In search of Peace, Equanimity and good will
We all experience AIDS that is: Agitation, Irritation, Disharmony and suffering.
Pursuit of happiness is the right and removal of AIDS an obligation.
Have no dogma instead act in tune with law of nature.
It is proper to doubt and test what is beyond experience.
Abandon the unwholesome and accept and practice wholesome that leads to welfare and happiness.
The highest authority is one’s direct experience of truth and not faith.
Look within to observe. This is the path of introspection and self-observation leading to purification.
Our relations with others should become more peaceful and harmonious.
Being sensitive to the sufferings, you should remain calm and balanced to alleviate their misery.
Nobody can carry a person on his shoulders, one has to walk on the path oneself.
Every Being is a composite of five processes
1. Matter: Incessant biochemical occurs within each cell of the body. Body consists of subatomic particle and empty space. Particles continuously arise and vanish, passing into and out of existence @1022 per second.
2. Consciousness: is merely the receiver of the process of mind without making judgment
3. Perception: Process identifies, distinguishes, labels, and categorizes the incoming raw data and evaluates as +/-
4. Sensation: arises as soon as input is received. Once a value is attached to the incoming data, the sensation becomes Pleasant or Unpleasant.
5. Reaction: Mind reacts with liking or disliking.
Each moment that the senses come into contact with any object the mental process 2 to 5 above with lightening speed and repeat with subsequent moment of contact without awareness in short term. Each human being is a series of separate but related events. Appearance of identity /continuity is an apparent reality, not ultimate truth. A person is not a finished unchanging entity but a process flowing from moment to moment. The entire universe is a stream of becoming—of arising and passing away. Ignorant person satisfied with the superficial pleasures is under the illusion and his agitation and tensions appear at conscious level in due course.
Cause and effect is fundamental to existence
All beings own, inherit, originate, and tied to their deeds. As their deeds are noble or base, so will be their life. We may become master of our fate by becoming master of our actions. Physical and vocal actions are the consequence of mental action that is Karma. Happiness follows act or speech with pure mind. The cause of suffering is the reaction process of mind. When the reaction is repeated moment after moment, intensifies with each repetition and develops into Craving and Aversion. Reaction may be like line cut on the water, sand or rock. Deep reaction leads to immense suffering. Accept the reality and stop being driven and come out of suffering. Observe the anger and it will pass away. Mental exercise strengthens as much as physical. It is natural for the pure mind to have CDE GJL (compassion, detachment, equanimity, good will, joy and love.
Three roots of suffering are Craving, Aversion and Ignorance
Wheel of suffering leads to sorrow, lamentation, suffering, and tribulation by arising and occurring of
Ignorance-reaction-consciousness-mind & matter-six senses-contact-sensation-craving & aversion-attachment-process of becoming-birth-decay-death: IR-CM-SC-SC –AA-BB-DDERADICATION and Cessation of ignorance stops blind reaction and leads to peace and happiness.
There is no unchanging ID passing from life to life. Aim should be liberation from AIDS. Keep free from HAI (Hate, Anxiety, Ill will). Give up the habit of reaction and experience liberation. Smile on failing and enjoy what you get on succeeding without attachment or ego. Care for family without clinging.
Speech, Action and Livelihood Training (SALT)
Any action that harms others, that disturbs their peace and harmony, is an unwholesome action.
Speech: Avoid lie, partial truth, carrying tales, backbiting, slander, harsh words, idle gossip, and meaningless chatter. Our words should be worth remembering, timely, well-reasoned, well chosen, and constructive.
Action: abstain from Killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech and intoxicants.
Avoid untimely eating, TV, non-stop radio, body decoration and lying on bed for other than normal sleep.
Consumerism is waste of life. Act as trustee for the money.
Livelihood: Means should be pure. Taxes must be paid. Play a useful role in the society to help the deserving. Inaction in the face of aggression is wrong. Do your work with the intention that others use it for good purposes.
Effort, Awareness and Concentration Training (E- ACT)
Effort: Assume a comfortable, upright position, and close the eyes and pay attention to the breath at nostrils. Change the habit of allowing he mind to slip away to remain with reality. Prevent unwholesome arising and abandon if arisen. Generate wholesome and develop to perfection.
