《2022靜坐大綱》

2022.03.26► [Q&A] 意识：一个？或多个？／意識：一個？或多個？

• You keep picking up and collecting thoughts, memories, etc.; the narrative of a single person keeps getting reinforced, akin to someone persisting in stirring a whirlpool, thereby maintaining its pattern

• The questions about origin and destination, about one vs many such doubts are utterly destroyed by someone who no longer collect and pick up thoughts in that way

• Resist the urge to formulate connections with what passes through the mind, treating all of them as irrelevant noises from distant strangers; the noises within one mind or within many minds make no difference they're equally not you or your own

• Mental contents are only given coherence and a narrative by passionate attention; there are no real borders, there are no real substances- see them as mirages, incapable of impeding you or creating trouble for you; the impediments and troubles are created by your cringing and tensing and reacting to those mirages  

2022.03.19► [Q&A] 非我 是一种动作／非我 是一種動作

• Look at the sense of self; this is the way to understand the very activity that makes up identification; an act of attention, exertion, intention...

• The way to use the liberation gate is to transfer this activity, which was originally directed at the gross aspects of the five aggregates, to one of the liberation gates, such as non-activity

• Then to firmly establish that identification, so that the old way of identification doesn't come back and take hold

• Lean on, rest in, enjoy, contrast 

2022.03.12► [Q&A] 由灭谛入？由苦集谛入？／由滅諦入？由苦集諦入？

• Let go of views and desires, the foolish playthings for those who's still mired in sensuality

• If you treat the mind as an object to locate, you subtly continue to situate a self behind the scene

• Pacify the six senses; ensuring that there's no "excitation" "approaching" "aversion" 

2022.03.05► [Q&A] 非想非非想 心解脫

• You're not even the knower or awareness; citta is not an object

• Looking at five aggregates as alien; not self as alien perceptions (SN35.248, asmi'ti); but then where are you perched, if you're withdrawn from the aggregates, from deluded attention? If your craving has come to an end, then that act of withdrawal itself will be the end; if not, then that act of withdrawal will lead to finding a new place to perch upon

• The mind is not an object; but if one must have an object, then one should direct it to the deathless; deathless is not an object, so one must rely on a liberation gate-a seeming attribute of the deathless; e.g. I am unborn, as akuppa and annenna; the analogy of feeling sofa texture in a theater, or feeling screen texture while watching a movie

• Neither perception nor non perception: one realizes that any directing of attention to an object-to have a perception-is objectification; yet there's still the perching upon of that state; it's like the expansiveness of the mind, if one still holds to the perception of expansiveness, as opposed to resting in the natural expansiveness, one is still in a samsaric state

• If you revel and identify with that state, then it is a formless attainment; if you're using it for the purpose of weaning off craving and for developing dispassion, then it is a liberation gate; if you're recognizing that Citta is not an object and experiencing the resultant freedom, you're experiencing the mind of the liberated one 

2022.02.26► [Q&A]  第十五阶：我练习於灭／第十五階：我練習於滅

• The quickest way to wake from a dream is not through a mental cue…..

• Train to notice the physical cue of dissolution; the physical cue are a good way to keep us "honest"

• Extinguishing the fire in the body, an important part of viraga is about honing in on and exploring what is raga, including its physical tones

• Presumably everything that moves requires fuel; what is that that animates your universe? What's causing you to not rest? Even a measure of case is a measure of rest, therefore train to see renunciation as rest

• Train to abide in deep rest; it has the tones of contentment, comfort, effortlessness, quietude, in rest, even amidst awareness of phenomena, there's no tossing and hurling in phenomena

• At the level of sensations, learn to differentiate rest/relief from repression; at the level of sensations, train oneself so that lust doesn't excite,

• Asubha is not just about disgust; it's also about relishing that sense of relief when you're no longer indentured

• Train also to revel in dissolution, either in the form of piti, sukha, or relief

• Jnanas are made of moments of dissolution 

2022.02.19► [Q&A]  “我”是不死之心

• What is identification; Sitting in a theater and reminding yourself that it's just a horror movie; even the theater goer is of the five aggregates, but at least it's one step in the direction of seclusion

• A game of cat and mouse; "none of my business"

• You're the Non-doing, watching away the doing; nibbana is unmade, unborn, unfabricated...

