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Friday, September 04, 2009

The Naked Awareness

Lead me from dreaming to waking.
Lead me from opacity to clarity.
Lead me from the complicated to the simple.
Lead me from the obscure to the obvious.
Lead me from intention to attention.
Lead me from what I'm told I am to what I see I am.
Lead me from confrontation to wide openness.
Lead me to the place I never left,
Where there is peace, and peace
- The Upanishads

*note* Candice O'Denver knows the truth...a bit about her taken from http://www.saieditor.com/stars/odenver.html site ..quote"She had been raised Catholic, but as a child she intuitively rejected substantial portions of what she was taught through that religion, yet she had a strong, natural faith in God, and prayed every day for many years to be “able to see the face of God”.

She then went through an profound personal crisis which led her into states of intense fear, alienation and despair. During that period she found that everything she had learned through psychology, philosophy, religion, and all other belief systems she had studied were of no help to her whatsoever.

Furthermore, every remedy she had previously relied on to give her relief, including alcohol and marijuana, now gave her no relief at all. During that extended period of being overwhelmed by negative emotional states, she somehow discovered that beneath all those states, there was a “basic space of pure awareness” which was free from suffering, a space of complete relief. She gradually familiarized herself with that basic space by resting as awareness for short moments, repeated many times, and soon she was able to rest in that awareness for 10 continuous days. At that point “awareness rose like the sun”, and from then on that unchanging space of pure awareness became her primary reality, and the painful thoughts and emotional states which had tormented her faded away like stars in the light of day. Her discovery of all-encompassing pure awareness, and the complete relief that comes with it, proved to be permanent"
-added by Danny-
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What is resting as awareness?
What is awareness?


What does it mean to be aware; what is awareness? Just stop thinking for a moment, stop thinking. That is awareness; alert vigilance, alert cognizance, restful alertness that has nothing going on within it; that is awareness. Now awareness is required equally for no thinking and thinking. But when we take that first moment of awareness without thinking, and we repeatedly take a short moment of awareness, then we have more moments of awareness every day. As we have more moments of awareness, awareness is no longer a moment of not thinking.

By taking that short moment of awareness without thinking we begin to see that awareness is required for all thinking, including not thinking, because you see, even the term non-thinking is a thought. Awareness is required for everything we know, everything we’re aware of: just like we’re aware of the bird chirping outside, or aware of the sound of the ocean. Hear it? That’s it. There isn’t anything else, so don’t look for some fantastically altered state, and don’t look for esoteric oddities that are going to preoccupy your day. That will only lead you into an extreme.

First of all, that there is nothing required but brief moments repeated many times. That all we are doing is acknowledging the native state of everything anyway, when we take that short moment. It doesn’t need to be accumulated, because it already is, so we are just acknowledging it repeatedly, just as we didn’t acknowledge it, so it didn’t seem to be there, so when we acknowledge it repeatedly, it becomes evident. It’s as simple as that. What becomes evident is that in this brief moment, everything is appearing just as it is, without any kind of descriptive framework. Everything that appears just is the dynamic energy of this moment that is alert and cognizant of itself. There is just this moment that is alert and cognizant of itself, that’s it.

When we make a 100% commitment, we’re saying, “Yes, nature is as it is. Everything is as it is, and I am committed to being in complete alignment with that. I’m committed to being completely absorbed into reality itself, completely absorbed into the very nature of everything as it is. I’m willing to have all my ideas about everything outshone by the light of my own awareness.”
In the simple way, it’s like having a talk with a small child. You are having a little talk with yourself. “Honey, do you want to feel better or do you want to feel worse”? “If you just rest, you will feel better. If you don’t, you will feel worse.”
It’s as simple as that. If someone had talked to us like that when we were kids, then no one would be in that mode. It’s very, very simple. It doesn’t need to be made anymore complicated than that.

When we begin to rest as awareness, then it seems like there’s resting as awareness and then there’s all the thoughts—like a tiger watching its prey. However, we don’t have to worry about any of that—the merging or if it’ll happen or any of that. If we just continue to return to the ease that is at the basis, very naturally and very quickly we will arrive at the point where it won’t be two any longer. We won’t be even able to say when that happened or anything else. It’s so organic and natural to our being. When we acknowledge who we are and return to that repeatedly—rather than getting caught only in the thought, its label, and its proliferation—then it very swiftly becomes totally obvious. Now, it does require just this simple practice: listening until conviction dawns, or resting naturally, or a combination of the two.

What has no cause and what requires no effort cannot be brought about by trying to cause it or effort for it. It’s already accomplished, already naturally present effortlessly in the here and now, the pure presence of the here and now, the complete perceptual openness of the here and now. This is the basis of everything.

To have complete perceptual openness means to relax our perception into wide-open spaciousness with no need to close in on any thought, emotion, object, or experience to make sense of what’s happening. When we completely relax our attention from its habitual pinpointed focus, we see everything as it is: a limitless, seamless expanse of changeless pure awareness, in which myriad ephemeral forms of awareness appear and disappear. Most of us have learned to fix our attention on whatever is appearing and to describe it as if it had a separate existence. However, when we do so, we immediately disconnect from our natural openness and collapse into the idea of a separate self that relies on thought to describe what’s going on. When we have this individualized thinking and the fear-based emotional field that thinking creates, then we’re very restricted and limited to that emotional field. We live on the head of a pin when we do that, and that’s a very cramped and uncomfortable space!

We keep it simple: we keep it totally simple. Everything that appears is a point of view appearing within the pure view of awareness. That’s it.


I have negative thoughts, afflictive states, uncomfortable sensations etc. I feel something is not right.

I invite you to put a complete stop to the addiction to labeling each and every occurrence. When we persist in labeling ourselves and others, we engage in a machine-like war within ourselves. In doing so, we judge certain of our appearances to be good and others to be bad, and we become like robots sorting thoughts: “These are the good ones, and these are the bad ones; I’ve got to get more good ones, and I’ve got to get rid of the bad ones. I’ve got to show everybody else what my good ones are, so they will accept me, and then maybe I can think that I am acceptable.” Beyond all the extremes, beyond the labels of good and bad, is wisdom. Wisdom does not need anything to be good; it is already wholly positive in and of itself.

Come to a complete stop and enrich yourself and the whole world with the awareness that’s at the basis of everything. No one is dependent on any label to be. Being is, regardless of labels. The only self-essence of any label is forever flawless awareness, so why not look at everything from the vantage of awareness rather than through the foggy filters of labels? The essence of your own being doesn’t need anything to prop it up—it simply is, so relax and enjoy! Please don’t be mean to yourself any longer. I really ask you this from my heart.

Just allow everything to be as it is, as you would in any other moment. Don’t force anything—just relax. Whatever the thoughts, emotions, and sensations are, they’re the unconfined capacity and creativity of awareness. They’re inseparable from awareness, just as the brilliance of a diamond is inseparable from the diamond itself.

It’s much easier to just rest as awareness and let everything be as it is. No matter what appears, it’s like a mirage. Like a line drawn in water, it is its own undoing and will vanish naturally. There isn’t a single thing that needs to be done about anything that appears. We don’t need anything to make the clouds go away; they disappear in and of themselves. They come from space, they are space during their duration, and they disappear into space. The space remains unaffected, and that’s what we really are: aware pure space. The coming, staying, and going are all space as well. So, what can we say? There’s nothing going on. There’s nothing to react to. When we just let go in evenness, then life becomes a lot easier, and we don’t need so much for anything to change. In letting everything be as it is, we open up to the space of profound insight and the ability to act skillfully. If we don’t let everything be as it is by the power of resting as awareness, then we’ll never be in touch with this level of insight and skill.

In the unhindered space of awareness, whatever comes, just as it arises, there is nothing exact or precise, not any reality that can be found to exist. By maintaining short moments of awareness, many times, you realize that the whole world of description comes into being moment by moment. Outside that moment there is no way to really examine anything and prove that it exists; and that moment cannot be captured. So even in that moment, whatever is there can’t be shown to exist either. Do you see what I am saying? When you see this moment to moment in your own perception, you get a firsthand experience, the instinctive realization of what you are, which is all of this: The moment, pure presence, unhindered, alert, cognizant – that’s it. The experience of everything being up and down, that evens out in awareness.

By relying on short moments of awareness, repeated many times, it guarantees the authentic naturalness of awareness. Initially, we are not at all familiar with awareness and there are no thoughts we can have that are going to make us instinctively realize it. So, by just resting all mental processes, including the ideas about the body and mind and being somebody, this allows us to briefly, super-completely, spontaneously, and naturally moment-to-moment acknowledge awareness in an uncontrived way, In this way, we become convinced. We become convinced of the efficacy and the power of it by its results in our life. There wouldn’t be any other way for us to become convinced. Our confidence grows when we see the results of awareness in our life. It can’t come about in any other way.

