Pathways to Self-healing: Class 3

Key Themes (Some available in a prior post):

- Karma
- Third Noble Truth: Freedom
- The Second Principal Path: Compassion
- The "Gap"
- How an understanding of karma effects the generation of compassion

Karma

The Third Noble Truth

The Second Principal Path

The "Gap": How to Use Recognition to Override Defaut Reactions
Freedom from suffering begins with a conscious choice to override automatic or unconscious conditioning and its effects.
What is necessary is a moment of recognition known as the "gap" and an alternative, more enlightened, response.

The unconscious cycle of stress and suffering is constituted by:
Misperception (Avidya) => Afflictive Emotions (Klesha) => Reactive/Automatic Behavior (Karma) => Adaptation to a compulsive lifestyle

The conscious "gap" of freedom and opportunity can occur anywhere in the chain or cycle, but is most easily recognized (smirti) between afflictive emotion and behavior. We are typically too unconscious of our misperception, but we can recognize our afflictive emotions: greed, hatred, attachment, aversion, pride, jealousy etc. We can train to correct our behavioral response to these emotions, using mindfulness and positive emotional antidotes (love, care, joy and peace). Training involves anticipating and pre visualizing what your "button" are and know your conditioned response sets. If it offten easier to identify these in contemplative therapy or with your meditation instructor. Small gaps and minor correctives lead to new tendencies and finally to cessation (nirodha) of addictive responses. We are not talking about the big liberation here (nirvana), rather we are talking about small, practical everyday liberations that add up. If you dont plant any new negative seeds, you will not create the future causes of suffering. For more on how karma works read the earlier post.


How an understanding of karma effects the generation of compassion
So then how does an understanding of karma give rise to the second principle path: compassion? What is the relationship between wisdom, that sees how things are working, and the loving response to other living beings? There are several ways to answer this, here are two:

1. Seeing how we suffer from misperception, gives rise to the understanding of how all other beings are suffering and acting out due to the same causes. If we achieve true transcendent renunciation, defined in the text on the three principal paths (lam sum na tso) as recognizing that there is not a single experience of true happiness to be found in compulsive or unconscious living, and seeking night and day for true liberation, then compassion is the recognition that other living beings too are caught up in the dissatisfying rounds of compulsive living (samsara) without a moments rest, relief or happiness. What's worse, is that most living beings dont even recognize their complicit involvement in their captivity, and remain asleep to their true potential for freedom. This leads to the heart-felt realization, that we should strive for our own awakening and freedom, in order to be maximally effective in helping others wake up and achieve their innate potential as well. That is the essence of the second path, compassion and its correlate, the awakened spirit (bodhicitta).

How does compassion work in practice, once you understand karma? If you take responsibility for the seeds (bjas) and tendencies (samskaras) from your past that color your current misperception (avidya), then you are forced to work with difficult situations and irritating people in a different way. The world is coming from you, not at you. Perception is reality. The sense of feeling hurt by others is coming from your side, conditioned by your past memories (bijas), tendencies (samskaras) and actions (karma). So when you feel hurt by others, you must recognize the experience as the result of a prior action (karma) of hurting another living being. Recognize cause and effect. If you feel hurt, its because you have hurt another. Does this mean you should be a door mat and allow others to hurt you? - of course not! But you do need to recognize where things are really coming from. Recognize that the real enemy is within. The irritating person hurting you, is not the enemy, the real enemy is your and thier avidya, misperception, about how things work and who you really are. When you feel hurt, blame your misperception, recognize the karma that has given rise to the unpleasant experience and resolve to manage it in a different way. Resolve not to go with you knee jerk reaction. Resolve to reverse your tendencies (samskaras) and actions (karma) with ethics (sila); resolve to counteract your afflcitive emotions (kelshas) with meditation (samadhi) on positive states (brahma viharas); and resolve to see through your misperception (avidya) by studying reality (prajna).

2. The other implication of karma and compassion is how we choose to respond and behave to and with others in the world.
So how should we respond to other's negativity? If you respond to the irritating person with blame, anger, aggression etc, then according to karma, what are you creating? A future moment of suffering for yourself - right? So from the enlightened perspective, what is the best way to respond? Respond with ethics, love and compassion. Recognize the origin of the problem and the most helpful solution. Deposit a new seed into your mind stream that will produce a different future result. Understand that the irritating person who is hurting you, is both your past negativity coming full circle in your internal perception, as well as another living being under the control of their avidya in the external situation. What do you really need and what do they really need? Chances are the answer is the same: care and a feeling of safety. Don't allow them to perpetuate suffering by hurting you or themselves. Set limits and boundaries, communicate your own needs skillfully, motivated out of care and concern for both parties involved. The two antidotes for dealing with difficult people are: recognition/wisdom, of where suffering is really coming from, and love/care about how to effectively respond for your own well-being and the welfare of others. More about how to maximally transform adversity into the spiritual path, please refer to the lojong (min training) teachings of Mahayana buddhism.