• extracting oneself from all that is exertion, and reminding oneself that one is the Deatliless; even the thought "I am the unborn" is an exertion

• Thorough identification with the Deatliless and thorough disidentification with the five aggregates

• The difference between non-returners and arahats in terms of that thought of identification  

2022.02.12► [Q&A]  断识食／斷識食 

• Old people and their stories

• When your consciousness is ready to exit...

• Don't believe in that "there's an over here and an over there"

• Don't believe in the compulsive need to posit a beginning and an end

• Don't believe in the self and the world

• Don't believe in memories and anticipation 

2022.02.05► [Q&A] 断(斷)意思食

• Dispassion really is synonymous with not-self, which in turn can be practiced by "not giving regard to"

• If one doesn't understand non-abiding yet, then find temporary abiding in e.g. boundless space, etc. or one of the liberation gates 

• 
  

2022.01.29► [Q&A] 诘(詰)慧的念住 

• Strategic removal of desire; not just blanket awareness, but employing desire, persistence / energy, [balance of] mind, discrimination

• SN51.13 samaadhi due to any of the four bases

• Using craving as an example 

2022.01.22► [Q&A] 鹿野苑的根本课(課)程

• All the factors and limbs go toward the one theme

• The first five disciples first became stream entrants, then a few

days later, arahats

• Agitation and disquietude

• Moral condemnation vs knowing suffering 

2022.01.15 ► [Q&A] 舍念清净／捨念清淨 

• The pleasure we get externally, from participating in the sankharas, is a temporary abatement in hunger. For brief moments, we experience the diluted pleasure of a mind somewhat unagitated; worldly joy is a hankering for that temporary abatement

• Giving up on hunger and the habit of relying on extraction-abiding non-attached internally-is the way to wean off the habit and we can become in accord with that which is fulfilled and effortless

• Make a resolve to decrease one's reliance on, one's excitation about, external pleasure; examine that one is decoupling with and calming down sankharas

• Even when one has to act, when one works, one works in peace; one works while staying connected with a non-identifying awareness; one works while recognizing that activity is not owned by any self nor is it to be treated as one's self / possession

• He examines if his mind leaps up at pleasure, and struggles against pain; in equanimity; he is more convinced of the fleeting nature of sankharas, the hopeless nature of acquisition, and of the supreme fulfillment in the Deathless; in this way; the purification of equanimity aids his mindfulness

• His never loses his directionality / mindfulness, meaning he is never riled up, never assaulted by restless thoughts, never going through mental motions of leaping up at pleasure and struggling against pain; he is aware of activities, but internally it's like watching a movie but remaining unmoved

• His only goal is to remove all attachment and desires, be in conformity with supreme fulfillment; in this way the shenianqingjing state is regarded the supreme state in which Awakening is won 

2022.01.08 ► [Q&A] 受的遍知

•  When to enjoy happiness and pleasures, and when to train in equanimity :Fight, flight, or freeze; how to utilize joy and rapture; The way to grow a habitis to learn to enjoy that activity; Recognize the inner power, but then once that is accomplished: see that gains and heights that result from such powers are transient and full of loss, train in equanimity

• Remembering the state when you were desireless; examining a sensual state that is past, instead of in the present or future; remembering the bodily sensations

• Imperturbable; you have been moving toward new feelings

• Drawbacks: impermanence; it's the texture and luminosity of the mind 

2022.01.01 ► [Q&A] 如何使用解脱門

• in that which is immovable; in that which is desireless; in that which is actionless...

