Buddhist Wisdom

What do you think this koan means?
A monk asked Kegon:
"How does an enlightened one return to the ordinary world?"
Kegon replied:
"A broken mirror never reflects again; fallen flowers never go back to the old branches."

Thinking skillfully - investigating and training our minds: "We all come to the practice with doubts and questions. But we don’t get past our doubts by not asking questions. We do it by learning how to ask the right questions.

There’s a passage where the Buddha talks about how to overcome doubt. He says it’s by paying appropriate attention to the qualities of the mind to see whether they’re skillful or unskillful, dark or bright. And that’s the same approach he recommends for developing what’s called analysis of qualities as a factor for awakening. You bring appropriate attention to qualities of mind to see whether they’re skillful or not, dark or bright.

Now, analysis of qualities is the discernment factor in those factors for awakening. This means that you replace doubt not with belief but with discernment. In both cases—dealing with the doubt and developing the discernment—appropriate attention is how you do it. Appropriate attention is basically learning how to ask the right questions, focused on the issue of what you’re doing and the results of what you’re doing.

The Buddha himself said he got on the right path by noticing that he could divide his thoughts into two sorts: those imbued with sensuality, ill will, or cruelty on the one hand, and those imbued with renunciation, non-ill will—i.e., goodwill—and harmlessness on the other. And he divided the thoughts into those categories not in terms of what he liked or didn’t like, or what he found entertaining or instructive or interesting. Instead, the question was: Where do these thoughts lead? The unskillful side led to all kinds of unskillful behavior. The skillful side led to more skillful behavior.

So he decided to keep his unskillful thoughts in check in the same way that a cowherd keeps his cows in check during the rainy season. In Asia, during the rainy season when the rice is growing, you have to be very careful that your cows don’t wander into the rice fields. Otherwise, they’lleat the rice and cause trouble with the rice farmers. So if you see them heading toward the rice, you’ve got to check them, beat them back.

As for skillful thoughts, he saw no problem. In that case, they would be like the cows during the dry season. The rice has been harvested. There’s no danger of their eating the rice in the rice fields, so you can let the cows wander where they like.

But even then, if you thought skillful thoughts for 24 hours, it would tire the mind. When the mind is tired, it’s more likely to go back to unskillful thinking.

This was when he realized that he should bring his mind to concentration to get it calm and still. But even getting the mind into concentration requires that you do some questioning. And here again, you apply appropriate attention.

When the Buddha discusses the factors for awakening, he says that they’re fulfilled by following the sixteen steps of breath meditation. And in the sixteen steps, the questions of discernment concerning the mind have to do with: What is the state of your mind right now? Is it in balance or out ofnbalance? If you find that it’s out of balance, in which direction is it leaning?

And what do you do to bring it back in line? For instance, if you’re feeling depressed, irritated, or down, what can you do to gladden the mind? If the mind is scattered, what can you do to make it more solid?

The sixteen steps also give you some advice on how to answer those questions. They require first, though, that you understand the process of fabrication in the present moment.

Fabrication, sankhara, comes in three
types: bodily, verbal, and mental.

“Bodily” is the in-and-out breath.

“Verbal” is the way you talk to yourself before you break into speech.

Technically, this is called directed thought and evaluation: directing your thoughts to an object and evaluating it—asking questions or commenting on it. “Mental” covers perceptions and feelings. Perceptions are the labels you apply to things. Feelings are feelings of pleasure, pain, or neither pleasure nor pain.
If you want to gladden the mind or steady the mind, to get rid of unskillful qualities and develop skillful ones, you have to work first with mental fabrications: your feelings and perceptions. What images do you hold in mind?

The same as when you’re dealing with the breath: What kind of image do you have of the breath? It’s good to think of the breath as the energy flowing throughout the body, down through the nerves, down through the blood vessels, out to the tips of the fingers, out to the tips of the toes, all around, because that perception of the breath allows feelings of ease to spread easily through the body. It makes the body a more pleasant place to stay. When the body is pleasant, the mind gets into a better mood. It’s not so irritable. And you can both gladden the mind and steady the mind by making the body feel pleasant through the breath."

- From Factors for Awakening, Ten Dhamma Talks by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff) Link in comments.

What is vipassana (insight) meditation?
"Vipassana is the oldest of Buddhist meditation practices. The method comes directly from the Sitipatthana Sutta, a discourse attributed to Buddha himself.

Vipassana is a direct and gradual cultivation of mindfulness or awareness. It proceeds piece by piece over a period of years. The student's attention is carefully directed to an intense examination of certain aspects of his own existence.

The meditator is trained to notice more and more of his own flowing life experience. Vipassana is a gentle technique. But it also is very, very thorough.