Karma

Karma

Preamble:
Types of Buddhist teachings: Ordinary, hidden/subtle, and extremely hidden/subtle.
Karma is an extremely hidden teaching.
Ultimately, only enlightened beings can understand karma directly and fully.
Ordinary minds can not perceive karma directly, and therefore must rely on inferential reasoning and confidence in our teachers and texts.
Buddha said of all his teachings Karma was the most difficult to understand.

There are different types of causality that govern biology, the environment etc. The Buddhist teaching on karma concern the causality of mind and one's experience of either suffering or happiness, bondage or freedom.


Definitions:
Karma: The law of cause and effect
The science of causality, how things work.
Karma means action, but refers to the intentions that drive actions; and the consequences or results of actions.

Intentional actions create our experience.
Its not what happens to us, but how we experience or perceive what is happening to us that is our karma.
Its not the brick that falls on your head, but how you perceive and evaluate that experience that is your karma ripening.
At a very deep level, we can say that you don't have karma, rather you are karma. "You" are the sum total of your past action, and you change "you" in the future, by what you do now.

World Views:
World Views are meta-philosophies that answer the questions why do things happen and how are things working?

All world views explain the nature of reality, and have implications to how we live and relate to others (ie. ethics).

3 Main World Views:
Theism: God is in control of the forces of nature and the direction of our lives.
Implication: If we surrender and have faith in God, we will receive our blessings in heaven.
Problem: If there is only one God (monotheism), and He is all powerful (omnipotent) and all compassionate, then how do we explain evil and suffering? Either there are many gods, in which case how do we choose, or He is not all powerful, in which case why surrender to him, or He is not all compassionate, in which case why love him. Theologians have argued this problem for centuries. Ultimately they say that this problem is beyond our understanding and that suffering is a test of our faith. But again, if god was all powerful and all compassionate, why test us with misery?

Materialism: No specific forces are in control of nature and our experience. Things are randomly occurring and are not predictable.
Implications: Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die and there is no reason to be moral because nothing matters.
Problem: Unethical and amoral lifestyle, in which we harm ourselves, others and the earth. Why would you even go to school or have a bank account if you didn't believe in those efforts having a consequence?

Causality: We are directly responsible for the forces that shape our lives and expereince.
Implication: We create our own happiness and our own suffering.
Problem: Are we mature enough to accept the responsibility for our lives, or do we secretly have the childhood fantasy of wishing others (God, parents, governments) will take care of us? the other main problem of karma is the gap that occurs between cause and effect. Because we do not perceive the mechanisms of karma directly, and a cause and it's effect my be separated by a time gap, it is very hard for us to understand, and accept, that this is the way things are working.

Types of Causality:

Environmental Causality: There is no environmental causality as such, because the environment is not conscious or sentient. While there is a science of cause and effect in the natural world, there is no conscious intention driving it. This is the difference between "natural laws" such as gravity and "psychological laws" of karma.

Biological Causality: There is a whole domain of science that observes biological cause and effect. Because the mind and body are separate, albeit interrelated, there are distinct causal forces driving our physical bodies. However, in the tantric view (secret teachings) of Buddhism, it is asserted that mind and psychology determine the processes of the body.

Psychological Causality: will be discussed below.

Dharmic Causality: There is a unique type of causality ascribed the the enlightened activity (Tib. trinlay) of a Buddha. Because there is no erroneous sense of self for an enlightened being, then there are no imprints and no place for the imprints to reside.

Outlines of Psychological Karma:

General Characteristics of Karma:
1. The certainty of karma
2. The magnification of karma
3. One will never experience the result of a karma one did not create the cause for
4. Karma causes created are never lost*

I. The certainty of karma
All experience arises from a cause. Nothing is random. Happiness arises from the 10 virtues and suffering arises from the 10 non-virtues. The law of cause and effect is definite and certain. An apple seed can only produce and apple tree.

10 Non-virtues:
3 non virtues of Body: killing, stealing, sexual inappropriateness
4 non-virtues of Speech: lying, slander (divisive talk), harsh words, gossip
3 non-virtues of Mind: Covetousness (greed), harmful intent (hatred), and wrong view (misperception, closed mindedness).

10 Virtues:
3 virtues of Body: Protecting the well-being of others, generosity, respecting the feelings of others.
4 virtues of Speech: Speaking truthfully, speaking to harmonize others, speaking sweetly, speaking meaningfully
3 virtues of Mind: Rejoicing vicariously with others, having love and compassion for others, perceiving reality clearly/precisely (ie. interdependence/emptiness).