• Relationships with the gates of liberation: trust/faith, recognition/examination; rest/surrender/reside 

2022.06.25► [Q&A] 从(從) 心念住 入 解脱门(門)

• Citta in this context is cultivation of samadhi; citta in this context is the state of individualized consciousness; the contraction and contortion within the body of water; cultivating samadhi in this sense is not just a worldly endeavor, nor something separable from wisdom

• What's special about this water is that no force from the outside can rile it up─the mirror analogy; the forces that rile it up are inner exertions

• Polishing and honing one's immersion; diligently ferreting out defects; the real basis of samadhi comes from your not being swayed, and your aligning well with inner peace

• Know the mind and feel the texture; how much of it is a result of contraction or contortion or wrinkling? Then correct, balance, smooth out...

• The final step, releasing the mind-don't add to the perpetuation of individualized consciousness; let there be this clean and unbounded and unwrinkled fact of awareness and receptivity

• Don't let the idea of deepening samadhi scare you; you're not missing out except on disturbances and stressors

2022.06.18► [Q&A] 珍惜你的力气(氣)─自然的注意力

• Not trusting my own intention; instead, I tried to create an environment that conduces to efficiency

• The example of relaxation: are you just removing tension, or are you also trying to "bring something down"?

• The example of bodily-based satipatthana; do you send your attention out to cove the whole body? Or does the body spontaneously appear in the mind's mirror?

• Sending you attention “out” and “far" would tax you

2022.06.11► [Q&A] 从(從) 受念住 入 解脱门(門)

• Turning inward doesn't mean turning your attention to locative or literal inside; it means suspending your fixation and obsession on activity and on perceptual contents

• Feeling based satipatthana as understood from the perspective of the deathless

• Knowing sankharas, in this context, is to know how one bows down to, surrenders to, gives deference to, dissolves in, the Deathless

• Take thoughts as an example of sankhara; all of them are about the self; where did they arise from and where do they fall into? Not any place that you have a concern for

• Notice that all that you really want is right here; safety, not lacking, fearlessness, expansiveness, freedom from loneliness; why busy yourself with thoughts?

2022.06.04► [Q&A] 诸根寂静／諸根寂靜

• All that you've "collected" via the senses...the senses all partake in the same texture of mind, and you're not made more or less as a result of sensory collection

• Examine desire/compulsion in eyes, ears...your eagerness or fever can be detected in the way your attention is driven

• Even in utter receptivity, you don't need to "stick your antenna" out there;

• Peace is not derived by blotting out the senses (an obsession of commentarial Buddhism); be careful not to expend energy on blotting out senses; but if they do become suspended, so be it

• Examine seclusion from desire in eyes, ears...rest in the knowledge of impermanence or that of the texture of mind

• Make dispassion your meditation focus, and not some neutral, deadpan object

2022.05.28► [Q&A] 相应(應)部中的 修道有多难(難)

• Don't think of meditation as a special event, but as an expression and extension of the path of contentment

• The Buddha's restraint on the benefits of stream entry

• SN 38.16 "What ** indeed, friend sāriputta, in) this dhamma-(and)-discipline (is) difficult-(to)-do?"

• "[Leaving the home life and] taking-ordination indeed, friend,

• (in) this dhamma-(and)-discipline (is) difficult-(to)-do...

• "(for) one-ordained ***, friend,

• Abundant-delight [in that lifestyle] (is) difficult-(to)-do."...

• “(for) one-abundantly-delighted ***-, friend,

• {practice in accordance with}-dhamma (is) difficult-(to) do

• "how-long, ***-friend, (in) {practicing in accordance with}-dhamma,

• (that a) monk {attains} arahantship?” "Not-long, friend."