It is an ancient and codified system of sensitivity training, a set of exercises dedicated to becoming more and more receptive to your own life experience. It is attentive listening, total seeing and careful testing.

We learn to smell acutely, to touch fully and really pay attention to what we feel. We learn to listen to our own thoughts without being caught up in them.

The object of Vipassana practice is to learn to pay attention. We think we are doing this already, but that is an illusion. It comes from the fact that we are paying so little attention to the ongoing surge of our own life experiences that we might just as well be asleep. We are simply not paying enough attention to notice that we are not paying attention. It is another Catch-22.

Through the process of mindfulness, we slowly become aware of what we really are down below the ego image. We wake up to what life really is.

It is not just a parade of ups and downs, lollipops and smacks on the wrist. That is an illusion. Life has a much deeper texture than that if we bother to look, and if we look in the right way.

Vipassana is a form of mental training that will teach you to experience the world in an entirely new way. You will learn for the first time what is truly happening to you, around you and within you.

It is a process of self discovery, a participatory investigation in which you observe your own experiences while participating in them, and as they occur.
The practice must be approached with this attitude."

Extract from the book Mindfulness In Plain English, by Venerable Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, page 21.

Link to source in comments.

Balancing our mind with equanimity and bodhichitta: "Equalizing and exchanging our attitudes about self and others is one of the two methods for working ourselves up to an actual state of mind and heart of bodhichitta.

Not only is bodhichitta itself a very extensive state of mind, but the practices that lead to it are also very extensive.

Bodhichitta itself is based on and accompanied by quite a few constructive states of mind or mental factors. And therefore in the process of working ourselves up to being able to focus on bodhichitta – which means to focus on our own individual enlightenments, which have not yet happened, which nevertheless can happen on the basis of our Buddha-nature (which is referring to the various factors of our mental continuum that will enable us to achieve the various bodies of a Buddha) – while we’re focusing on that not-yet-happened enlightenment, we have the intention to achieve it based on our understanding and confidence that it is possible, and the intention to benefit all others equally, on the basis of that enlightenment.

In order to have that intention to benefit all others equally, then we need to have, first of all, a general state of equanimity.

This is the state of mind with which we have neither attraction nor repulsion nor indifference toward anyone, because not only is the goal of bodhichitta (in other words, enlightenment) extremely vast, but the scope of it (in other words, aiming it to benefit all limited beings) is likewise extremely vast.

The goal is vast and so the scope of how many others we’re going to benefit is vast.

So in other words, the enlightened state is very vast and the number of beings that we’re going to help is very vast. And the type of happiness that we want to bring to others and the amount of suffering that we want to eliminate from them is also vast – it’s the largest amounts possible.

Because of that, we label this whole state of mind that’s involved with the process of achieving enlightenment, we label that “Mahayana”. “Maha” means vast.

So, vast in all these ways that I just mentioned. And “yana”is a vehicle of mind, in other words a state of mind that acts as a vehicle to bring us to a goal.

And then of course we have the practices and the texts which describe the process and are involved with the process of reaching that goal."

- from an article by Alexander Berzin, on his Study Buddhism website.

Visit link in comments to read the rest of the article and access a treasure trove of Buddhist teachings, prayers, texts and translations from numerous authors and different Buddhist traditions.

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Image of statue of the female Buddha Green Tara. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition Green Tara represents compassion in action. Her right leg is outstretched, symbolising she is always ready to jump up and come to the assistance of sentient beings.

The death process according to Tibetan Buddhism:
"At the time of death, the winds associated with the four elements (earth, water, fire, air) deteriorate, until those elements can no longer act as a basis for consciousness. We are constituted of the five aggregates, the six sense powers and the four elements, and our remaining as beings depends on these twenty factors.

At the time of death, these twenty factors undergo deterioration in a series of eight dissolutions. If one is aware of the death process and has studied and practised it, then over the course of this serial dissolution one is simply understanding that now earth is dissolving into water, water into fire and so on, and one is able to follow the process completely without fear.

1. The first dissolution is that of the aggregate of form, the element of earth and simultaneously, the deterioration of the eye sense power and its objects, visible forms and colours. One ceases to see clearly and one can no longer open or close one’s eyes. The external sign is that the body becomes very thin and loose. We are talking here about a natural death not a sudden death where the signs would be less clear. As the earth element dissolves there is an experience to the dying person of being buried under the earth or sinking under the earth. This is simply an inner experience – it is not happening externally.

