What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
How would you feel if you lived free from anger and hate?
What would you see if you opened your mind and not just your eyes?
The Sorrow from Ego
June 17, 2009 at 11:51 am (Buddhism, Four Noble Truths, Truth, buddha, creative writing, dhamma, dharma, khamma, kharma, philosophy, religion, storytelling)
Tags: being alone, Buddhism, cognitive, consciousness, dating, divorce, ego, Hinduism, husband, infedelity, marriage, philosophy, psychology, relationships, spouse, Truth, wife
We are just a single thread ignorantly thinking we are a tapestry and miserable when the universe does not agree. This is the delusion of ego.
This delusion comes from an aspect of our evolutionary creation. Our psycho-physical make up is designed to navigate the difficulties of survival; the ego is part of that make up. Human mind creates defensive shortcuts that initiate automatic mechanisms to protect the human body. Primal fear in the pituitary gland rushes blood to the legs, adrenaline to the muscles, races the mind and creates a condition for the body to fight or flight from danger. It is a primitive response created and designed through millions of years of evolution. However, when our survival from lions, tigers and bears decreases it does not decrease the instinctual responses. The same reactions that we have in the jungle are still used in the boardroom and bed room.
The ego is more complex than just its primal essence. It also organizes, unifies functions, and establishes cognitions. These skills create habits, mannerisms, concepts, recognitions into cogent mental patterns. The ego, in this way is able to integrate potentially contradictory experiences and make sense of them. It is these habits and mental conditionings that establish the mental patters of personality and self-view.
The combination of primitive evolutionary instinct and environmental habituation create the psycho-physical conditions of emotional response. These conditions are ingrained into the concept of who we are that it is nearly impossible to look beyond them, and beyond the very comforting concept of “self.” In the Western concept, the body may wither and die but the identity must remain forever.
Understanding that the mind is just one aspect of the body and yet separate from the body is confusing and therefore often discarded. To most man is not born into existence but eternally waiting for a vessel to fill for a short ride here on Earth. In this way, all creatures are measured equally in spirit: from the idiot savant to the brilliant, from the handicapped to the Olympian. The affirmation that “I” is a spirit bound by the body, but separate and perfect without it allows for a compassionate concept of the universe. It is also part of the delusion of the ego to make sense of the world around us into something logical and acceptable.
The ego’s creation of “I” has put us at a disadvantage. It keeps us focused away from the curtain supposedly containing the man pulling levers and ropes, because when we pull it back, we see that there is nothing there. Our personality, concept of self, and “I” identity is a construction of convenience so that the body may survive. While being ignorant of that truth may seem blissful, the reality is that it is the cause of all mental suffering.
This is why we must embrace right view and see that “we” exists only in the context of our current existence. We must realign of our viewpoint: from ourselves as the only protagonist, our story as the main plot, our unmet expectations and failures as the only plot twists; to were we are in an epic tales of billions of protagonists, subplots and each character selfishly believes themselves the single hero. Only those who can remove themselves from the stream of consciousness writing – as a participant of their own tale into an engaged third-person observer – of the full story may understand the truth of their character.
The secret to sublime happiness is to pull back the curtain and investigate the mechanics of ourselves. We assume that we are what we are, without any understanding of what that means and – if we did—if it is true. We ignore the melancholy of a lack of self-actualization through the distractions and cravings of the universe around us. Meanwhile we continue to think that we are the heartrending hero in the story of universe.
Delusion is the view that “I must be able to distinguish myself from others in order to relate to others.” This view perpetuates and reinforces the story of the ego and concept of self we cling to in order to understand how to engage in the world.
Ego believes in separation because if we are not separateness there is no ego. The ego fights for its very survival in every emotion, the most effective way it has to manifest itself physically. How we “feel” about the world is way we connect ego to the universe.
“That feels nice. That is good” is a combination between our awareness and our ego. “That feels nice” is our awareness consciousness, but “That is good” is the value created by our ego consciousness.
The same breakdown is true in the following train of thought. “My spouse is spending less time with me. The time spent with my spouse is pleasant. I want to spend time with my spouse. I don’t like being alone. What is wrong with that person? They are my spouse and should be trying to make me happy?”
