The key point of "16 exercises on mindful breathing" is as follows. Please refer to the URL below for the original text and my commentaries: http://compassion5151.blogspot.jp/2015/10/16-exercises-on-mindful-breathing.html http://compassion5151.blogspot.jp/2016/04/16-exercises-on-mindful-breathing-whole.html Exercise 13-16: Perceptions (13-14): Impermanence & Craving Exercise 13-16 are the exercises for attaining full enlightenment and require very deep observation. What we must understand before these exercises is that this world is our mind itself because this world is the object of our mind, or the projection of our mind. In other words, the projection of our mind is this world. The object of mind is the object of perception, the object of perception is the perception (series of notions in the head), so the perception is this world. In other words, the perceived is the perceiver.David Bohm, Quantum physicist, said, "The way we see depends on the way we think." And his statement is consistent with the Buddha's above findings. In Exercise 13, you deeply observe the impermanent nature (nature of 'emptiness' in terms of time) of all dharmas (object of mind). Because everything is changing, you can observe the impermanent nature of all objects of your mind. And you observe the impermanent nature of all perceptions because all objects of your mind are the projection of your mind (perceptions). Therefore, this world which is the object of your mind is your perception itself, and it has the impermanent nature. In Exercise 14, you deeply observe the disappearance of craving (negative desire). And you deeply observe the disappearance of idea (thought). Therefore, your craving is just an idea and will disappear after a certain time. (15-16): No-self & Nirvana In Exercise 15, you deeply observe the no-birth, no-death nature of all phenomena. No-birth and no-death means that nothing can be born and nothing can die. Everything (all human beings, animals, plants, minerals) just continues (keeps living) by changing its forms. So, they can not be born because they have never died, and they can not die because they have never been born. And you deeply observe that everything is made of everything else. In other words, everything else is in everything. Therefore, everything is everything else. You are observing the nature of no-self(nature of 'emptiness' in terms of space) which means that everything is empty of separate existence (separate self). This is the ultimate truth. In Exercise 16, you deeply observe letting go of all notions (everything). The extinction of all notions is Nirvana. Because you are convinced that all notions are made up by human ego(separate self, fake self) and all notions are wrong, it is easy for you to throw away all notions. If all notions are extinct, there is no object to think about. So, you will be non-thinking completely and be able to attain insight 24 hours a day as awareness (non-separate self, true self). Attaining insight means that without making any efforts (without thinking), your calm mind reflects the outside reality like still water (mirror), and your clear mind sees through the inside reality. This is the full enlightenment, so you are fully awake. (end) (Cf.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eSuUDzwAWs http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014NYEP04
The key point of "16 exercises on mindful breathing" is as follows. Please refer to the URL below for the original text and my commentaries: http://compassion5151.blogspot.jp/2015/10/16-exercises-on-mindful-breathing.html http://compassion5151.blogspot.jp/2016/04/16-exercises-on-mindful-breathing-whole.html Exercise 9-12: Mental formations & Consciousness (11-12): Concentration and Liberation Exercise 11-12 are the Exercise to look deeply the mental formation, attain insight and understand the root cause, generate compassion and transform the mental formation by the energy of compassion. We generate the energy of concentration by looking deeply, we attain the insight (understanding) of the root cause by the energy of concentration, we generate compassion by the energy of insight, and we transform the mental formation such as fear and anxiety by the energy of compassion.Transforming our mental formations is liberating our mind. In other words, the insight (understanding) of the root cause which we attain in Exercise 11 corresponds to the second truth (cause of suffering) of the Four Noble Truths. And the transformation of mental formations which we attain in Exercise 12 corresponds to the third truth (secession of suffering) of the Four Noble Truths. Afflictions such as fear and anxiety are the cause of suffering. Therefore, as long as you have fear or anxiety, you can not accept yourself unconditionally. Sometimes you may have self-hatred. If you always think too much and if your mind wanders in the past, you suffer from regrets and sorrow, and if your mind wanders in the future, you suffer from fear and anxiety. This vicious circle can