Then there is the dissolution of the aggregate of form in terms of body appearance. The external sign is that the lustre of the body is diminished and there is no longer a look of vitality to the body. At this point the water element starts to predominate, in terms of the experience to the dying person. The internal vision is a mirage-like vision, like water on a desert horizon.

2. The second dissolution is that of the aggregate of feelings. The internal experience is that of the body no longer being able to experience the three types of feelings – pleasure, pain and neutral. There is the simultaneous deterioration of the water element. An external sign is that the various bodily fluids begin to dry up – sweat, urine, saliva. The dying person may have difficulty swallowing and it may be beneficial to give them a trickle of water to drink. Next, the ear sense-power deteriorates and the person can no longer hear sounds. The internal vision to the dying person is the appearance of smoke puffing up into the air.

3. The third dissolution is that of the aggregate of perception or discrimination – the ability to recognize what objects are. The internal experience is that you would no longer be aware of who people like close family and friends were, you would forget their names. The fire element diminishes, with the external sign that the body begins to lose its warmth. The nose sense-power deteriorates and we can no longer smell odours. The external sign is that the inhalation is weak, the exhalation stronger. The rhythm of breathing speeds up, like panting. The internal vision is sparks – a fire funnelled up through a chimney with the sparks flying into the night sky.

4. The fourth dissolution includes the dissolution of the compositional factors. The mind loses its ability to remain upon its object. It is this which motivates us to act and directs the body to move. The internal experience is the loss of the ability of the body to perform physical actions or to be aware of external activities. The air element dissolves, with the external sign of a changing of the life-sustaining winds or energies of the body, and breathing stops. In worldly terms we would say this person is dead. No pulse is detectable. The tongue sense-power has deteriorated, it becomes thick and short and its object – taste – is lost.

Objects of the body’s sense-power, touch, can no longer be experienced eg roughness, smoothness. The internal vision is of a sputtering flame, the red/blue flame of a candle burning out. After a time, we begin to regain consciousness as the extremely subtle wind-energy and mind combination is activated. The description is that the wind-energy element has dissolved into the aggregate of consciousness. The four physical elements have dissolved and are no longer able to function as a foundation for gross consciousness.

5. At the fifth dissolution, the gross forms of consciousness have ceased and the subtle forms are revealed. All gross conceptuality is left behind. The internal appearance is of radiant white sky. The white “drop” that has come from the father and has remained at the crown, begins to come down the central channel towards the heart centre. This is the vision of the radiant white sky, like a clear dawn sky pervaded by the whiteness of the moon.

6. Sixth dissolution: Now the red “drop” obtained from our mother, which has remained at about the level of the navel, begins to rise up the central channel towards the heart and one experiences the radiant red sky, like a clear sunset sky that is pervaded by the redness of the sun.

7. Seventh dissolution:
The drops move towards the heart centre where the extremely subtle combination of wind-energy and consciousness resides and on reaching it, the drops enclose it between them. One then experiences the vision of the radiant black sky, complete blackness, and all thought stops.
Eighth dissolution: As one starts to become conscious again, the “clear light of death” manifests. This appears as a clear, luminous, vacuum-like, empty sky – a completely clear, open, radiant vacuity.

For those who have trained in coming to an understanding of emptiness, it is at this moment that one uses this understanding, seeing this open vacuity not as empty space, but as the emptiness of the object of negation. It is at this time that one can gain a deep realization of emptiness and comprehend the true nature of reality.

In the clear light experience, there is no sensation of colour. One is experiencing a very subtle object with an extremely subtle mind. Unless there is some disturbance to the co**se, like cremation, one can abide in that clear light state for two or three days or longer. Even if one knew nothing about emptiness, it is possible to abide in this state for some time.

But what in fact is the moment of death? After some time in the clear light, there will occur some movement of the wind-energies, due to the force of karma. The consciousness will become slightly coarser and a more gross wind-energy will be generated. It is at this moment that the consciousness leaves the body, and this is the actual death.

An external sign is that the red drop continues to ascend and finally exits through the nostril. The white drop descends and exits through the ge***al opening. However, the drop of blood at the nose is not always evident, especially with the chronically ill. Even if it does not appear, unless the body is deteriorating it is good to wait, especially if the deceased is a loved one or a lama.

The course of rebirth is determined by the coarse consciousness of craving, grasping and becoming, and these consciousnesses will then activate a potency. We all have potencies within us to be reborn as one of the six types of migrating beings and it is one of these coarse consciousnesses that will activate one of these karmas.

Whether you touch the body or not is not going to determine the direction of the rebirth. But keep in mind that others may suffer from your not respecting their superstitions. It probably doesn’t make any difference, so you should observe whatever their wishes may be. For myself and from my training as a monk, I rely very much on the process of reasoning to determine the course of action. Sometimes, for other people, their course of action is not mainly determined by reason, but by books they’ve read, traditions that they may have become accustomed to or what has become popular within their circle.