Can you see where the ego took over the conversation? Can you recognize the rising of emotional states that dig deep into our instinctual and primal ego? Do you see how the thought thread moved from an observer, who could deal with the situation wholesomely, and turn into craving, assumption, value and eventually suffering?
When our “awareness” is numb or ignorant to what the “ego” is doing, we find ourselves turning on parts of our primal emotions and responses, which feeds and reinforces the unmindful assumptions and judgments which creates inappropriate responses and unhappiness.
Many faiths and spiritual practices define the path to happiness as the destruction of the ego. The assumption then would be that an “enlightened” person would be detached from the universe without suffering, as if the person had an emotional lobotomy. This is NOT the case. The purpose of enlightenment is to become totally conscious of our relationships with the world; and, more importantly, ourselves. Understanding and maintaining awareness of our true relationships with the world, we can appropriately engage with the world around us.
The result is that we become more humble, compassionate, liberated and content.
The appropriate engagement is the key to happiness. There are no small characters in the epic story. Understanding the arising and passing of emotion allows us understanding of when that arising is appropriate or not. Understanding that the ego is a delusion does not diminish the wonder and value of our current existence.
Instinct is one reason why realtionships fail
June 16, 2009 at 3:11 pm (Buddhism, Truth, creative writing, philosophy)
In relationships, we are our own worst enemies. Almost every instinct we have is wired wrong. This is why successful relationships are those who have open communications—two people able to work “through” our instincts and into the problem at hand.
For example: You notice that your significant other seems to have less and less time for you. They may be spending more time at work, socializing with friends, playing on the computer: whatever the case you feel the distance and you long for a meaningful connection. You drop a few hints and offer a few suggestions for opportunities to spend together, but either they don’t get the hint or ignore you. Your initial instinct is to confront them, but you don’t want to push them away. Instead you keep your mouth shut, until one day your discontentment of the situation slips out like an ugly bean dinner in the middle of Church.
“No, you go ahead,” you hiss sarcastically, “You obvious would rather not be here anyway and be with the people you like better.”
And there it is. The more you foul the air with passive aggressive behavior, the less your partner wants to be with you. Your pain and hopes to become close have manifested themselves into the behavior that ensures that you get exactly what you don’t want. You want to say “I miss you and wish you would be closer to me” but instead you communicate “I am a pissy miserable person who is angry at you but too afraid to tell you.”
Issues that may have been able to be resolved with some mindfulness and communication, instead became irresolvable relationship problems. With each attempt to react in a calm and passive way became a perception that the partner was an aggressive and ugly person—being afraid to say something that may hurt the relationship created a condition that ended up hurting the relationship.
So what is the right way to deal with relationship troubles? Be open and fearless. First, take some time each day to evaluate what emotional conditions are arising within you. Sometimes frustration with a mate has nothing to do with your significant other but personal stresses.
Second, take time each day to evaluate the day and your experiences. Are there stresses that are going unnoticed? Sometimes anger about drinking from the milk carton is really a frustration about being respected.
Third, have the courage to talk it out. Partners who can work through conflict have a significantly higher chance of staying together. Most people who do not confront conflict site that fear of breakup is the number one reason arguments are avoided and left to spoil the entire relationship. The number two reason was unwillingness for self-evaluation. Couples that can separate the feelings in the argument from the relationship can productively resolve issues through insight and investigation.
There is a serious perception problem that good relationships are ones that never disagree, argue or fight. It is impossible for two people to cohabitate for any length of time in perfect harmony. Recognizing disagreement and stress then actively engaging together to work through those issues is the best way to resolve serious problems later on.
It may often seem the wrong choice to confront your significant other when you are feeling that there is a problem, but it is almost always the best direction for resolution. And if you are afraid that the resolution will end in your significant other leaving, that needs to be addressed as well. Otherwise, the misery that comes from being afraid your relationship will end will be the single largest contributor ensuring that it does.
Nirvana and Happiness
June 16, 2009 at 1:12 pm (Buddhism, Four Noble Truths, Truth, buddha, dhamma, dharma, khamma, kharma, philosophy, religion)
Tags: Buddhism, eastern religion, happiness, nibanna, nirvana, philosophy, psychology, religion, theology
What is Nirvana? Is it some place you go after enlightenment? Is it a state of mind of being totally present? Is Nirvana a mystical evolution of the human condition? Is Nirvana the ultimate enlightenment?