In order to get along in life, we don’t need to rely on descriptions. The most powerful way we can be in life is entirely free of descriptions. It’s entirely beyond descriptions yet it can use all descriptions effortlessly and enjoy them thoroughly. The phenomenal world cannot be fully and completely enjoyed unless there is familiarity with the nature of the mind. In becoming familiar with the nature of the mind, then life can be completely enjoyed in all of its aspects from the wonderful parts of life to the things that aren’t wonderful at all. There’s a deep gratitude and sense of wonder at what occurs no matter what it is.
This is important because it’s this that we can count on. We can’t really count on anything else. It’s important to count on what is immediately beneficial in our human life and what ensures our well-being. That’s what’s important to count on; what is immediately beneficial and ensures our well-being right now, not at some point in the future, right now, immediately beneficial right now, ensures our well-being.


How can I rest with my negative thoughts, emotions and experiences?


We have a very easy choice. It’s the choice of continuing to describe and perpetuate stories based on an inaccurate perception of our identity, or getting to know the awareness that is the sole source and basis of all these descriptions. When we rest as awareness for short moments, many times and just allow everything to be as it is, we’ll realize what wisdom is. We’ll understand the true nature of existence. The clear light of wisdom begins to dawn in us, and we can start to laugh for having taken ourselves so seriously! In that complete relaxation is revealed the naturally present awareness that is the mind’s basic space.

Thus the single practice in the Great Freedom Teaching is short moments of awareness, repeated many times. By engaging that instinctive realization for short moments, repeated many times, the already accomplished, already present, instinctive condition becomes obvious. It’s not going to come about by trying to change yourself in any way. It’s only going to be realized by settling into what you already are.

Many people rest actively throughout the day for short moments repeated many times. What that means is that something appears, whether it’s a thought or emotion, a sensation or experience, and rather than getting involved in the story about that experience, initially the choice is made to rest as awareness, to acknowledge awareness. to sustain the essence of awareness rather than getting involved in all the old descriptions and ideas that have been used to describe everything. That is one way of practicing short moments repeated many times.
Another approach that some people use is simply listening to the teachings and reading the teachings. Just by listening to the downloads repeatedly, and reading the Teachings, conviction dawns.

Everyday awareness is just everyday life itself. Since nothing needs to change, there is no need to behave in any special way or attempt to attain anything above and beyond what you actually are. There should be no feeling of striving to reach some "amazing goal" or "advanced state." The timeless wisdom of awareness naturally reveals its qualities in simply resting imperturbably in all experience. There is no effort to make.


How can I gain confidence in awareness?

Short moments repeated many times. Just that. And if you want to examine how you’re doing, don’t look at how far you have to go, look at how far you’ve come. Keep the focus on yourself and look at how far you’ve come rather than how far you have to go. So if you find yourself in the midst of an afflictive state, don’t worsen it by saying “Oh, this isn’t working. I’m not resting. Resting is never going to help this afflictive state. I keep doing it over and over again.” Don’t go there. Those are all points of view too that have no power or significance, so just rest. Allow everything to be as it is.

Say, you had an incredible talent for baking bread, but you had never baked bread in your life. You wouldn’t know that you had a talent for baking bread, and once you started to bake bread, you would get more and more familiar with your talent for baking bread. So, awareness is similar in that once it’s identified as the source of experience, then by short moments of awareness, repeated many times, there’s more and more awareness that is noticed in one’s daily experience. It’s the source of that experience. It’s seen that awareness is really the mainstay or ground. It’s the absolute nature. If we’re looking for human nature it’s not only the absolute human nature but the absolute nature of everything.

It is in our practical day-to-day experience that we gain confidence in awareness, as we go through each step of the day. Whereas before we may have been relying on our points of view or our perspectives that we gather in order to make sense of reality, instead, we start to rely on awareness rather than relying on any of those opinions that we’ve gathered about the nature of reality. More and more we rely on our own direct experience of awareness, our own instinctive recognition of awareness, rather than relying on all the opinions about everything, our own opinions and others.
Gaining confidence in awareness is like a wildfire because when you’re first introduced to awareness that first moment of recognition of awareness becomes the basis of your experience. Then, if you return to short moments of awareness it will encourage the flame of awareness to grow. It will be like the breeze that fans the forest fire. As more short moments of awareness become obvious then the whole forest of points of view goes up in flames.

Short moments repeated many times, always works. It always works. If it’s watered with a little bit of diligence and commitment, then beautiful flowers grow. Awareness has always been present. It’s just that you may have trained yourself to not notice it. By taking short moments of awareness in a totally uncontrived way repeated many times it does become automatic. You begin to notice that what appears within your awareness whether it seems internal or external is actually an appearance of that awareness and poses no threat and also poses no promise no matter what it is. This is very, very clear.

Awareness is the balanced view and at the same time it is all-powerful, it’s self-perfect. It doesn’t have any characterizations or descriptions, qualifications or quantifications, and so this that you mention is very, very important. It’s key, because the more we gain confidence in awareness the more we find ourselves able to do the undoable. And the way that this comes about is when we feel that we can’t do anymore, rather than stopping and saying, “Oh I give up. I’m a victim of this point of view”, we get support for resting if we’re not able to rest and in that way we really gain confidence in the self-perfected nature of awareness because we see that there really are no boundaries or limits. There aren’t any restrictions.

Gaining confidence in this in one’s experience is the very basis of mental stability. By the power of relaxing the mind for short moments, many times, the naturally settled nature of the mind and all phenomena becomes obvious at all times. The key point of this practice is the release of tension of belief and assumptions about the workings of the mind that is demonstrated by this relaxed state.
The way to remain in this state is leaving point of view as it is. When this key point is realized, it involves no striving or effort. It is the zenith of understanding the nature of the human phenomena. Rather than confining the use of awareness to the reification of points of view, it releases the effort and striving involved in this into its already natural effortless state, eliciting the balanced view of the true nature of phenomena. In its all-encompassing perspective that includes all points of view within it, it recognizes these as its own self-appearances that are fundamentally free of any independent empowerment.

I feel the impulse to change my afflictive states, negative thoughts. What can I do?

So if we are trying to alter disturbing emotions or our thoughts or sensations or experiences in order to get to some payoff that’s going to permanently relieve anxiety, then it’s never going to happen with antidotes. The only way it can occur is to get familiar with and gain confidence in the basis of all disturbing states, all disturbing states are due to awareness. Without awareness they would not be. Awareness is their fundamental condition. There would be no way to be aware of disturbing emotions without awareness. So rely on that and that alone and don’t look to anything else. That’s just the way it is.
Now, disturbing emotions are the seat of tremendous energy and the seat of vitality, the seat of wisdom and the seat of complete mental stability. And the complete mental stability does not come about by forcing disturbing emotions out or covering them over with some kind of antidote. Perfect mental stability comes about by just simply allowing the disturbing emotion to be as it is while resting as awareness.
By allowing the disturbing emotion to be as it is, which is as resting as awareness, it is resting awareness, then we recognize that resting awareness is the essence; it is the causal structure of that disturbing emotion. When we realize that then we can continue to rest, and as we rest we see that this disturbing emotion is free in its own place. It vanishes without a trace spontaneously; it spontaneously self-releases without anything being done about it.

Troubling states will continue forever, and troubling states are where you’ll find the instinctive realization. That’s where your realization of awareness really gets profound. It’s resting in those troubling states, just allowing everything to be as it is, while you take comfort in awareness. You don’t go into the thoughts or emotions and encourage them in any way, you ground yourself in awareness and just see how they spill out however they will.
It isn’t in figuring out what the behaviors and properties of phenomena are that we’ll ever find any relief. So we stop trying to figure it out when we really understand the exact nature of phenomena. We stop figuring out how this phenomenon relates to that phenomenon. We stop trying to figure out how one thought relates to another thought. We stop being swamped by our thinking and emotionality and sensations and other experiences as being one that leads to another. In other words, “I’m angry because so and so punched me in the stomach, and now I’m going to get him, or punch him back, or yell at him, or gossip about him, or whatever it is.” You can see how we’ve trained ourselves to go into that narrative of linking every experience to the next one and making something out of it. When we understand the exact nature of phenomena we do not do that any longer. When we do not do that any longer, we have increasing mental and emotional stability, just like that, without any effort or anything needing to be done.

If we have some kind of urge come over us and we don’t take those short moments repeated many times, whether it’s a momentary urge or an urge that lasts off and on for months, then we’ll never see that that urge is just an appearance of awareness. If we go into indulging it or avoiding it or replacing it with something else, then we’ll never see that. But if we just allow everything to be as it is, which is the utterly lucid basic space of awareness, then we will see all clearly. We’ll see that everything is free in its own place of basic space. Everyone is free in their own place of basic space. There is no other place than the basic space. All words, labels, phrases, no matter what they are, are the place of basic space and are free as that place of basic space. Nothing has ever been made into anything. There has never been any kind of identity whatsoever of anything, consolidated or amassed. Now that’s very clear isn’t it?