not be cut off unless you understand the root cause of suffering through insight. If it can not be cut off, even if you can temporarily stop thinking and become mindful by conscious breathing, you will resume thinking by some chance and return to the state of forgetfulness. Therefore, in order to stop thinking stably and keep the mindful state for a long time, it is absolutely essential to understand the root cause of suffering through insight. Of course, because the extinction of all notions is not attained yet, thoughts will revive once in a while. That's why real practitioners meditate everyday (Thich Nhat Hanh says that he is meditating 24 hours a day) and never neglect the practice to maintain the mindful state. In order to completely stop thinking 24 hours a day (to be always mindful), attaining full enlightenment through the extinction of all notions is the only way. (to be continued) (Cf.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eSuUDzwAWs https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LA87R7A
The key point of "16 exercises on mindful breathing" is as follows. Please refer to the URL below for the original text and my commentaries: http://compassion5151.blogspot.jp/2015/10/16-exercises-on-mindful-breathing.html http://compassion5151.blogspot.jp/2016/04/16-exercises-on-mindful-breathing-whole.html Exercise 9-12: Mental formations & Consciousness (9-10):Selective watering The objects of Exercise 9-12 are mental formations and consciousness. It may not be easy to understand the difference from the object of Exercise 5-8 (Feelings). In fact, feelings and perceptions(series of notions in the head) belong to 51 mental formations but they are spun off from mental formations because their impact is outstanding. So, there are 49 kinds of mental formations in Exercise 9-12. Meanwhile, there are 8 kinds of consciousness in Buddhism and they are the source of the body, feelings, perceptions and mental formations. 8 kinds of consciousness are the Sense consciousness (five senses), Mind consciousness (conscious mind), Manas (ego) and Store consciousness (Alaya consciousness, subconscious mind). Feelings in Exercise 5-8 are limited to feelings manifested in Mind consciousness (conscious mind), but mental formations and consciousness in Exercise 9-12 include the seeds of mental formations which are stored in Store consciousness (Alaya consciousness, subconscious mind). So, the realm of Exercise 9-12 is much deeper than the realm of Exercise 5-8. And we take care of both of them (mental formations and the seeds). Briefly, if we water the wholesome seed, the wholesome mental formation will manifest, and if we water the unwholesome seed, the unwholesome mental formation will manifest. Therefore, the selective watering will be as follows: 1) Water the wholesome seeds. 2) Do not water the unwholesome seeds. 3) Maintain the wholesome mental formation if it is manifesting. 4) Transform the unwholesome mental formation (to the wholesome mental formation) if it is manifesting. 5) Water the unwholesome seed intentionally to let the unwholesome mental formation manifest and to transform it to the wholesome mental formation and return it to Store consciousness as the wholesome seed. (Note) 5) has a high risk unless you are an advanced practitioner, so is not recommendable for beginners. If you are mindful, you can recognize what is going on inside and around yourself. So, if you practice the selective watering as soon as you recognize what's going on, you can control your mind as you wish. And it will be wise also that you request people around you to practice the selective watering to you as well as you do it by yourself. This selective watering means the "Right Diligence" of the Noble Eightfold Path. (to be continued) (Cf.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eSuUDzwAWs http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014NYEP04
(My question to Thay) At the beginning, Thay said, "There is indeed a place like that, called the Pure Land of the Present Moment. That land is not limited in space or time. Speaking in Buddhist terminology, that land is outside of space and time." At the end, Thay said, "Therefore, if we practice mindful breathing and mindful walking, we can return to the Pure Land of the Present Moment in that very space and time." So, that very space and time must be outside of space and time. Thay said, "Speaking in terminology of quantum physics, it is nonlocal and nontemporal." So, the Pure Land of the Present Moment must be in the noumenal world, not in the phenomenal world. In this sense, I understand that our body can't dwell in the Pure Land of the Present Moment but only awareness (awakened consciousness) can dwell in the Pure Land of the Present Moment. I have a question to Thay. Can there be notions such as suffering and happiness in the Pure Land of the Present Moment? I understand that in the noumenal world (the ultimate dimension, nirvana) there are no notions. That's because the extinction of all notions is nirvana, as Thay taught us. (Steps for dwelling in the Pure Land) I understand that only if we can stop thinking, we can dwell in the Pure Land. And the steps for dwelling in the Pure Land 24 hours a day will be: (1) conscious breathing, (for temporary enlightenment) (2) insight of the root cause of suffering,(for long-lasting enlightenment) (3) the extinction of all notions.(for full enlightenment)
