it has been taken to pieces. The result is freedom.

This point is essential, but it is one of the least understood aspects of the Way. Those who have studied the Way superficially are quick to conclude that it is a pessimistic set of teachings, always harping on unpleasant things like suffering, always urging us to confront the uncomfortable realities of pain, death and illness. Followers of the Way do not regard themselves as pessimists--quite the opposite, actually. Pain exists in the universe; some measure of it is unavoidable. Learning to deal with it is not pessimism, but a very pragmatic form of optimism. How would you deal with the death of your spouse? How would you feel if you lost your mother tomorrow? Or your sister or your closest friend? Suppose you lost your job, your savings, and the use of your hands, on the same day; could you face the prospect of spending the rest of your life like that? How are you going to cope with the pain of a terminal illness if you contract it, and how will you deal with your own death, when that approaches? You may escape most of these misfortunes, but you won't escape all of them. Most of us lose friends and relatives at some time during our lives; all of us get sick now and then; at the very least you are going to die someday. You can suffer through things like that or you can face them openly--the choice is yours.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is not. Pain and suffering are two different animals. If any of these tragedies strike you in your present state of mind, you will suffer. The habit patterns that presently control your mind will lock you into that suffering and there will be no escape. A bit of time spent in learning alternatives to those habit patterns is time well-invested. Most people spend all their energies devising ways to increase their pleasure and decrease their pain. The Way does not advise that you cease this activity altogether. Coin and security are fine. Pain should be avoided where possible. Nobody is telling you to give away all your possessions or seek out needless pain, but the Way does advise you to invest some of your time and energy in learning to deal with unpleasantness, because some pain is unavoidable.

When you see a wagon bearing down on you, by all means jump out of the way. But spend some time in meditation, too. Learning to deal with discomfort is the only way you'll be ready to handle the wagon you didn't see.

You will have problems in meditation. Everybody does. Some of them will be physical, some will be emotional, and some will be attitudinal. All of them are opportunities to free yourself. You can treat them as terrible torments, or as challenges to be overcome. If you regard them as burdens, your suffering will only increase. If you regard them as opportunities to learn and to grow, your spiritual prospects are unlimited.

((Adapted from Mindfulness in Plain English, by Venerable Henepola Gunaratana))

Arn · Unread post by **Arn** » Tue Nov 10, 2015 1:06 am

Physical Pain In Meditation

A couple of days ago, Belladonna introduced me to a wandering Ilmateri ascetic who goes by the name of Rags. Belladonna said "I think you two might get along since you never cause suffering and he is always suffering." But in truth, what I respect the most about the Ilmateri is their earnest wish to alleviate the suffering of others. Rags' determination in this regard is obvious. He was very thin and shoeless, and soon after we began to talk it became apparent that this suffering was voluntary. He told me he undergoes such suffering to know the suffering of others. His sincerity is plain for anyone to see.

And yet suffering happens every day, even without such self-inflicted pain. We don't need to seek out suffering to know it, do we? Nobody likes pain, yet everybody has some sometime. It is one of life's most common experiences and is bound to arise in meditation in one form or another.

Handling pain is a two-stage process. First, get rid of the pain if possible or at least get rid of it as much as possible. Then, if some pain lingers, use it as an object of meditation.

The first step is physical handling. Maybe the pain is an illness of one sort or another, a headache, fever, bruises or whatever. In this case, employ standard medical treatments before you sit down to meditate: take your medicine, apply your liniment, do whatever you ordinarily do. Then there are certain pains that are specific to the seated posture. If you never spent much time sitting cross-legged on the floor, there will be an adjustment period. Some discomfort is nearly inevitable. According to where the pain is, there are specific remedies. If the pain is in the leg or knees, check your trousers. If they are tight or made of thick material, that could be the problem. Try to change it. Check your cushion, too. It should be about three inches in height when compressed. If the pain is around your waist, try loosening your belt. If you experience pain in your lower back, your posture is probably at fault. Slouching will never be comfortable, so straighten up. Don't be tight or rigid, but do keep your spine erect. Pain in the neck or upper back has several sources. The first is improper hand position. Your hands should be resting comfortably in your lap. Don't pull them up to your waist. Relax your arms and your neck muscles. Don't let your head droop forward. Keep it up and aligned with the rest of the spine.

