This Sunday we explored space and spaciousness. Contacting and abiding in spaciousness can be a deeply liberating practice and, for some teachers and traditions, is a central concept and practice on the path of awakening. Zac guided our reflections as we contemplated spaciousness experientially, examined how it shows up in some teachings, and considered its implications in our modern lives.
Below are some of the quotes Zac read during the talk, followed by a link to the guided meditation we used for practice.
“After his great awakening beneath the bodhi tree in Bodhgaya , Lord Buddha said that the ultimate nature of mind is perfectly pure, profound, quiescent, luminous, uncompounded, unconditioned, unborn and undying, and free since the beginningless beginning. When we examine this mind for ourselves, it becomes apparent that its innate openness, clarity, and cognizant quality comprise what is known as innate wakefulness, primordial nondual awareness: rigpa.” p. 78
Natural Great Perfection (Nyoshul Khenpo & Surya Das, 2008)
“Whenever there is any grasping or aversion towards something indeed whenever ay hindrances are present, the mind to some degree or other, is in a contracted state. It has, so to speak, been sucked into some perception, some object of consciousness, has shrunk and tightened around it. Generally, we experience this contraction in the mind as an unpleasant state, as dukkha.”
The Seeing that Frees (Burbea, 2014, p. 79)
“Develop the meditation in tune with space. For when you are developing the meditation in tune with space, agreeable & disagreeable sensory impressions that have arisen will not stay in charge of your mind. Just as space is not established anywhere, in the same way, when you are developing the meditation in tune with space, agreeable & disagreeable sensory impressions that have arisen will not stay in charge of your mind.”
Majjhima Nikaya 62, Maha-Rahulovada Sutta: The Greater Exhortation to Rahula | translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.062.than.html
“Just as if there were a roofed house or a roofed hall having windows on the north, the south, or the east. When the sun rises, and a ray has entered by way of the window, where does it land?”
“On the western wall, lord.”
“And if there is no western wall, where does it land?”
“On the ground, lord.”
“And if there is no ground, where does it land?”
“On the water, lord.”
“And if there is no water, where does it land?”
“It does not land, lord.”
“In the same way, where there is no passion for the nutriment of physical food… contact… intellectual intention… consciousness, where there is no delight, no craving, then consciousness does not land there or increase. Where consciousness does not land or increase, there is no alighting of name-&-form. Where there is no alighting of name-&-form, there is no growth of fabrications. Where there is no growth of fabrications, there is no production of renewed becoming in the future. Where there is no production of renewed becoming in the future, there is no future birth, aging, & death. That, I tell you, has no sorrow, affliction, or despair.”
Samyutta Nikaya SN 12, Atthi Raga Sutta: Where There is Passion, translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
“… all objects of experience… seem solid only from one limited perspective. For this reason, the view of solidity is called a hallucination of perception.”
Goldstein, 2013, p. 176
Joseph Goldstein 2016-10-13 41:11
41:11 Big mind meditation
Insight Meditation Society – Retreat Center: Three-Month Part 1
Burlington Buddhist Sangha 