The key point of "16 exercises on mindful breathing" is as follows. Please refer to the URL below for the original text and my commentaries: http://compassion5151.blogspot.jp/2015/10/16-exercises-on-mindful-breathing.html http://compassion5151.blogspot.jp/2016/04/16-exercises-on-mindful-breathing-whole.html Exercise 5-8: Feelings (5-6):Joy and Happiness Exercise 5-6 (generating joy and happiness) occurs automatically at the same time when we establish ourselves in mindfulness in Exercise 1-2. So, in time series, Exercise 5-6 should be placed as Exercise 3-4 rather than Exercise 5-6. However, joy and happiness belongs to the category of feelings, so I guess that these exercises was placed as Exercise 5-6. Anyway, if mindful breathing is attained in Exercise 1-2, that is a proof that we have returned to awareness (non-separate self, true self). So, we can touch the wonders of life, and joy and happiness can be automatically generated. The expressions of our realization of joy and happiness may be "just blooming like a flower without thinking". If a flower is replaced with a human being, it may be "just smiling without thinking". Even if you try to concentrate on your breathing, if you have fear and anxiety and can't stop thinking (if you are wandering in the past or the future and can't return to the present moment), unfortunately you are still ego (separate self, fake self) and can't generate joy and happiness. Therefore, those who can't generate joy and happiness by Exercise 1-2, will have no chance to recognize, embrace, relieve the pain and suffering even if they go ahead, because they have no energy of mindfulness. So, Thich Nhat Hanh teaches us that we should keep conscious breathing or walking without going ahead until we return to awareness (non-separate self, true self), or until we can practice mindful breathing and walking. In this sense, we can say that Exercise 5-6 is a mean to check whether or not we are practicing Right Mindfulness by ourselves. (7-8): Painful feelings Exercise 5-6 are exercises to recognize and keep positive feelings, while Exercise 7-8 are exercises to recognize and calm negative feelings (painful feelings). If the whole body in Exercise 3-4 is replaced with painful feelings, what we are supposed to do in Exercise 5-6 is exactly the same as Exercise 3-4. By the energy of mindfulness, we recognize our painful feeling, embrace it and calm it by releasing the tension in the feelings. When we recognize our feelings, we are witnessing or observing our feelings. Therefore, we are not the feelings. Our true self is awareness (awakened consciousness) who is witnessing our feelings. So, we don't have to be overwhelmed even by our strong emotions like despair. If we just keep observing it, it will disappear in time. Feelings are impermanent (always changing) and are like a temporary storm, so should not panic and react right away. (to be continued)
The key point of "16 exercises on mindful breathing" is as follows. Please refer to the URL below for the original text and my commentaries: http://compassion5151.blogspot.jp/2015/10/16-exercises-on-mindful-breathing.html http://compassion5151.blogspot.jp/2016/04/16-exercises-on-mindful-breathing-whole.html Exercise 1-4: Body (1-2):Breathing These first two exercises (conscious breathing) are very important. That's because we are supposed to stop thinking, or perception, and establish ourselves in mindfulness through this initial conscious breathing. In other words, we are supposed to transform ourselves from ego (separate self, fake self) to awareness (non-separate self, true self, Dharma body) through this initial conscious breathing. If we can stop thinking, this transformation automatically occurs in a moment. However, if a person has strong fear or anxiety, that person can not stop thinking because s/he keeps thinking even though s/he tries to concentrate on breathing. We need to keep in mind that if we do not establish ourselves in mindfulness at this initial stage, we will not be able to expect the effects of the third exercise and after.Thich Nhat Hanh says that one in-breath (a few seconds) is enough to return to our true self. And I understand that what he means by this statement is this initial conscious breathing. (3-4): The whole body When we have established ourselves in mindfulness through the first two exercises (conscious breathing), awareness (awakened consciousness) will be able to automatically recognize what is going on inside and around us by the energy of mindfulness. In fact, we will be able to recognize everything at once (we attain various insights at the