2022.05.21► [Q&A] 欲 我知汝本

• 「欲，我知汝本，意以思想生；我不思想汝，則汝而不有。」

2022.05.14► [Q&A] 五取蕴？／五取蘊

• The way the aggregates are possessed by desire; aggregates not safe, easily possessed by desire

2022.05.07► [Q&A] 何者为真切？／何者為真切？

• Ask yourself, which is more compelling: the so-called matter which you've never “experienced" before, or the fact that you're knowing? The objects you've hitherto completely diverted your attention to, or the fact that you're present? The thoughts that've led you in a thousand directions, or the silence that made intelligible those thoughts? The movements, or the immovability that makes movements intelligible?

• This inquiry is about discerning, about passing judgment on what are not-self, and among those that are not self, which are more worthy of being a self?

• Remembering which is more compelling as a way of meditating; examine the meaning of seclusion

• Don't force any arbitrary state when you're restless and agitated; allow this directionality practice to help you give rise to seclusion

2022.04.30► [Q&A] 缘起还灭／緣起還滅

(無大綱)

2022.04.23► [Q&A] 三种(種)身体(體)─不是我的

• When will death arrive? How? The waiting game

• You don't ever meet your body out there; in the immediacy of awareness, there's sensations and perception

• Be careful, at this given moment, the way you connect up with those experiences

• Be careful, at this given moment, your buying into the sign of beauty and endearment

• But in the end, there' no issue of foulness; there's the texture of consciousness

• The coarse corporeal body

• The so-called "mind-made body" and personality view

• The formless body...

2022.04.16► [Q&A] 反应(應)的波幅

• Let old feelings fade; don't seek out new feelings

• The benefits of dousing off passion and not be moved by the vicissitudes; but make sure that one is not just moderating or suppressing happiness

• Don't suppress or manipulate; just know and not participate; but it's different than bare awareness, for that you're looking at sankhara/intention

• But Where do you stand when you're knowing them? Is your movie theater air-conditioned

• What is a major fault with the bare awareness approach? The missing ingredient is jhana; also, one might be oblivious to sankharas

• Without a proper standing, how is it possible that you could know them without being wavered by them? A standing in the sensual realm, in this case, means that your nutriment comes from the storylines

• Eventually, you need to examine the sankharas of your standing; eventually, you don't even need to have a "standing"

2022.04.09► [Q&A]     歇息随(隨)念 忆(憶)念歇息(upasamānussati)

• One thing — when developed & pursued — leads solely to

• disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to stilling, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding. Which one thing? Recollection of stilling.

• This is one thing that when developed & pursued - leads solely to

• disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to stilling, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding.—1.296

• Fabrications: the foremost pain.—Dhp202-203

• The pacification of all activities

• Dissociative disorder and the restless flight

2022.04.02► [Q&A] 别在错谬处寻觅禅定／別在錯謬處尋覓禪定

• Real signs of having eradicated personality view; the mental state of one who immerses in jhanas

• The lifestyle / personality and jhanas feed into each other

• The dharma teacher's giving is "non-deliberate"; he just "carries" the ambiance with him

• The eight defining characteristics of the Dhamma is a useful way of developing samaadhi

「離欲、離結、減損褪解、少欲求、知足、遠離、振奮精勤、簡樸少袱」

(《增支部8.53經》)

2022.06.25► [Q&A] 从(從) 心念住 入 解脱门(門)

• Citta in this context is cultivation of samadhi; citta in this context is the state of individualized consciousness; the contraction and contortion within the body of water; cultivating samadhi in this sense is not just a worldly endeavor, nor something separable from wisdom

• What's special about this water is that no force from the outside can rile it up─the mirror analogy; the forces that rile it up are inner exertions

• Polishing and honing one's immersion; diligently ferreting out defects; the real basis of samadhi comes from your not being swayed, and your aligning well with inner peace

• Know the mind and feel the texture; how much of it is a result of contraction or contortion or wrinkling? Then correct, balance, smooth out...