II. The magnification of karma
Great effects may arise from small actions. Internal causation seems to involve a magnification, whereby immense results can have very seemingly insignificant origins. The result of tremendous suffering can arise from even a tiny non-virtue like a harsh word, likewise immense joy and happiness may arise from even one kind word. A tiny seed produces a huge apple tree.

III. One will never experience the result of a karma one did not create the cause for
Because cause and effect are inextricably connected, you will never experience the result of an action you did not produce the cause for. Suffering will not arise without a cause, but neither will happiness. If you want to be happy, but are continuously harming others, don't expect to get what you want. On the other hand, if you know you are treating others respectfully and are conscious of your ethical conduct, then rest assured you will reap the fruit in kind.

IV. Karmic causes created are never lost
Karma does not perish over time even if it does not ripen due to absence of conditions. A cause is never lost, it will most certainly give rise to an effect at some point in time. We don't know when a karmic seed will ripen, because there is a tricky "gap" or lapse in time between a cause and its result. We should just assume that we have a massive store of negative imprints on our minds and that it is only a matter of time before we experience their ripening. This assumption helps us to not get too complacent when "good" things are happening, nor too paralyzed when "bad" things are happening, because our experience is constantly changing based on the ripening of past actions. The point is to consciously create your own positive outcome and purify your past negativities. Karma can not be removed by the power of another being, such as God's grace or the power of the Buddha . It can only be mitigated by our own efforts using the method of the "Four Opponent Powers or Purification" (see below).


Different Types of Karma:

Virtuous karma: which leads to rebirth (or positive experience) in the three upper realms

Non-virtuous karma: which leads to rebirth (or negative experience) in the three lower realms

Non-fluctuating karma: actions done with different levels of concentration, resulting in experience of the Form or Formless realms (higher states of consciousness).

Throwing karma: when all four conditions of karma are present (see below) there is sufficient force to direct consciousness into one of the Six Realms of Existence at the time of death.

Completing Karma: karma not containing all four conditions (see below), that influence the circumstances (either experience, predisposition, or environment) in the next rebirth.

Four Conditions of Karma: A Complete Karma
Intention
Object
Action
Completion

I will steal a wallet; there is a wallet to steal; I attempt to steal it; I obtain the wallet.
I want to help others: there is a person who needs help; I do some kind gesture; A person feels helped.

Four Results of Karma (Throwing and Completeing Karmas):

I. Throwing karma

Throwing Karma: Intentional actions at the time of death that propel (throw) consciousness into one of the Six Realms of Existence:
Animal => Paranoia and anxiety
Hungry ghost => Addiction
Hell => Trauma, dissociative states, schizophrenic and delusional states
Human => Depression and dissatisfaction
Demi-god => Envy and competiveness
Gods => Narcissism

II.-IV Types of Completing karmas

Karma similar to the Action (Predisposition and Tendency)
If you kill in the past then you inherit the mental tendency to kill
If you love others in the past, you inherit the tendency to be kind, gentle and loving

Karma similar to the Cause (Experience)
If you abuse others in the past then you experience abuse
If you love others in the past then you experience being loved of others

Karma similar to the Environment
If you kill in the past, then you experience a threatening environment like a war zone or place of intolerance.
If you loved in the past, then you experience a loving, safe, beautiful environment


Heaviness of Karma:
All four conditions of the karma are present as opposed to only some of them.
Example: Picking up someone's wallet in the street. In this case, one does not have the intention to steal (condition of intention) nor is there a actual person (object) in sight, but this action still carries some level of karmic imprint of stealing because you are taking something that has not been given and their is a person somewhere out there that is experiencing the loss. Your mind knows what its like to loose a wallet.

Karma is strengthened by:

1) Nature of the virtue or non-virtue: killing is heavier than stealing; saving life is heavier than giving food.
2) Intention: The degree of resolve or strength of the emotional investment/intensity in the action.
3) Object: The objects have weight; parents and teachers are the heaviest objects towards which to direct action because they give life and liberation. An action towards a human being is a heavier karma than an action towards an animal because a person is closer to liberation.
4) Action: how conscious one performs an actions; the amount of preparation, premeditation. Is it spontaneous and based on passion in the moment or is it well thought out? Is one conscious of the principal of karma while doing the action?
5) Energy: The more energy the heavier the karma is both directions. Doing something nice for a loved one doesn’t require as much energy as doing something nice for a difficult person.
6) Frequency: How often the action is conducted, shapes the imprint and makes it more robust.
7) Non virtues actions conducted without an opponent, versus non-virtues counteracted by the Four Opponent Powers. (see below)


The Four Opponent Powers:

This is the Buddhist purification practice used to cleanse specific karmic imprints that have been caused but have not yet arisen.
Each of the Four Powers (Refuge, Regret, Repair, Resolve) counteract one of the Four Conditions of Karma:

The Power of Reliable Refuge => which counters the Object
Refuge or reliance on Buddha, dharma, sangha, essentially your own selfless nature and potential for change rather than on your ordinary sense of being inadequate in some fixed way.

