Fully Available and Responsive
It’s been a while since I’ve quoted from Dancing with Life, by Phillip Moffitt. I’m reading it again with one of the Monday night KM groups, and it just keeps speaking to me more and more clearly every time I pick it up.
For example, this from the section titled: Finding Liberation from Suffering is Not the Same as Abandoning the World (p. 191 in the hardback edition)
The knowing of cessation [from suffering] does not necessarily mean that you retreat from the world. The Buddha certainly didn’t just sit in bliss for years after his full realization of cessation [enlightenment]. Instead, he spent 45 years teaching and dealing with the mundane problems of living in a community, including jealousy from other teachers and accusations and resentments from the lay community.
The same is true for you; you are not practicing cessation in order to be somewhere other than where you are. Just the opposite is true; Knowing cessation means that, for the first time ever, you are able to be just where you are in this very moment, fully available and responsive.
… In the Zen tradition, it is taught: “Before enlightenment chop wood and carry water, and after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.” Life continues to be an ever-chaning stream of moments, but how you perceive and relate to the stream changes. The difference is that because you now know the essential insights, you are able to live wisely and be in harmony with life in this realm, however it manifests. You do what needs to be done without taking it personally or being attached to results of actions.
Or as Ajahn Sumedho says, “We do things because that is the right thing to be doing at this time and in this place rather than out of a sense of personal ambition or fear of failure.”
(image from: A Whole World, by Couprie and Louchard)
We’re done.
The last link in the chain of Transcendent Dependent Arising is Knowledge of Destruction of the Taints (asavvakkhaye nana).
Which basically means that not only does the calm and collected mind know that all things are impermanent, unable to satisfy deeply and are without an inherent existence that can be called a “self”….the mind knows that it knows! So it naturally abandons grasping for things to be other than they are. There is no more trying to find lasting happiness is things that can not provide it.
The struggle is over.
The mind is free from the taints (obscuring factors) that caused the greediness, hatred and delusion.
The work is done.
(image from: Phantasmagoric Theater Tarot)
Free At Last!
The next link on the chain of Transcendent Dependent Arising is Emancipation (vimutti).
The mind has seen the truth (yathabhuta…) of the way things are (that everything is impermanent, incapable of satisfying at the deepest level, and empty of an inherent essence that can be called a “self”).
Then the illusion that the world is different than this can no longer be sustained (nibbida) and the relentless grasping after things and experiences (in an attempt to find lasting happiness from that which is fundamentally incapable of providing it) will naturally lose its appeal (virago)….and we are FREE! (vimutti)
(image from: Creative Whack Pack)
This Will Not Satisfy
When the mind has seen through — and let go of — the illusion that lasting satisfaction can be found in things that are constantly changing, the result is Dispassion (virago) toward “worldly” phenomena.
This is not Depression. Or Indifference. It’s not: “who cares, it’s all impermanent anyway”….which is just another form of hatred and aversion. It’s more the feeling that things are inherently Un-enticing, Un-captivating, Un-satisfying in the long run. And therefore: Able To Be Let Go Of.
Which might not sound all that great. But this is what leads to profound freedom and ease.
More on that tomorrow.
(image from: Wanderlust by Troy M. Litten)
The Spell Is Broken
Disenchantment (nibbida) is the next link in the chain of Transcendent Dependent Arising. When the Calm (passaddhi) and Contented (sukkha) mind becomes Stable enough (samadhi) to really See and Understand the Fundamental Nature of Things (yathabhuta…), then the illusion of our everyday world can finally be seen through…and the spell is broken.
What illusion?
The illusion that there is anything at all that is unchanging, that can provide lasting satisfaction, or that has an eternal essence that is its “self.”
Which sounds like really bad news.
But it’s not!
Stay tuned.
(image from: Phantasmagoric Theater Tarot)
Seeing Things As They Are
The next link on the chain of Transcendent Dependent Arising is called Knowledge and Vision of Things As They Are (yathabhutananadassana). Carol Wilson prefers the translation: Things As They Have Come To Be, which I like too, because it reinforces the understanding that everything is constantly changing, evolving, coming-into-being.
This “Knowledge and Vision” is what Insight (vipassana) is all about. When the mind is calm (passaddhi) and contented (sukha), it gets profoundly still (samadhi). When this happens, it’s possible to actually see into the fundamental nature of all things: that they are inherently unstable (anicca), unable to provide lasting satisfaction (dukkha), and without an eternal essence (anatta).
The Mind Gets Focused
When Tranquility (passaddhi) and Happiness (sukha) are present, the mind will naturally become calm, collected, steady, stable and profoundly still. This is Samadhi (concentration) and it’s the next chain in the link of Transcendent Dependent Arising.
(image from: Q-cards)
Happiness Happens
Happiness (sukha) is the next link in the chain of Transcendent Dependent Arising. This is not the temporary kind of happiness that comes from getting what we want (or getting away from what we don’t want.) It’s the easeful, contented, liberating kind of happiness that follows naturally from the states of Joy (pamojja), Rapture (piti) and Tranquility (passaddhi) that are the result of practicing with Confidence/Faith (saddha).
(image from: A Whole World, by Couprie and Louchard)
When Things Calm Down
The experience of Rapture (piti) can mature into Tranquillity (passaddhi), which is the next link on the chain of Transcendent Dependent Arising. The mind that has turned from Suffering to Faith and found Joy in the release that comes through practice, delights in that Joy until it develops into Rapture. After which, it can rest and relax into the calm and peaceful state of Tranquility.
(image from: Tarot of the Witches)
And Then Rapture!
As Joy increases….it leads to Rapture (piti), which is the next link in the chain of Transcendent Dependent Arising. This is an energetic mental state that can arise when the joy of practice becomes more focused and concentrated. It has a physical aspect as well, which can include goosebumps and tingling, waves or showers of pleasure, a flood of well-being and other distinctive and very, very pleasurable sensations!!!
(image from: Napo Tarot)