Jim Smith Practice Log #4 - Discussion
Jim Smith Practice Log #4
Jim Smith, modificado hace 3 meses at 24/06/24 3:40
Created 3 meses ago at 12/06/24 22:57
Jim Smith Practice Log #4
Mensajes: 1787 Fecha de incorporación: 17/01/15 Mensajes recientes
My views on meditation and mindfulness are explained here:
https://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/p/meditation.html
Links I think are helpful:
Links I'm often looking up put here so I can find them easily...
MCTB2 Links
100% capture
https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-vi-my-spiritual-quest/70-around-the-world-and-finding-home/the-second-mbmc-retreat/
never destabilized
https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-vi-my-spiritual-quest/70-around-the-world-and-finding-home/vimuttimagga-the-path-of-freedom/
You know, some people are arahants only on retreat.
https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-vi-my-spiritual-quest/70-around-the-world-and-finding-home/wobble-and-fall/
https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-v-awakening/37-models-of-the-stages-of-awakening/the-theravada-four-path-model/
Daniel:
Utter centerlessness: no watcher, no sense of a watcher, no subtle watcher, no possibility of a watcher.
https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/2715189#_com_liferay_message_boards_web_portlet_MBPortlet_message_2718243
Previous practice logs:
#3 is here
https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/25556111
# 2, is here:
https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/23406442
# 1 is here:
https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/22843214#_com_liferay_message_boards_web_portlet_MBPortlet_message_8496517
https://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/p/meditation.html
Links I think are helpful:
- Shinzen Young Enlightenment Interview: https://www.lionsroar.com/on-enlightenment-an-interview-with-shinzen-young/
- Jack Kornfield, "Enlightenments": https://inquiringmind.com/article/2701_w_kornfield-enlightenments/
- The Stream Entry of Ajahn Chah - By Ajahn Nyanamoli Thero: https://www.hillsidehermitage.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/70hh-The-Stream-Entry-of-Ajahn-Chah-1.pdf
- One Tool Among Many The Place of Vipassana in Buddhist Practice by Thanissaro Bhikkhu https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/onetool.html
- A reconsideration of the meaning of "Stream-Entry" considering the data points of both pragmatic Dharma and traditional Buddhism: https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/comments/igored/insight_buddhism_a_reconsideration_of_the_meaning/
- The Eight Principles:
https://www.dhammatalks.org/books/RecognizingTheDhamma/Section0004.html
“As for the qualities of which you may know, ‘These qualities lead:
to dispassion, not to passion;
to being unfettered, not to being fettered;
to shedding, not to accumulating;
to modesty, not to self-aggrandizement;
to contentment, not to discontent;
to seclusion, not to entanglement;
to aroused persistence, not to laziness;
to being unburdensome, not to being burdensome’:
You may categorically hold, ‘This is the Dhamma, this is the Vinaya, this is the Teacher’s instruction.’”
Links I'm often looking up put here so I can find them easily...
MCTB2 Links
100% capture
https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-vi-my-spiritual-quest/70-around-the-world-and-finding-home/the-second-mbmc-retreat/
never destabilized
https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-vi-my-spiritual-quest/70-around-the-world-and-finding-home/vimuttimagga-the-path-of-freedom/
You know, some people are arahants only on retreat.
https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-vi-my-spiritual-quest/70-around-the-world-and-finding-home/wobble-and-fall/
https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-v-awakening/37-models-of-the-stages-of-awakening/the-theravada-four-path-model/
Daniel:
Utter centerlessness: no watcher, no sense of a watcher, no subtle watcher, no possibility of a watcher.
https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/2715189#_com_liferay_message_boards_web_portlet_MBPortlet_message_2718243
Previous practice logs:
#3 is here
https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/25556111
# 2, is here:
https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/23406442
# 1 is here:
https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/22843214#_com_liferay_message_boards_web_portlet_MBPortlet_message_8496517
Jim Smith, modificado hace 3 meses at 23/06/24 16:51
Created 3 meses ago at 23/06/24 16:51
RE: Jim Smith Practice Log #4
Mensajes: 1787 Fecha de incorporación: 17/01/15 Mensajes recientes
I have been meditating a little bit differently lately.
There is a feeling of non-attachment I notice with metta or jhana's. I have been isolating that and just meditating on that feeling with just a tad of the elevated mood that comes from metta or jhana's. It facilitates disengaging the ego.
I've also been thinking of a phrase "Being no one, having nothing" I read in The Magic of Awareness. It's a good compliment to the above, when done with an upbeat mood. I think it's not something you understand through reason, it's something that works into the unconscious mind when you are in a meditative state, (ie it doesn't work through the default network). The meaning is something you feel, if you know from experience that ego clinging is the cause of suffering you can understand/feel that being no one and having nothing would end suffering.
There is a feeling of non-attachment I notice with metta or jhana's. I have been isolating that and just meditating on that feeling with just a tad of the elevated mood that comes from metta or jhana's. It facilitates disengaging the ego.
I've also been thinking of a phrase "Being no one, having nothing" I read in The Magic of Awareness. It's a good compliment to the above, when done with an upbeat mood. I think it's not something you understand through reason, it's something that works into the unconscious mind when you are in a meditative state, (ie it doesn't work through the default network). The meaning is something you feel, if you know from experience that ego clinging is the cause of suffering you can understand/feel that being no one and having nothing would end suffering.
