《2024靜坐大綱》
1~3月
(無)
2024.01.13► [Q&A] 导引:内在探寻/導引:內在探尋
Locating the feeling of me in the body
Are you that sensation or are you the awareness of that sensation?
Where is this awareness situated?
Being yourself/being aware: does it require exertion?
If you detect exertion, is it not an instance of attention, as opposed to awareness
Marveling at awareness as it is the most wondrous "non-thing"; gazing at God; loss in God
It is intention, thought, attention that are lost in God; you are not lost
The sense of self that is devoid of/ vs that comprises of intention, thought, attention...
The I thought, intention, attention... borrows the light, cannot exist on their own, other than being supported by awareness
Awareness itself is unsupported; not a thing
the so-called mind are only thoughts, put together by concerns and love and treated as if possessing real meanings; thoughts are only animated when infused with intention
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The Buddha's own preference; the true indication of attainments
Inner speech, narratives, multitudes of mental defilements
Constructive vs indeterminate nondiscrimination; Inner quietude as a sign of surrendering intentions
Superficial connections vs partaking in peace/recognizing sentience
Right Speech, and the Superior Speech
How and where are you expending energies
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2024.01.27► [Q&A] 有关灭尽定/有關滅盡定
The nirodha
The model: layers of sankharas and the undefinable core (as opposed to the commentarial reductionism); shedding off the sankharas means sustained seclusion from them; seclusion from eager participation in them; your eager participation perpetuates them
The role of equanimity; the possible subtle sankharas relating to equanimity
The cessation of feeling & perception
The former means non-dependence and non-feeding (using the Form Realm as example)
The latter means non-discrimination and non-participation (using the Formless Realm as example)
The nirodha in the "three dependences" is same as this nirodha
The post-nirodha transformation: permanently altered relationship with and regarding to sankharas; the experiencing of the Deathless; technically, both should happen; such a transformation is non-reversible, and remains regardless the episodic contents
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2024.02.03► [Q&A] 识缘名色 名色缘六入/識緣名色 名色緣六入
Name and form; new interpretation
how it relates to consciousness and six senses
Dhammapada 24: "Gone to the beyond of becoming,
you let go of in front,
let go of behind,
let go of between.
With a heart everywhere let-go,
'you' don't come again to birth
& aging."
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For those who are earnest...
More important than rules and regulation is embodied mindset
Embodied abundance; aristocratic elegance; equality and sincerity to all
Embodied security; connected to the source; fundamental to all experiences, which are not suppressed, is peace
Embodied happiness; giving not because of self-denial, but because it is joyful
Your life will change for the better without scheming or striving
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The hindrances (i.e. hindrances to jhanas) are not just impediments to attentional focus, but are described as "causes of blindness, causes of ignorance, destructive to wisdom, not conducive to Nibbana." (SN 46:40)
The commentarial notion of knocking out vs killing bandits
Satipatthana is dynamic
Dispassion toward mental processes; they are not here to serve you; don't trust them; they are but repetitions of restlessness, torpor, boredom, excitation...
It's only in mental processes that the five hindrances are evident; they are the "wrinkles"; it's only in self identification that they are evident; they are the symptoms of a mind that has already been wrapped up and swept away
Pacify the mind until the currents are not felt; if the currents are not felt, the water is not felt; emptiness of mind
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2024.03.02► [Q&A] 厌离 是 高级懒/厭離 是 高級懶
Not complaining and not explaining, inside and outside
Too lazy for thoughts, descriptions, conclusions, judgments...
The "I am so and so” is but the loudest of noises, the most recurring of
impressions
Too lazy to cohere as a person, to borrow something from past or future
Too lazy to turn attention every which way, and too lazy to suppress it
Only stress, its origination and disappearance; only presence, space, awareness, not-a-thing...
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2024.03.09► [Q&A] 松进觉知中/鬆進覺知中
When you're embodying sadness, tension, etc. in the background awareness
The intensity of the movie and the untouchability of the screen; even smoothness is an attribute
The undefinable, attribute-less...Doing nothing and entrusting; no struggle
Parasympathetic vs sympathetic; stress mode vs relaxation mode
Primary verb at the moment: want, do, have
The intensity of that verb; seclusion from that verb; to be
Relaxation at the levels of muscles, attitudes, grip on thoughts
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The indeterminate; loosening grip on everything; conserving energy; letting go of doership and control
All explanatory models break down; the example of time: beginningless or with beginning
Will an explanation satisfy? How long will it satisfy? Can you remember this after death/trauma?
Explanation as placating and appeasement; explanation just as a practical means of directing and guiding intention; be content with just this
Instead of working on views, work on the intention behind questioning
Omniscience in the Dhamma
What doesn't need explanation? Self knowing, origination and disappearance of stress
Stay with those what is self-evident, and don't be swayed by contents of thoughts; do you become dogmatic, insistent, quarrelsome?