The Power of Sincere Regret => which counters the Intention
Have genuine Remeasures and Regret for each negative action.

The Power of the Repair => which counters the Action
Perform the antidote or repair by mentally and then actually doing something (generous, moral, caring, kind.)
If you hurt someone, imagine being kind to them, then actually find that person or another person and act accordingly.

The Power of Resolution => which counters the Completion
Make a sincere vow or promise not to commit the action again. Hold yourself accountable for a specific time period, even if it is just a day in which you do not repeat the action. Do not break your commitments.

Pathways to Self-healing: Class 2

Key Themes/Available in a prior post:

7-fold Mentor Bonding Meditation

The Second Noble Truth: The Cause of Suffering

The Selfless Self

Pathways to Self-healing: Class 1

Key Themes:

Suffering: The First Noble Truth
Renunciation: The First Principal Path
Three Fold Refuge
Seeking a Mentor

Class Reading:
The Three Principal Paths by Geshe Michael Roach:
Find here



First Noble Truth: Pervasive Dissatisfaction and Suffering
See earlier post

The Need for Transcendent Renunciation
See earlier post for the "Three Principal Paths"
Renunciation:
Is not about giving up our “stuff”, being broke, lonely, board and ugly.
You don’t have to give up things “out there”.

Renunciation is a shift in attitude. Reorganize your priorities. What’s important in life? Develop a motivation for spiritual progress, which will then underlie your worldly activities like work, relationships and even entertainment.

Renunciation means getting clear on the purpose of your life.

How is renunciation traditionally defined?
When you realize there is not a single moment of true happiness to be found in compulsive living (samsara) and when you seek night and day for liberation.


The Three fold Refuge
A realistic reliance or reliable refuge is where one goes for safe direction during times of difficulty. There are three reliances:

1. Teachers. The Buddha or one’s mentor. The source of knowledge acquisition in the Buddhist tradition comes through a long lineage of masters that trace their origin directly back to Shakyamuni Buddha. Role modeling is essential, as knowledge is passed directly from mentor to student. But the ultimate teacher, is Reality itself, one's innate potential for freedom and happiness. One's own Buddha or potential Awakening. When one bows to a statue of the Buddha, one acknowledges the potential for awakening that exists in all living beings. The first refuge is in the one who realized freedom, and therefor our own freedom.
2. The Teachings and Methods. In order to develop along the contemplative path one not only needs a teacher, but also the precise science, methodologies and arts that lead to awakening.
3. The Community. Traditionally the community is constituted by those who have experienced awakening, ie. the realization of selflessness/emptiness. It can also mean anyone who values and upholds the teachings and methods that lead one to Reality. Because contemplative learning is largely counter intuitive and counter cultural, strength and support is often found in numbers.
4. The Tibetan approach is to combine the three refuges into one, by seeings one's own personal mentor (guru) as the embodiment of the Buddha's awakening, methods and living support.


Seeking a Mentor, Guide or Teacher
Learning anything requires a Master to teach you, like music, math, and architecture.
You can’t figure it out on your own, at the very least it will be slow progress.
We all need help along our spiritual journey, so seeking the guidance of one who has "already seen the other side" is essential at the outset.

Qualities of the Mentor:
Test these by direct perception and by inference.

1. Well controlled. Good Ethics. Control over their behavior.
2. At peace. Good Meditation. Control over their mind. Focus and calm.
3. High peace. Insight into the nature of reality. Wisdom.
4. Spiritual qualities that exceed. Knows more than you.
5. Great efforts. Works hard and happily for their students.
6. Rich in scripture. Many spiritual traditions.
7. Deep realization of suchness. Direct or transformative experience.
8. Master instructor. Skilled in communication. Upaya.
9. Image of love. Not teaching for money or fame. Motivated by compassion.
10. Beyond discouragement. Never gives up or gets frustrated.

Find someone who meets as many of the list as possible.
You fill in the rest by changing your own mind.

These are the Minimum Qualities list:
1. Has more virtues than faults.
2. Cares more about the future life than this life.
3. Cares more about others than themselves.

Q: How do you start to find a teacher?
A: You have to consciously want one and then created the causes through generosity.

Qualities of the Student:
The qualities of seeing a good teacher come from being a good student.