Awareness: The mind spends time in fantasies and illusions and anticipating future with eagerness or fear. Lost in cravings and aversions we may be unaware of what is happening now where we live. Breath works as a bridge between conscious and sub-conscious. The effort is not to control but instead remain conscious of it as it naturally is.
Concentration: Attention on respiration develops the awareness of the present moment. Maintaining the awareness from moment to moment, for as long as possible is Concentration. Object of awareness remains respiration ; anything else is a distraction. Forge the mind into an instrument to examine own reality and to remove conditioning that cause the suffering.
Thought and Understanding Training (TUT)
To remove the roots a method is required with which we can penetrate to the depths of mind, in order to deal with the impurities where they began. Supported by SALT, E-ACT is fruitful. Supported by E-ACT TUT is beneficial as the mind becomes free of defilements. Wisdom has the twin components of thought and understanding.
Thought: Aversion and Craving calm down by awareness of breathing. The mind is tranquil to think about the law of nature and the way to emerge from suffering. The calm achieved by diverting the attention to a different object is not real liberation as it works at conscious level only for the elimination of craving and aversion which are pushed to the subconscious. If the roots remain at the subconscious level, the volcano may erupt dangerously. Self indulgence and restraint are the two choices which also do not tackle the problem at subconscious level. However, if the roots of conditioning in the subconscious are eliminated the danger of unwholesome impulse is liquidated.
The mind becomes free of defilement when supported by wisdom cultivated thru E-ACT with THE FOUNDATION OF SALT. The tranquil mind even at the conscious level thinks of the Law of nature to emerge out of suffering.
Understanding: Heard, intellectual and personally realized (HIP) Wisdom. The personal realization of truth arises out of own experience. This is the real wisdom that will bring about the transformation in the life by changing the very nature of mind. In philosophy the wisdom that comes of experience is essential, since only that enable us to become free from conditioning. Each one of us should live truth by direct experience by the practice of ANUPREKSHA bhavana to liberate the mind. You have to do your own work; those who have reached the goal may show the path. Truth may be lived and experienced directly, only within oneself.
ANUPREKSHA is the special kind of vision: observation of the reality within. Systematic and dispassionate observation of sensation within each part of the body during Shavasna is the link to experience the physical and mental world. Sensation arises with the contact of mind with the anupreksha bhavana at subconscious level. Sensation has to be observed and allowed to wither away without effort to find the cause. Sadhak has to watch the sensation like a scientist in the lab and not concern with the pleasant/unpleasant/neutrality of the same.
ANUPREKSHA
Let us list out the 12 Anupreksha:
Impermanence: I have to die without fail.
Protection less: Wealth and Society cannot save me from the consequence of my sin.
Alone: I suffer the retribution of my deed and none can share.
Mind resides in every cell but it different from the physical matter
Transmigration: I am a flow and Right vision/knowledge/conduct will liberate me from suffering.
Universe: Eradicate the pride and pretence and realize the insignificance of the self.
Impure: what can be the happiness in the body full of excreta and the waste that flows out
Influx: Do no indulge into Craving, Aversion and Ignorance and accumulate new sanskar/bondage.
Contact : New bondage/sanskar may not arise if the contact with the six senses is channelized
Shed accumulated sanskar by respiration and detached observation of sensation as they arise
Nature and obeying its laws is the best strategy in the process of living and dying.
Practice with faith, detachment and equanimity after reasoning out the precepts.
Understanding own nature and developing equanimity
Our perception is distorted and blurred by our past conditioning, preferences and prejudices. (PPP)Ignorance-reaction-consciousness-mind & matter-six senses-contact-sensation-craving & aversion-attachment-process of becoming-decay –death is the vicious cycle based on arising and occurring. This leads to sorrow, lamentation, suffering and tribulations. Based on eradication and cessation the process can be reversed into wheel of liberation. Dieting and exercise has beneficial effect on the body by consuming the energy stored in the tissues. Similarly the practice of Anupreksha is the mental exercise eliminating the new input and consuming the old sanskar. The lightening of the subconscious leads to healthy mind and virtuous cycle for liberation ending the suffering. Awareness of the PPP and developing equanimity needs the physical and mental dieting and exercises to inculcate the habit in 3 to 4 weeks in relaxed environment of the Umang which provides the logistics but the adult education is the self-education.
HAPPY LEARNING
Based on art of Living (Vipassana) by William Hart.
Anupreksha from Jainism
