Meditation foundations
mockeymind
Veteran
HI to all. I am trying to review three of the indigents of meditation (Morality, Concentration, Wisdom) As the practice goes deep, there are some past that keeps popping up and somehow reduced clear thought, which I believe is very important.
What I am trying to point out is that- there are past expereinces i.e conflicts, misconducts, wrong actions, guilt etc. that needs to reconcile. Some of these needs forgiveness for oneself and others.
Looks like "a Mara" again trying to stop a meditator to achieve maximum benefits from the practice.
Also, there is a Dharma talk that encourages not to deal with the past nor the future. The idea of the present moment. If we will dig the past in reconcillation for example, this means that we are re-opening the past with all its pain and agony, the whole nine yards. Is this in contradiction with mindfulness?
I felt that the practice is requiring me to acknowledge/reconcile something I've done before, but in order to do that, I need to re-open painful and unwanted thoughts of the past in order to settle and lay a good foundation in meditation. It also mean that I need to ask forgiveness to some individuals. Can anybody share their struggles of the "past" and how to look at it without losing the present moment? Thanks.
Comments
@mockeymind
Sange is one word for describing a need to bring some resolution to some manifestations of karma that you share some responsibility for creating.
It is a common step in a Zen practice.
The need to address this has probably been there since that karma was originally created.
All you've done is sit still enough to understand your responsibility for it where formally your ego obscured your comprehension of it.
Often it means writing sincere letters of apology to the people you've hurt.
Sometimes meeting them face to face to try to bring some peace to it all.
You can call it the means to laying a good foundation for meditation but really it is just taking some responsibility for the karma that you've created and seeing if you can bring some resolution to it's inertia.
Zen monastery's have a formal retreat/ceremony at least once a year where Sange plays a major part of that Sangha's retreat.
Google ........." Sange in Zen" for info and suggestions.
Hi @mockeymind.
I find this purification of past karma practice quite helpful. Not sure if it's exactly what you're after but may be useful.
http://thubtenchodron.org/1992/08/purify-negative-karma/
I like the section where Ven. Chodron talks about perceiving the times when we've made mistakes and done the wrong thing as an indication of our mind being unbalanced. This is a much more constructive way to look at it than saying "Oh no, look what I've done. I am such an idiot" and all those negative things we say to ourselves about past mistakes.
@how @Bunks
Thank you all for the response and links. I never thought that my practice is pointing me in another road which is "karma purification" As a new buddhist I thought I could just "let go" of everything without taking responsibility of the past. And honestly that makes more sense in building a good foundation of mindfulness.
The reason why I am in this path of cultivating morality is to lay a strong ground in meditation (the original plan) . I found out that morality seems broad in buddhism, clean living, guilt free, a decent livelihood just to mention few. I was told that it helps to attain mindfulness and clarity.
I will look into karma purification, I just noticed that it is a "Zen" thing? I hope we also have that in the Theravada tradition. May we all be happy.
@Mockeymind - the purification practice I have pointed you to is part of the Tibetan tradition.
Being a Westerner, I don't have a really strong attachment to any tradition.
I just use what works for me at the time!
@mockeymind
Zen makes sange a part of it's formal practice but sange also simply reflects what meditation will have any serious practitioner evolve to do.
Buddhist Meditation will simply take you there regardless of what ever school you call yours.
Anyone@s decision in any given moment are the results of the thousands of Karmic choices made by their parents, their culture, their teachers and the thousands of decisions made by their ancestors ad infinitum. Never mind the millions of decisions that have brought you to this point if you believe in re-birth. Why beat yourself up over some unskillful decision you have made?
Let it rise and go like everything else.
@Bunks .... Thanks for that link. It was a good read! That's going in my Buddha bag ....
For a long while now, I have made it a point to live by two sentences:
Shantideva's "If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying? If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying?"
and Sheng Yen's "Face it, accept it, deal with it, then let it go."
I tend to think that the past is the past and should not be revisited.
Even if, let's say, you did something wrong to anyone and wanted to apologize, maybe that person is long over it and has moved on to other things.
You should do the same.
The present moment is full of possibilities: now you can plant new seeds for the future.
And now is the only moment you actually have.
Guilt and anxiety or worry are useless baggage.
Definitely base ya meditation on the right view OP, so ya gotta totally believe cause and effect, karma and rebirth!
Oh, yeah. Totally. Seems like the hip word for the socially inept and intellectually challenged..... Totally....
Totally
...who am I kidding ...