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from steve hagan

AwakenedOneAwakenedOne
edited May 2009 in Philosophy
<!--- blog body ---> BONDAGE IS:
1) Ignorance: to ignore the Reality of this moment. It is blindness to the direct perception that this moment neither arises, persists, nor perishes.
2) Intention: instability of mind, caused by ignorance, that sets the mind to leaning. All actions produced by such a mind are willed.
3) Consciousness: to discriminate between separate objects of mind, and to see them as persisting from moment to moment.
4) Mind & Body: to see a distinct, persistent, self-identical mind and body supporting conciousness. Thus a subject is discerned, along with its objects.
5) Six Senses: to concieve a world of mind objects, external to the body and mind, as being taken in through the windows of the senses.
6) Contact: To concieve that through sensation the subject makes contact with an objective world, "out there."
7) Feeling: To react emotionally to the objects of mind, while remaining isolated from them.
8) Craving: To experience wanting and craving, since mind objects are concieved as being apart from "me." the subject.
9) Grasping: To grasp at what appears "out there." It's the hopeless wish that this moment will either vanish or last.
10) Being: To concieve (believe in) the persistance (existance) of self and other.
11) Birth: To concieve (believe) that all beings have come into existance.
12) Death & duhkha: To concieve (believe) that all beings will die.
LIBERATION IS:
1) Ignorance: To see the Reality of this moment. It is to percieve directly that this moment neither arises, persists, nor perishes.
2) Intention: To see no substance in any object of mind. Hence the mind leans neither toward nor away. All actions produced by such a mind are unwilled.
3) Consciousness: To see all mind objects as momentary and conditional.
4) Mind & Body: To see no persistent mind or body--no subject-- since there are no distinct and persistant mind objects available to perception.
5) Six Senses: To see sensation as a function of Mind alone--that the objects of Mind are never external to Mind, but are always Mind itself
6) Contact: To realize there's no connection or distiction between the senses and a world external to Mind.
7) Feeling: Not being swept away by emotion. Since nothing is percieved as external to Mind, feeling is ever intimate.
8)Craving: Not to want. Since nothing is percieved as being "out there," there's no sense that anything is lacking.
9) Grapsing: to see all of experience as utter fluidity and, therefore, as nothing to grasp, own or fear.
10) Being: To see all as stream.
11) Birth: To see that nothing is born.
12) Death & Duhkha: To see that nothing dies.

Comments

  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    edited May 2009
    To end ignorance is far more than concentration or the cessation of thinking. It is natural that many stream-enterers believe they are fully awakened. This happens often.
    Buddha said:
    One neither fabricates nor mentally fashions for the sake of becoming or un-becoming. This being the case, one is not sustained by anything in the world (does not cling to anything in the world). Unsustained, one is not agitated. Unagitated, one is totally unbound right within.

    MN 140

    Buddha taught there are ten fetters. The 6th and 7th fetters are delight in various levels of concentration. The 10th fetter is ignorance.



    :)
  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    edited May 2009
    AwakenedOne wrote: »
    Ignorance: to ignore the Reality of this moment. It is blindness to the direct perception that this moment neither arises, persists, nor perishes.
    The above is 'blank mind', the sphere of 'nothingness'.

    Buddha himself advised all conditioned phenomena, which includes every aspect of mind, both gross and subtle, is subject to arising and passing, is impermanent. Buddha advised:
    By & large, Kaccayana, this world is supported by (takes as its object) a polarity, that of existence & non-existence.

    But when one sees the origination of the world as it actually is with right discernment, 'non-existence' with reference to the world does not occur to one.

    When one sees the cessation of the world as it actually is with right discernment, 'existence' with reference to the world does not occur to one.

    'Everything exists': That is one extreme. 'Everything doesn't exist': That is a second extreme.

    Avoiding these two extremes, the Tathagata teaches the Dhamma via the middle.

