To End All Suffering. Session Two: On-line Course on Meditation

Transcription

1 To End All Suffering Session Two: On-line Course on Meditation

2 Foundations for meditation Meditation Theory 2018 Jack Risk 2

3 Threefold practice 1. Moral discipline Motivated by compassion Avoid creating negative karma 2. Meditative calming Peace depends on morality Samadhi will not be complete without moral discipline 3. Wisdom, discernment Insight depends on samadhi Discernment will not be correct or lasting without meditative calming 2018 Jack Risk 3

4 Prerequisites for meditative calming 1. Supportive environment 2. Few desires, cravings 3. Contentment, being satisfied 4. Not being too busy, with too many activities 5. Pure ethical discipline not violating the precepts 6. Avoiding (excessive) thinking: Conceptualizing, verbalizing, analyzing, imagining compulsive ideation must be quieted Desires Day dreams Fear and anxiety 2018 Jack Risk 4

5 Maintain your health Healing on many levels is an outcome of meditation Diet Exercise Sleep However, it is also true that a serious meditation practice needs to be supported by a healthy body Placing a priority on meditation sets the tone for your lifestyle Avoid intoxicants Eat moderately for most this means eating less: digesting a lot of food diverts needed energy and tends to make the mind sluggish Eat a healthy diet mainly vegetables Qigong to clear blockages and harmonize the body, to smoothen the flow of qi and calm the mind Other exercise to build stamina for meditation For a clear mind and to avoid drowsiness make sure to get a full night s sleep regularly You might require additional sleep during retreats or other periods of concentrated practice 2018 Jack Risk 5

6 Attitude 1. Have faith 2. Hold an aspiration to become a buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings Let compassion be your motivation 3. Set realistic expectations and be honest with yourself Understand that the way is not fast or easy 4. Be determined practice with firm effort Be sincere, not half-hearted Practice diligently as though your head were on fire 5. Hold an intentionless resolve Not doing something but waking up Understand that meditation is a method of no method 6. Take seriously the law of cause and effect (karma) 7. Create a setting for your practice 8. Establish a daily practice 2018 Jack Risk 6

7 Have faith The Truth and the possibility of enlightenment are inherent within you You don t need to become something you aren t already Everybody has the capacity You are a Buddha in embryo Buddhanature, sentient beings are originally buddhas Enlightenment is possible because you are already enlightened But you must practice to realize it Only meditation can remove scatteredness and attachment to sense pleasures 2018 Jack Risk 7

8 Get rid of false expectations Be honest with yourself Be willing to face your problems Meditation is not an escape from problems Don t imagine that your problems will vanish Don t expect that good things will happen Avoid wishful thinking or make believe Meditation is not about dreaming yourself into a better place Go in as a beginner Start over every time you go in Allow any sense of self-importance or accomplishment to drop away Don t be in a hurry Deal with things as they arise karma will need to unwind gradually 2018 Jack Risk 8

9 1. Distrust of bodily feeling 2. Fear of losing the mind 3. Holding on to an idea of the object 4. Belief that they already are experts in meditation Belief that every action needs to be controlled by an intention Anxiety that the moment thinking stops the mind will be gone Lacking a sincere effort to reach toward the anchor Ego prevents switching the mind into meditation Challenges for beginners Jack Risk

10 What comes after posture? Relax Allow the mind to sink into the body Let tension drain away Relax more deeply allow muscles to be torn apart You can only really learn to relax through meditation The direction is down Try to hold your attention low in the body 2018 Jack Risk 10

11 Meditation means to hold the mind in the body It s like holding a beach ball under the surface of the water If you let it slip, the mind flies up to the thoughts When you get good at it, you can hold it down with one finger Eventually, you can simply sit on the bottom of the ocean 2018 Jack Risk 11

12 Do nothing Effort Don t allow your distracted thoughts to wander Exert effort to get out of your thoughts + Patience No wanting or striving Not being in a hurry Not expecting anything to happen = Non-doing The method of no method 2018 Jack Risk 12

13 Work without working The job of no job The effort of being effortless Practice the truth but without practicing Hold no intention Be your usual self, have no preferences, and have nothing-todo. Do nothing A method of no method 2018 Jack Risk 13

14 Watch what you are doing As soon as you stop doing the method of no method you are doing something Stop doing something and do nothing 2018 Jack Risk 14

15 Why we call it practice First you aim at the side of a barn. When you have learned to hit the barn, you aim at the barn door. When you have learned to hit the barn door, you aim at a target. When you have learned to hit the target, you aim at a stick. When you have learned to hit the stick, you aim at a human hair. When you have learned to hit the hair, you aim at a hundredth part of a hair. If you can hit that, you are reputed to be a good archer. You can effortlessly hit any target, even in the darkness of night. Śurangamasamadhisutra 2018 Jack Risk 15

16 Sitting Meditation: Left-Right Lotus Meditation Practice 2018 Jack Risk 16

17 Left-Right Lotus Sit Shift Position the sitting bones toward the front of the chair the legs should be free of the chair Have your feet flat on the floor and well apart Place the hands, palm down, on the thighs or tops of the knees Shift the weight to one side by tipping the whole upper body don t bend at the waist Let the other buttock lift off the chair slightly Feel your cheek on the chair Let the muscles on the engaged side relax and sink into the chair Tip Tip slowly to the other side Maintain a rate of tipping that allows you to feel each buttock relax and expand with the weight Keep your awareness anchored by the sense of touch the perception of physical contact with the chair Stay down Hold your awareness down Your energetic centre is in the pelvic cradle between the two hips, behind the bladder and in front of the spine As you tip side to side be aware of this region by sensation, not thinking 2018 Jack Risk 17