After you have made all these various adjustments, you may find you still have some lingering pain. If that is the case, try step two. Make the pain your object of meditation. Don't jump up and down and get excited. Just observe the pain mindfully. When the pain becomes demanding, you will find it pulling your attention off the breath. Don't fight back. Just let your attention slide easily over onto the simple sensation. Go into the pain fully. Don't block the experience. Explore the feeling. Get beyond your avoiding reaction and go into the pure sensations that lie below that. You will discover that there are two things present. The first is the simple sensation -- pain itself. Second is your resistance to that sensation. Resistance reaction is partly mental and partly physical. The physical part consists of tensing the muscles in and around the painful area. Relax those muscles. Take them one by one and relax each one very thoroughly. This step alone probably diminishes the pain significantly. Then go after the mental side of the resistance. Just as you are tensing physically, you are also tensing psychologically. You are clamping down mentally on the sensation of pain, trying to screen it off and reject it from consciousness. The rejection is a wordless, "I don't like this feeling" or "go away" attitude. It is very subtle. But it is there, and you can find it if you really look. Locate it and relax that, too.

That last part is more subtle. There are really no human words to describe this action precisely. The best way to get a handle on it is by analogy. Examine what you did to those tight muscles and transfer that same action over to the mental sphere; relax the mind in the same way that you relax the body. The monks of my monastery recognize that the body and mind are tightly linked. This is so true that many people will not see this as a two-step procedure. For them to relax the body is to relax the mind and vice versa. These people will experience the entire relaxation, mental and physical, as a single process. In any case, just let go completely until your awareness slows down past that barrier which you yourself erected. It was a gap, a sense of distance between self and others. It was a borderline between "me" and "the pain". Dissolve that barrier, and separation vanishes. You slow down into that sea of surging sensation and you merge with the pain. You become the pain. You watch its ebb and flow and something surprising happens. It no longer hurts. Suffering is gone. Only the pain remains, an experience, nothing more. The "me" who was being hurt has gone. The result is freedom from pain.

This is an incremental process. In the beginning, you can expect to succeed with small pains and be defeated by big ones. Like most of our skills, it grows with practice. The more you practice, the bigger the pain you can handle. Please understand fully. There is no masochism being advocated here. Self- mortification is not the point.

This is an exercise in awareness, not in sadism. If the pain becomes excruciating, go ahead and move, but move slowly and mindfully. Observe your movements. See how it feels to move. Watch what it does to the pain. Watch the pain diminish. Try not to move too much though. The less you move, the easier it is to remain fully mindful. New meditators sometimes say they have trouble remaining mindful when pain is present. This difficulty stems from a misunderstanding. These students are conceiving mindfulness as something distinct from the experience of pain. It is not. Mindfulness never exists by itself. It always has some object and one object is as good as another. Pain is a mental state. You can be mindful of pain just as you are mindful of breathing.

You must be careful not to reach beyond the sensation and not to fall short of it. Don't add anything to it, and don't miss any part of it. Don't muddy the pure experience with concepts or pictures or discursive thinking. And keep your awareness right in the present time, right with the pain, so that you won't miss its beginning or its end. Pain not viewed in the clear light of mindfulness gives rise to emotional reactions like fear, anxiety, or anger. If it is properly viewed, we have no such reaction. It will be just sensation, just simple energy. Once you have learned this technique with physical pain, you can then generalize it in the rest of your life. You can use it on any unpleasant sensation. What works on pain will work on anxiety or chronic depression. This technique is one of life's most useful and generalizable skills. It is patience.

((Adapted from Mindfulness in Plain English, by Venerable Henepola Gunaratana))

Arn · Unread post by **Arn** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 12:51 am

((According to The Sage at the Candlekeep Forums, Eric Boyd once said "The Old Order is pretty much a blank slate." This means that Old Order monks on BG will almost certainly have different beliefs and philosophies. In this post, I offer my IC explanation for why this might be. I also explain how Mi-Le's philosophy came to be, in the context of Forgotten Realms lore.))

A Brief History Of The Old Order

In my travels, I was pleasantly surprised to see how widespread the Old Order is in Faerun. In our own remote monastery in the mountains of Arakin in Shou Lung, I did not have current knowledge of other sects of the Old Order. So I am happy to have met so many long-lost brothers and sisters in my years of travel.

While the different sects and monasteries of the Old Order certainly have their different beliefs, I have found that all sects of the Old Order share at least one commonality: they do not worship any deity. Most monks of the Old Order agree that the Old Order did once worship a deity, long ago. However, some sects believe this unnamed deity died, whereas other sects believe the deity never existed on Toril to begin with. This point is unimportant; what is important is the deity's teachings.

However, this is where the various sects of the Old Order diverge most significantly. I believe when worship of the deity ended long ago, different interpretations of the deity's teachings began to develop. Over the centuries, this seems to have resulted in many varying philosophies.

As for my own sect of the Old Order, they realized the impermanence of all things when the nameless deity passed away. They asked themselves, if even the gods can die, can anything truly be permanent and everlasting? And they realized there is nothing which can be regarded as permanent and everlasting.