• The final step, releasing the mind-don't add to the perpetuation of individualized consciousness; let there be this clean and unbounded and unwrinkled fact of awareness and receptivity

• Don't let the idea of deepening samadhi scare you; you're not missing out except on disturbances and stressors

2022.06.18► [Q&A] 珍惜你的力气(氣)─自然的注意力 

• Not trusting my own intention; instead, I tried to create an environment that conduces to efficiency

• The example of relaxation: are you just removing tension, or are you also trying to "bring something down"?

• The example of bodily-based satipatthana; do you send your attention out to cove the whole body? Or does the body spontaneously appear in the mind's mirror?

• Sending you attention “out” and “far" would tax you

2022.06.11► [Q&A] 从(從) 受念住 入 解脱门(門) 

• Turning inward doesn't mean turning your attention to locative or literal inside; it means suspending your fixation and obsession on activity and on perceptual contents

• Feeling based satipatthana as understood from the perspective of the deathless

• Knowing sankharas, in this context, is to know how one bows down to, surrenders to, gives deference to, dissolves in, the Deathless

• Take thoughts as an example of sankhara; all of them are about the self; where did they arise from and where do they fall into? Not any place that you have a concern for

• Notice that all that you really want is right here; safety, not lacking, fearlessness, expansiveness, freedom from loneliness; why busy yourself with thoughts?

2022.06.04► [Q&A] 诸根寂静／諸根寂靜 

• All that you've "collected" via the senses...the senses all partake in the same texture of mind, and you're not made more or less as a result of sensory collection

• Examine desire/compulsion in eyes, ears...your eagerness or fever can be detected in the way your attention is driven

• Even in utter receptivity, you don't need to "stick your antenna" out there;

• Peace is not derived by blotting out the senses (an obsession of commentarial Buddhism); be careful not to expend energy on blotting out senses; but if they do become suspended, so be it

• Examine seclusion from desire in eyes, ears...rest in the knowledge of impermanence or that of the texture of mind

• Make dispassion your meditation focus, and not some neutral, deadpan object

2022.05.28► [Q&A] 相应(應)部中的 修道有多难(難)

• Don't think of meditation as a special event, but as an expression and extension of the path of contentment

• The Buddha's restraint on the benefits of stream entry

• SN 38.16 "What ** indeed, friend sāriputta, in) this dhamma-(and)-discipline (is) difficult-(to)-do?"

• "[Leaving the home life and] taking-ordination indeed, friend,

• (in) this dhamma-(and)-discipline (is) difficult-(to)-do...

• "(for) one-ordained ***, friend,

• Abundant-delight [in that lifestyle] (is) difficult-(to)-do."...

• “(for) one-abundantly-delighted ***-, friend,

• {practice in accordance with}-dhamma (is) difficult-(to) do

• "how-long, ***-friend, (in) {practicing in accordance with}-dhamma,

• (that a) monk {attains} arahantship?” "Not-long, friend."

2022.05.21► [Q&A] 欲 我知汝本

• 「欲，我知汝本，意以思想生；我不思想汝，則汝而不有。」

2022.05.14► [Q&A] 五取蕴？／五取蘊

• The way the aggregates are possessed by desire; aggregates not safe, easily possessed by desire 

2022.05.07► [Q&A] 何者为真切？／何者為真切？

• Ask yourself, which is more compelling: the so-called matter which you've never “experienced" before, or the fact that you're knowing? The objects you've hitherto completely diverted your attention to, or the fact that you're present? The thoughts that've led you in a thousand directions, or the silence that made intelligible those thoughts? The movements, or the immovability that makes movements intelligible?

• This inquiry is about discerning, about passing judgment on what are not-self, and among those that are not self, which are more worthy of being a self?