What does it mean to not change anything?

We are meant to be completely relaxed. Look at the trees, flowers, birds, and everything else. It’s all at rest, all effortlessly in harmony with nature no matter the conditions. The wind may be raging, but its essence is total rest. There isn’t any resistance; everything is just the way it is—and because there’s no resistance, the great power and ease of awareness is effortlessly present.
Nature is at ease with whatever is occurring, and this is how we are meant to be as well. Nature is at ease with all extremes. Whether the ocean is rough and tumultuous, or still and calm, it is content with itself as it is. It isn’t trying to fiddle around with the big waves to make them smaller, or trying to make the calm areas rise up into waves. It is simply resting as its own nature, and letting the waves be as they are.
This is how we are meant to relate to our thoughts and emotions. Rather than trying to control each wave of thought and emotion as it appears, we simply rest as the vast ocean of awareness, seeing each wave as a perfect expression of that awareness. In this way we live in harmony and peace with whatever appears in our mind from moment to moment, identified only with the all-encompassing awareness that is our true nature.

Everyone in this room has lived for at least decades now, so there is now probably a lot stirring in everybody here. Whatever it is, it’s okay. It doesn’t need to be changed. If its painful, if it hurts, whether it’s a past point of view or something happening now or something you are afraid of in the future or that you are hoping will happen in the future—no matter what it is, just rest and allow the ease of being just as it is, to be what you are getting familiar as your true nature.

We see everything as it is. We have great compassion and wisdom, which is naturally occurring and inseparable from the super intelligence of awareness. It’s not a mental position. It’s the wide-openness of the vast expanse of awareness in which there is no need to take a position. It’s so clear that everything is itself and that there’s never anything left out. Yet no one thing is a place to take up residence. This just becomes very, very clear, and then ideas like my thinking is so important, or my emotions are so important, my sensations are so important take on a different felt-sense. They just are what they are, but they’re only part of the picture

When a troublesome thought comes up, just don’t think about it. Just let it be as it is. That’s what awareness is. Awareness lets everything be as it is, just like nature lets everything be as it is
Just remain as you are and just let everything be as it is. When extremely afflictive states come up, they are made more afflictive by commenting on or correcting them. So all that is done in making the choice to comment or correct is to feel worse. That is what happens. So, essentially if you chose to comment or correct you are choosing to feel worse. Yikes! Sounds a little sicko doesn’t it.

When we look at it in a practical way, we just need to be entirely ready to let point of view be as it is. We no longer cling to all the descriptions of who we are that we put together from what people have told us about ourselves, what we’ve read in books and what we’ve decided within our own mind about ourselves. We no longer invest in those descriptions. The sole identification is with awareness and its wisdom powers.

Whether running, sitting, standing, making love, defecating, turning cartwheels—the natural state of the mind and body are completely at ease. This effortless ease is the best information we have about everything. In the field of information, the field of super intelligence, the field of awareness, all the information that appears are points of view of that awareness and nothing else. That’s all they are, and none is better or worse. When we just allow the ease of that awareness to be as it is, then we realize ourselves to be this super intelligence.


How do I know if I am resting?

You know whether you are resting, just by whether or not you have any results from it. Rest isn’t a thing. If you are able to do what you think is rest for an instant and you notice a change in your life in some fundamental way, like you are not as likely to go for certain points of view, then you know it is rest.

There’s no one resting as awareness, awareness is at rest. Initially it seems like there’s someone resting as awareness, but by the power of resting as awareness, the rester disappears without any doing, without any effort.

Now, there’s a likelihood at first to associate resting with pleasant states. This has been our old game all through life; our old game has been to try to get a lot of pleasant states going and to keep them in place. When we see that all the unpleasant states we’ve been trying to avoid or push away are profoundly restful, just like all the pleasant states, then we’re really facing everything as it is.
It may be, and it very likely is, that this completely shatters the confines of our reality, what we’ve taken to be reality because we’ve taken ourselves to be someone. We find that that someone rests in the basic state; it’s a phenomenal appearance resting in the basic state. It has no more significance or power than any other phenomenal appearance. In other words, it has no independent identity, just like no other appearance has an independent identity.

If you begin resting and you feel that you are “experiencing rest” or “practicing rest,” that’s perfectly okay in the beginning. The whole idea of someone practicing or experiencing rest will naturally slip away without any need to think about it. There’s no need to take up a position anywhere, no need to say this way is right and that way is wrong. Just relax into the essence of your own being, and all is revealed exactly as it is. There’s no need to describe anything as fixed or definite, no need to put labels on your experience. Just relax. In the natural equalness of everything as it is, there’s perfect wisdom.

Even though we may hear short moments many times and be practicing it for a while, there will be the mechanical regeneration of all these ideas about, “Oh, it must be this” or “it must be that” or “it couldn’t include all those horrible negative states or total indifference” or whatever it might be. “It couldn’t include all my sexual fantasies; there has to be something wrong with me, when I see someone I’ve never known and the next image is hopping in bed with them,” or whatever our fantasies are or our points of view are. When we begin to gain confidence in short moments many times that frees up the ecstatic spontaneity of what’s appearing, so we might have all kinds of thoughts and emotions that we have never allowed us before, because we are too busy keeping the clamps on.


How can I have easy, loving relationships? How do I relate to those who are not resting?

Timeless awareness is complete perceptual openness in all experience. It’s freedom in immediate perception rather than being focused in on stories. The whole field of perception opens up in timeless awareness to include all perceptions. We may find ourselves having a lot of thoughts and a lot of emotions, even very, very strong emotions that we could have never tolerated before we began gaining confidence in awareness. However, this is the source of compassion. This is really the source of compassion to allow everything to be as it is about ourselves. It is the source of compassion for ourselves and for everyone else.
Once we have that compassion for ourselves, it automatically unleashes for everyone and everything. We find, much to our bewilderment, yet also delight, that even though we are having these intense emotions that we would have wanted to get rid of in the past, at the same time, they are inseparably married to, or blended with timeless awareness. They are not anything else. There is intensive emotion appearing but at the same time there is complete freedom in, of, as and though it from your natural place of rest.

In order for us to have intimacy as a couple, for example, or with our kids, first in ourselves we have to let everything be as it is. Say, it’s with our intimate partner or our kids, we have to allow every feeling we have about those people, to be just be as it is - the love, the irritation, the hate, the ambivalence, bad memories, good memories, the hopes, the fears, the realization that you never got what you wanted out of the relationship – to let all of it be as it is while we maintain awareness rather than trying to get rid of these feelings. “Oh, I shouldn’t be feeling that way. I shouldn’t be feeling like I’d like to put rat poison in their food right now,” or whatever we might be feeling because we never know what thoughts are going to occur to us.
As you ground yourself in the wisdom, love and compassion that is the basis of every single description and thought and emotion and sensation, experience and action—as you ground yourself in that brief moment of wisdom, that is the way you see the world more and more, your lenses that have been clouded over with all kinds of ideas and descriptions. It is like cleaning them with a magic cloth. And where you saw a world of descriptions, now you just see a spacious world—an open space of love, wisdom, compassion. It is up to you.
It is just like all the ideas you have about yourself and all the other people in your life. There is no way that you are going to find release from those ideas in any kind of contrived way like trying to be nice to the people, because they are your family or whatever it might be, or trying to be nice to yourself because you are a human being. If you are really interested in having a compassionate, loving face that looks out on the world, that is going to be found in short moments repeated many times.

If you want to heal all your relationships with everybody in your life, that is going to be found in short moments repeated many times. That is the only way you will see the relationship with yourself and these other people rightly. It is the only way. The only possible way. So give up all other measures and gain confidence in awareness. In awareness is already present love, compassion and wisdom. It is already present, as well as energy to really have good relationships with other people. So that is all that is required. Go to that wisdom. Return again and again to that wisdom.

The beauty of everything as it is, is that it is so simple and benevolent. The entirely beneficial and wholly positive fundamental nature of being is the one and only reality, and it includes everything. That’s very simple. There’s no way to talk about anything or describe anything as finite and definitive in and of itself, because nothing is separate from this all-encompassing reality.

Before you had relationships based on points of view, a mutual wounding regarding the nature of reality and this is what you shared with each other. Right? All your view points about everything and, oh, they were so real. And oh you have your rights and oh if other people would just do it your way – right? Then everything would be okay. However, when we begin to gain confidence in awareness we see that that’s only one way of living. And as we gain confidence in awareness we see that there is a better way of living, and that is to gain confidence in awareness rather than identify ourselves with all our points of view.