1. Free from preconceptions. Have an open mind. A beginner's mind.
1A. Free from thinking your religion is the best. Fundamentalist attitude.
2. Ethical or spiritual intelligence. Knowing the difference between good and bad. Discernment. What to give up and what to take up.
3. High spiritual aspirations. To maximize you life.

The Three Problems of the Pot:
Things to avoid.

1. The downward facing pot. Cannot be filled. No open mind. Filled with concepts.
2. The dirty pot. Contaminated by bad motivation, like fame or gain.
3. The leaky pot. In one ear out the other. Can’t retain information.


Three Characteristics of a True Dharma Teaching:

1. Taught be the Buddha or enlightened being, who has reached perfection.
2. Stood the test of time. Longevity.
3. They deliver what that claim. They have helped living beings progress.

The Selfless Self

The Second Noble Truths points to the primary cause of suffering, misperception, and suggests that because we don't know ourselves clearly we relate to the world with attachment and aversion.

The primary thing we are misperceiving is the self. It is the one thing we are absolutely sure of, that we have a self and that we exist intrinsically or from our own side.

The self essence or instrisic-ness is expressed through three subjective qualities: Permanence; Singularity; Separateness.

Ask yourself these questions:

Are you the same person you were yesterday? And the day before? Did "you" get out of your bed yesterday morning? When you look at a picture of yourself when you were a child, do you feel that that is you? This is the perception of permanence, that we have an intrinsic self that persists over time despite all apparent changes.

Now ask yourself how many selves do you have? How many of "you" are there? This is the perception of singularity, that we are only one person, unified, autonomous and whole.

Now ask yourself if you are a separate entity? Do you exist outside and apart from other living things and people? Are others outside and apart from yourself, while you are inside yourself? This is the perception of separateness, that we exist independent from others and the world around us.

Now stabilize your mind, calm your nervous system and apply deep analysis and penetrative investigation to the self that you hold as intrinsically real, permeant, singular and separate.

There is no part of you that is unchanging. Your body, sensations, perceptions, mental constructs 9thoughts, emotions memories etc.) and consciousness are not static but change. All of the components that make up the so called self are in constant flux, arising, persisting for a short time and transitioning into something else. Modern science has shown us that the molecular building blocks that make us up are in a constant state of change and that no cell in the body exists after a set period of time. Our mind and thoughts change in the same way. Therefore, there is no self that is permanent.

Now how about the fact that you feel there is just one of you? Is there really? Are you the same person to your mother as you are to your father? The same person to your boss as you are to your colleague? The same person yesterday when you won the lottery as you were 10 years ago when you were broke. Even in the same day are you the same person when you are happy as when your are sad? Even in the same moment are you the same person once you received or extended kindness to another person? There are many selves, many face, many people who show up each day looking like you but acting, thinking and feeling different. Which one is the real you? No single one of these selves is the "real" you they are all only the relative appearance of you.

Now examine your sense of independence and separateness. That you feel self contained apart from the world. Again, here, beneath the immediate appearance, lies a deeper reality. A reality that is difficult to perceive with the ordinary eye, but opens to the calm eye of meditative analysis. On a molecular level you are in constant interdependence and exchange with the environment. The air, heat, light and energy you take in comes from outside yourself and has been shared by other living organisms. Biologically, you are the product of your parents and gene pool, connecting you with others in a familial lineage and to a species. Psychologically, there is nothing in your mind that hasn't originated or been shared with another mind. In the grand scheme of thing you are not that different or that separate. You are actually more related and interdependent than you can ever imagine!

Now that you have dissolved the misperception of self, contemplate how much damage, suffering, dissatisfaction, stress and alienation it has caused you, operating under the instinctual programming of your permanence, singularity and independence?

What would life be like if you intuitively experienced your impermanence, multiplicity and interdependence?

This is the selfless self that the Buddha encourages us to experience by deconditioning our misperception, attachment and aversion through trainings in lifestyle, contemplation and insight.

We are free, completely free, not bound by any self imposed limitation, free to learn grow, change, relate and enjoy all things around and within us.

Four Noble Truths (2.0)

The Four Noble Truths provide the fundamental framework for Buddha's psychology of freedom and happiness. A traditional medical model describing the symptom, etiology, prognosis and treatment for suffering, the Four Noble Truths are presented in two causally linked dyads: 1) suffering and its causes; 2) freedom and it causes.