same time), but in the 16 exercises on mindful breathing we will be aware of them step by step in order. The objects we recognize are 5 aggregates (the five Skandhas) which constitute a human being, namely body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness. Concretely speaking, we will recognize and calm them in the following order; Exercise 3-4: body, 7-8: feelings, 9-12: mental formations and consciousness, 13-16: perceptions. First of all, in Exercise 3-4 we will recognize the pain in the whole body and release the tension of the painful part. Since the body and the mind are closely interacting with each other, we can not concentrate and establish ourselves in mindfulness if the physical pain is intense. Therefore, first of all, we start with checking the health of the whole body with a ray of mindfulness like X-ray, and caring the unhealthy part well by embracing them. As mentioned above, the energy of mindfulness has the function to recognize, to embrace, to ease and relieve the pain and suffering. In addition, as soon as we establish ourselves in mindfulness, there will be the effect of stopping, resting, calming and healing at once. (to be continued)
Watch deeply to the following Dharma talk about Right Thinking by Sister Jina.
The followings are excerpts. (27:03～) Right Thinking means Right View. Our thinking comes from our view. And Right View means seeing the interbeing nature of all that is, seeing the impermanent nature and non-self nature of all that is, seeing that self is made of non-self elements. (53:22～) Right Thinking is also being aware of impermanence. There is a sentence that I use when I get caught into thinking. "The things are going to stay like this forever." When I find myself in a situation that I find difficult, I tell myself, "This too will pass." And this gives me energy. I'm no longer lost in despair. (55:31～) Right Thinking is also an expression of non-self. To know that happiness is not an individual matter. When my sister is not happy, I can not be happy however hard I try. Somehow, her pain is my pain although I don't want to accept that. But my experience is that I can not be really happy. (59:41～) 4 questions to ask to ourselves (given by Thay): 1) Are you sure? 2) What am I doing? 3) Hello, habit energy! 4) To generate the mind of love, the deep wish to cultivate the understanding and compassion (1:13:27～) Whatever I'm doing, my physical actions always bring my mind back to my body. And when I find myself being carried away by some very exciting thought, (but in the end it's not so exciting at all), I can let it go and come back to my training to bring the mind home to the body. In that way, we develop. You need so appropriate attention. And we will have peace and calm to look deeply to see the non-self and impermanent nature of all that is. That is Right Thinking. So, let's start by practicing becoming aware of our daily thinking. That may be the door to Right Thinking. (My commentary) "Right Thinking means Right View." is a good expression. That's because this is possible through non-thinking. (Namely, Right View ⇒ (non-thinking) ⇒ Right Speech and Right Action) In other words, Right Thinking means non-thinking. That's why Right View can be directly the basis of Right Speech and Right Action, without passing through Thinking process. So, Right View must be directly linked to the senses without passing through feelings and perceptions. Right View means insight (understanding). Only if we are mindful and concentrated, we can attain insight. In other words, only if we return to our true self by stopping thinking, we can attain Right View (insight) by looking deeply (concentration). The following is the whole picture. stop thinking ⇒ return to true self ⇒ mindfulness ⇒ look deeply (concentration) ⇒ insight (understanding) ⇒ love and compassion ⇒ transformation⇒ peace ⇒ joy and happiness (Cf.) http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/walking-meditation-62204227
Watch deeply the following Thay's Dharma talk video on 'Taking Care of our Thinking'. https://www.facebook.com/thichnhathanh/videos/vb.7691064634/10154446854299635/?type=2&theater The followings are excerpts from the above video. Quotes: (from -11:08) Mindfulness, concentration and insight bring you freedom. The practice of mindfulness helps you live your life. I want to live my life. I don't want to be a victim of my negative thinking, my negative perceptions. And this is possible with the practice of mindfulness. If mindfulness allows us to touch, to recognize the negative things, and to touch the positive things, and if we can open the doorof the Kingdom of God in us, and then we can get in touch with many wonders of the Kingdom that are available in our daily life. It is possible for us to walk all day in the Kingdom of God. It is possible for us to get in touch with the wonders of the Kingdom of God all day. And the door, the key of the Kingdom is there to stay alive, to stay present in the here and the now, and to allow