And so we can either continue on with that lifestyle of identifying with all points of view, or we can gain confidence in the direct encounter with points of view. What that means is that for example: you see a friend, so that’s the viewpoint of a sensory impression, someone you see. And then you have a thought about that, first of all that they are someone, and then maybe that you are someone too – this may happen very, very quickly. And the next thing you know is that you are having all kinds of points of view about them: at one time you liked them, now you dislike them, or maybe you feel indifferent to them.
These are all just points of view: like, dislike, indifference. These are all viewpoints. The friend is a viewpoint. The only way to come into fully complete compassionate relationship with the person is to do exactly what you did with your family. Apply the skillful means of short moments many times, no matter what points of view appear. In this way you come into a balanced view of the relationship that isn’t based on likes, dislikes or indifference. Rather, it’s based on wisdom, compassion and clarity. Is that understood and clear? So you see, this is very simple.
Wisdom awareness is equal to love, compassion and tremendous energy. It is the heart of life itself. In order to gain complete confidence in that, all that is required is short moments of awareness until it becomes spontaneous at all times. In every single moment of awareness is present full-out love, wisdom, compassion and tremendous energy for the benefit for yourself and the benefit of all. When you maintain awareness this is what you are allowing yourself.


How can I make good decisions?

Many of us have been plagued many times in our lives by needing to make decisions about all manner of things. Before we make the decision, we toil over it, and we don’t know what to do, and this, that and the other thing, and finally we make the decision, and we toil some more. Now we made the decision, and we’re not sure it’s the right one. We find very quickly usually that there’s a trade-off in this kind of thinking about decision-making. This is a story about decision-making that we’ve been perpetuating that does not allow the tremendous energy and the profound insight of naked intelligence to bear on the problem. If we’re all wrapped up in the story, then we won’t have the benefits of keen insight.
We find that by resting as awareness, rather than spinning off into the old decision-making method, we find that there’s an ease, an inherent ease that’s always the case in all these ways that we’ve been going about things. It’s in that inherent ease that we’re going to find the most profound solution to the problem. It’s not in spinning out the story about everything that’s going on. It doesn’t matter what the situation is. It can be going home to visit the family of origin and watching everyone flail in their points of view, and see all your own points of view come up in relation to that whole scene. It can be something at work, where you are facing some kind of situation at your work place and a decision needs to be made, or it can be related to an intimacy, a personal relationship, either with a child or with a significant other.
Any of these situations that require decisions, the best decision is going to come from this naked ease. So, we start to see this trade-off very clearly. First of all we see that we really don’t have to worry; worry is a choice. Getting all wrapped up in worrying and negative thinking and all of this kind of thing, it’s a choice, it really is, so we see the trade-off.
When we are all wrapped up in our points of view then we don't know what to do a lot of the time. This is just the way it is. We are kind of lost little beings in the world. We don’t know how to choose the right relationship. We don’t really know where to live. We are never quite satisfied with our work or totally unsatisfied. One of our big things is that we really have a tough time making decisions. And when we are all lost in all of these points of view, it is like being in a dense forest. And we are so lost we are willing to look anywhere for hope. So when we want to make a decision, we are lost in the dense forest, and we look up and we see all the trees of the dense forest. And we think well, these are the trees that are here. So I am going to take this tree and that tree and the other tree and that is going to be my decision.
Then the decision is made, but we are still in the dense forest so we say, “Well, did I make the right decision?” This is the world of point of view, and this is what our life feels like when we are obsessed with all the points of view that we have taken to be our identity. When we begin to rely on short moments many times, there is still this rush of points of view. We are still in the dense forest, but now rather than being so identified with all the trees we are noticing the space. This is what we are noticing about the dense forest.

Awareness itself is a vast expanse, like unchanging space. Its display of perceptions is the expression of its dynamic energy. All perceptions or points of view are the luster of the basic space of awareness and nothing else. All perceptions proliferating and resolving are the dynamic energy of awareness. Because the basic space of awareness is entirely beneficial yet arises as countless and ceaseless points of view, its benefit is dynamically expressive.
However points of view appear within the vast expanse of the basic space of awareness, they do not stray from their natural equalness as awareness. Since the timeless basic space of utter relaxation is naturally open and without transition or change, all points of view constitute the scope of naturally occurring timeless awareness and merge as a single expanse, without any effort, without anything needing to be done.

The yin/yang symbol

Lead me from dreaming to waking.
Lead me from opacity to clarity.
Lead me from the complicated to the simple.
Lead me from the obscure to the obvious.
Lead me from intention to attention.
Lead me from what I'm told I am to what I see I am.
Lead me from confrontation to wide openness.
Lead me to the place I never left,
Where there is peace, and peace
- The Upanishads

*note* nice site from Lorin..quote"Lorin was born in 1949 and grew up in Southern California"....worthy of investigating.
-added by danny-
...................

The Interplay of Opposites
Vedic, yogic, Buddhist and Taoist traditions have all developed exquisite articulations of the interplay of opposites, what in Latin is called coincidentia oppositurum, (or coincidentia oppositorum). Oddly, there is not very much in English on the web about this essential concept.


The most elegant symbol of the interplay of opposites, besides sex, is the yin/yang symbol.



The opposites are complementary, not contradictory. Everything in the meditation traditions, every idea, is set against a background that is fantastically lush, contradictory, and varied.

Everyone agrees that Buddha said the following, which has to be one of the most stunning statements in philosophical history: "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."

There is a sense of free inquiry, and yet at the same time, innumerable rules and regulations have been set down, traditions have been set up, and each promises salvation. Many of my friend who are Buddhists were raised Catholic – and they have the same altars, they just substituted pictures of Buddhist saints instead of Christian ones, the candles are arranged differently, and a different scent of incense is burning. They are still bowing down to dead Asian males.

Go ahead and enjoy the show, but only take unto yourself attitudes and techniques that you know are good for you. You can tell by your own direct experience what is good for you, and never let anyone tell you otherwise.

Friday, August 28, 2009

How can I make a man OUT of YOU?

Lead me from dreaming to waking.
Lead me from opacity to clarity.
Lead me from the complicated to the simple.
Lead me from the obscure to the obvious.
Lead me from intention to attention.
Lead me from what I'm told I am to what I see I am.
Lead me from confrontation to wide openness.
Lead me to the place I never left,
Where there is peace, and peace
- The Upanishads

*note*
Tranquil as a forest
But on fire within
Once you find your center
you are sure to win
You're a spineless, pale
pathetic lot...


And you haven't got a clue
Somehow I'll make a man
out of you ..
(Be a man)
We must be swift as
the Coursing river
(Be a man)
With all the force
of a great typhoon
(Be a man)
With all the strength
of a raging fire
Mysterious as the
dark side of the moon...

-added by danny-(in these verses ,,be a man,, means activating the mind principle whom can control the mysterious dark side of the moon,which contains the power)

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Refuge in Awakening

Lead me from dreaming to waking.
Lead me from opacity to clarity.
Lead me from the complicated to the simple.
Lead me from the obscure to the obvious.
Lead me from intention to attention.
Lead me from what I'm told I am to what I see I am.
Lead me from confrontation to wide openness.
Lead me to the place I never left,
Where there is peace, and peace
- The Upanishads

*note* this is the last talk of Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo,just before he died.
Quite interesting.
-added by danny-
..............................
A Refuge in Awakening
by
Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo
translated from the Thai by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
© 1998–2009

ye keci buddham saranam gatase
na te gamissanti apaya-bhumim
pahaya manusam deham
deva-kayam paripuressantiti

"Those who have gone to the Buddha as refuge
will not go to the realms of deprivation.
On abandoning the human body,
they will fill the ranks of the gods."

I will now explain this verse so that you can practice in a way leading to the supreme attainment, capable of eliminating all your suffering and fears, reaching the refuge of peace.

We come into this world without a substantial refuge. Nothing — aside from the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha — will follow us into the next life. These three are the only things in which we can take refuge both in this life and in lives to come.

There are two levels on which people take refuge in the Triple Gem. Some take refuge only allegorically, on the level of individuals, whereas others take refuge on the level of inner qualities, by developing the steps of the practice within themselves.
I. On the level of individuals

A. Buddha. Buddhas are people who have attained purity of heart. There are four types:

1. Rightly self-awakened Buddhas: those who have attained Awakening on their own, without anyone to teach them, and who have established a religion.

2. Private Buddhas: those who have gained Awakening without establishing a religion. On attaining the goal, they live by themselves.

3. Disciple Buddhas: those who have practiced in line with the teachings of a Buddha until they too have gained Awakening.