• Remembering which is more compelling as a way of meditating; examine the meaning of seclusion

• Don't force any arbitrary state when you're restless and agitated; allow this directionality practice to help you give rise to seclusion

2022.04.30► [Q&A] 缘起还灭／緣起還滅

(無大綱)

2022.04.23► [Q&A] 三种(種)身体(體)─不是我的

• When will death arrive? How? The waiting game

• You don't ever meet your body out there; in the immediacy of awareness, there's sensations and perception

• Be careful, at this given moment, the way you connect up with those experiences

• Be careful, at this given moment, your buying into the sign of beauty and endearment

• But in the end, there' no issue of foulness; there's the texture of consciousness

• The coarse corporeal body

• The so-called "mind-made body" and personality view

• The formless body... 

2022.04.16► [Q&A] 反应(應)的波幅

• Let old feelings fade; don't seek out new feelings

• The benefits of dousing off passion and not be moved by the vicissitudes; but make sure that one is not just moderating or suppressing happiness

• Don't suppress or manipulate; just know and not participate; but it's different than bare awareness, for that you're looking at sankhara/intention

• But Where do you stand when you're knowing them? Is your movie theater air-conditioned

• What is a major fault with the bare awareness approach? The missing ingredient is jhana; also, one might be oblivious to sankharas

• Without a proper standing, how is it possible that you could know them without being wavered by them? A standing in the sensual realm, in this case, means that your nutriment comes from the storylines

• Eventually, you need to examine the sankharas of your standing; eventually, you don't even need to have a "standing"

2022.04.09► [Q&A]     歇息随(隨)念 忆(憶)念歇息(upasamānussati) 

• One thing — when developed & pursued — leads solely to

• disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to stilling, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding. Which one thing? Recollection of stilling.

• This is one thing that when developed & pursued - leads solely to

• disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to stilling, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding.—1.296

• Fabrications: the foremost pain.—Dhp202-203

• The pacification of all activities

• Dissociative disorder and the restless flight 

2022.04.02► [Q&A] 别在错谬处寻觅禅定／別在錯謬處尋覓禪定

• Real signs of having eradicated personality view; the mental state of one who immerses in jhanas

• The lifestyle / personality and jhanas feed into each other

• The dharma teacher's giving is "non-deliberate"; he just "carries" the ambiance with him

• The eight defining characteristics of the Dhamma is a useful way of developing samaadhi 

「離欲、離結、減損褪解、少欲求、知足、遠離、振奮精勤、簡樸少袱」

(《增支部8.53經》) 

2022.12.31 ► [Q&A] 知苦 与 自然的禅定／知苦 與 自然的禪定 

• The basic themes of the Dhamma: sankhara, tanha, dukkha, asmi-mana...

• Guilt, shame, "shoulds"

• Symptomatic manifestations: weight, tension, squeezing, propulsion, dis-ease

• Why is it important to focus on stress? Why is it important to talk about stress as opposed to the more vague notion of suffering

• So that you can see that meditation is about moving in the direction of removing stress/fabrication, and not about "having to" or dogmatism

• Treat meditation is an efficient and increasingly effortless approach to managing stress

• Remove guilt and superficial moralism, and focus on healing from stress; the specific instances defy generalized rules and categories, and so focus on personal subjective experience of stress

• Being itself is effortless, and stress is manufactured; that which is manufactured is not self; realizing that you don't

2022.12.24 ► [Q&A] 用心的懶人

• The anecdote of the deficient mother and the zealous pilgrim; the ever unresolved cosmic ledger

• It's not about your having done or striving for something; it's about recognizing your home

• The tiresome burden of thinking that you always lack something or have done something wrong

• Ajahn Dunn's teaching; You've never been anywhere else; you've never accumulated anything; the screen never moved

• It's not about perfection; not about repentance; not about achievement; live free of sin and fears; there is no mortal transgressions 

• the trust you place in your true nature; what does “being me" mean; it means true rest and utmost relaxation

2022.12.17 ► [Q&A] “我是”之慢  “我是”之解脫 

• The sense of self is the gate to wonders; self reflectivity is the very nature of awareness