Jim Smith, modificado hace 2 meses at 11/07/24 20:41
Created 2 meses ago at 11/07/24 20:41
RE: Jim Smith Practice Log #4
Mensajes: 1787 Fecha de incorporación: 17/01/15 Mensajes recientes
I posted this on reddit and I thought others here might be interested...
For me, the thing that has the most obvious effect of creating the sense of a self is the sense of purpose or agency. The feeling of having and acting with will creates the sense of self.
If you observe the mind casually and you see a thought -> emotion -> impulse -> action - we assume (feel like) we are an entity reacting by exercising will.
But if you watch the mind more closely, you see that those events are the result of impersonal cause and effect (not intention) and are produced by unconscious processes before they rise into awareness. It tells you the idea of having conscious will is an assumption or an opinion that might not be correct (depending on how you define terms). (And the feeling of being an entity with will is just another feeling arising from unconscious processes.)
The feeling of being an observer is similar, it is an assumption we make things that arises to consciousness from unconscious processes.
A better way to explain the self would be to say it is a collection of loosely connected unconscious processes interacting through cause and effect that sometimes work at cross purposes (for example craving rich food while being afraid of gaining weight).
What we usually think of as the self, an entity observing and exercising will, is really just an image, a portrait of what we believe about our self ie the self-image. We mistake an image of a thing for the actual thing. Actually most people already know a lot about this they just don't connect the dots. We know we get distracted when we try to focus on something - we don't control our thoughts. We have unpleasant emotions we don't want - we don't control our emotions. We have impulses that are often unhelpful, we don't control our impulses or actions. Our sense of our role in life changes from situation to situation, student, child, parent, employee, supervisor. Our sense of our personal characteristics changes with our emotions: pride, shame, winner, loser, etc. The feeling of being changes with physical sensations - hot, cold, pleasure, pain, etc. The self image is constantly changing, coming into existence when we have thoughts of self, and vanishing when we are absorbed in external perception.
Quieting the mind, slowing down it's activity, through meditation - so you can see clearly what it is doing - will help you see this. Try to see how the sense of agency you feel arises from your assumptions about things happening through impersonal cause and effect. The sense of being a "self" is something that is caused by assumptions we make. It really is an opinion that isn't right or wrong - but you understand it in a very different way when you understand the assumptions you are making and why you make them.
If you observe the mind casually and you see a thought -> emotion -> impulse -> action - we assume (feel like) we are an entity reacting by exercising will.
But if you watch the mind more closely, you see that those events are the result of impersonal cause and effect (not intention) and are produced by unconscious processes before they rise into awareness. It tells you the idea of having conscious will is an assumption or an opinion that might not be correct (depending on how you define terms). (And the feeling of being an entity with will is just another feeling arising from unconscious processes.)
The feeling of being an observer is similar, it is an assumption we make things that arises to consciousness from unconscious processes.
A better way to explain the self would be to say it is a collection of loosely connected unconscious processes interacting through cause and effect that sometimes work at cross purposes (for example craving rich food while being afraid of gaining weight).
What we usually think of as the self, an entity observing and exercising will, is really just an image, a portrait of what we believe about our self ie the self-image. We mistake an image of a thing for the actual thing. Actually most people already know a lot about this they just don't connect the dots. We know we get distracted when we try to focus on something - we don't control our thoughts. We have unpleasant emotions we don't want - we don't control our emotions. We have impulses that are often unhelpful, we don't control our impulses or actions. Our sense of our role in life changes from situation to situation, student, child, parent, employee, supervisor. Our sense of our personal characteristics changes with our emotions: pride, shame, winner, loser, etc. The feeling of being changes with physical sensations - hot, cold, pleasure, pain, etc. The self image is constantly changing, coming into existence when we have thoughts of self, and vanishing when we are absorbed in external perception.
Quieting the mind, slowing down it's activity, through meditation - so you can see clearly what it is doing - will help you see this. Try to see how the sense of agency you feel arises from your assumptions about things happening through impersonal cause and effect. The sense of being a "self" is something that is caused by assumptions we make. It really is an opinion that isn't right or wrong - but you understand it in a very different way when you understand the assumptions you are making and why you make them.
Jim Smith, modificado hace 4 días at 23/09/24 18:23
Created 4 días ago at 23/09/24 18:16
RE: Jim Smith Practice Log #4
Mensajes: 1787 Fecha de incorporación: 17/01/15 Mensajes recientes
Nirvana is in the present moment, not in the future.
If you want awakening, if you want nirvana, stop expecting it or hoping for it sometime in the future and start looking for it in the present moment.
Consider all the things you want or fear in the future, or regret about the past, or things that you want, or like, or don't like now - you have to let go of all that because nirvana is in the present moment.
Look for non attachment in the present moment not in the future. Try to find it now. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, that's where you need to look for it. It's there, in your mind, right now. Stop clinging.
If you want awakening, if you want nirvana, stop expecting it or hoping for it sometime in the future and start looking for it in the present moment.
Consider all the things you want or fear in the future, or regret about the past, or things that you want, or like, or don't like now - you have to let go of all that because nirvana is in the present moment.
Look for non attachment in the present moment not in the future. Try to find it now. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, that's where you need to look for it. It's there, in your mind, right now. Stop clinging.
Chris M, modificado hace 4 días at 23/09/24 18:19
Created 4 días ago at 23/09/24 18:19
RE: Jim Smith Practice Log #4
Mensajes: 5404 Fecha de incorporación: 26/01/13 Mensajes recientes
It's all happening now, right? The future is just thoughts now, as is the past. So there's just here-now all the time.