4. Learned Buddhas: those who have studied the teachings in detail, have followed them, and have attained the goal.

All four of these types are individual people, so to take refuge in them is to take refuge on the level of individuals. They can give us refuge only in a shallow and not very substantial way. Even though taking refuge on this level can be advantageous to us, it helps us only on the level of the world and can give only temporary protection against falling into the realms of deprivation. If we lose faith in these individuals, our mind can change to a lower level — for all individuals fall under the laws of all conditioned things: They are inconstant and changing, subject to stress, and not-self — i.e., they can't prevent their own death.

So if you go to a Buddha as refuge on the level of individuals, there are only two sorts of results you'll get: at first gladness, and then sadness when the time comes to part — for it's the nature of all individuals in the world that they arise, age, grow ill, and die. The wisest sages and the most ordinary people are all equal on this point.

B. Dhamma. For many of us, the teachings in which we take our refuge are also on the level of individuals. Why is that? Because we see them as the words of individual people.

Sages of the past have divided the teachings in the Buddhist Canon into four types:

1. Sayings of the Buddha.

2. Sayings of his disciples.

3. Sayings of heavenly beings. There were occasions when heavenly beings, on coming to pay respect to the Buddha, said truths worth taking to heart.

4. Sayings of seers. Some hermits and yogis uttered truths from which Buddhists can benefit.

All of these sayings were organized into the three parts of the Buddhist Canon: the discourses, the discipline, and the Abhidhamma. If we take refuge in the Dhamma on this level, it is simply an object: something we can remember. But memory is inconstant and can't provide us with a safe, dependable refuge. At best it can help us only on the worldly level because we are depending allegorically on individuals, on objects, as our refuge.

C. Sangha. There are two sorts of Sangha.

1. The conventional Sangha: ordinary people who have ordained and taken up the homeless life. This sort of Sangha is composed of four sorts of people.

a. Upajivika: those who have taken up the ordained life simply as a comfortable way of making a living. They can depend on others to provide for their needs and so they get complacent, satisfied with their ordained status, without looking for any form of goodness better than that.

b. Upadusika: those who, on being ordained in Buddhism, destroy the Buddha's teachings through their behavior — not abandoning the things they should abandon, not doing the things they should do, damaging their own capacity for good and that of others, being destructive, falling away from the Buddha's teachings.

c. Upamuyhika: those who, on being ordained in Buddhism, make themselves blind and ignorant, who don't look for tactics for bringing their behavior into line with the Buddha's teachings. They don't pull themselves out of their useless ways and stay continually deluded.

d. Upanisaranika: those who, on being ordained in Buddhism, are intent on studying and practicing in line with what they have learned, who try to find themselves a secure refuge, and who don't let themselves become heedless or complacent. Whatever the Buddha says is good, they behave accordingly. Whether or not they attain that goodness, they keep on trying.

All four of these count as one type of Sangha on the level of individuals.

2. The Noble Sangha. This has four levels: those who have practiced the Buddha's teachings until they have reached the attainments of stream-entry, once-returning, non-returning, or arahantship. All four of these are still on the level of individuals because they are individual people who have reached the transcendent attainments in their hearts. Suppose, for example, we say that Aññakondañña is a stream-winner, Sariputta a once-returner, Moggallana a non-returner, and Ananda an arahant. All four of them are still individuals in name and body. To take refuge in them is to take refuge on the level of individuals — and as individuals they are inconstant and unstable. Their bodies, sense faculties, and mental phenomena by nature have to age, grow ill, and die. In other words, they are anicca, inconstant and changeable; dukkha, subject to stress and suffering; and anatta: They themselves can't prevent the nature of conditioned phenomena from taking its course with them.

When this is the case, anyone who tries to take refuge in them is subject to change as well. We can depend on them only for a while, but they can't provide us any true refuge. They can't keep us from falling into the realms of deprivation. At best, taking refuge in them can give us results on the worldly level — and the worldly level is changing all the time.

This ends the discussion of the Triple Refuge on the level of individuals.
II. On the level of inner qualities

Taking refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha on the level of inner qualities means reaching the Triple Gem with the heart through the practice.

To reach the Buddha on the level of inner qualities, you first have to know the virtues of the Buddha, which are of two sorts: causes and results. The causes of his Awakening are mindfulness and alertness. The result of his Awakening is the transcendent: the stilling of all defilements and mental fermentations.

So we have to develop these qualities within ourselves. Buddha-sati — mindfulness like the Buddha's — is what wakes us up. Full alertness is what makes us correctly aware of cause and effect. The way to develop these qualities is to practice in line with the four frames of reference. This will enable us to reach the Buddha on the level of inner qualities.

A. Contemplation of the body as a frame of reference. This means being firmly mindful of the body, using mindfulness to wake up the body and mind both by day and by night — sitting, standing, walking, lying down. We use mindfulness and alertness to be fully conscious throughout the body. This is the cause for reaching the Buddha on the level of inner qualities — i.e., reaching the Buddha by oneself and within oneself, without having to depend on anyone else. When you depend on yourself, that's when you're on the right track.

Before focusing mindfulness on the body so as to wake yourself up, you first have to know that there are two ways of looking at the body:

1. The body, i.e., all four physical properties gathered together as a physical object: the earth property, or the solid aspects; the water property, or the liquid aspects; the fire property, or the warm aspects; and the wind property, i.e., such things as the in-and-out breath. When all four of these properties are in harmony, they intermingle and form an aggregate or object we call the body.

2. The body in and of itself — i.e., any one aspect of any of these four properties. For example, we can take the wind property. Focus your mindfulness and alertness on nothing but the wind property and keep them there. You don't have to get involved with any of the other properties. This is called the body in and of itself.

From there you can go to wind in and of itself. There are six aspects to the wind property: the breath energy flowing down from the head to the spaces between the fingers and toes; the breath energy flowing from the spaces between the fingers and toes up to the top of the head; the breath forces in the stomach; the breath forces in the intestines; and the in-and-out breath. These six aspects make up the wind property in the body.

When you focus on wind in and of itself, be mindful to keep track of only one of these aspects at a time — such as the in-and-out breath — without worrying about any other aspects of the breath energy. This can be called focusing on wind in itself. The same principle applies to earth in and of itself, water in and of itself, and fire in and of itself.

When you have mindfulness and alertness constantly established in the body, the body in and of itself, wind, fire, earth, or water in and of itself — whichever seems easiest and most comfortable — keep with it as much as possible. When you do this, the body will wake up, for you aren't letting it simply follow its natural course. To bring mindfulness into the body helps keep it awake. The body will feel lighter and lighter as we keep it in mind. Alertness is what enables us to be aware throughout the body. When these two mental qualities enter into the body, the body will feel agile, pliant, and light. In Pali this is called kaya-lahuta. The mind will also be awake and give rise to knowledge in and of itself through its own "sanditthiko" practice — i.e., the person who does the practice will see the results for him or herself in the here and now.

People who awaken from their slumbers are able to see things and know them. The same holds true for people who practice mindfulness immersed in the body as a frame of reference: They are bound to see the true nature of their own bodies. To penetrate in, knowing and seeing in this way, is to reach the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha — which differ only in name, but are one and the same in their essence.

1. Whoever doesn't practice in this way is asleep, both in body and mind. A person asleep can't see or know anything at all, which is why we can say that people of this sort have yet to reach the Buddha on the level of the inner qualities.

B. Contemplation of feelings as a frame of reference. Be mindful of feelings as they arise within you. Feelings are results that come from your own past and present actions. There are three sorts:

1. Feelings of pleasure
2. Feelings of pain
3. Feelings of equanimity.

To practice contemplation of feelings, be mindful of each of the various kinds of feeling that occur in the body and mind. For instance, sometimes there's physical pleasure but mental distress; sometimes physical pain but mental pleasure; sometimes pleasure both in body and mind; and sometimes pain both in body and mind. So focus in on being mindful of feelings as they arise. Examine them closely. This is called contemplation of feelings.

As for feelings in and of themselves, this means focusing on one type of feeling. For instance, wherever there's pleasure, focus right there. Make the mind firm and one-pointed. You don't have to get involved with feelings of pain or equanimity. If you're going to focus on pleasure, keep focused right there. Or, if you want, you can focus on equanimity without getting involved with pleasure or pain. Don't let the mind jump around in such a way that any other preoccupations come in and interfere. Keep monitoring the feeling you've chosen until you know its true nature through your own awareness.

Whichever type of feeling is easiest for you to focus on, keep your mindfulness and alertness right there as much as you can. This is what will enable you to awaken from the feelings within you. Whoever does this ranks as having developed the inner quality of "buddha" that is the cause for coming awake.

C. Contemplation of the mind as a frame of reference. Be mindful of the state of your own mind so that you can awaken it from the slumber of its delusions. When your mind awakens, it will be able to see and know the various things occurring in the present. This will enable it to become firmly centered in the factors of concentration and jhana, or mental absorption, which in turn lead to discernment, skilled awareness, and release.

