Author: Payton Swick

Payton led the discussion centered around the idea of Papancha, or Mental Proliferation. The seminal sutta on this topic is the “Honeyball Sutta”, where it’s explained as: first there is the coming together of three things, an object, a sensory organ, and consciousness. The meeting of these three is “contact”. Contact leads to feeling tone (Vedana), which leads to perception (naming), which leads to thinking about, which then leads to Mental Proliferation.

We listened to a talk by James Baraz entitled “The Honeyball Sutta: The Source of Our Confusion and the Way Out”.

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:

http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/4693.html

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