• Self is supposed to be that which is; activity is always motivated and propelled (by dependent origination), and it also perturbs; the movement of outside phenomena do not perturb, just as motion films do not perturb the screen 

• asmi-mana is actually a sankhara

• Your being is at peace and requires no fabrication; whatever attempt you make to search for it, it is but an apprehending of attributes

• recognizing this means that you'd detach from otivation/propulsion, and can relax into being; this relaxation is imperturbable

• See if there is exertion in your meditation; the question "what's next"

• Looking into the self you'll realize that, for as long as there's attachment, then there's a reflexive encompassing of some conditions (e.g. my hearing, my thoughts...); your sense of self borrows the Light

• It is most easy to remember the self (self preoccupation vs self nature); it easily aroused great curiosity

2022.12.10 ► [Q&A] 从单一的舍离到诸行止熄／從單一的捨離到諸行止熄

• Gradual pacification of sankharas; every jhanic stage potentially can liberate

• This is because you only need to learn to pacify and let go of one major kind of activity to generalize that ability to all sankharas

• Example of thoughts; to let them go, you need to:

   --observe your relations to them

   --become non-interested in them

   --develop interest in their antidote

   --repeat and prolong their letting go

• The result of letting go of major activity can be the dissolution of mind/structures of consciousness/personality

2022.12.03 ► [Q&A] 慧眼辨识(識)真实(實)解脱道

• The distress of searching for what is ultimately true

• What have I learned in the past years

• The greatest transformation took place after I've witnessed exemplars; why spiritual companionship is the whole of the path

• It's not about which religion or tradition is correct

• My feelings about other religions or systems

• 導向離欲、非有欲;導向離結、非結;導向減損褪解、非積聚;導向少欲求、非多欲求;導向知足、非不知足;導向遠離、非糾纏喧鬧;導向振奮精勤、非懈怠;導向簡樸少袱、非多袱

2022.11.26 ► [Q&A] 献给心志怯弱的禅修者／獻給心志怯弱的禪修者 

• Having difficulty quieting down? Why not take an entirely different approach to meditation?

• Whereas for others their sense of achievement comes from worldly affairs, yours come from love of truth; what nobler goals are there than the eradication of conceit?

• A change in attitude, mindset, feeling…

• even if you don't understand, you fully trust

• There are those who practice primarily via formal meditation, and then there are those who rely on an extremely well-developed faculty

• The faith practitioner, instead of relying on contemplation, can learn to rely on conviction. Conviction vs faith; E.g. "I am none of this; I am unfathomable"

• Your faith is not directed at a person or a group, but at Dhamma; the so-called Dhamma in this case is an article that conduces to liberation

2022.11.19 ► [Q&A] 无寻无伺─静默中的方向感／無尋無伺─靜默中的方向感 

• Three kinds of jhanas in an older layer; the Buddha's preference of quietude in his audience

• Internalized voices from parents, from society, from various previous reincarnations……

• Chaotic noises from others, and your role in perpetuating them

• It's more about a quiet mind and right attitude than about figuring out a system

• "I am silence"; your problems are "thought up"; the bliss and peace of having no thoughts but still guided by clarity in purpose

• The sense of direction in silence; the light of truth amidst squabbles

• Purity of satipatthanas due to silence

2022.11.12 ► [Q&A] 道德与禅那共有的基础／道德與禪那共有的基礎 

• Only in the sensory realm do you find the breaching of the gross precepts

• Don't aim for perfect stretches of mindfulness

• A main difference between sensory and form realms: do you get your happiness from inside or outside?