There are three basic states of mind you can focus on:

1. Passion: The mind hankers after sensual objects and sensual moods that color it, making it intoxicated and oblivious to other things. This prevents it from experiencing states that are brighter and clearer.

2. Aversion: The mind at times gets irritated and angry, causing whatever internal goodness it has to deteriorate. Aversion is thus a way in which the mind destroys itself.

3. Delusion: absent-mindedness, forgetfulness, mental darkness, misunderstanding.

These states of mind arise from preoccupations concerning what we like and dislike. If you have mindfulness watching over your mind with every moment, it will enable the mind to awaken and blossom, to know the truth about itself.

Whenever passion arises in the mind, focus on being mindful of the mind in and of itself. Don't focus on the object of the passion. Pay attention solely to the present, and the passion will fade. Or, if you want, you can use other methods to help, by contemplating the object of the passion in certain ways. For example, you can contemplate the unattractiveness of the body, focusing first on the insides of your own body, seeing them as filthy and disgusting. Your mind, which has been attached, will then be able to free itself from the passion in which it is immersed and to become more blooming and bright.

Whenever aversion arises in the mind, focus on being mindful exclusively of the present state of your mind. Don't focus attention on the external object or person that gave rise to the anger and aversion. Anger in the mind is like a burning fire. If you aren't mindful and alert to the state of your own mind, and instead think only of the object or person that incited the anger, it's like setting yourself on fire, and all you can do is end up getting burnt. So you shouldn't preoccupy yourself with the outside object. Instead, focus on being mindful and aware of the state of aversion in the mind. When mindfulness reaches full strength, the state of aversion will immediately disperse.

Aversion and anger are like a cover over a fire that lets the fire keep smoldering away, providing heat but no light. If we remove the cover by doing away with the aversion, the light of the fire can brighten the mind. The "light" here is discernment and skilled awareness.

Actually, there's nowhere else that we have to look for goodness other than our own minds. That's how we'll be able to gain the freedom from suffering and stress that is termed citta-vimutti, mental release, i.e., a mind beyond the reach of its preoccupations. This is one way in which we reach the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha on the level of inner qualities.

As for states of delusion, in which the mind tends to be absent-minded and forgetful: These come from there being many objects crowding in on the mind. When we find this happening, we should center the mind on a single preoccupation where we can gather strength for our mindfulness and alertness, in the same way that we can take diffused light rays and focus them on a single point: The power of the light is sure to get brighter. In the same way, when we are constantly mindful of the mind and don't let it get involved with various outside perceptions and preoccupations, mindfulness will give rise to a powerful light: skilled awareness. When skilled awareness arises within us, our minds will grow shining bright, and we'll awaken from our slumber of unawareness. We will have attained a quality of secure refuge in our own hearts. We'll know for ourselves and see for ourselves, and this is what will enable us to attain the noble qualities of the transcendent.

D. Mental qualities as a frame of reference. Be mindful to focus on the mental qualities that occur in the mind with every moment. Mental qualities are of two basic sorts, good and bad.

1. Bad mental qualities, which obstruct the mind from attaining higher levels of goodness, are called the Hindrances (nivarana), and there are five sorts.

a. Sensual desire: hankering after sensual objects — sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, and ideas that you like and find appealing; and a hankering after sensual moods, such as passion, anger, aversion, and delusion — assuming good to be bad and bad to be good, right to be wrong and wrong to be right. A hankering for any of these things is classed as sensual desire.

b. Malevolence: ill will for people or objects, hoping that they will be destroyed or come to a bad end.

c. Torpor & lethargy: sleepiness, sloth, lassitude, laziness, and depression.

d. Worry & distraction: being upset at failure in your aims, lacking the mindfulness to put a brake on your worries and concerns.

e. Uncertainty: indecision; doubt about the various things or qualities your are working to develop in your practice.

These five Hindrances are bad mental qualities. If you fall into any of them, you're in the dark — like a person at the bottom of a well who can't see anything on the surface of the earth, can't move around as he likes, can't hear what people at the top of the well are saying, can't see the light of the sun and moon that illumine the earth. In the same way, the Hindrances obstruct us from developing goodness in many, many ways. They close off our ears and eyes, keep us in the dark, put us to sleep.

2. This is why we should work at developing the good mental qualities that will awaken us from the slumber of our unawareness. For instance, we should develop the four levels of jhana or mental absorption, which are the tools for suppressing or eliminating all of the Hindrances.

a. The first level of jhana has five factors. Directed thought: Think about any one of the objects of meditation that exist within you, such as the in-and-out breath. Make the mind one, keep it with the object you are thinking of, and don't let it slip off to anything else: This is called singleness of preoccupation. Evaluation: Carefully observe the object of your meditation until you see its truth. When you are thoroughly aware of the object — this is called alertness — the results will arise within you: pleasure or ease; and rapture — fullness of body and mind.

When mindfulness fills the body like this, the body feels saturated, like soil saturated with moisture: Whatever you plant stays green and fresh. Plants flourish. Birds and other forest animals come to live in their shade. When rain falls, the soil can hold it instead of letting it wash away. A person who has mastered the first jhana is like a holding-place of goodness for other human and celestial beings because jhana and concentration can have a cooling influence not only on oneself, but also on others as well.

When mindfulness and alertness are stay focused on your mind, the mind feels saturated and full with an unadulterated sense of rapture and joy at all times. As for the pleasure and ease that come from the first level of jhana, they give you a sense of freedom with no worries or concerns for anyone or anything — like a person who has attained enough wealth that he no longer has any worries or concerns about his livelihood, and so can relax in peace.

When you attain the pleasure and ease that come from the first level of jhana, you are freed from the Hindrances of indecision and worry & distraction. So you should work at developing these factors in your mind until it can stay steadily in jhana. Your heart will then be blooming and bright, giving rise to the light of discernment, or liberating insight. And if you have developed your capabilities enough, then on attaining the first level of jhana you may gain entry to the transcendent. Some people, though, may go on to the second level of jhana.

b. The second level of jhana has three factors: rapture, pleasure, and singleness of preoccupation. The power of the mind gets stronger step by step, so try to keep your mind in that state simply by focusing down and keeping mindfulness firmly established right there. The mind will grow even stronger and this will lead you on to the third level of jhana.

c. The third level of jhana has two factors: pleasure and singleness of preoccupation. Keep focusing down through the power of mindfulness and alertness, and you will be able to shed the factor of pleasure and enter the fourth level of jhana.

d. The fourth level of jhana has two factors: equanimity and singleness of preoccupation. On this level of jhana, the mind has great strength, based on its strong focus accompanied by mindfulness and alertness. The mind is firm and unmoving — so completely unmoved by past and future that it lets them both go. It keeps track solely of the present, steady and unwavering like the light of a Coleman lantern when there's no wind. When the mind attains the fourth jhana, it gives rise to a brightness: discernment and the skill of liberating insight. This is what enables it to gain understanding into the four Noble Truths, and so to proceed to the transcendent — the truly safe refuge.

People who have done this experience nothing but an inner brightness and happiness in their hearts, for they dwell with the quality they have given rise to within themselves. They reach the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha on the highest level, the level of release or ultimate attainment, a quality free from defilement and mental fermentations.

People who train their hearts in this way have reached the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha on the level of inner quality. In other words, they have reached refuge in their own hearts. They have absolutely closed off the route to the realms of deprivation. At the very least, they are destined after death to go to the higher realms of happiness. At best, they will attain nibbana. All of them are certain to attain nibbana within at least seven lifetimes, for they have reached an inner quality that's steady and certain. They won't fall into anything low. Anyone who has yet to attain this quality, though, has an uncertain future.

So if we want the peace and security that the Buddha's teachings has to offer, we should all try to find ourselves a dependable refuge. If you take refuge on the allegorical level, the level of individuals, find people of worth so that your conviction in them will take you to the happy realms. As for refuge on the level of inner qualities, which will really be of substantial value to you, practice so as to give rise to those qualities within yourself.

To summarize: On the level of inner qualities, the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha are all one and the same thing. They differ only in name.

So you should "opanayiko" — bring these qualities into your heart. "Sanditthiko" — When you practice, you'll see them for yourself. "Paccattam" — You'll know them only for yourself. Things that other people know about aren't safe.

If you want peace and refuge that are substantial and sure, you should give rise to them in your own heart. The result will be nibbana, liberation from defilement, from all birth, aging, illness, and death in this world and any world to come.

nibbanam paramam sukham

"Nibbana is the ultimate happiness.
There is no happiness higher."

This is "buddha" on the level of results: freedom from sleep, total Awakening.