This realization centuries ago caused some of our monks to retreat from Faerun, away from the things that suddenly seemed so fleeting. These monks eventually ended up in Shou Lung, and there they established the monastery where I was trained.

There is no denying that my monastery was influenced by the Shou religion of the Way. Indeed, we once interacted with Guides of the Way regularly. However, we eventually concluded that the priests of the Way were too involved with their own sectarian infighting. Even the Guides of the White Way, who try to maintain balance by subtly influencing events, can be deluded by their struggle for control. Thus, my monastery withdrew from any involvement with the Guides of the Way and Shou politics. Of course, we remain grateful to the Guides for teaching us.

The Guides of the Way showed us that all things in the Celestial Universe affect and are affected by all others. This philosophy is in perfect accordance with my monastery's teachings of impermanence: if all things are affected by all others, then nothing can be permanent and unchanging. When we consider the two philosophies together, we come to see that they are really one. We come to a profound understanding of reality: the teaching of Dependent Origination.

I do not ask anyone to believe me. That kind of desire for control is what caused the divisions in the Old Order and the infighting among the Guides of the Way. I am only pointing out impermanence, only showing the Way. You can see for yourself if it is true.

Arn · Unread post by **Arn** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 1:24 pm

The Simile of the Saw

When I was still residing at my monastery, my sifu one day said to us:

"Monks, even if bandits were to sever you savagely limb by limb with a two-handled saw, he who gave rise to a mind of hate towards them would not be carrying out my teaching. Monks, even in such a situation you should train yourselves thus: 'Our minds will remain unaffected, and we shall utter no evil words; we shall abide compassionate for their welfare, with a mind of loving-kindness, without inner hate. We shall abide pervading them with a mind imbued with loving-kindness; and starting with them, we shall abide pervading the all-encompassing world with a mind imbued with loving-kindness, abundant, exalted, immeasurable, without hostility and without ill-will.' That is how you should train, monks.

"Monks, if you should keep this advice on the simile of the saw constantly in mind, do you see any course of speech, trivial or gross, that you could not endure?"

((Highlighted portion excerpted from the Kakacupama Sutta))

Arn · Unread post by **Arn** » Sun Dec 06, 2015 7:55 pm

Protection

If threatened, even a follower of Eldath might resort to violence to protect oneself. But we should bear in mind that Eldath herself would never do this. In nonviolence, Eldath and the Way are alike: both teach that one's mind should remain undisturbed by violence, that one should not give rise to a mind of hate even when being harmed.

Many will say that this is naive, that one must be ready to fight tooth and nail to live. What is truly naive is thinking that one can kill without consequence.

When we talk about nonviolence, understand that we are not talking about inaction borne out of fear, nor are we making a pretty excuse for anxious paralysis. The "pacifism" practiced by Eldath and the Way is the nonviolence of one who is truly fearless, one who sees clearly the suffering of all beings. It radically transcends fear, anger, and all mental defilements.

If you have ever committed violence, what feelings were in the mind? Was there anger or fear, or perhaps greed and avarice? A desire for control? Look closely, and be honest with yourself.

You can live in a fortress trying to prepare for every danger you can think of, but then are you truly free?

吉祥

诸天与世人，
想望吉祥、
希求安宁。
以此，请宣说至高的吉祥。

远离愚人、
亲近智者、
礼敬值得礼敬者:
- 这是至高的吉祥。
依往昔所修福德、
生活于文明国土、
志向端正:
- 这是至高的吉祥。
博学、广能、
精通律仪、
言语善宜:
- 这是至高的吉祥。
奉养父母、
照顾妻儿、
行事周全:
- 这是至高的吉祥。
布施、正命、
济助亲友、
行事无咎:
- 这是至高的吉祥。
戒诸恶行、
避诸醉品、
心智警醒:
- 这是至高的吉祥。
恭敬、谦卑、
知足、感恩、
适时闻法:
- 这是至高的吉祥。
忍耐、受教、
亲见沙门、
适时论法:
- 这是至高的吉祥。
俭朴、独身、
亲见圣谛、
实证涅槃:
- 这是至高的吉祥。
心触世法、
不动、不哀、
无染、安住:
- 这是至高的吉祥。
如此行持，
无往不胜、
随处安宁:
- 这是至高的吉祥。

Hidden: show

((Adapted from the Maha-Mangala Sutta))

Arn · Unread post by **Arn** » Wed Dec 16, 2015 1:46 am

The True Meaning of "Let It Go"

The year I first began meditating, there was one time I experienced strong jealousy during a meditation session. I tried to acknowledge that jealousy and return to the breath, but I found that I could not. The mind kept getting wrapped up in the jealousy, and I was struggling.

