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A VERY Short Practice.
Citta
Veteran
in Meditation
Think of someone you think has wronged you. See them chained to you by that wrong. Cut the chain from your end.
Let it go.
14
Comments
I have just sincerely tried to do your practice.
but I honestly can't think of anyone.
Perhaps you can give more of an explanation
of someone that you unchained yourself
from with this practice?
If it ain't for you, it aint for you @how.
It might just be for me. Thats OK.
_/_
@Citta
I can understand this practice by remembering where ever my ego has become entangled in a relationship with another.
I think that to make ones meditation practice a priority over everything else is a continuous letting go of our chain building.
Your practice seems a wise way to approach wrongs related to another when they are a re-occurring experience in ones meditation.
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You cannot cut a chain @Citta, when everything is interlinked. Just a very SHORT answer.
You can these chains...we make them . Snip..there ya go.
I am not talking about the chains I bind myself with.
Trungpa talks about this in his book about lojong. The trick is to notice someone else who has passion, aversion, or indifference. Lojong is about tonglen and you send goodness and take badness.
So what you do is when someone has passion etc to you you breath the negativity of passion into you and you breath out peace from passion to them. What happens is that passion etc falls apart because if there is no outer object it ceases to be passion etc..
The same holds true for aversion and indifference.
>
...Expand....?
You want a long answer? I'll try Matron...
'Who' is cutting the chain from 'their' end? OP statement
You have to reconcile that there is a wronged associated with one who is doing the wrong-doing. And therefore they are not independent of one another, are they (see Pratītyasamutpāda) ? It is the dualistic one who perceives that they can cut the other off; but really can you that link? Shrug.
You can also say yes, we make these chains, but who is making these chains?
But I'm not a Dzogchen Master... I am a Dzogchen Inquisitor?
No. Snip...
clink
But this isn't Dzogchen we're talking about. It's simple visualization practice, similar to Tonglen or Kriya Yoga, and a pretty good one.
You can pester yourself all day long about the existential nature of the 2 Truths, or you can practice.
Perhaps I was linking too many threads together @Chaz; thanks for giving me a gps reading.
However, my focus at the moment is on an aspect of practice that links across many threads here, and perhaps I need do need to let it go. But when I do, I keep coming full circle back to the same place. Looping the loop, bloop, bloop
It's maddening but fun - but serious practice is for serious practitioners I suppose; best leave you all to it... Bloop!
You could always think of yourself . . .
. . . or being a Mahayanist of sorts, you might like to chain yourself to a blade of grass or two or something more sentient and vow to cut those chains until they have no attachments . . .
Me please. I thank you. :om: .
and now back to the mowing . . .
Then you're not letting go.
Let it go. Cut the chain.
@anataman what are you smoking over there?
Thanks for the idea, @Citta. There are certainly things/ideas and people I can cut chains to. I think it could be quite a helpful practice.
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I wish it were an easy thing to do for everyone. There would be less crowded prisons. In truth, the chain is made by self identification and self-cherishing. There really isn't anything to cut in the first place.
I'm not smoking anything @karasti, I don't need to imbibe mind-altering substances, I just meditate for those effects, as it's just as much fun, but without the hangover and hangups; I was just having fun; butI s'pose it's time to head back to serious practice:
Now what should I be letting go of? What am I missing here? Hmmm Cogitate Cognizantly; Where are those clever thoughts when you really need them.
I realise 'I am' is just a superfluous illusion, that I use to represent myself to myself - curious. I no longer desire to be happy, because I am happy knowing I'm nothing, curiouser and curiouser. OK some things make me unhappy, but on the whole I'm not striving to 'be happy'... 'BUMP'
It might just become a bit of a frustration if aspects of the external world keep insisting that I need to let go of something, when I can't see myself grasping onto anything, and was just living my life happily.
Oh I get it - cue comment 'you need to get a teacher, as they'll tell you what your problem is'; but I don't have a problem - do I?
Anataman starts questioning himself, when after years of questioning himself he had worked through a satisfactory answer.... No wonder some people like to go and hide away for many years on retreat; but I bet even they can't shake themselves completely from the illusion.
lol
@anataman
Citta did not suggest cutting anyone off. He just mentioned cutting off a perceived wrong that when held tightly, limits our freedom like a leash . That leash is an act of will and actually only exists by us deliberately recreating it moment after moment. He is just suggesting that we should search within to see where this might apply to us and let go of it.
Even thinking that one can cut off another is just part of the self's dream of it's own delusional independence.
Citta was only suggesting another way of lessening our maintenance of an identity dream that the Buddha's teachings encourage us to awaken from.
emptiness is form. indeed they are interconnected which is in line with the idea that the universe including human relationships are highly structured. Just like you could cut an actual physical chain between two people or a wall so to can you break a chain forged of the other four mental skhandas. Or you can let the chain stay there, but why would you? Letting go is a dharmic teaching because letting go of things helps release craving, defensiveness, and fear.