Nirvana, to put is simply, is the state of unconditional happiness. It is achievable by all creatures, but it takes effort. It requires the skill developed through meditation, and applied through embodying the virtues.
Understanding the process of how to achieve spiritual realization and liberation, gives us insight into how Buddhism leads us to a state of blissful happiness.
The body is impermanent. This is an observable phenomenon. We see the birth and death of all those around us. We can see the predictable transformations created by illness, aging and death. With age and wisdom, we can learn to accept this truth.
The truth we cannot accept is that the mind is impermanent. Without incredible mindfulness, the mind as a phenomenon is not observable. The senses, always perceiving a world outside of the body, ignore observation within. This ignorance leads us to the delusions of the mind being something separate from the body.
The delusion of identity being permanent exists because, without direct observation and investigation, we cling to the fantasy that our mind is not part of the physical phenomenon of the body. When the body is sick, ages and dies; the mind is unique, separate and immune to that impermanent vessel.
The view that body and mind are not one and the same is a powerful delusion, which leads to the ignorant view of an eternal self or soul.
Through observation, mindfulness and meditation the awareness of the body can focus inwards. It can see the arising and passing of uncontrolled thoughts brushing the inside of the mind the way the breeze brushes across the hairs on the arm. In this way we see that thoughts are not our own, but a result of the sixth mental sensory organ processing all the data that is churning physically and psychologically.
Noting that there are now six senses, we can observe how our reactions within the body become. For example, it is observable how emotional states are also not part of a concept of self. Like a cat that purrs or claws against the insides of our chest, emotional states arise and create physical experiences that are not volitionally ours to control. Observing the processes and conditions that create strong emotional states, we are able to determine that emotions are now our own. We can surmise that anger is a conditioned response the same way our body sweats in reaction to the conditions of a hot room. Change the conditions and we can chance the response.
Our values, upon observation, can be noted as aversions and repulsions created by contact and condition. Sensations which are pleasant are valued to be good and clung to. Sensations which are unpleasant are valued to be bad and avoided. Sometimes sensations which are unpleasant initially are valued for the eventual pleasant sensations later on and vice versa. Noting that sensations from contact are relative to the body, they are not absolute and relative. Being relative, experiences that lead to aversion and repulsion to objects or phenomenon are seen to be not real and of permanent value. Our view of the world is conditional and not real or permanent.
When observing that thoughts, emotions and view are not real; we can realize that what makes up the concept of a real permanent self is an illusion. The self identity is conditional determined by the body, the environment, and condition. With different habitualization and education, with change in environment and experience, with the changing of body aggregates: any definition of “self” is profoundly changed: With the end of body, environment and condition, the definition of “self” ceases to exist.
In this we way we understand that self, as a permanent and real “thing” does not exist. It does not have a true nature and is therefore defined as “empty” in Buddhism. When the body and mind are seen as one impermanent subjective process, it is possible to see the world from view free from the delusion of “I”.
Free from the delusion of self and body as permanent, the awareness that is us can re-engage with the world around us with a different outlook. A view and understanding of the world free from the shackles of clinging, aversion and ignorance. The use of “I,” “we” or “you” in a sentence is one of utilitarian necessity rather than of conceptual reality. The ego gone emotions are no longer stirred up the same way a catfish stirs up the mud when it swims or slashes against the river’s bottom. The wisdom of the empty, connected and impermanent nature of all things removes the value of all things, which eradicates the condition of greed and hate.
Without hate, greed and delusion; without the ignorant view of “I”; within engaged wisdom through proper observation— a state of happiness is created without the need for condition or origin. This state of awareness is not blind to the past and future, but not determined unmindfully by it, is Nirvana.
Meditation may lead to a bigger brain
June 12, 2009 at 10:35 am (Buddhism, Four Noble Truths, Truth, buddha, dhamma, dharma, khamma, kharma, philosophy, religion)
Tags: buddha, Buddhism, healthcare, medicine, meditation, science, vipassana, zen
LOS ANGELES, May 25 (UPI) — Push-ups may lead to a better body, but meditation may lead to a better brain, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, said. The researchers used high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brains of people who meditate.
