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Four Foundations of Awareness + Three Chracteristics
Bunks
Australia Veteran
in Mindfulness
The Blessed Buddha once said, "Friends, this is the only way to the mental purification of beings, the path to Nibbana."
1. Seeing the BODY (and all bodies) as merely transient, filthy and foul frames. Not me or mine.
2. Awareness of FEELINGS just as annoying, temporary emotional responses. Not me or mine.
3. Awareness of MIND only as habituated and temporary moods. Can almost set my clock to them. Coming and going. Not me or mine.
4. Awareness of all PHENOMENA simply as constructed and momentary mental states. Not me or mine. Not existing out there separately from the mind.
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Comments
@Bunks I'm finding you become so much more aware of these states with practice. I am still in awe of the Buddha's teachings and the impact of this discovery as a way out. Thanks for posting that.
It's so true @Rojeho - I sat in front of my little Buddha statue last night and looked at him and just kept saying "Thank you, thank you, thank you..." over and over again.
And I really meant it.
Don't know where I'd be if I hadn't discovered this extraordinary man and what he shared with us!
Bravo @Bunks
refuge of the mind/intellect (where we start)
knowing refuge of The Heart (where we continue)
Swimming in Nibbana/Nirvana/Buddha Nurture (stream entrants dive in)
We get soft, fluid, water residents, drowners ...
Gratitude and love all the way! Thank you for this @Bunks
Speaking of my little mate, here he is!
"Buddha by Candlelight"
gorgious sculpture art.
What is the 'three characteristics'? Did I miss seeing it?
Good question @Jeffrey - it's embedded within each of the four without being spelt out e.g.
1. Seeing the BODY (and all bodies) as merely transient (anicca), filthy and foul frames (dukkha). Not me or mine (anattā).
Ok, I am not sure if I should be resurrecting this thread because it is two years old but tomorrow the zoom sangha is talking about the Four Foundations of Mindfulness and the Satipatthana Sutta and the insightful way Thay interprets things.
https://plumvillage.org/sutra/discourse-on-the-four-establishments-of-mindfulness/
I wonder if that worked. I don't remember ever posting a link before so I hope it worked.
I really like Thich Nhat Hanhs take on these things and especially his take on the 3 Dharma Seals (another reason this thread stuck out at me when I searched the topic).
Instead of impermanence, dukkha and non-self, he lists them as impermanence, non-self and Nirvana. The reason being that not all experience is suffering or leads to suffering. Especially once we've seen deeply into impermanence and non-self untainted because then we can enjoy reality just simply as it is. That is why the Flower Sermon has such meaning. Mahakasyapa understood and saw the flower as it truly is -"suchness"- and that kind of happiness cannot be tainted by our aversion to impermanence because it is brought about by truly understanding impermanence.
Instead of reinforcing the negative aspects of being, he reminds us of what happens when we see things as they are without doctrine or concepts.
That's my 2 minute contribution to class tomorrow.
I just re-read the text (your link works perfectly @david) and I have to say I feel that it is quite a broad focus, to be aware of body, mind, feelings, and objects in the mind. Perhaps it’s just me, but when I try to be aware of more than one thing I end up switching my attention between them.
You actually cannot hold two cogent thoughts in your mind, at once.
so I would say you consider them as a checklist, and have them in your mind on a loop....until they become but one Focus; one awareness...
It's the same sutta as the o/p but @Bunks only posted the introduction. It's to be done as @federica pointed out. One thing at a time like a check list.
That was actually a nice class even though we only covered the 1st foundation or breath. Thats ok, we are devoting the whole month to it.
The guided meditation part was insightful as at the end, he made a seamless transition from the 1st to the 2nd foundation or from noticing and looking deeply into the breath to noticing and looking deeply into the body. We went from the breath into the lungs and then to the oxygen in our blood. There was nothing forced and the transition from the 1st to the 2nd was so smooth and natural.
After class I had time to do a longer version of the exercise and when I got to and continued from where we left off in class, I was eventually able to recognize the universe within the bile in my gallbladder. I found nothing filthy there, just a gallbladder doing a fine job of holding bile. Something it wouldn't be able to do without impermanence and the emptiness of non-self.
And so I smiled and am very grateful for this day.
Ah ha!
Quite an insight!
When we bring attention devoid and calmed from aversion, worry and ignorance our very experience is emptied of attachment to suffering.
"NO EYE, EAR, NOSE, TONGUE, BODY OR MIND; NO FORM,
SOUND, SMELL, TASTE, TOUCH OR MIND OBJECT; NO REALM OF THE EYE, UNTIL WE COME TO NO REALM OF CONSCIOUSNESS."
Heart Sutra
oops ... no shouting ...
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/heartv08.htm
Like the parable about the guy running from the tiger and coming to a precipice where he grabbed a vine only to see another tiger below ready to eat him. The two mice were gnawing at the vine. His situation was hopeless but he saw a luscious strawberry growing beside him and holding the vine with one hand, he grabbed the strawberry with the other and how sweet it tasted!
Probably the best strawberry he ever had.