- Check in
- Review : causes and conditions; mindfulness of feeling leading to mindfulness of mind;
- Example: Visiting my daughter Lenora in CT: she became extremely angry with us.
- Have you ever had someone get mad at you? Really mad? How did you feel? How did you perceive this? Myself witnessing the sight and sound of her words and actions, I perceive this, and feel about this. The feeling about this would be unpleasant.
- We are so conditioned to when the unpleasant feeling arises, to add more unpleasantness to this experience. In the previous example for me it was unpleasantness creating anxiety. This had an effect on my whole mind, we may call this aversion. We typically do not like anxiety, we wish to “get rid of it.” Hence More aversion
- This is called Mindfulness of Mind. Mindfulness of mind includes moods, thoughts and emotions. Anxiety is a form of aversion which is one of the three poisons along with greed and delusion. Most of the world’s problems are so to these kilesas.It is like dropping food color in a glass of clear water. In the past, this anxiety would manifest into anger, I would get mad back at her. Through the teachings, there was no external reaction. Besides anxiety there was a sense of empathy and compassion, connection, with my daughter.I know what it is like to be filled with anger.
- Understand that it can appear as though these mental states can arise without and apparent cause. Although we seem to spend a lot of time thinking and even emoting to figure out the reason for the mood. Ever woke up in a :”bad mood” Did
you know that people can be depressed for no apparent reason? Or have a panic attack for no apparent reason? Or getting sick? Or aging? Or the prospects of death?
- This anxiety can also be called a mental formation. It comes from the unconscious. When the mind is being threatened, it responds to old actions that can be ineffective. This is what is called karma.
- The traditional definition of karma is action, yet another definition is emotionally potent memory with action. Whenever people get really mad with me, that is a threat. So my old views, thoughts and emotions, anxiety come to the surface and inform action: avoid. This is my old karma.
- Most of us think when we feel something unpleasant is occurring, that there is something wrong with us and then try to fix this with a distraction too like an avoidance or even sensual pleasure, like ice cream.
- Last time we spoke of causes and conditions. Conditions: we had been traveling and were tired, some anxiety because the next day we needed to travel upstate New York. Some Causes: Some anxiety and self doubt about being a father
- Ignorance being unable to see the suffering arising and the causes and conditions of suffering, ie the unpleasant formations and mental states that ariese and getting lost in delusional thought
- When ignorance is operating, and with this flow of anxiety in the
- mind, this gives the false impression of a sense of solidity in thinking and emotion. This is called contraction of “the squeeze.” Less so today, I would make this all about me. “I must not be a good father, what kind of daughter would act like that?”
- Hence, with mindfulness, we can begin to witness experientially that there is a sense of life “not being perfect,” “not being permanent” and “not being personal.” When the mind is not practicing mindfulness, we are unable to witness impermanence, or that we are identifying with the experience. We are taking the experience personally.
- We try to arrange our life to reduce suffering, yet there is no escape from this suffering, we live with attachments to the way we think life should be. (next time) we try to live in pleasant experience all the time. Yet the dharma is teaching us a new way to deal with attachments.
- This Dharma teaches is to look within. We are training ourselves to consistently look within.
- https://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?t=22084
- This is karma. No matter what we do, the unpleasant experience will occur. When we are unmindful, in ignorance, we may become angry, anxious or jealous and there may be an action that is informed by anger. This is all stored in the unconscious. For recall to inform future similar events. We are doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.
- The same process occurs with the feeling tone of pleasant or neutral. We change our karma through mindfulness meditation training.
- With the pleasant, we witness pleasant moods, emotions and thoughts. This is based on the senses, perceptions and feeling tone. Based on this, our karmic load may show itself and we crave and cling to the pleasant. We want this to continue,
- This does not mean that life is not supposed to be pleasurable. But the type of happiness that we are working towards is not necessarily based on causes and conditions. We are taking joy in the three Refuges. Quote from Dhammapada “If, by giving up a lesser happiness, one could experience greater happiness, a wise person would renounce the lesser to behold the greater.” The Buddha
- We bring mindfulness to this energy of craving. What effect does craving have on the mind? What effects does craving have on the body? What do I really need besides the object of my craving? What would I have to deal with if I did not satisfy the craving?
- Assignments practice walking and sitting mediation; Read p 112-132 “Breath by Breath” by Larry Rosenberg