• How to be moral without being moralistic

• When happiness is from inside, a lot of busyness is dropped; a lot of craving is dropped; stabilize this

• With the above, plus the following, jhanas happen:

• SN47.10; the things to abandon: bodily excitation; sluggishness of will; the mind is distracted outwardly; and the things to develop: bodily relaxation; pleasant non-carnal feelings; spaciousness and freedom of mind

2022.11.05 ► [Q&A] 从法念住 归顺解脱门／從法念住 歸順解脫門 

• The Dhamma based satipatthana refrain

• Using the standpoint of one of the liberation gates, and apply the 4 steps toward that which is not the standpoint

• From "fusing with an object,"...to release

2022.10.29.► [Q&A] 从身念住 归顺解脱门／從身念住 歸順解脫門 

• The open and relaxed awareness of bodily sensations; mirror like instead of microscope like

• Reduce all complexities and suffering to instances of physical stress and its resolution

• Someone's question about not understanding "that which doesn't get wavered"; one of your standpoints that is close to nibbana is awareness

• What is awareness? That which you can step back onto; if you continue to suffer, that means you haven't step back enough; stepping back enough will resolve suffering into instances of stress

• Now examine your relationship with physical stress; now examine the way you step back

• The six elements; all six as impersonal and defying ownership

• No need to consider the six as sequential or necessary

2022.10.22 ► [Q&A] 禅那和梵行的生活基础／禪那和梵行的生活基礎 

• Happiness and thorough relaxation is the key; the naturally celibate

• See through the fatuous nature of “face”; see through the fatuous nature of ownership, of competition

• Don't look upon the hindrances as something that requires a mechanical solution; they require a natural and dynamic solution that's rooted in the way of life

2022.10.15 ► [Q&A] “远离”的立足点／“遠離”的立足點 

“尊敬的朱老師您好…非我是一個抽離故事情節擺脫世間貪憂很有效的技巧，但也有許多caveats，例如帶著嗔心的非我可能導至人世間不善巧／錯誤的對待，或酸葡萄亦或逃避的心態。而帶著貪心的非我，也可能令人沒有慚愧心，不是真正在離欲，而是透過非我來合理化架構另一個自我，請問如何正確的使用非我的技巧？需要建立在什麼條件下嗎？如何去自我檢驗，(還是只用“離苦”)嗎”？

• One's standing; the liberated ones' dissolution of the consciousness frame and one with selfless awareness; the key lies with sankharas

• Importance of honesty

• Being able to watch those who are sitting and lying down; easier to contemplate on a lower state

• Gradual pacification of sankharas; you don't need to have perfect pacification to perform the task, but the greater pacification, the sharper the resolution and efficacy

• Subject and object; could any object be your self?

• The lovey eye toward an object, when you're objectified and subject to death; the search for the subject would render it an object, and that search is always propelled by craving

• Developing trust in the letting go of control

• When there's no relations between the two, in fact, no reification of subject and object (the launching and the landing)

• One of the direct effects of seclusion is to bring you closer to the texture of awareness, and away from being entrapped in objectification

2022.10.08 ► [Q&A] 禅(禪)那──健全的自我感 

• Jhana as a form of self; the danger of no-self; the narcissistic crash and ego death

• Skillful self as truthful (cf narcissistic ego crash), non-competitive (the stress and danger of a competitive self), as inclining toward dispassion (comprehending activities, feeding, and contentment), as resonating with virtues (wholesome pleasure and fearlessness), as providing stable sustenance

2022.10.01 ► [Q&A] 四不坏信(净)／四不壞信(淨) 

• Both the faith-and-dhamma-based entrants cultivate some measure of faith

• The pure relations with the good friend; the reason for the buddha's proscriptions

• It's not the morals that entrants love; it's the non-involvement at the sankharic level that makes the entrants look as if moral; you cannot be obsessed about the world enough to do anything immoral; any moral convention is just that; what if you're born into a different convention?

• The behavioral expressions of this non-involvement is similar to those of the brahmaviharas, to those of the very virtuous

• when you realize it's a dream, the fall isn't onto any solid ground; laying into this incorruptible background

• The limited extent of mundane faith; God and guru and sacred ideas as symbols; the invariable disappointment with misplaced faith

• Ultimate faith; in the immense and immovable peace in you; in that you're not any of these corruptible things