ourselves the time to recognize to get in touch deeply, and not to respond right away, not to react right away in the way we used to do in the past. (from -8:33) There are very concrete things that I like to do, that we like to do. And these concrete things may bring us a lot of happiness and freedom. Whenever I walk, I need to walk, as you are walking, in such away that a step can bring me freedom. I don't lose myself in walking. I don't lose myself in the past or in the future, or in my projects while walking. While walking, I want to taste to get in touch with the wonders of life, the wonders of the Kingdom of God. Those of us who are capable of walking like that, while breathing in the sitting position or standing position, we may breathe in such a way that help us to recognize the fact that we are alive, we are pleasant, we can get in touch with the wonders of life. While eating, we know we are there fully present. It is us who do the eating and not the machine. We are not on automatic piloting. We are on consciousness, on conscious living. We are on mindful living. The greatest success, the most meaningful kind of success you can get is freedom. We have to fight for our freedom. It's not by going somewhere or in the future that we have freedom. It is right in the here and the now that we can get freedom, And the beginning is to stay present, to stay alive to be yourself in every moment. It depends on our way of living our life. And freedom is the ground of happiness. And the way of freedom is the way of mindfulness. And mindfulness, the practice of mindfulness as it is presented in Plum Village, is to learn how to live mindfully each moment of our daily life to be always present. And that kind of training should continue if we don't want to fall into the base of the suffering, depression and so on. And as we have a sangha that is practicing mindfulness, mindful living, we are supported by the sangha. :Unquote (End) (My Commentary) The easiest way to check if we are mindful or not may be to ask a question to oneself,"Can you accept yourself unconditionally without separation?". If you can say "Yes" without hesitation, you are awareness (non-separate self, true self) who is mindful. If you hesitate to say "Yes" right away, you are ego (separate self, fake self) who is not mindful. That's because if we can accept ourselves unconditionally without separation, we have no fear and insecurity. That's why we can stop thinking and return to awareness (non-separate self, true self) automatically. So, the key is how to attain unconditional self-acceptance, or unconditional self-love. In other words, it is how to understand the root cause of suffering through insight. However, those who have fear and insecurity (ego) can't stop thinking due to the lack of unconditional self-acceptance (self-hatred), so it's not easy for them to be mindful. I wonder how many people are ready to transform themselves from ego to awareness on this planet right now. (Cf.) http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/3-versions-of-oneself
Watch deeply the following Thay's Dharma talk video on 'Taking Care of our Thinking'. https://www.facebook.com/thichnhathanh/videos/vb.7691064634/10154446854299635/?type=2&theater The followings are excerpts from the above video. Quotes: (from -25:00) In order to unlock the door of happiness, the door of the Kingdom, the door of compassion and love, we need the key. That key according to the teaching of the Buddha is the triple training of mindfulness, concentration and insight. It is possible to cultivate insight and compassion. The Kingdom of God is the place where we can cultivate, we have a chance to cultivate understanding and compassion. And we may like to do that together with other people well with the same concern and desire. When you grow a corn, you have a corn to eat. When you grow a wheat, you have a wheat to eat. When you grow compassion, you have compassion and understanding, the ground of your own peace and freedom and happiness. And in order to grow, cultivate understanding and compassion, you have to be there.Understanding suffering, understanding anger, understanding depression, tobe aware ofthem, tounderstandthem, is very important. Because to be aware of suffering and to understand suffering is the door to penetrate into the domain of happiness. Unless you understand the nature of suffering, the cause of suffering, you see no path leading to transformation of suffering to happiness. (from -15:01) Because Right View is the foundation of Right Thinking. What is Right View? Right View is that everyone has suffering. ... But as a practitioner, you don't have to suffer even if the action or the speech of the person is negative and if you are capable of touching compassion, Right View in you. You say, "Well, I have to help him. I don't want to punish him. I want to help him." That is Right Thinking. And Right Thinking makes you feel much much better. It has a positive effect on your health and the health of the world. Right