The study, published in the journal NeuroImage, found certain regions in the brains of long-term meditators were larger than in a control group.
“We know that people who consistently meditate have a singular ability to cultivate positive emotions, retain emotional stability and engage in mindful behavior,” lead author Eileen Luders, a postdoctoral research fellow at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, said in a statement. “The observed differences in brain anatomy might give us a clue why meditators have these exceptional abilities.”
Those who meditated showed significantly larger volume of the hippocampus and areas within the orbito-frontal cortex, the thalamus and the inferior temporal gyrus — all regions known for regulating emotions.
Luders and colleagues examined 44 people — 22 control subjects and 22 who had practiced various forms of meditation — including Zazen, Samatha and Vipassana, among others.
Happiness is a Finely Tunes Instrument
June 11, 2009 at 8:14 am (Buddhism, Four Noble Truths, Truth, biography, buddha, creative writing, dhamma, dharma, khamma, kharma, philosophy, religion)
Tags: buddha, Buddhism, darma, dhamma, dharma, easter religion, faith, happiness, hedonic theory, heuristic, karma, middle path, philosophy, religion
I went to the symphony this week. I am no stranger to the symphony. My parents dragged me to every concert and I slumped in the back face against fist fighting boredom.
Decades later, I found myself fascinated. The miraculous ability of dozens of individual instruments becoming part of a collective sound that was complimentary and unique from its individual sound. Melodies danced across the group from strings to horns to woodwinds. The choreographed arrangements of seven simple notes unlocking a tumbler releasing the infinite imagination—bubbles emotions and thoughts to the surface of the caldrons in our mind.
Unlike language—which must use metaphor and simile creating the parameters of thought needed to describe those ethereal experiences and concepts—music plucks chords directly into the core of our awareness. Music communicates on a level that only unfiltered beauty and art can. Nevertheless, we must always be aware that the conversation is not two sided.
The quality of the artistry of the musician is in their ability to create the conditions to bring forth what is within us. It “evokes” emotions, not creates it. We find the passion that is within us and face the raw and exposed nerves of our experiences and passions.
We must recognize this experience and lay our visions of “us” and “others” out for examination. The opportunity of music is an opportunity learning what it means “to be.”
The Buddha Gotoma used the simile of music.
“When you were at home, Sona, could you play the lute?” asked the Buddha.
“Yes Master,” said Sona.
‟When the strings of the lute were over-taut (accayata), did your lute give proper sounds?”
“No, Master.”
“When the strings of the lute were too loose (atisithila), did your lute give you proper sounds?”
“No, Master.”
“When the strings of your lute were neither over-taut nor over-slack the lute gave the proper sounds. Was it not so?”
“It was so, Master.”
“Just so,” said the Buddha, “the energy that is excessive leads to restlessness and weak exertion leads to indolence. Therefore, be resolute in your right exertion and attaining equanimity of the senses.”
This way is called the “Middle Path” and is a foundation of Buddhist philosophy. And like a symphony that is able to harmonize the individual instruments to create the true experience of a great piece of music, the dhamma is able to reconcile the imaginative theistic theories of existence along with the nihilist outlook.
The image of Buddhism walking a tightrope between the two extreme philosophies may appear problematic. If someone doesn’t believe in one side or the other, how can they believe in anything?
“The Tathagatha avoids the two extremes
and talks about the Middle Path.
What this is, that is; this arises, that arises.
Through ignorance volitional actions or karmic formations are conditioned.Through birth, decay, death, lamentation, pain etc. are conditioned.
When this is not, that is not; this ceasing, that ceases.
hrough the complete cessation of ignorance, volitional activities or karmic formations cease.
Through the cessation of birth, death, decay, sorrow, etc. cease.”