The intermediate state:
After the actual moment of death, the consciousness will then enter into the intermediate state or bardo. The intermediate state being is not made of flesh and blood but is constituted of “wind energy” and already has the shape of the body the being will take and the five senses. The visions that occurred in the death process now occur in reverse order, and the various gross conceptual consciousnesses begin to develop, as well as objects of the senses and the five aggregates. The bardo being remains in this state until reborn.

Answers to Questions:

🪷If one is going to take a lower rebirth, very strong, fearful appearances will appear to your mind during the dissolution of the four physical elements. Conversely, in a fortunate migration, more gentle appearances occur and there is a happiness in the mind. During the radiant white sky, red sky, etc, visions there are no particular fears because the coarse conceptions do not arise.

🪷The process of dissolution may take one or two hours or one or two days depending on the individual, of what that they are dying, if they’re extremely ill, or the stage of their illness. For those who have a chronic illness, the external appearances could arise earlier but the actual death could take longer.

🪷The way of dying affects your emotional state at the time of death and this determines which karmas are activated. For example, if someone was killing you, you might become angry, and this would activate a negative potency, a condition for a bad rebirth. It would require a very strong practice of tolerance not to get angry. In general, we should make efforts to help the sick, elderly and dying to generate a very healthy, positive state of mind before and during death. This, in turn, will benefit us, helping us to continue our work towards helping others."

- Extracted from Dying Well, by Khensur Rinpoche Geshe Tashi Tsering, Chenrezig Institute, Queensland, transcribed and edited by Tom Vichta from a teaching to the Amitayus Hospice Service, Mullumbimby, NSW, in April 1995.

From the Hayagriva Buddhist Centre website, link in comments.

A good book on this subject is: Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth in Tibetan Buddhism by Jeffrey Hopkins, link in comments.

In search of the self: "We all suffer; many sentient beings experience almost constant misery. However, at present we have the time, space and ability to think about how to get rid of all suffering—not get over just one problem or become a little more peaceful, but completely finish with suffering altogether.

We humans have many methods of finding happiness at our disposal but even though we live in beautiful houses crammed full of all kinds of stuff we are still not satisfied. That’s because there is only one thing that can really eradicate dissatisfaction and bring true happiness: the practice of Dharma.

The way we hold and believe the “I” to exist becomes particularly clear when we’re angry or afraid. At such times we should analyze how the self appears to our mind; how our mind apprehends it. We can provoke these emotions in meditation and, while maintaining them, use a subtle part of our consciousness to recognize how we conceive our “I.”

In order to catch a thief we have to know who the person is and what he or she looks like.

The greatest thief of all is our mistaken sense of self—the conception that not only ourselves but all other phenomena as well are truly existent. We believe that things really exist the way they appear to our senses, as objectively established, as existing from their own side. This, then, is what we have to know in order to catch this great thief, who steals all our happiness and peace of mind.

If we do not recognize this wrong conception and simply walk around saying, “Emptiness! Emptiness!” we are likely to fall into one of the two extremes of eternalism or nihilism—believing either that things are inherently existent or that nothing exists at all, thus exaggerating or denying conventional reality.

Therefore, we must recognize the false self, the object of refutation, before we can start actually refuting, or eliminating, it. This is the initial step in developing an understanding of emptiness and the foundation of realizing it.

First we must look for the false self, not selflessness. This requires a great deal of meditation.

If we check within ourselves we will discover that all our misery comes from either attachment or hatred. These, in turn, come from an incorrect view of the self. Even at this moment we hold the “I” to be true.

In the Madhyamakavatara, Chandrakirti stated that all emotional afflictions arise from ignorance—misapprehension of the nature of the self. This is the root. In order to get rid of all the branches of suffering and prevent them from ever arising again, we need to sever this root. In that way we can put an end to all misery, even birth, sickness, aging and death."

- From In Search of the Self, by Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey, New Delhi, India, January 1980, link to source in comments.

Prayer to Amitabha Buddha: "There is deception and fraud among people,

There are unceasing conflicts among countries.

Our suffering is as deep as the ocean,

Our worries spread like creeping weeds.

Oh great, compassionate Amitabha Buddha!

I pray to you to receive me through your compassionate vows.

In my sleep:

May I see your golden body;

May I travel to and experience your Pure Land;

May I obtain your blessing by the sprinkling of your Dharma-water;

May I obtain the touch and illumination of your light;

May I eliminate past karma;

May I increase good roots;

May I decrease afflictions;

May I enhance the effectiveness of my vow.

