Vegan. Digital craftsman. Tea explorer. Avid learner of things. Writes code @automattic.
Payton guided the discussion this morning on the concept of Doubt in our practice. Typically Doubt is expressed as one of the Hinderances, but in a talk by Tony Bernhard we heard that doubting is only natural, and perhaps more important is our understanding of what we decide to believe.
To listen to Tony’s talk, follow this link to Dharma Seed: http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/182/talk/24678/
Wendy played an insightful talk by Adrianne Ross highlighting many ways that we can find Joy in our meditation, even through persistent pain, struggle, or grief. Adrianne’s talk is here: http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/4875.html
Our sitting and discussion was followed by a guided meditation by Than. Bhikkhu that can be found on this site under “Rapture” in “Factors of Awakening”:
http://www.dhammatalks.org/mp3_collections_index.html#strengths
Payton led this the discussion this past Sunday on the topic of Anxiety, based around a talk by Matthew Brensilver.
http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/496/talk/24441/
Some other good talks on the topic include a talk by Donald Rothberg and one by Michael Grady.
Payton led this the discussion this past Sunday on the topic of the concept of Mara as a
personification of the Hinderances in traditional Buddhist thought, as well as how the Buddha used the recognition of Mara in his liberation.
There were excerpts from three talks played. Below are the talks and some notes for each:
Noah Levine – Dealing with Mara: http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/133/talk/20775/
Noah stresses that Mara is **just** the mind, the human condition, and not something outside of ourselves. He says that the second foundation of Mindfulness — feeling tone (positive, negative, or neutral) — is the core practical technique for ending suffering. Delusion arises all the time, so when we hear ourselves say, “I’ll be happy if…”, “I’ll be happy when…”, that’s s key that Mara is present.
Howard Cohn – Skillfully responding to the voices of Mara: http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/82/talk/20212/
Life is **sensual**, meaning that each of the six senses can provide great pleasure, or great discomfort. Mara doesn’t want you to do evil, just to stay stuck in the wheel of samsara, to search for happiness in ways that cannot bring you lasting satisfaction. You can’t get rid of Mara; desires are endless. The key is to recognize and to know Mara when he’s present. The five voices of Mara (the five Hinderances) create internal pressure in the mind which causes the mind to begin story telling, to build up “a case for the prosecution”. Mara keeps us engaged in the story, so we must break out of the story and notice what is really going on. Howard also reads several poems, one from a 14th-century Samurai.
Jake Dartington – Mara and the Hinderances: http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/382/talk/17254/
Just recognizing the Hinderances, “I know you Mara”, is very powerful. Once you see the delusion of wanting and then you can learn to trust and be ok for no reason at all. Much of the Dharma is simple truths are a series of reminders to be aware. This is a 2000yr old practice, this helps recognize that these hinderances are not personal. If you can say, “I know you Mara”, you can recognize the reaction and not be governed by it.
Payton lead our reflections on the aspect of Saddhā, usually translated as Faith, Trust, or Confidence. There are many kinds of Faith in Buddhist practice, but we explored the concept of “borrowing faith” and verifying it for yourself as discussed in a talk by Andrea Fella.
The Pali term is literally, “to place one’s heart upon”. This is a good metaphor for the open-minded quality needed to be able to “run the experiment” (to use Andrea’s words) of dharma practice.
The talk is here:
Wendy led our reflections on exploring aloneness and how it can bring, not isolation and withdrawal, but connectedness. Anchoring her presentation is a talk by Christina Feldman.
The talk is available here: http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/44/talk/263/
Payton led our discussion on the concept of Dukkha, or unsatisfactoriness, in the context of the Three Characteristics (aka: Three Marks) of Existence. The Three being Impermanence, Dukkha, and Not-self.
The Trilogy of Anicca, Dukkha and Anatta – By Bhikkhu Bodhi
Ignorance functions in two ways, negative and positive. On the negative side it simply obstructs us from seeing things as they are; it throws up clouds of mental darkness. On the positive side, it creates in the mind illusions called perversions. Due to these perversions, we see things in quite the opposite way from the way they really are.
These perversions are:
(a) Perversion of seeing what is unattractive as attractive.
(b) Perversion of seeing what is Dukkha or unsatisfactory as pleasurable.
(c) Perversion of seeing what is impermanent as permanent.
(d) Perversion of seeing what is really not self as self.
These illusions give rise to craving, conceit, wrong view and all other defilements, and in that way we become entangled in dukkha.These universal characteristics have to be understood in two stages: first intellectually, by reflection; and thereafter by direct insight or realisation [sic] through insight meditation.