Curly explains the secret of life

Lead me from dreaming to waking.
Lead me from opacity to clarity.
Lead me from the complicated to the simple.
Lead me from the obscure to the obvious.
Lead me from intention to attention.
Lead me from what I'm told I am to what I see I am.
Lead me from confrontation to wide openness.
Lead me to the place I never left,
Where there is peace, and peace
- The Upanishads

*note* marvelous secret of life..from the 1991 movie City Slickers...find THAT one thing,and you'll be happy forever..quotes"Curly was the tough old cowboy character played by the late Jack Palance. Would you believe Jack Palance got the Oscar for this very scene ?.. check it out here,at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGxL5AFzzMY&feature=related

Here’s the scene
from the movie where Curly espouses his life philosophy to Mitch, Billy Crystal’s character:
Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?
Curly: This. [holds up one finger]
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean shit.
Mitch: But what is the “one thing?”
Curly: [smiles] That’s what you have to find out."..the quotes were taken from http://www.rebelzen.com/2008/07/ego-and-the-inner-story/ site.
-added by danny-
.................................
(the 30 sec version)
(the 3 min version,lovely..one of a kind these actors)

Saturday, August 08, 2009

What you grow inside is manifested outside

Lead me from dreaming to waking.
Lead me from opacity to clarity.
Lead me from the complicated to the simple.
Lead me from the obscure to the obvious.
Lead me from intention to attention.
Lead me from what I'm told I am to what I see I am.
Lead me from confrontation to wide openness.
Lead me to the place I never left,
Where there is peace, and peace
- The Upanishads

*note* I have no idea whom Master Ni is...but he talks in terms of Tao,so I assume he is some daoist chinese guy,on the vein of Lao Tzu possible...great talk here about,,the purpose of life,,..quote" Master Ni: Life neither has specific purpose nor is it accidental. It is natural. I believe you are very serious in this question. If I say life has purpose, you would want to know what is the purpose of your life. Believing in a purpose, you would then become religiously fixed in your attitudes and thus increase the conflict between your ego and the world. If I say it is accidental, you would think your life is not your business"and "Mistrust and conceptual images cause one to think that outside forces are what make things happen in a person's life. People do not know the strength and power of the inside harmony which can alter outside circumstance to create phenomena in the spiritual sphere. If personal spiritual experience makes a person more superstitious or self-indulgent in spiritual pursuit, it is because he does not understand that the balanced mind, spirit and body is the brightness of universal nature within his life being"
-added by danny-
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Discussion between Master Ni and some students

Student: Master Ni, does life have a purpose or is it accidental?

Master Ni: Life neither has specific purpose nor is it accidental. It is natural. I believe you are very serious in this question. If I say life has purpose, you would want to know what is the purpose of your life. Believing in a purpose, you would then become religiously fixed in your attitudes and thus increase the conflict between your ego and the world. If I say it is accidental, you would think your life is not your business. So let us review the achievement of the ancient natural developed ones; this will help to answer your question.

The discovery and spiritual achievement of the developed ones is a spiritual method and practice by which one can achieve or mature oneself and become enlightened through means that are self-evident. Life itself is a convergence of natural energy. This means that life is a formation of different energies that occur through a specific process in time and space and converge. It is this convergence of many subtle and apparent elements and conditions that comprise a Life. Once those elements and conditions, both subtle and obvious, are disassembled, life no longer exists. The cessation of life is the retreat of all-supportive elements and conditions. The unnatural death of a human being is the same as the dissolution of any other event or object, which is an assemblage of a group of conditions. Some of the conditions, which assemble, are apparent and some are hidden, but the event still comes under the law of assembly and disassembly. It is simply an aspect of the process of disassembly.

The entire universe is an assemblage of all matter and is subject to change. All units of the universe, such as galaxies, stars, planets and the earth keep shaping or forming themselves; there is a correspondence to this in the smaller life of a human being. All are subject to change. The understanding of the basic pattern of changes of all things has been abstractly described by The Book of Changes. During any moment of the convergence or integration of the conditions that comprise an object or event, its significance or meaning is established. Once it is dissolved no other important or unimportant significance or value can be added to it. Therefore, watching and valuing this moment of life and not the next moment is the correct expression of the existence of life. This means that the integral path of Life is right in front of you! It is where you walk. Movement and activity in a life are what present the reality of life. There is no future reward that can dignify or sublimate the essence of life in the reality of this moment, because the next moment will be a new assemblage of many conditions. In other words, life is a process, and truth is also a process. Life cannot be caught or captured in the moment of self-presenting by any force aside from itself. Any attempt catches only the change and not the permanence of a situation.

From this understanding, and through spiritual cultivation and discipline, one can strengthen and fortify the integration or convergence of different energies in a life by changing one's patterns. One must first have correct understanding, which involves subjective proof (experience and knowledge) that Life, whether in the subtle level or in solid form, continues to integrate, reintegrate and refine itself by the growing and increasing subtle essence within. Different physical and spiritual elements comprise your life; you are constantly organizing and reorganizing yourself. You are born in this moment and continue in each moment to have a rebirth of your life. Spiritual reward is not brought about by externals; it is accomplished internally. Because spiritual reward itself is internal, this very moment is what affects the next. This moment gives birth to the next moment. This section of time in your life grows the fruit that you will enjoy in the next section of your life. What you sow spiritually, you will eventually harvest. No awakened soul can afford to damage himself spiritually by doing evil. Evil actions are equivalent to a person cutting his own throat with a sharp knife; however, he cannot see what he is doing because on the spiritual level it is invisible. When a person commits evil actions, perhaps no one has seen what was done, but the person himself knows what happened.

External religions can serve as a metaphor for this spiritual truth, as in one's waiting for judgement or reward and in being a good person. However, realistically, reward or punishment is in this moment: are you watchful in coordinating your movements and activities with your developed intellectual mind, which cooperates and associates with the developed spirit of your being? Whoever neglects this fundamental discipline will have no spiritual future, and the spiritual foundation they have built on religious forms is not real.

Therefore, it is important to understand this moment. When you are aware of the truth of life, you establish yourself in this moment and you recognize the value, significance, dignity and spiritual position of your life as completion. The next step of life with this new circumstances is just that: new. You need new integration, new adaptation and new refining; you go one step further into new spiritual evolution. Perhaps this leads you to think, "Physically we become old and worn out after reaching the peak of life." This is true. All life follows a pattern of growth and decline. But the one that who is subjectively aware that his life is on the channel of correct spiritual evolution will know that he is not going to become older and worn out. He is renewing his life all the time. He will transform his physical energy into a higher spiritual essence that can bring him to another, more enduring life. Those who have a different understanding of life than most people, make this choice. The most fundamental thing you need to understand to make this choice is that life is the result of the convergence of many different supportive elements. If even one element is not supported, especially with regard to mental or spiritual elements, a fall will occur. Higher vision most profoundly serves human life, especially in mental and spiritual aspects, which are closely associated.

Since life is a matter of convergence, then what is its purpose? One viewpoint holds solely that life is a function of material things with different pieces and parts together forming the machine of life. Eventually one part or another wears out. When the life machine cannot be repaired, the life machine is finished. Given this mechanistic point of view, there is no higher purpose to life. An opposing metaphor, however, describes life as a piece of music composed from the organization of different notes. In this view there is a super-mind or master plan behind the organization of the music. If this is the case, then each life must have a purpose.

Confusion also arises because of certain teachings. On one hand, people are taught that there is karma and reincarnation and that peace can come to a person who has understood the emptiness of life and nature. This way of thinking implies that life is a reincarnating essence, and that the karma accumulated in past lifetimes is the reward or punishment for the new life. This way of thinking teaches people to become more responsible for their actions and their lives and to recognize something higher than predetermined destiny or physical reality. On the other hand, there is a different way of thinking. Some people are taught that life is merely an accident; that everything is meaningless, and nothing is worth thinking about. This negative teaching implies that whatever you do is right and helps you relax about the circumstances you are in, whether lofty or lowly because, after all, everything is an accident. So what is there for you to worry about? Why be anxious about anything? Not only is your life incidental, but all human, animal and other life is incidental and has no purpose. My friends, if you take this view that life is accidental, then life will indeed be a big accident. Why bother taking responsibility for yourself or anything else, for that matter? Where is the music of life and spiritual dignity? Is there no God, Buddha or any being higher than greedy or aggressive people looking to restrain other people in a world devoid of meaning? Is that what life is all about? Allow us to probe more deeply into this.