The Middle Path is not defined by not having a position, but not having extremes. The instructions for keeping on this Middle Path are found in the Noble Eightfold Path. Right view, intention, knowledge, liberation develops the wisdom (paññā) to know the Path. Right speech, action, and livelihood creates the ethical (sīla) boundaries to stay on the Path. Right effort, mindfulness, and concentration (samādhi) moves us forward on the Path. The use of these eight tools allows everyone to learn how to navigate with the proper attitude and mindset to live without the extreme mindsets that often lead to the poisons of greed, hate and delusions by creating an equanimous, upright and unbiased lifestyle
As we develop our wisdom, ethics and concentrations we transform our baseline awareness. We become more mindful of the world around us and more able to deal with the world appropriately. Without this mindfulness, we live within the habits of heuristic living. We live in assumptions that what arises and reacts is just the way the world is.
When we do not follow the Middle path, we fall into the erroneous assumptions of what is and what is not. We spend all of our time asking the questions that have no answers. We fight for freedoms that eventually harm us and restrict ourselves into lifetimes of misery.
Like a virtuoso, we must learn to keep ourselves from the slacking apathy and oppressive determinism that winds us too tight. This is the foundational theory of Buddhist happiness: the Middle Path.
The theory is provable mathematically. There are micro-economic equations to determine levels of happiness: Wit = α + βxit + εit. This equation shows relationships between well-being, time, and other variables. Once again, within this quality of life equation, science shows that the balance of the Middle Path reaps the most happiness.
Like a bell curve, the increase in belongings, money and relationships increases happiness until the basic survival and social needs are met. After that point there is a significant diminished return until income and happiness no longer correlate. While the heuristic conclusions that “income relates to happiness” is common the real axiom should perhaps be “once you make enough to survive, money irrelevant to happiness.”
While it may seem a digression to drift into the math of happiness, it is essential into understanding WHY we walk the Middle Path. It is important to comprehend the benefits of living ethically, wisely and with mindfulness.
“It is not possible to live pleasantly without living prudently, honorably, and justly,” said Epicurius, “nor is it possibly to live prudently, honorably and justly without living pleasantly.”
The Buddha said that he only teaches the understanding and ending of suffering. He teaches us this so that we can understand what it means and how to be happy. The Buddha understood that this happiness only comes from finely tuning our instrument so that we may be harmonious within the symphony of the world.
Buddhism and the Physical Body
June 5, 2009 at 11:03 am (Buddhism, Four Noble Truths, Truth, biography, buddha, dhamma, dharma, fiction, khamma, kharma, philosophy, religion, storytelling)
Tags: Buddhism, cognitive, education, emotion, happiness, learning, meditation, psychology, suffering
The Buddha taught “the understanding of suffering and the ending of suffering.” The Buddha Gautama taught how to achieve true happiness—a blameless bliss and joy that has no external source and is sustainable. He understood this through the teachings of the Four Noble Truths: There is suffering; a cause of suffering, a way to end of suffering, that way is through the Noble Eightfold Path (which develops ethics/mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom).
Those who understand and accept these truths know that the cornerstone to developing ethics, concentration and wisdom is through the practice and development of mindfulness and skillfulness through meditation. The focus is certainly mental, but the physical body does play an essential role in our daily Buddhist practice and application.
If we only concentrate on the mental and spiritual aspects of the practice we miss the essential component of existence: the body.
Dr. Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin has studied the brains of Buddhist monks, and found their happiness unmatched. His studies concluded that a person sitting quietly for a half hour a day contemplating loving kindness and compassion will show noticeable changes within two weeks.
“Research is showing pretty convincingly,” said Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky of University of California Riverside, “that happiness is really within us, it is not outside of us. It is in what we do, how we act and how we think.”
The search for happiness externally never creates happiness. The rises in happiness from external experience are always adapted to, whether that external happiness is only for an instant or longer-lasting. For example: The joy of a present may only last a short time before the desire for another present replaces the initial enjoyment of receiving a gift; or the increased quality of life from a new job is quickly adapted to until that new paycheck become part of the normal budget. This is called hedonic adaptation.
In the Journal of Research and Personality, a survey of 147 college alumni looked at happiness and satisfaction. These 147 college alumni stated that they achieved their goals set after college; recording the goals at graduation and 12-months later. Those alumni whose goals were material in nature reported no impact on their level of happiness. In some cases alumni reported increased stress, anger and physical illness. Meanwhile, those alumni who focused on personal growth discovered an increased self-evaluation of happiness personally and with their relationships with others.