The recorded talk was “The Three Characteristics of Existence: Suffering” by Shin Kwan Park: http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/4611.html
Today Payton led our reflections on Morality, the second of the ten perfections. In Pali, this is Sila, which is a word with many meanings and shows up in many of the Buddhist lists (Paramis, Paramitas, Eightfold Path, etc.).
Payton chose three viewpoints on Sila.
The first was a talk by Sylvia Boorstein. (http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/174/talk/6541/)
Sylvia discussed how Morality develops in the human life and how it can be very subjective.
Particularly, this quote was interesting:
“a moral act is something that you do out of the conscious intention to make things better for somebody else.”
Second was a talk by Gil Fronsdal. (http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1859/)
Gil remarked that there are two main points to Sila: Compassion for others, and Care for the self.
The third was a brief (and paraphrased) excerpt from a talk by Trudy Goodman (http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/183/talk/5953/)
Our mind is always altering and changing and re-creating who we are. This is great freedom, but also can be a problem for us. We can’t just work hard and achieve some state which will last forever. Sila is a guardian of dharma, protecting the learning that we achieve. It acts like a crucible for our karma, transforming our intent over and over again.
The recorded talk today was by Guy Armstrong entitled Patterns of Becoming 2: The Five Aggregates
Here’s a link to the recording on Dharmaseed: http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/79/talk/15469/
On Sunday, Payton led a discussion on Right Effort as part of our investigation of the Eightfold Path. Below are the notes from that presentation. We also have an audio recording of the session as there were so many people absent that we’ll figure out what to do with soon.
In discussing Right Effort, we have to examine what we mean by “effort”. The word can be interpreted in many different ways. Some of them have a positive association, and some have a negative association. It’s something of a charged word in our society. Do you “put forth the effort to win”, or was it “a wasted effort”? Is there a place of balance between these two, a kind of effortless effort? And even if we achieve that balance, effort can be made for any purpose, so how do we know if our effort is the “right” one? What does right effort mean for you?
[recording: Jack Kornfield starting at 5:37-6:50: http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/85/talk/1466/19920301-Jack_Kornfield–eightfold_path_of_practice_right_effort_and_mindfulness.mp3%5D
Let’s discuss the positive associations with effort first. One interpretation is that it’s the arousing of energy for a noble intention. We can have intention, but then what do we do with it? Without effort, there *is* no Eightfold Path. The Buddha said, “For the complete cessation of dukkha one has to make effort.” You could think of it as determination in this context. So you use effort to pursue your intent. Joseph Goldstein, in a great talk from 1984 breaks down effort into three basic types.
First there’s what he calls Launching Effort. This is the effort you put forth to get to the cushion, to get to the meditation space, to plan your schedule around doing something, even something that’s not meditation. This is tough to do. We need a certain amount of effort to end up there. To end up anywhere.
Once we end up on the cushion, on the walk, at work, wherever, then we have some challenges to face. In any practice we come up against obstacles. There are the hinderances that appear. There is difficulty and we have to expend effort to overcome that difficulty. This second type of effort Joseph calls Liberating Effort.
Sometimes, that’s about it. But sometimes we end up really getting somewhere. We’re very calm and very comfortable and our mind seems to be behaving itself for once. If the bell rings and we walk away in a peaceful daze, there can be this real feeling of happiness and accomplishment. It’s easy to just stop your practice right there and rest in that blissed-out state. The third effort is Progressive Effort. Coming back again and again whether you think you’ve achieved something or not. The Buddha had many teachers before he became enlightened and some of those teachers taught him the jhanas, the states of rapture and peace that the mind enters when it releases grasping. Each of those teachers hadn’t achieved what the Buddha eventually achieved because even after a great deal of concentrated effort, they decided to remain in the jhanas. They didn’t put forth the effort to continue, to find progress even when already feeling success. This Progressive Effort that Joseph describes does not let up.
So then we come to the negative associations with effort. Effort that doesn’t let up sounds like a lot of work! When do we get a break? That doesn’t make effort sound positive. So why are there negative association with the word? It may be that effort is ok if the intended goal is pleasant and effort is cumbersome when the goal doesn’t seem “worth the effort”. We create an economy of effort with the goals as the reward. When we think about it that way it’s like paying money. We can think of putting forth effort as scary, straining, or stressful.
Sky Dawson said, “We need to have kindness and compassion [toward ourselves] when we are working… In the West we connect Effort with Striving. ‘Being the warrior’. The idea of ‘maybe I should try harder’. Eventually this leads to ‘this is too hard, maybe I should just give up’.” So we need a balance.
Someone wrote down a parable which looks at this:
[recording: Jack Kornfield starting at 27:40-29:40: http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/85/talk/1466/19920301-Jack_Kornfield–eightfold_path_of_practice_right_effort_and_mindfulness.mp3%5D
It’s a matter of letting go of all the “extra effort” and just doing what is necessary. As Gil Fronsdal says, we need to, “Not try to achieve something, but not just be a blob on the floor either.” We don’t want to avoid all effort, but there’s a subtleness to the different ways we can treat it.