Suffering is to be understood
The Cause is to be abandoned
Freedom is to be realized
The Path is be cultivated
-The Buddha


Short Outline:

I. Truth of Suffering
A. Ordinary Suffering
B. The Suffering of Change
C. The Suffering of Conditioning/Habit

II. Truth of the Origin
A. Attachment
B. Aversion
C. Misperception

III. Truth of Cessation
A. Complete freedom is our nuature
B. Suffering is created by mind, thus the mind can learn, self-correct and experience its true nature


IV. Truth of the Path
A. Three Higher Trainings
B. Three Types of Learning
C. Three Reliances of Learning


Explanation:

I. First Noble Truth: Suffering
The unconscious or unawakened life leads to unavoidable suffering and dissatisfaction. The nature of suffering is threefold:

A . Ordinary Suffering: Birth, illness, old-age and death, separation from loved ones, having to be with difficult ones, and the loss of objects of desire are unavoidable and painful because we experience them unconsciously or mindlessly.

B. Suffering of Change: All things are impermanent, temporary and fleeting. Even people and experiences that provide some measure of happiness eventually become the source of suffering because we do not relate to them accurately.

C. Suffering of Conditioning: Our experience of suffering and stress is conditioned by our patterns of biological and psychological reactivity based on our misperception of the self and world. As current stress research suggests, our mind/body process has evolutionarily (genetically and biologically) been conditioned by fight-flight reactivity. In other words, stress (our response to perceived threat) is somehow “embedded” or programed into our nuero-biology in order to ensure survival. Our psychology or personality is similalry conditioned by our past, particularly by traumatic experiences, which occurred during childhood when we were particularly vulnerable, dependent, and impressionable. These traumatic events and memories create and reinforce schemas or core beliefs about our selves, others and world and condition patterns of interpersonal relating that contribute to our continued experience of suffering, dissatisfaction and alienation. If we do not consciously override our biology and reprogram our psychological scripts we will continue to experience stress and trauma.

II. Second Noble Truth: Cause of Suffering
Buddhist psychology is based upon a rational and empirical science of causality and avoids two extremes of theism (the belief that a God figure or external presence determines our life and events) and materialisms (the belief that things are random and without causal determinants). Buddhism asserts that one’s current experience of suffering or happiness is the direct result of one’s previous actions (karma) conditioned by disturbing emotions (klesha) or inaccurate perceptual filters.

There are Three Causes of suffering (two secondary and one primary):

A. Desire/attachment: The untrained, unconscious mind compulsively pursues pleasure in objects, experiences and people outside of the self, unaware of their impermanent nature. Desire is due to a perceptual exaggeration of the positive qualities of an object, while attachment is the inability to let them go.

B. Aversion/Avoidance/Anger: The untrained, unconscious mind compulsively avoids, rejects or resists unpleasant objects, experience and people, unaware of the causal process of their arising. A desire thwarted, lost or unattained leads to disappointment and anger. Anger is due to a perceptual exaggeration of the negative qualities of an object.

C. Delusion/misperception: The primary root cause of the other two secondary causes is our habitual state of unawareness, which erroneously misperceives reality. When we are unaware of the salient characteristics of reality (ie. emptiness/interdependence, impermanence, and suffering) we cannot accurately respond to our situation. At the heart of our desirous attachment and aggressive avoidance is the incorrect belief that a self, within us and things, exists as an intrinsically real, separate, independent, fixed and permanent entity. This is our fundamental misperception. Because of the minds instinctive tendency to reify (making something real that it not) the self, we become self-centered, preoccupied with gratifying the self, and hostile about protecting the self.

C.2. Three Characteristics of Self and Phenomenon:

1) Emptiness or No Self: There is no intrinsically real, unrelated, enduring, separate, autonomous self within us or things. This does not mean that no self exists at all, as is asserted in nihilism. Our self and objects do exist in an interrelated, interdependent, constantly changing matrix based on causes and conditions. According to Buddhism nothing exists absolutely; everything exists relatively or interdependently. Things that are fixed or absolute by definition cannot be related to, as they theoretically lay outside the causal matrix of interdependence. The flip side of emptiness is that because all things lack intrinsic reality or a fixed self, they can change. We could not learn, grow and change if we were really as fixed as we unconsciously believe ourselves to be. When you hear “all things are empty” this does not mean they don’t exist, it simply means they are empty of inherently existing from their own side. Ultimately, the “self” is a mere consensus designation of language, falsely reified and superimposed over a causal arising of interdependent phenomenon or parts, themselves lacking any inherent, intrinsic reality. Another way of thinking about selflessness or emptiness is as unlimited potential. The self we are attached to or identified with is our limits, concrete unchanging and reified, when in fact our nature is pure and unlimited potential. The minute you reify, hold, fix or make permanent, the self or world, you create suffering, because you are going against its true nature.

2) Impermanence: Because things are empty and lack inherent autonomy/existence they are impermanent and non lasting. The molecules and sub-particles that comprise things and the sub-processes that constitute the life systems are empty of any lasting core, thus come into being, persist for some time and eventually decay. Change, the flow of life and the passing of time is contingent upon emptiness.