Life can be expressed in many different ways. You might take the view that life is conditioned, i.e., that the environment determines the species. For example, it is only in trenches that mosquitoes are produced. It is only in trees that bird are produced. Different kinds of natural environments produce different forms of Life. Thus, it would follow that people born of a gifted family would have a higher level of education, better manners and a greater opportunity to be achieved, etc., and that people born into ordinary family environments would tend to have more struggle and suffering in their lives. However, in the human sphere, which is a complete triangle of physics, mind and spirit, life does not work this way. It is not always true that people born into a good family are good people or can make positive use of their opportunity to achieve themselves. Quite the opposite can occur. Different levels of background provide different freedoms that allow the development of life. While this holds true in both the social and material spheres, supportive conditions are especially obvious in the material sphere. When, for example, there is the establishment of a new relationship or behavior—except natural ones like blood relationships—its occurrence has been conditioned beforehand. You might believe the new relationship or behavior to be accidental; but if you look deeply into your inner being, the attraction or behavior has long been in existence, but only now manifests. The behavior or attraction has been waiting a long time for the ripeness of the situation and conditions to come together.

The deepest understanding reveals that an accident is not an accident. It is a necessity; it is purposeful. The movement of the entire universal nature has a subtle law above it which governs all movement. Without deep vision, one does not have the understanding that any movement by itself is both an event and a spontaneous occurrence. It takes deep understanding to realize that any movement in the world is both previously arranged as well as spontaneous. The fact is that in one way life is conditioned, which leads to things happening of necessity; and in another way it is accidental, which leads to randomness. In one way it is mechanical; in another way it is haphazard. How can a human mind adapt to these diverse situations with distinctive understandings? By developing the third aspect, that's how: developing the spiritual growth of nature to evolve from the mechanical, physical sphere to reach freedom. It takes a million years to develop Life or consciousness a little bit. Freedom is a gift of achievement, on whatever level of life, given the limitation or bondage being dealt with. We, through living wrong and doing wrong, cause our own souls and the souls of other people to suffer sickness. Our organic being was originally endowed by nature. Although all life is endowed by nature, human life resembles nature in completeness with all three spheres: physical, mental and spiritual. We must learn how we can use the freedom of the more subtle level, i.e., the spiritual, to assist the levels of lesser freedom. It is valuable for your life and well worth looking into.

The ancient developed ones understood that life can be both conditioned and also accidental. It was not necessary to define it one way or another. For example, a peach tree gives peaches in the late spring. It can give good peaches in a good season or in a good natural cycle, with correct warmth and moisture, air and nutrition from the earth. But in the same peach garden, some trees will do better than others. Some need more care than others. Human life is just like that. Some do better, and others do not do as well, but the human mind reacts differently than a tree. A peach tree does not have a developed sense of itself. It is not bothered by doing better or worse than another tree, or by doing better at one time and worse at another time. It follows nature, so it does not have anything like trouble in the mind. Humans are different. They have feelings about themselves. They watch others, and they can be jealous of others who do better or feel dismayed if they cannot do as well. They can also feel pride that they do better than another. But they cannot objectively look at themselves as natural, which is a condition starting pre-natally.

There is not much about your limitations that can be changed. The thing to do is to live naturally and change what you can. Some people, however, develop or follow religions instead of realistically improving themselves and their lives. They steep themselves in deep meditation or invent profound ideologies which cover their failures and only serve to keep them from taking responsibility for themselves. The achieved ones know what the nature of life is, not only outside but also inside. The most valuable thing is to follow the life-nature inside and harmonize with the outside. This is the teaching and achievement passed down by our spiritually developed forefathers. It is not a psychological approach that transfers one's focus away from the pressure of day-to-day living or the immediate environment. It is the self-truth of taming one's own evil temper and ambitions and turning them into a life of spiritual well being. Spirituality cannot be separated from life itself. The subtle, essential sphere of life is still associated with the general patterned life of eating, sleeping, working, etc. Big and small grow equally under the light of spiritual health. There is a great need for the spiritual development off all people. The best thing you can do for the world is to develop yourself spiritually.

People ask about destiny. Destiny is internal. What you grow inside is manifested outside. You can, however, look at the general external conditions to see how your destiny is manifesting. Let us take, for example, a person who lives in China and a person who lives in the United States, both born at the same hour but in different societies. Their fortunes and lives will be different, not because of geographical differences, but because of the differences in the political systems. The personal destiny that people are sentimental about is changeable. In order to characterize the smallness of an individual Life being, the science of astrology originated. By using the rotation of the sun, earth and moon along with other information, astrology metaphorically illustrates a personal destiny or energy formation. In reality, a natural life needs to be aware of its true relationship with the heavenly bodies. Heavenly bodies are used as illustration of the combination of energies in an individual life. The objective value in seeing a Life externally through astrology is to adapt, yourself better to the conditions affecting the circumstances of your life. However, the outer circumstance cannot be sufficiently or accurately described in a book, because each individual will experience it differently in their life. Some people spend many long years studying astrology. It can truly tell one something about the external conditions of a person's life, but the benefit of its service depends on how you use the information: whether you face it or run away from it.

We have talked about astrology, religion and spiritual development. To avoid the complication of too much conceptual activity, I want to return to the basic recommendation of following nature. By nature, I mean the virtues of nature. Astrology, religion and spiritual development all arrive at the same point: they each tell you to follow nature, to attain natural health in all three spheres of your being and to grow or develop your own vision above all of them. Give up all the mental contamination and cultural pollution which is self-generating. Gather essence from all your external learning. A peach can grow well when it is exposed to sunshine, wind, air and warmth. If, however, we wrap it up and take it away from the garden, it will not grow well. Human nature is already enveloped in too many layers of plastic; even now you can be nursed by glass tubes. The new lives in the future may be brought in through glass tubes, but the basic life still needs to respect its natural health. It is not enough to merely respect the health of nature; we also need to respect and harmonize our healthy natural Life with the harmonious order of universal nature. Our life nature is one with the universal life nature. The troubles of a family, an individual, a group or different nations are basically the same disharmony; they reflect a conflict with the basic nature of life. The problem is created by people themselves and sometimes others. Disharmony is created by lack of understanding about nature, by many false concepts which stem from incorrect teaching and thinking. One who cannot remove the false concepts cannot enjoy either himself or nature.

People who deeply observe the human world know it is pulled by the past, which keeps human society from further development. If people wish to develop further, they must first restore their knowledge of natural health which is the essence of natural life. People's moral well being is natural in the beginning. Immoral behavior, such as stealing, is a poor solution or adaptation to handling one's own needs in society. Once a person's original health is lost, healing is then applied. Support is given from the spiritual medicinal systems when a person is sick, weak, too old or undeveloped. Religious teachings are important only when you are morally, emotionally or intellectually sick. Although they are not unnatural, they are for sick people in a particular stage of evolution. But if you stay with these conventional religions, you cannot grow any more. Do not continue to take their poison. A healthy being does not need to rely on medicine, because the spiritual self-cultivation of the integral way develops and covers all spheres of one's well being. The integral way is for people who achieve their spiritual independence from the mass treatment offered by the big religious hospitals for the sick. Once you restore your strength, you come back to nature. Only natural vitality can cure all wounds and grow new, flesh. There is nothing better to pass on to your sons, daughters or good friends than to support them with nature, follow nature and enjoy nature. You need look no farther than the universal nature which resides inside us.

Nature is health. Nature is normalcy. Even if we live in the natural world, we still need to guard against abnormally timed natural cycles. When people lose their sense of humor in life, they can become stiffly religious. People of spiritual self-cultivation do not stiffen their minds by using previously programmed practices which support their well being only at certain times or are used for spiritual amusement. Religion may be a good tool to teach children through bedtime stories, but all children must grow . The world cannot be managed by bemused children. It needs to be guided by people who have reached spiritual maturity and independence, who can keep guiding themselves by the natural subtle light.

When people are children, they marvel and wonder about spiritual phenomenon without attaining true knowledge about it. They do not know that the subconscious level of the mind gives off a spiritual response like echoes, such as in dreams and unconscious reactions to external stimuli. All the marvelous or terrifying spiritual phenomena that you see in the world comes from you: you're enhanced or intimidated soul. The value of your self-cultivation is in knowing how to remain in peace and in one piece: mind, spirit and body together. Can you practice that? We are most powerful when these three partners are together. There are small partners among them too, but most of the time, the mind wanders away. It is marvelous what the mind can do, but people do not understand this. Mistrust and conceptual images cause one to think that outside forces are what make things happen in a person's life. People do not know the strength and power of the inside harmony which can alter outside circumstance to create phenomena in the spiritual sphere. If personal spiritual experience makes a person more superstitious or self-indulgent in spiritual pursuit, it is because he does not understand that the balanced mind, spirit and body is the brightness of universal nature within his life being.

Even after this long discussion, this may still be an inadequate answer. However, all of you have the opportunity to prove these words and what is between the lines and find your own answer: Is life with purpose or is it accidental? Can anyone answer me now?

Student: Life is natural.

Master Ni:

No matter whether life is with purpose or accidental, there is tea and refreshment on the table in the next room, so please enjoy them and give yourselves the real answer from the enlightenment of a healthy tummy .