18 The endeavour of the way Concepts 2018 Jack Risk 18

19 The four noble truths 1. The truth of suffering 2. The truth of the origin of suffering 3. The truth of the cessation of suffering 4. The truth of the way out of suffering by means of the eightfold noble path 2018 Jack Risk 19

20 The eightfold noble path Eightfold path 1. Right understanding 2. Right intention 3. Right speech 4. Right action 5. Right livelihood 6. Right effort 7. Right mindfulness Threefold training Wisdom, insight, discernment Morality Meditation 8. Right meditation 2018 Jack Risk 20

21 A Bodhisattva vows to end all suffering I vow to deliver innumerable sentient beings. I vow to cut off endless vexations. I vow to master limitless approaches to dharma. I vow to attain supreme buddhahood Jack Risk 21

22 Sentient beings suffer Consciousness is what continues before and after this life according to the Buddha To be capable of thought means we have minds The mind and body are not separate (no dualism) Consciousness is more basic than the brain Sentience Being sentient comes as a result of our having consciousness Being sentient means we have the capacity for feeling, sensation and thought We are able to experience pain because we have consciousness Having the capacity for feeling means we can suffer 2018 Jack Risk 22

23 Suffering First Noble Truth: there is suffering (duhkha) Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is suffering, death is suffering. To be conjoined with what one dislikes is suffering and to be separated from what one likes is suffering. Not to get what one wants is suffering. In short, grasping at the five aggregates (skandha) is suffering. Life is filled with unsatisfactoriness Objects of this world are not worth pursuing grasping They are subject to impermanence, suffering and nonself Turn toward the radical nonattachment of nirvana 2018 Jack Risk 23

24 Three types of suffering The suffering of suffering Unpleasant or painful sensations associated with the physical body or the mind E.g. pain, grief The suffering of change Nothing is permanent Pleasure will eventually be replaced by disappointment and loss The suffering of karma Negative thoughts and emotions lead to nonvirtuous actions that create karma Karma means that past actions can lead to suffering at any time Cyclical existence 2018 Jack Risk 24

25 Suffering is mental Pain is physical suffering is mental/psychological Karma determines whether you are born in fortunate or unfortunate circumstances but it is the mind that chooses to suffer Suffering results from how we react to situations Not accepting physical pain always leads to mental suffering Pain doesn t necessarily lead to suffering it depends on your perspective and state of mind 2018 Jack Risk 25

26 Karma and the origin of suffering Karma is a universal law The law of cause and effect of actions Virtuous actions lead to pleasure in the future Non-virtuous actions cause pain All the happiness and suffering in the world result from actions 2018 Jack Risk 26

27 Desire leads to Suffering All sentient beings are in cyclical existence because of their possession, from beginningless time, of attached love, craving and desire. This tendency is abetted by the existence of all desires, and therefore it is able to empower the continuity of samsara. Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment 2018 Jack Risk 27

28 The role of the self in suffering All the happiness there is in the world Arises from wishing others to be happy. All the suffering there is in the world Arises from wishing oneself to be happy. Śantideva 2018 Jack Risk 28

29 Suffering comes from our sense of self We have a false view of the self Through ignorance our minds habitually identify with the heaps of stuff we are made of We hold onto our selves as though they were permanent, really existing things The truth is we are transient like everything else We lack a permanent identity Clinging to the false self causes us to suffer Fear of losing Anger at receiving Not seeing the real nature of things Meditation loosens our grip on the sense of self As attachment to self diminishes, so too does suffering 2018 Jack Risk 29

30 Get beyond the self If one does not let go of self one cannot let go of suffering, as one who does not let go of fire cannot let go of burning. Śantideva 2018 Jack Risk 30

31 Chan/Zen A special transmission outside the scriptures, not based on words or letters, a direct pointing to the heart of reality so that we might see into our own nature and wake up Bodhidharma 2018 Jack Risk 31

32 Lineage from the Buddha When Shakyamuni Buddha was at Mount Grdhrakuta, he held out a flower to his listeners. Everyone was silent. Only Mahakashyapa broke into a broad smile. The Buddha said, I have the true dharma eye, the marvelous mind of nirvana, the true form of the formless, and the subtle dharma gate, independent of words and transmitted beyond doctrine. This I have entrusted to Mahakashyapa. Mumuonkan, Case Jack Risk 32

33 Daoist roots of Chan Daodejing To work at learning brings more each day. To work at Way brings less each day. Less and still less Until you re nothing s own doing. And when you re nothing s own doing, there s nothing you don t do. To grasp all beneath heaven, leave it alone. Leave it alone, that s all, And nothing in all beneath heaven will elude you. Zhuangzi To be ordinary is to be self-reliant; to be self-reliant is to move freely; and to move freely is to arrive. That s almost it, because to arrive is to be complete. But to be complete without understanding how this is called Way Jack Risk 33