Let’s see what the Buddha said about effort. If you look at the suttas, he rarely left things in an ambiguous state. The Buddha lists four elements of right effort. They are basically (as read by Jack) the effort to Avoid, Overcome, Develop, Maintain:
[recording: Jack Kornfield starting at 24:28-26:03: http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/85/talk/1466/19920301-Jack_Kornfield–eightfold_path_of_practice_right_effort_and_mindfulness.mp3%5D
Gil summarizes these too:
1. [Maintain] Maintain wholesome states of mind that have already arisen.
2. [Overcome] Let go of unwholesome states of mind that have arisen.
3. [Develop] Bring about wholesome states of mind and heart that have not arisen.
4. [Avoid] Keep unwholesome states of mind that have not arisen from arising.
So here we can think of Right Effort as staying present with our mind states and keeping them in line. It’s very active. Pay particular attention though, that he’s not saying, “Get somewhere!”. The Buddha describes Effort as a process. Gil says, “Meditation is about trying to find the amount of effort necessary just to be alive, to be here right now.” So we need to be active, but we need to be compassionate and gentle with that action and with ourselves.
So maybe that gives us some handle on Effort, but what about “Right Effort”? “Right” is another charged word. Some teachers have worded this as “Wise Effort”. Rodney Smith in a 2008 talk explains his view that, “Stress reduction, mindfulness cultivation, [etc.] is Right effort, but it does not direct you toward freedom. *Wise* Effort is effort directed toward freedom.” Rodney suggests that Right Effort must also be tied to the teaching of non-self. That’s a whole discussion I don’t want to open here, but we can consider the implications.
Making effort requires an intention. Our intention is extremely important but our intention is often directed by our sense of self which the Buddha suggests is untrue. We try to *get* something for our self. We try to *protect* our self. If we create an intent based on this sense of self and we make effort to support it, then what will be the results of that effort?
[recording: Rodney Smith starting at 6:22-10:31: http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/148/talk/3256/20080330-Rodney_Smith-IMSRC-right_effort_and_wise_effort.mp3%5D
In Rodney’s words, “The self manifests as a defensive resistance. …an expectation of a future recovery from the misery I’m now in. The sense of self is [this] contracted feeling. That’s the suffering. …So [normally] we make effort to surmount that contraction. But that effort to surmount the contraction is more contraction… We think we’re doing it right because that’s how we’ve always worked this thing.”
We do one thing after another to try to *solve* the puzzle of whatever problem we percieve. And that might be helpful, but it’s important to be always examining our reason behind wanting to solve the puzzle in the first place. Does it point towards freedom?
So we need to not only consider the *balance* of effort in our practice, but also the intent that underlies it. Without the other elements of the Eightfold Path, Wise Effort cannot exist. We need Wisdom to guide our intent and Compassion to keep us from over-doing it.
How do we go about this? There are many ways, but with our thoughts, the Buddha has this advice. Jack Kornfield here summarizes the Vitakkasanthana Sutta in The Wise Heart: (pp 301-304):
“The Buddha instructs his followers, ‘Like a skilled carpenter who removes a coarse peg by knocking it out with a fine one, so a person removes a pain-producing thought by substituting a beautiful one.’ The carpenter’s peg is a practical description of how we can remove unhealthy thoughts by substitution… Repetition is key.
Even so, some patterns of unhealthy thought… are so stubborn they are hard to tame by simple substitution. For these thoughts, the Buddha offers more forceful methods. … ‘And when there still arise patterns of unskillful thought, the danger that thoughts will cause pain and suffering should be clearly visualized. Then, naturally, like the abandonment of rotting garbage, the mind will turn from these thoughts and become steady, quiet, clear.’ We can actually feel the danger when we are posessed by thoughts of jealousy or anger, or we are in the grip of anxiety. These tighten and stress our whole body…
Still, some patterns of destructive thought are so strong that even more forceful measures are needed. The Buddha tells us to ‘deliberately and directly ignore these thoughts, as if shutting our eyes or quickly looking away from a disturbing and harmful sight.’
And if such patterns continue, ‘the wildly unskillful thought stream should be gradually slowed and stilled by slowing the breath step by step as if gradually slowing one’s pace from a run to a walk to standing…
the Buddha recommends a final and rarely used last resort: ‘Such thoughts should be met with force, teeth clenched, tongue pressed against the roof of the mouth, determined to constrain, crush, and subdue these thoughts as if constraining a violent criminal. In this way does one become a master of thought and its courses. In this way one becomes free.'”