So we can look at happiness as something that is internally driven, but what about the physical aspects of creating happiness? Beyond the physical effort of sitting to meditate, does our physical body need to follow the eightfold path?
An article published in Psychological Science states that our physical movements do create mental formations, which makes sense when we acknowledge that 80% of all communication with others is done through non-verbal communication. An arm held out signifies “stay away” and is negative, while an arm motioning in a circular fashion is often seen as “beckoning” and positive. While this is obvious communication with others, it is also conditioning for us.
Our cognitive awareness may not register, but our physical body doesn’t just communicate to the world around us but does contribute to the physical and mental states of who we are—including happiness.
The physical actions of our body not only help create the psychological conditions in our minds, but they also help directly to the cognitive and recognitive factors of our being as well.
The physical act of giving, even reluctantly, creates the psycho-physical state of liberation and euphoria. The actions within the body communicate with the mind.
According to David Meier, founder for the Center for Accelerated Learning, education and learning “is not passive storage of information but the active creation of knowledge.” Kinetic education is profoundly more effective and longer-lasting than just mental cognition.
As a Buddhist, this makes sense. Thought is just one sensory organ out of six. That is only 16.6% of all the input that our consciousness processes. When all senses are working the same goal, 100% of our consciousness is participating in the dhamma.
Think of how physical movement and effort has helped form the cognitive world view around us. We learned to count using our fingers. We learned danger from smells and touch. The nose is our most effective recognitive sensory organ.
According to a study by Art Glenberg, from Arizona State University, children who were taught to read through just the traditional mental aspects of education (e.g. repetition, phonics, etc.) fell behind those children who were taught with the added aspects of physically acting out the scenarios in the books. The entire body was able to process the information easier and with higher effectiveness.
So it is no great surprise to see that Buddhist practice would also become more effectively learned and applied when we purposefully and skillfully add in physical aspects of our beliefs. In addition, we must become aware of how our physical actions are filtering our current mind states so that we can become more mindful.
One of the greatest values of Buddhist meditation is to create distance from our physical form so that we can identify the difference between conditioned physical and mental habits and formations. This detached view offers insight into what is useful and what is not useful in application to our daily life, which we cannot get when we are “knee deep” in the moment. It is occasionally too difficult to notice all the psycho-physical aspects happening in real time.
Nevertheless, they do happen. Just as meditation can give insight with that distanced view, we can make those opportunities to change psycho-physical habits and create conditions where our responses are more positive all the time.
It is through that combination, that happiness can be achieved and sustained.
Buddhism on Emotions
May 27, 2009 at 11:18 am (Buddhism, Four Noble Truths, Truth, biography, buddha, dhamma, dharma, khamma, kharma, philosophy, religion)
Tags: Buddhism, consciousness, emotions, life, mindfulness, relationships, understanding
Emotions are composites: they are a category. The interactive process that creates emotions is a mixture of primal and conditional factors that create our emotional state. The same way an artist pulls primary colors off to one end of his pallet to create the perfect hue, tone and saturation; our mental states relationship, intensity and viewpoint collect to form our emotional response.
The word emotion comes from the 16th century French word emouvoir, or “to stir up or agitate.” The image of mental or physical action giving rise to an aggregate of responses which become more instinctual as we develop the conditioning and habits of our lives is appropriate. The more often we act unmindfully, the more likely we are to “stir up” our emotion. The more often we fall into emotional response, the more likely it is that we will identify these emotions as a part of the definition of who we are as people. The effects of emotions are physical as well as mental, and help cement the concepts of an “I” identity.
The mental and bodily changes we see as unavoidable and real to who we are actually delusions where our conditioned responses perceive meaningful and solid content. It is only through mindful investigation; contemplation and meditation that we can start to recognize that emotions are not objects, but convergence of perceptual feelings and habitual behaviors whose associations are easily deconstructed when identified.
This is not to dismiss the importance of emotions, or conditioning. The Buddha did not teach, “give up emotion, preferences, etc. …” Emotions have a evolutionary importance: they help organize our lives and have social as well as protective benefits. In moments of danger fear can trigger physical responses that may save your life. In moments of love they may help create stronger social bonds for harmonious living.