I pray to you to liberate and convince me

With your compassionate heart;

When my time in the world has ended,

May I know it beforehand,

And not suffer from physical illness;

May I have no mental delusions

And have clear, correct views.

I pray to you, all Buddhas and bodhisattvas,

To hold the light-emitting golden tower in your hands

To receive and guide all beings;

May all experienced and knowledgeable people

Be joyous and appreciative,

Initiate the bodhi mind, hear the wonderful sound of the Dharma,

And possess “the patience of non-arising of life and dharma”;

May I obtain your blessings,

And come back again with vows to propagate the Dharma and benefit all beings;

May all sentient beings be reborn in the Pure Land of the West,

And never regress.

Oh great, compassionate Amitabha Buddha,

Please accept my sincerest prayer!

Oh great, compassionate Amitabha Buddha,

Please accept my sincerest prayer!

(Excerpted from “A Prayer to Amitabha Buddha 向阿彌陀佛祈願文)” from Pearls of Wisdom: Prayers for Engaged Living by Ven. Master Hsing Yun)
Link to source in comments.

What is immesurable compassion? Buddha described the mind of immesurable compassion, karuna in Pali, one of the 4 immesurables which lead to the mindstate of deep meditation called jnana, in the Abhidhamma.

Buddha:
"He dwells with mind accompanied by compassion, suffusing one direction.
Also a second direction.
Also a third direction.
Also a fourth direction.

Thus, above, below, around, everywhere, identifying himself with all, he dwells suffusing the world of all (beings) with mind accompanied by compassion, extensive, sublime, unlimited, without enmity, without illwill.

And how does a bhikkhu (monk) dwell with mind accompanied by compassion, suffusing one direction?

Just as (he), seeing, may have compassion for a miserable, wicked person; in the same way he suffuses all beings with compassion.

Therein what is compassion?

That which in beings is compassion, being compassionate, state of being compassionate, compassion that is mental freedom (from cruelty). This is called compassion.

Therein what is consciousness?

That which is consciousness, mind, ideation, heart, lucence, mind, mind base, controlling faculty of mind, consciousness, the aggregate of consciousness, and, depending on the aforesaid, mind-consciousness-element.

This is called consciousness.

This consciousness is accompanied by, co-nascent with, conjoined with, associated with this compassion.

Therefore this is called “with mind accompanied by compassion”."

- From the Abhidhamma, The Book of Analysis
13. Analysis of the Illimitables (Immeasurables), 1. Analysis According to the Discourses, The four illimitables (Immeasurables).

Link to the sutta, which also describes the other 3 Immesurables of joy (mudita), equanimity (upekkha) and love (metta), in comments.

Anatta, selflessness, no-self: "The teaching of anatta, or selflessness, is an essential expression of the Buddha’s understanding and realization. It is related to the notion of shunyata, “emptiness,” which points to the fact that all things lack independent existence. Applied to each individual, shunyata becomes anatta, meaning that there is no self or being that exists independent of conditions.

The concept of anatta is difficult to understand intellectually. Whereas suffering and impermanence are quite obvious, the meaning of selflessness does not immediately jump out at us. There is a paradoxical or koan-like quality to the concept. Furthermore, we have great resistance to the idea of selflessness, because our whole life has been built around a sense of self, a belief in I, me, mine.

So anatta challenges both our common sense and our deepest attachment. It shakes us to the foundations of our being.

People often become confused about selflessness because they sense a continuity in their experience. But selflessness does not imply a lack of continuity. When we think of a seed becoming a sapling and then becoming a tree which bears fruit, we find a continuity in that process even though there is no single element which is carried through from the seed to the fruit. The seed does not move up through the trunk of the tree into the fruit. It’s a lawful process of becoming, but there is no single element or self carried through.

I think the key to understanding anatta is to view our lives from the perspective of both relative and absolute realities. On the level of relative truth we operate as distinct individuals, and our whole world of personal interactions happens from that perspective.

The problem is that without understanding the absolute level of emptiness, we become identified with and attached to the concepts of relative truth, the notions of man, woman, person. As a result we suffer as conditions change; for instance, as we get sick, or age or begin to die.

But if we can live in the relative world with the wisdom of the absolute, then our life is much more fluid and open. With the full understanding of anatta, there is no attachment in the mind, nothing is taken to be “self.” There is no longer any identification with what’s happening, and when there is no identification there is no suffering."

- The Flavors of Anatta: Reflections from a Theravada Perspective
By Joseph Goldstein, Inquiring Mind, Self/No Self Issue, Spring 1995, Vol. 11 #2
Link in comments