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annica impermanence
slowmichael
Explorer
Everything is in flux and that is something that becomes clearer when meditating, at least that should be the case.
My brain is talented for concentrating on one subject which can be a good thing but there is a downside i can get obsessed easily that is not so good.
I can not see a flux in the obsessional state of mind, my mind seems like stuck in a returning pattern it is like the movie groundhog day.
Perhaps i do not understand the concept of annica, buddhism is sometimes complicated.
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So you are saying because your brain gets into patterns the patterns don't seem to change very much but rather go on and on?
@slowmichael, see this thread for a similar dilemma....?
We have physical, emotional, social and intellectual needs unless we have become Buddha Robot (not recommended). We have instinctual, caring, pleasure senses driven by our evolution from animals, unless we are evolving Boddhisattvas (allegedly).
We are stuck in patterned behavour by repetition, the devil we know, comfort, laziness etc.
Meditation allows us to become aware of some of these arisings. Wether they can be changed or redirected is dependent on us.
What she said...
Patterns are just higher level concepts, which share the same nature as everything else. We are used to using knowledge for assessing impermanence of object, but try assessing it by observing it's presence before your awareness, and you will understand Anicca.
Yes that is the case.
So i should look at a pattern like it is any other "object" a complicated object. Looking or rather assessing it's presence, .... . I do not understand this.
Are those patterns always present? If not, then they are obviously not permanent. Observing anyone object in this way, impermanence of all is revealed.
No the patterns are not always there. But they can be there for a meditation session. During such a meditation i perceive that as a loop.
So, we have impermanence.
What do you expect to appear in their place?
@slowmichael
Anicca I think anyway is a deep apprehension is that everything is impermanent. But not just understanding it, but fully realising it.
Can you name anything that is permanent? Not even our sun is permanent and surely you/me will die even before it perishes. So is the same with everything.
For me I start with myself, I realise I am not permanent. In anyway. Much easier to let go of things because there's nothing to hold onto.
I don't understand what you mean by a pattern. Is it thought about a specific thing? Like "oh I should feel my body..." "oh drifted away again" that kind of thing?
I use the world 'thought worlds'. But with me there seems to be quite a variety rather than always the same ones. Still there are certain ones that do come up again and again. You seem to kind of enter a thought world and at a point you realize what is happening. And then at a point you forget and enter another one.
Appropriate.
These fantasy realms, thought meanderings, distractions, arisings are nothing, empty, not-real. However that is the pattern of behavour that arises for many of us. It is also very real in another sense. It is effecting our being, in many ways it is our being and is therefore very much a substance, a thing, a permanency of garbage thinking.
Oh the humanity.
What is a gal to do?
Well initially we expect something like this:
Meditation is a means of transforming the mind. Buddhist meditation practices are techniques that encourage and develop concentration, clarity, emotional positivity, and a calm seeing of the true nature of things. By engaging with a particular meditation practice you learn the patterns and habits of your mind, and the practice offers a means to cultivate new, more positive ways of being. With regular work and patience these nourishing, focused states of mind can deepen into profoundly peaceful and energised states of mind. Such experiences can have a transformative effect and can lead to a new understanding of life.
https://thebuddhistcentre.com/text/what-meditation
Only later does 'just sitting', 'abiding' become possible ...
Who expected to be enlightened in the first month or two? Year or two ... hey wait ... decades? Lifetimes?
Holy freakin' mandalas of hell ...
Tsk, tsk ... and back to the calm Middle Way ...
S'cuse me for a late reaction, the logic board of my mac just got fried. A good example of impermanence. I would have been furious in the past for this, i still don't like it but i accept it.
I have the "oh i should feel my body…." syndrome but i know i am a perfectionist. So i kind of judge myself when meditating but i have learned to be aware of this and most of the time i see it but it does not distract me.
"Thoughtworlds" that might be a good description, i also have a variety of thought worlds but the theme is more ore less always the same.