Evolutionarily emotions focus the body. Some emotions energize us, like anger and fear. Some relax us: When you hear tires screech, you get hyper focused to see the danger. Emotions mobilize us to respond physically and mentally in different ways.
Socially, emotions create states that work for the social survival. The emotional responses are often automatic and semi-conscious, which means that the appropriate awareness and actions needed are not always acted on. So we look for a state of mindfulness that is consciously aware of what is and what is not—so that we can find the appropriate response. Nevertheless, unmindful awareness of what is emotion creates unwholesome emotional physical and mental states: lust, hatred, greed, delusion, horror, dread, etc.
Through Buddhist practice we can create conditioning of continual mindfulness and awareness; universal acceptance and loving kindness; and a life of wisdom, ethics and concentration.
Emotions are a filter how we see the world, and how we choose to see and react to the world. How we feel about the world effects how we see the world. This cycle wraps around us like a bandage until it becomes hard and solid like a cast. Without an awareness of the nature of emotion leads to distortions of reasoning and strengthens egotism.
In Buddhism, the conditions that reinforce our sensations of pleasant (sukhaa vedanaa) and unpleasant (dukkhaa vedanaa) create cravings for attraction (saarajjati) and repulsion (byaapajjati). It is these cravings that create the concepts of like (anurodha) and dislike (virodha). These craving concepts are part of the aggregate factors that create our emotions and thus how we engage in the world. It is the filter that we very often filter our judgment that lead to unmindful aversion, attraction and ignorance. These judgments of the present moment thus are rarely created with conscious and mindful understanding but from conditioned habits (anusaya). In these conditions, we are reactive instead of proactive.
When we follow the daily practice of Buddhism: develop concentration through meditation, develop ethics by following the five precepts, developing wisdom through continual investigation to our relationship with the world—we create new conditions. We create an environment within ourselves that are conducive to proactively engaging with the world. We create stillness that allows us to be more mindful of the subtle semi-conscious habits that pull us like the tides and eddies pull driftwood along a river. We create boundaries for ourselves so that we are free from temptations and dangers of unethical and heedless living and their consequences. Understanding how to apply these skills into the investigation of the world around and within us, gives us the awareness of what is and what is not so that we can engage fully with the world.
Being emotional is not unBuddhist, but we should use our emotional states as a tool in our choices how we create the world engagement; not have emotions determine our actions we make.
(thanks to Gil Fronsdal who inspired a lot of this topic)
Empty Nature
May 19, 2009 at 8:18 pm (Buddhism, Four Noble Truths, Truth, buddha, creative writing, dhamma, dharma, khamma, kharma, philosophy, religion, writing)
Tags: buddha, Buddhism, Empty Nature, faith, philosophy, psychology, quantum physics, religon
I read a lot of people speak of empty nature, but I think that it needs to be explained clearly and concisely.
Empty nature (Sunnatta or Sunyata) does not mean “nothing nature” where nothing exists, but “no permanent nature” (Svabaava or Svabhāva). Things do exists. There are elements of matter and they collect into aggregate forms which we interact with.
Understanding empty nature is understanding that we are all like sandcastles. We are formed and appear to be an object, real and definable. The reality is that we are still just sand. We are still just part of the beach. We are all interconnected and impermanent: subject to atrophy and erosion back into the universe to be formed again. The moisture that holds us together evaporates and becomes the ocean again. Nothing of the sandcastle remains and yet new sandcastles arise and fade away again. We cannot find the sandcastles that have passed nor can we expect the creations of the future. Thus the form we see and define as a sandcastle isn’t truly able to be defined. It is in a continue process of creation and destruction, it came from nowhere and returns to nowhere. It has no “castle nature” but it is empty.
This is what we call the realization of “conditioned reality.” That the sandcastle itself is not permanent. The definition is created by us, because a fish certainly would not call it a sandcastle, a bird would not, a child who has never seen a castle would not. Its very existence as a castle is constructed in our minds just as a child forms the shapes in a bucket with sand and water.
Through the practice of Buddhism, we can see the truth of this. We can then engage in the world with an unconditioned nature. We can make judgments of our actions without attachment to that which is not permanent or conditioned for response. We can accept the world as it is, and be in the moment.