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Mental defilement IS the learned response to certain feelings; all three feelings make the body/mind fidget, in the form of craving, aversion, boredom……
Hardship is nothing other than resistance to feelings; let go of resistance, feel feelings fully, no expectations, accept even the feelings of resistance, let go of even the striving to let go
Forsaking reactions
Ghosts and demons
Daqi, non-cowering, no self pity, not playing the victim……
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2024.03.30► [Q&A] 内在的宁静 是道/內在的寧靜 是道
Natural peace; which is present when one is awake or asleep; which is not in the least bit disturbed
The path is only there when there's not one with, or when there's a tendency toward rebellion against, peace
Quiet the mind; different methods; not by ways of forceful fabrication; the example of recollecting the sages' minds
Convincing consciousness of its own source and nature
Simulation; artificial
Ways to correct the artificiality: what separate intentions are there? What controlling desires are there? What remaining pushing away is there? How did you lose it? Did you really lose it? I am peace
4~6月
2024.04.06► [Q&A] 内在的净居天/內在的淨居天
The psycho-behavioral archetypes of Buddhist heavens
淨居天一切時不住於輪迴側
Meaningless differentiation between figurative and literal places
Don't just leave behind sensuality for dogma; what is the reason...
What destroys peace...
Letting go of guilt; Think of sensuality in terms of: clarity and peace compromised
What compromises peace: eagerness, impatience, hunger, fever……
What compromises clarity: ignorance about sensuality (limitations; doesn't lend itself to hoarding; endless rivalry and worry...)
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2024.04.13► [Q&A] 心安静下来後/心安靜下來後
Quieting down via non-formal-meditative techniques
What to do with equanimity?
1. deepen and familiarize it
2. examine if there's sankhara, in support of it, in identifying it
3. examine craving
4. knowing the nature of mind, via the liberation gates
Some of these might be redundant or unnecessary
All leading to letting go
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2024.04.20► [Q&A] 没有捉执(執)的意识(識) 是觉(覺)知
AN10.81, the Buddha abides in unrestricted awareness, having been released from the aggregates; this means that unrestricted awareness is not consciousness
Consciousness as that which maps reality; consciousness with attributes, landing, reflected surface...consciousness as that which is intoxicated by its reflected image
As a traveler, as a story, as a hoarder, as a sensory experiencer……
Be dispassionate about memory, inclination, doership, ownership, character...
The cohering of a glob of foam; where is mind when its structures are not believed in?Where is mind when there's no activity to hold together the structure?
The border of a personality is held together by continual striving; when there's surrender, there's unrestricted awareness; the pattern of a river
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Not the usual idea of body, but as bundle of neuroticism; mental defilements as strugle
One angle to "pacifying activities": make them fewer
Another angle: regard them with indifference
Looking for ways to conserve energy; looking for ways that you can content the body
See mental defilements as bodily agitation and inner tightening
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2024.05.04► [Q&A] 十六胜行最初二阶/十六勝行最初二階
MN10 turner assessment, to Patisambhidamagga's contact point
Task focused, not point or location focused
Parimukha:正念現前(菩提流支);住對面念(玄奘);正念而住(義淨)
Situational awareness vs attentional fixity; Citta-ekagga
The so-called optimal environment, or conducive environment; But in the end, learn to be at ease even at one's failure to be at ease; learn to let go even at one's struggle at letting go
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AN9.36; discerning the verge of nibbana
What is nibbana and stream entry; regarding/selfing
Cessation; neither existence or non-existence; not having come from or going to somewhere
Imperturbable peace
What is more compelling? The call of sankharas, or the refuge in peace? Initially, the contrast and lopsidedness are not complete, but there will be signs that they are beginning to lean
The way they lean: the locus of one's security; the waning sankharic forces; the increasing pervading of peace; complete disillusionment about what selfing does; the destruction of pride; the destruction of insistence on harmfulness; readiness for humility and faith
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2024.05.25► [Q&A] 身念住的关键(關鍵)在身行 而非身体(體)
Body as a lump of mass vs body as bundles of neurotic tendencies and reactions; the former is but a forerunner to enhanced sensitivity for the latter
Don't focus so much on the border, but on the borderless impulses; the manner in which you seize, pick up, rush forward, cower, aggress...