Thinking helps you consolidate Right View. And Right Speech also helps you consolidate Right View. And what is Right View? When you are fully present in the here and the now and observe your thoughts, observe your feelings, observe your emotions, you recognize that they are thoughts, they are feelings, they are emotions, and they are not realities. And you are not stuck into it. You retain your freedom. And that is very important. Even if a negative thought or feeling arises, and if you are fully present in the here and the now, and if you remember that your thought is just a thought, is not the reality, that's enough to keep you free and allow your wisdom and compassion to come into action in order to help you. :Unquote (To be continued) (My Commentary) I understand that what Thay means by Right Thinking is direct thinking which is directly linked to the senseswithout passing through feelings and perceptions. In other words, Right Thinking means non-thinking. So, Right Speech and Right Action must be based on Right View (insight) without thinking. Almost all thoughtsexcept for direct thinking (non-thinking) cause separation, discrimination, or the duality. That's why afflictions arise and people suffer. Thay said that mindfulness, concentration and insight are the key for happiness. I understand that this is because mindfulness is for stopping thinking, and concentration is for attaining insight through deep looking. And that insight (understanding) generates love and compassion which bring about peace, freedom, solidity, joy and happiness.
Watch deeply the following Thay's Dharma talk video on 'Taking Care of our Thinking'. https://www.facebook.com/thichnhathanh/videos/vb.7691064634/10154446854299635/?type=2&theater The followings are excerpts from the above video. Quotes: (from -33:35) Within ourselves there is a territory of depression, a territory of hell. And our negative thinking and emotions, they are spinning out from these territories. But we know that in ourselves there is a territory of the Kingdom of God and there is a territory of the Buddha Land. There is a powerful seed of compassion and wisdom in us. And if we give them a chance, they will come in order for us to be rescued. They have a power to recognize our thoughts. They have a power to recognize our feelings, our emotions, our perceptions. We don't have to suppress them but we want to have the time and space in order to look at them, to recognize them as they are. This is the basic practice. And in order to do that, we have to stay present to be there in the here and the now.Very often our body is there but our mind is elsewhere. And our children do not feel that we are truly present. If we come to a house, we want to meet someone in the house. You ask, "Is anyone home?" And if someone says, "Yes", and you will be happy. You don't want to go to a house where there is no one. But very often we live ourselves without us. We are not home. We are lost in our thinking, in our worries, in our projects, in our anxiety, in our fear. We are completely lost. We are not there in order to be aware of what is going on. And that is why the practice that is offered to us by the Buddha is not to be on automatic piloting but on conscious breathing, the practice of mindful living. If you have a depression, or if you are afraid that you go fall back into a depression, this is the way out.If you canstay present, if you can identify the kind of ill-feeling and thought that are responsible for your depression, and then you can be free. You know that these kinds of thinking, these kinds of feeling, will cause a relapse. And that is the beginning of the healing, the beginning of your freedom. To be there and to be aware of your thinking, of your feeling. The feeling that you get in your body, the feeling that you get when you remember something, you are not afraid. If you are truly there, you can allow the difficult materials to come for you to recognize before they go. And you can do something in order to invite the wonderful materials to come for you to recognize. And you may like to ask these wonderful materials of the mind to stay with you to help you to possess the documents that you need to process. The Kingdom of God is not an idea. It is a reality. Every time we are mindful, every time we are concentrated, every time we get a little bit of freedom, and then we can get in touch with the Kingdom of God for our transformation and healing. Of course, hell is there in the present moment but the Kingdom of God is also there in the present moment. And we have to select, we have to choose between the two. :Unquote (To be continued) (My Commentary) Everything depends on who we are. We can select hell or the Kingdom of God to live in.However, if we are ego, we can't recognize what's going on inside and around us. So, ego lives in hell without knowing that there are options to select. Therefore, we need to return to true self by stopping thinking through the insight of the root cause of the suffering.