3) Suffering: Because things lack inherent existence (emptiness) they are subject to change and do not endure (impermanence). As a result of this constant change process (birth, death and rebirth) some measure of suffering is unavoidable. It is the price of being part of an open interdependent system. Some amount of pain is built into the fabric of existence because it is not static, rather an open system. The question is how much extra suffering do we create by misperceiving, attaching and avoiding this natural process. As they say, “pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”. Other sources consider the third characteristic to be Freedom. Phenomenon are impermanent because they lack an essential essence, and because they lack any essential essence their nature is "free" to learn, grow and change. The most fundemntal characteristic of mind is its potential for enlightenment or complete freedom.

III. The Third Noble Truth: Freedom
It is possible for a human being to be completely free of the causes of suffering. The word Buddha means “Awakened”, and represents the full flowering or peak potential of a human being. The word freedom means “free from something” as in “sugar free” and “caffeine free”. There are two things an awakened person is free from: afflictive emotions (kleshas) such as greed, hatred, delusion, pride, envy, jealousy etc; and compulsive habits/actions (karma). Nirvana means to cease, to end. What ends for the awakened mind are the emotional afflictions and the compulsive habit actions that emerge from the afflictions.
Habits here are threefold and include any action of body (behavior), speech (words) and mind (thoughts) that are done with unawareness or inattention. Karmic results and consequences are determined by one’s intentions and actions. Good karma is the result of actions of body speech and mind done with a positive mental state, realistic perception and altruistic intention, while bad karma results from actions committed under a negative mental state, unrealistic misperception of self and reality and self-centered intention. Since current intentions are so vital in producing future outcome and experience, in Buddhist psychology a premium is place on decreasing afflictive emotions that obscure pure perception of reality in order to create wholesome actions.

Since the causes of suffering lie within the mind through afflictive emotions, unconscious habits and misperceptions, than freedom also lies with in the mind, through sublime emotions, conscious and altruistic habits each based on accurate perception of self and reality.

The Third Noble Truth asserts a generous and optimistic view of the mind and its potential. In order to say that all minds can eventually become free, it is understood that an innate inborn potential for freedom is already present, albeit obscured by misperception, habit and afflictions. The path of Buddhist psychology becomes the process of removing the misperception, bringing the cessation of actions and afflictions, and consciously developing virtues (paramitas) such as generosity, morality, patience, effort, concentration and wisdom that will lead the mind to full awakening. The fully developed or awakened mind is characterized as infinitely “clear and knowing”.

IV. The Fourth Noble Truth: The Path to Freedom
The Path to freedom entails Three Higher Educations, Three Types of Learning, and Three Reliable Sources of Learning.

Three Higher Trainings:
1. Ethics or Virtue:
Right Actions, Speech, and Livelihood
2. Mental Discipline:
Right Effort, Mindfulness and Concentration
3. Wisdom:
Right View of reality and Intention

Three Types of Learning:
1. Wisdom born of “hearing” includes listening to, reading about and studying the Dharma using one’s intellect.
2. Wisdom born of “reflection” takes the concepts one has studied and applies critical reasoning, reflection, discussion and debate in order to come to a more correct and intuitive understanding.
3. Wisdom born of “meditation” takes ones intuitive understanding and applies it in an analytic meditation in order to come to an experiential insight. An analytic meditation does not necessarily occur on the meditation cushion, but can be any moment in everyday life when you apply learning and self-correction to your experience.

Here meditative learning is just one aspect of the contemplative path. Ideally we should not overemphasize meditation practice to the exclusion of studying correctly and reflecting accurately about contemplative principals. Time for studying and discussing is as important as time on the cushion.

Three Reliances of Learning (aka Triple Refuge):
A realistic reliance or reliable refuge is where one goes for safe direction during times of difficulty. There are three reliances:

1. Teachers. The Buddha or one’s mentor. The source of knowledge acquisition in the Buddhist tradition comes through a long lineage of masters that trace their origin directly back to Shakyamuni Buddha. Role modeling is essential, as knowledge is passed directly from mentor to student. But the ultimate teacher, is Reality itself, one's innate potential for freedom and happiness. When one bows to a statue of the Buddha, one acknowledges the potential for awakening that exists in all living beings.
2. The Teachings and Methods. In order to develop along the contemplative path one not only needs a teacher, but also the precise science, methodologies and arts that lead to awakening.
3. The Community. Traditionally the community is constituted by those who have experienced awakening, ie. the realization of selflessness/emptiness. It can also mean anyone who values and upholds the teachings and methods that lead one to Reality. Because contemplative learning is largely counter intuitive and counter cultural, strength and support is often found in numbers.