Even in physical stillness, one should focus on sankharas: those yet to arise, or the subtle ones, or the state of absence of them
In your dreams, your body is not the literal body, but the neurotic tendencies you take with you; the body you're reborn with is but an emblem/representation of karmic tendencies
The euphoric and charismatic phenomena; not to be duplicated in themselves; rather, it's the pacification of craving/sankhara that leads to wellbeing; focus on the latter
The satipatthana topic is always a key whose focus leads to liberation; in this case, the sankharas that is behind intentions
Pacification of bodily sankharas: relax them; not reveling in them; not embedding your sense of self; not rushing in with passion; indifference; disinterested in fabrications
Sankharas made to seem illusory
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2024.06.01► [Q&A] 慈悲喜舍(捨) 到 解脱道 的 自然过(過)渡
The bramaviharas could be summarized as a friendly and accepting attitudes
The affected/fabricated vs the natural friendliness and acceptance
Other experiences that can be separated into these two: worldly happiness; intimacy...
Fake it until you make it
The use of a chant like huanxijieshou or youshan or jiena
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2024.06.08► [Q&A] 究竟的栖心之所/究竟的棲心之所
What is a perch? It's really another way of saying selfing and meditative object; Examples of a sensual/form/formless perch; satipatthana as a perch
Whatever the meditative technique, it is to be polished so that it merges with awareness and becomes identical with it
Before they are identical, consciousness would always try to render awareness an intentional object and objectify it; the use of the liberation gates; when objectified, it is a formless, rather than a liberative state
You can choose a technique that is closer to this ultimate goal
What is immediate, right here, requiring no effort, all encompassing, immovable
The so-called consciousness is the insistence that there's someone separate from awareness
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2024.06.15► [Q&A] 寻觅念头了不可得/尋覓念頭了不可得
The thought of when you're a hungry ghost incompatible with the thought of when you're something else
Thoughts have a tendency to invite subjectivity; your imperturbability is a sign of dispassion and freedom from conceit
Where do they arise? Where do they disappear? Time-wise, do they abide at all? Do they persist from one moment to the next? Space-wise, do they move from one location to another location? Even the notion of impermanence doesn't seem to apply—where this edge of beginning, or ending?
The most compelling and the most illusory
Where is the thinker other than this subjectivity feeling in thoughts?
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2024.06.22► [Q&A] 於五蕴无有捉执/於五蘊無有捉執
Not applying intention to body and mind; not seizing on body and mind
Whatever needs be done still will be done
Is there imagination? Are there hopes and fears? Is there tight holding? Defensive gesture? Holding attention captive, or being allowed to appear in awareness? Are there thoughts of me and mine?
There's no stirring up in the body; there's no fascination with regards to mental contents
Transparent and unobstructed throughout
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2024.06.29► [Q&A] 善巧调控与捐弃调控/善巧調控與捐棄調控
The path of fabricating skillfulness and the path of surrender converge eventually
Innate control vs neurotic control; innate control vs reckless abandon; the breathing system work on its own
Relaxed wakefulness and groundedness; they give rise to felicitous actions
The perception of activities happening spontaneously and on their own
The end of fabricating skillfulness is arrival at effortlessness; the practice of surrender is arrival at innate control
7~9月
2024.07.06► [Q&A] 自然宽坦的觉知/自然寬坦的覺知
It's just about quieting down; and probably what helps the most with quieting down is relaxing; when you're relaxed, you understand that awareness is not something you can find, but be
In quieting down, you'll understand sensual craving always about what's next; while jhanas is not rejecting any pleasure, on what's available here; you'll see the nature of conceit always fixating on where you are, can do, attain...
Posturing; physical and mental; the obstructions and affectations; concentration a sort of posturing, involving suppression and exertion; any posturing, even skillful ones, creates karma and rebirth
rebirth means inheritable memory; so called attainment is just a thought, part of that inheritable memory of what the person has become; meditation about releasing and not creating memories
Resting; but not resting with dreams and unexposed impulses; when rested, mental defilements will be seen as unnatural energies
It's not concentrative awareness or confrontative noting; it's more about receiving and relaxing; you don't even need particular focusing; Borrowing light from natural awareness; alertness means exposing impulses and habits
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2024.07.13► [Q&A] 合适(適)於解脱的心理环(環)境
Why the different receptivity for the Dhamma? Rendering one's psychological environment compatible
Narcissists taking tears to be mockery; paranoids taking tears to be ploys
The two misunderstandings about the ancient Buddhist gatha: moralism; infinite diversification of one's resources
Sila is not about legality but about removing disturbances; threefold training serves the same purpose
What is skillful is that which is less burdensome and more conducive to inner peace; examples of different kinds of happiness and crying; kindness over machinations; effortless kindness over ideological altruism
Being easy to support is not about self mortification, but about ease; don't dwell on what is not helpful, but train in compassionate equanimity
The guilt of having harmed others vs the difficulty created by others
Never domineer, always respectful; genuine humility not feigned; let difficulties strengthen, and don't let enjoyments intoxicate
If you continue to entangle in the trivial, then there would be great resistance to liberation
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