    Kaccayanagotta Sutta
  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    edited May 2009
    AwakenedOne wrote: »
    <!--- blog body --->It is blindness to the direct perception that this moment neither arises, persists, nor perishes.
    Buddha described clear seeing as follows:
    'Such is form, such its origination, such its passing away. Such is feeling, such its origination, such its passing away. Such is perception, such its origination, such its passing away. Such are fabrications, such their origination, such their passing away. Such is consciousness, such its origination, such its disappearance.' This is the development of mind using concentration that, when developed & pursued, leads to the ending of the effluents.

    Samadhi Sutta
    If one discerns, as it actually is present, the origination, passing away, allure, drawback & escape from that feeling, then the underlying tendency towards ignorance does not lie with one. That a person, through uprooting the underlying tendency towards ignorance and giving rise to clear knowing — would put an end to suffering & stress in the here & now: such a thing is possible.

    MN 148
  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    edited May 2009
    AwakenedOne wrote: »
    <!--- blog body --->3) Consciousness: to discriminate between separate objects of mind, and to see them as persisting from moment to moment.
    Consciousness does not discriminate. Consciousness is bare awareness. That which discriminates or labels is perception. For example, liberated consciousness was once described as follows:
    Consciousness without feature,
    without end,
    luminous all around:
    Here water, earth, fire & wind
    have no footing.
    Here long & short
    coarse & fine
    fair & foul
    name & form
    are all brought to an end.
    With the quenching & liberation of consciousness
    each is here brought to an end.

    DN 11
  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    edited May 2009
    AwakenedOne wrote: »
    12) Death & dukkha: To concieve (believe) that all beings will die.
    There are those who do not realize that one day we all must die. But those who do realize this settle their quarrels.

    Yamakavagga
    "Monks, mindfulness of death — when developed & pursued — is of great fruit & great benefit. It gains a footing in the Deathless [Nirvana], has the Deathless as its final end.

    Maranassati Sutta
    :)
  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    edited May 2009
    AwakenedOne wrote: »
    <!--- blog body --->2) Intention: To see no substance in any object of mind. Hence the mind leans neither toward nor away. All actions produced by such a mind are unwilled.
    "Monks, for one in whom mindfulness immersed in the body is cultivated, developed, pursued, handed the reins and taken as a basis, given a grounding, steadied, consolidated & well-undertaken, ten benefits can be expected. Which ten?

    [4] "He can attain at will, without trouble or difficulty, the four jhanas — heightened mental states providing a pleasant abiding in the here & now.

    [5] "He wields manifold supranormal powers. Having been one he becomes many; having been many he becomes one. He appears. He vanishes. He goes unimpeded through walls, ramparts, & mountains as if through space. He dives in & out of the earth as if it were water. He walks on water without sinking as if it were dry land. Sitting crosslegged he flies through the air like a winged bird. With his hand he touches & strokes even the sun & moon, so mighty & powerful. He exercises influence with his body even as far as the Brahma worlds.

    Kayagata-sati Sutta
    "And how is one a noble one with developed faculties? There is the case where, when seeing a form with the eye, there arises in a monk what is agreeable, what is disagreeable, what is agreeable & disagreeable. If he wants, he remains percipient of loathsomeness in the presence of what is not loathsome. If he wants, he remains percipient of unloathsomeness in the presence of what is loathsome. If he wants, he remains percipient of loathsomeness in the presence of what is not loathsome & what is. If he wants, he remains percipient of unloathsomeness in the presence of what is loathsome & what is not. If he wants — in the presence of what is loathsome & what is not — cutting himself off from both, he remains equanimous, alert & mindful.

    Indriya-bhavana Sutta
    :)
  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    edited May 2009
    And what, monks, is the power of benevolence? If a stream-winner becomes equal to a stream-winner; a once-returner equal to a once-returner; a non-returner equal to a non-returner; and an arahant equal to an arahant. This, monks, is called the power of benevolence.

    AN 9.5

    :)
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