Guidelines for Starting a Meditation Practice (repost)

Contents:
I. Space: Where to Meditate
II. Posture: How to Sit in Meditation
III. 5-Point Instruction for Mindfulness Meditation (as taught in class)
IV. 5 Stages of Meditation (Traditional Formulation)
V. When and How Much to Meditate


I. Space: Where to Practice Meditation
The following are guidelines for those who would like to begin to meditate on their own at home, in addition to the guidance of teachers and the support of a community.

1. Choose a quite space in your home or in a safe environment.
2. Create some privacy, close the door or ask others for some alone time.
3. Turn off any cell phones and other electronic devices such as radios or TV’s.
4. Clean and tidy the space, as this will help put the mind at ease.
5. Make the space pleasing to the senses, meaningful or sacred by arranging flowers, lighting candles or incense, setting up pictures or statues of inspiring people or places and making offerings and gestures of gratitude. This helps to demarcate the meditation space from ordinary space.

II. Posture: How to Sit in Meditation (from the 7 point Vairochana Posture)

In the beginning comfort is more important than form. The form includes:

1. If seated on the floor, place your legs in full or half lotus position or just crossed them in front of you. The right hand is placed in the left hand, palms facing upwards, with the tips of the thumbs gently touching. If seated in a chair, place your feet flat on the ground and hands folded in your lap.
2. Eyes are half open gazing softly at the space a foot or so in front of you. This will help prevent you from falling asleep. If restless, trying closing the eyes completely to help the mind begin to relax.
3. Keep your spine erect like a stack of coins, upright but not ridged. This will help keep you stay alert. Position your meditation cushion beneath your rear to raise the spine and tilt forward the pelvis. If in a chair come forward slightly with your back away from the back of the chair and your rear at the front half of the seat.
4. Shoulders are even and relaxed. Be mindful of hunching and slouching.
5. Dip your chin down slightly.
6. Keep a relaxed space between lips and teeth, and do not clench the jaw.
7. Rest you tongue softly on the roof of your pallet.

III. 5-Point Instruction for Mindfulness Meditation

1. Begin with reflecting on your spiritual aspiration for your life in general and clarifying your intention to meditate in particular. The more specific your intention the clearer the direction for your mind.
2. Select the object upon which you will focus your awareness (ie. the breath, sensations, emotions, sounds, consciousness, a specific theme, a visual object etc.)
3. Breath diaphragmatically in order to trigger the relaxation response. After a short period you can allow the breath to settle into a natural rhythm.
4. Once you realize you have been distracted from the mediation object, return your awareness back to the focus with an attitude or disciplined determination and non-judgmental care, patience and friendliness.
5. Seal your meditation with a dedication, recommitting your energies toward your initial aspiration. Here again, be specific as to what you will dedicate your energy towards during your between meditation period in everyday life.

IV. 5 Stages of Meditation (Traditional Tibetan Buddhist Approach)

1. Preparation: The mind is prepared by a number of activities including reflection on refuge, aspiration, four-immeasurables, visualizing the field of merit, seven-limb prayer, mandala offering, and other prayers.
2. Contemplation: Reflecting on a particular theme from the Stages of the Path Literature (Lam Rim) such as the “preciousness of human life” that motivates your practice. Select an object of meditation based on the contemplative theme or stage in the progression.
3. Meditation: Can include any combination of techniques: Analytic contemplation, single-pointed concentration, and visualization.
4. Dedication: Dedicate the positive force or energy (aka merits) generated by the practice to one’s own or to another’s spiritual awakening, before the potency is destroyed by afflictive emotions.
5. Between Sessions: Reflect on and try to assimilate the meaning of the particular meditative theme or topic as it relates to your daily activities and life.


V. When and How Much to Meditate

1. In general it is advised to meditate first thing in the morning when the mind is fresh and well rested. Practically speaking however, consider when your own energy level is optimal and when you have the time in your schedule.
2. In the beginning, commit to slightly less meditation time than you think you should do. Once you’ve decided on length of time, follow through without exception. Quality, consistence and follow through are more important that duration. Ideally you should end meditation while you are still enjoying it so that you desire to return to practice the next day. This is called ‘developing a taste for the practice’. If meditation becomes a drag to early, chances are you will abandon the practice altogether. Try starting with 5-10 minute intervals working up towards 25-30 minute periods. Most research suggests that 30 minutes of daily practice over 8 weeks results in various health benefits.
3. Consistency is important. Better to do a little meditation every day than to do a long stretch once or twice a week.
4. Remember that meditation alone does not constitute the entire contemplative path. Balance your meditation practice with readings, attending lectures, participating in discussions and debate with others, and spending time reflecting on the significance of spiritual themes in your own life. For more on this see the Fourth of the Four Noble Truth in an earlier post.