Cutting isn't removing the relationship entirely. It just means placing your mind elsewhere such as on the breath. The 'other' is empty of inherent existence. So when you attack any kind of 'shit' from your end and let go then you are not being reactive and interwound with the negativity of the relationship. Letting it go leads to peace which leads to a stable platform. Of course you can just let the negativity be and work with it but I think ultimately even if you do that at some point the negativity is going to run out of energy because you are not feeding it getting interwound in passion, aversion, or indifference.
That's a really deep question. I don't know who makes the chains. I guess you would have to say the ignorance and dream nature of sentient beings causes the chains.
but you aren't "nothing"
Sadly, that's not what a teacher is for.
@federica - can I tell him he has a problem and not get into trouble?
@anataman, are you sure you are nothing? We still are, at times happy, but the happiness is fluid and changes as it is just sensitivity. I think we want to be happy, but like you say not cling to happiness.
@anataman I hope you know my "what are you smoking" was intended as silliness directed at your somewhat confusing and all over the place posts in this topic. If you don't feel you are holding onto anything, then peachy keen. I don't think Citta directed his post at you. Just to those who might find it helpful. As usual, take what you can use and leave the rest.
I wish my teacher could solve my problems, or tell me what they were, LOL.
My personal belief on it is, if we are still here on earth, in a body, we still have problems.
I tried to do it......but it was too long
@Citta thanks for the post, I do something similar in the form of feeling empathy for those who wrong us. They need the compassion and it helps the relationship!
It sounds like a good idea to me. I’m not sure visualizations work for me, but it’s worth a try.
I remember one particular occasion where I felt really angry with a man who was my chief at work at the time. I felt wronged, abused and - like in English – the brief expression for the situation is to say you feel “f*cked”.
What helped me was seeing how using this word and the corresponding image (!) for the situation made things a lot worse.
I stopped feeling miserable about the thing when I switched to simply – in my mind – rephrasing what had happened in neutral terms. I could even explain to myself what the man’s reasons were.
Some need to hear it in a different way. What does it sound like to break our painful clanking of others chains to us or our stifling of their screaming? What can we say to them and ourself?
How do we harmonise with a more skilful singing? Not a technique but an instrumental means of being . . .
Personally, can I recommend the empty boat practice?
Intention is all, @Chaz.
You know what's needed for constructive discussion. Watch the boundaries, and do whatever you feel is needed...
I try to remember that there is a whole host of circumstances in the other person's life that leads them to act the way they do. It doesn't always work completely, but it usually helps. Sometimes I also try to remember when I may have committed a similar wrong.. if I've done something similar and I remember it, it'll usually stop the anger cold.
I am just playing a silly game, but it is quite revealing, isn't it, when you play a fool. I'll stop it now; seriously, I will stop. ... \ lol / ...
That's better.
Of course I'm not nothing @Jeffrey, or who is having this conversation? And you can be happy, and not be afraid to say it...
@Chaz @karasti I know my problem... Thanks for reminding me of it.
@Citta Sorry - you make a very good point in the OP; letting go is not always as easy as it seems, especially if you see it as 'I am letting go', which is an almost impossible task if you think about it; letting go is just letting go, and this practice actually works very well if your intention and motivation are to let it just come and go, and not 'try' to let go. Not sure if I am making sense anymore ... \ lol / ...
Chains are difficult to cut without the right tool...
Mental chains are cut by willed intention..and let go of.
@Citta we don't will ourselves suffering. Yes it is mind that we create these chains but as @SpinyNorman stated it's not always easy to break these!
Have you cut all your chains? I'm doing my best to do so. Although some chains are not even there do I'm having a hard time cutting them!!??
@pegembara I love this! I will try out the empty boat. This is such a fantastic analogy.
My posting this does not carry implication that my chains are cut..I didn't invent it as an upaya...it came from a monk, who probably did not invent it either.
And it is not a one -off matter. Those chains have to cut over and over and over..whatever means one uses.
I wouldn't be too sure that 'we don't will ourselves suffering ' btw.
In my line of work I see people doing that everyday due to guilt and unresolved issues.
Thank you @Citta and @pegembara for the wonderful visualization exercises.
I had been worrying myself sick over my silly neighbour's behaviour for two days (sorry, I've been trying to come up with some compassionate, loving-kindness, tonglen, Buddhist epithet to describe my neighbour's behaviour but could only come up with silly or dim-witted), and this did the trick.
I just looked at her, closed my eyes, mentally snipped and silently breathed out "Empty boat, wind blowing."
Right Intention is helpful..so tools like mettabhavana and tonglen
Wrong intention won't cut chains. This short arrow shot practise is not intended to replace anything..certainly not mettabhavana or tonglen
If its not useful..don't do it.
This is a good exercise. Thanks for sharing. Letting go is what it's all about. Especially expectations. Our friend @ourself said something one time that has stuck with me..."let go without throwing". That reflection along with this exercise will do wonders for me. Thanks again.
In case I don't say it enough...you post some insightful stuff. I look forward to talking about soccer...ahem...I mean, football with you.
I look forward to it @Vastmind...I will probably need emotional support before the contest gets towards the later stages...Whether I am being pessimistic about England's chances or just realistic I am not sure...
A pessimistic realist, I think.
Or a real pessimist.....
Take your pick!! ~LOL!!~
Of course I would love to be wrong...All together now..." Three Lions On A Shirt ....."