Cup of Tea—No Result from Meditation

Nibbāna 26: Advancing on the Path

First we need to understand the four levels of enlightenment or stages of deliverance according to the Buddha’s teaching: Stream-entry, Once-returner, Non-returner and Arahant. A Stream-entrant has almost destroyed three lower fetters. A Once-returner has almost destroyed the five lower fetters. A Non-returner has destroyed the five lower fetters completely, and partially destroyed the five higher fetters as well. An Arhant has completely destroyed all the ten fetters.

Harmonic Spaces 1

An experiment, part of developing a new musical language to describe states of deep meditation. Bells, flute and keyboard over a deep layered drone.

Meditation Retreat in Southern Norway

Hi everyone, I will be at the beautiful FreeBird community in southern Norway until the end of August (photos below). While I’m here, I invite everyone who is interested to come here for a meditation retreat. This is not an event, but an integral part of the FreeBird Family lifestyle. So you can come and go when you want, get as much or as little support in your practice as suits you.

Meditation can Change Grey Matter in 8 Weeks

A meditation study led by Harvard Researchers showed that it only took eight weeks of meditation, to actually produce a physical change in the brain’s gray matter.

A total of 12 people participated in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program at the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness. They took 2 weeks off before and after the program and magnetic resonance (MR) images were taken of their brain. They also had weekly mindful meditation meetings where they were given audio recordings to practice their guided meditation, they also had to log how much time they spent meditating throughout their day.

http://slickpulp.com/harvard-study-shows-that-meditation-can-change-the-brains-gray-matter-in-just-8-weeks/

The Arahant: How Do You Know?

Q: How do you know when you are enlightened? How did you know?

A: [laughs] The details are different for everyone. Each meditator is unique. The general symptoms are given in the Suttas: they follow the Precepts! But the trouble is, no one believes it because to meet someone like that anymore is very rare. The Buddha said:

“So it is with an Arahant whose mental effluents are ended, who has reached fulfillment, done the task, laid down the burden, attained the true goal, totally destroyed the fetter of becoming, and who is released through right gnosis. Whatever desire he first had for the attainment of Arahantship, on attaining Arahantship that particular desire is allayed. Whatever persistence he first had for the attainment of Arahantship, on attaining Arahantship that particular persistence is allayed. Whatever intent he first had for the attainment of Arahantship, on attaining Arahantship that particular intent is allayed. Whatever discrimination he first had for the attainment of Arahantship, on attaining Arahantship that particular discrimination is allayed.” — Brahmana Sutta (SN 51)

These are important indicators. It takes some time to verify that one has attained to Arahant. It helps if there are other Arahants around who can confirm it. Still, if you are really an Arahant, you become certain of it in time. Actually, in these talks as well as your practice, we should not focus on the question of being an Arahant, but the method of attaining Arahantship. That will be much more helpful.

People are clinging to ‘being’; but being, in the sense of false ego, is the source of all their problems. There is the body, the identity, the ‘self’, consciousness and experience, and these are all sources of suffering, dukkha. We must be able to let go of all these clingings. The Buddha said:

“He gets attached to form, clings to form, and determines it to be ‘my self.’ He gets attached to feeling, clings to feeling, and determines it to be ‘my self.’ He gets attached to perception, clings to perception, and determines it to be ‘my self.’ He gets attached to fabrications, clings to fabrications, and determines them to be ‘my self.’ He gets attached to consciousness, clings to consciousness, and determines it to be ‘my self.’ These five clinging-aggregates — attached to, clung to — lead to his long-term loss and suffering.

“Now, the well-instructed, disciple of the noble ones — who has regard for noble ones, is well-versed and disciplined in their Dhamma; who has regard for men of integrity, is well-versed and disciplined in their Dhamma — does not assume form to be the self, or the self as possessing form, or form as in the self, or the self as in form. He does not assume feeling to be the self, or the self as possessing feeling, or feeling as in the self, or the self as in feeling. He does not assume perception to be the self, or the self as possessing perception, or perception as in the self, or the self as in perceptions. He does not assume fabrications to be the self, or the self as possessing fabrications, or fabrications as in the self, or the self as in fabrications. He does not assume consciousness to be the self, or the self as possessing consciousness, or consciousness as in the self, or the self as in consciousness.

… “These five clinging-aggregates — not attached to, not clung to — lead to his long-term happiness and well-being.” — Yamaka Sutta (SN 22.85)

If you can just follow this one instruction—or any of the insight instructions of the Buddha—perfectly and completely, you will attain to Arahantship. At this point, people usually ask, “How?” I tell them, “I can’t tell you. It’s like asking, ‘How do I like something?’ The very question is absurd. Look. It’s your mind, so you can figure out how to get it to follow this instruction.”

But people go on asking these impossible questions because they are lazy; they want their teacher to do the hard work of bringing their own mind under control. Only you can do that work. And you must do that work, or the mind will continue to cause you trouble until you do. This is the Buddha’s teaching.

No Result from Meditation?

Why do many people experience no result, or little benefit from meditation? In my own practice, I often wondered, “Why am I practicing? Why doesn’t this seem to be leading anywhere? Why aren’t I getting the results I read about in the books?” In my experience, there are three main reasons:

Crazymaking Buddhists

The Buddha’s teaching was never intended to be turned into a religion. Actually the Buddha taught that we should not base our views on faith or belief but on practical experience. The religious aspects of ‘Buddhism’ are a later development by less enlightened people.

Ironically, putting the teaching of the Buddha into a religious context was intended to help bring the teaching to a wider audience. That may have been appropriate at the time—it’s hard to tell from this distance, over a millennium later. But at this point the religious interpretation of Buddha’s teaching is just getting in the way of its usefulness.

The Decay of Decay, the Death of Death

Dependent Origination is the key to the Buddha’s teaching

In the Ariyapariyesana Sutta (MN 26), the Buddha, soon after his enlightenment, reflected on the profundity of the Dhamma and was rather disinclined to preach it.

“I considered: ‘This Dhamma that I have attained is profound, hard to see and hard to understand, peaceful and sublime, unattainable by mere reasoning, subtle, to be experienced by the wise. But this generation delights in attachment, takes delight in attachment, rejoices in attachment. It is hard for such a generation to see this truth, namely, specific conditionality, Dependent Origination. And it is hard to see this truth: the stilling of all fabrications, the relinquishing of all acquisitions, the destruction of craving; dispassion, cessation, Nibbāna. If I were to teach the Dhamma, others would not understand me, and that would be wearying and troublesome for me’.”

He saw two particular points in the Dhamma that are difficult for the world to see or grasp. One was paṭicca samuppāda:

Names of Nibbāna | Ordinary logic cannot reveal its nature

Nibbāna is not the only term for the ultimate realization, the consummation of the Noble Eightfold Path. There are many synonyms for Nibbāna, such as akata (unmade) and asaṅkhata (unfabricated). There is even a list of thirty-three such epithets in the Dutiya Asaṅkhata Vagga (SN 43.37):