Then I remembered a snippet of some text I had read before, something about clinging to attachment. And so I tried looking at how the mind was clinging to the jealousy. I kept looking at that mental gravitation towards the jealousy, how the mind seemed unable to return to the breath. I observed the attachment and clinging to jealousy, instead of the jealousy itself.

I kept doing this, and all of a sudden, the jealousy was a distant feeling. It was still there, but it no longer bothered me. It was as if I were observing it from a distant third-person perspective.

And then the jealousy disappeared completely.

I felt like I had discovered some supernatural power. The power to make negative emotions go away! I remember feeling so happy and excited. It was the happiest I had ever been.

Well, of course I ended up trying to duplicate the experience. For the next year, I tried to figure out what I had done right. "Ah, maybe the trick is to focus on the clinging instead of the negative emotion itself. That will make the emotion go away." Or, "No, I'm becoming attached to the experience, I shouldn't be attached to that experience."

I finally described the experience to my sifu and asked him how I might detach myself from it.

He replied, "It's good to remember what you did, to apply it here and now. Now, what did you say you did?"

"I watched the clinging to the jealousy, instead of the jealousy itself, sifu."

"Then, from what you are telling me, you paid no attention to the jealousy." He smiled and left it at that.

I realized it was nothing I did that made the jealousy disappear. The Way teaches that nothing is permanent; all things cease, including thoughts and feelings. So when I watched the clinging in the mind, the jealousy ceased on its own because there was no attention being paid to it anymore. I was no longer getting involved with the jealousy, the jealousy was no longer being fed and maintained. So of course it ceased. That was something that happened on its own, not anything I did.

When people say "let it go," they often mean to push it away, bury it, reject it. But it's more simple than that. "Let it go" means just what it says: "it" is going to go on its own, just "let it."

When we don't get involved with greed, hatred, or delusion, they go on their own. But how often do we notice that cessation? Try to pay attention to the rising and ceasing of thoughts and feelings. Watch for the moment a thought or emotion ceases.

In contemplating the Four Truths, you have the truth of suffering; its arising; its cessation; and then the Middle Path. You can't know the Middle Path and the way out of suffering until you are aware of where everything ceases - in the mind itself. The mind is still vital and alert even when there is no thought in it; but if you don't notice that, then you believe you are always thinking. That's the way it seems.

You only conceive of yourself when you're thinking, because you're identified with memory and the sense of 'I am' or 'I am not'. That 'yourself' is very much a conditioned, programmed perception in the mind. As long as you believe in that perception and never question it, then you will always believe that you are an obsessive thinker... and you shouldn't be this way or shouldn't feel that way and you shouldn't worry - but you do, and you're a hopeless case and so it goes on from one thing to another.

So the 'I am' is just a perception really - it arises in the mind and it ceases in the mind. When it ceases, note that cessation of thought. Make that cessation, that empty mind, a 'sign' rather than just creating more things in the emptiness. You can get refined states of consciousness fixing on refined objects - as in concentration meditation practices that emphasize calming the mind - but with the contemplation of the Four Truths you're using the wisdom faculty to note where everything ceases.

Even the most beautiful thoughts, aspirations as well as the most evil and nasty, arise and cease in the mind. Now don't misunderstand me; I'm not saying it's all right to think evil thoughts, but I am pointing beyond the quality of the thought: love and hate arise and cease in the mind. In this perspective you're going to the reflective mind, where most people are totally unaware. People are generally only aware of themselves as a personality or an emotion or a thought - in other words, as a condition.

For practice, don't worry about the qualities that go through the mind: how wonderful, interesting, beautiful, ugly, nasty or neutral they might be. We're not investigating qualities or denying the quality of any thought, but just noting the way it is. Then you just leave it alone so it ceases. To let go doesn't mean you push it away: you leave the thought alone, you're aware of it during the whole time; the moment before the thought and the interstices and the ending.

((Last five paragraphs adapted from the works of Ajahn Sumedho))

Mi-Le: Reflections on the Way ((IC in BG and CK))

Re: Mi-Le: Reflections on the Way ((IC in Ilmateri Temple))

Re: Mi-Le: Reflections on the Way ((IC in Ilmateri Temple))

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Re: Mi-Le: Reflections on the Way ((IC in Ilmateri Temple))

Re: Mi-Le: Reflections on the Way ((IC in Ilmateri Temple))

Re: Mi-Le: Reflections on the Way ((IC in Ilmateri Temple))

Re: Mi-Le: Reflections on the Way ((IC in Ilmateri Temple))

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Re: Mi-Le: Reflections on the Way ((IC in Ilmateri Temple))

Re: Mi-Le: Reflections on the Way ((IC in Ilmateri Temple))

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Re: Mi-Le: Reflections on the Way