This Leads to Joy
Joy (pamojja) is the next link in the chain of Transcendent Dependent Arising. It follows from Faith (saddha) because once we have acted on our initial, intuitive sense (faith) that this is the path that could lead to the end of Suffering (dukkha)…and found that, if fact, it really DOES bring release….then of course we are joyous!
So we practice with more confidence (faith).
Which leads to an even greater release of suffering.
Which leads to still more faith.
And lots more joy!!!
(image from: A Whole World, by Couprie and Louchard)
There is a Way Out
The second link in the chain of Transcendent Dependent Arising — after Suffering (dukkha) — is Saddha. This is often translated as “faith,” but not the blind, check-your-brain-at-the-door kind of faith that seems to be required in certain religious traditions. Saddha is not belief. It’s confidence. Trust. A sense that there is something that can be relied on….and that one can, in fact, find this something.
Saddha (faith) follows Dukkha (suffering) because the pain and distress of suffering is often what drives people to search for this something.
And in the searching, to actually find it.
(image from: Tarot of the Witches)
It Starts With Suffering
One of my favorite topics at the final DPP retreat was the Twelve Links of Transcendent Dependent Arising. Basically, these links diverge from the rounds of samsara as described in the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination, which start with Ignorance and lead repeatedly to Suffering. But this chain of arising leads AWAY from that endless cycle of suffering….and goes all the way to Liberation!
The path to liberation starts with suffering (dukkha). Which is good news…because that’s what we’ve got! Things are not the way we want them to be; we don’t get what we want; we have to deal with all kinds of stuff we don’t want; etc. etc. etc.
So we start with suffering. But then we move AWAY from it. By gaining confidence and trust….faith….in what we can see for ourselves through the practices of meditation.
More on that tomorrow.
And then on to the next link, then to the next, one each day until we get to the last — which is total freedom.
Here’s the whole list:
Suffering (dukkha)
Faith (saddha)
Joy (pamojja)
Rapture (piti)
Tranquility (passaddhi)
Happiness (sukha)
Concentration (samadhi)
Knowledge and Vision of Things As They Are (yathabhutananadassana)
Disenchantment (nibbida)
Dispassion (viraga)
Emancipation (vimutti)
Knowledge of Destruction of the Taints (asavakkhaye nana)
(image: Phantasmagoric Theater Tarot)
Right Practice
Again from The Island: An Anthology of the Buddha’s Teachings on Nibbana, by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro:
“The fourth and final factor for stream-entry is dhammanudhammapatipatti. This is usually translated as ‘practice in accordance with the Dhamma,’ but it can have some other subtle nuances, such as practicing Dhamma appropriately according to the truth. There are many ways of practice but some of them may, in actuality, not accord with the teachings or the true Way. They may be popular or comfortable, but yet not be Dhamma…..
“Another meaning of the phrase is making sure one follows the Dhamma as one has studied it, rather than studying one thing and then practicing in a completely different manner.”
So then I guess it’s not enough to just read about all this. Or think about it. One actually has to practice it. Right?
Right.
(image: Steampunk Tarot by Curly Cue Design)
Trying to Go Somewhere?
Ajahn Sumedho says:
“The important thing in meditation is attitude, rather than technique or tradition. The right attitude is most important. Even if you have the best teacher with the best tradition and the best method, if your attitude isn’t right, it won’t work….
“When you are meditating, don’t try to attain, but just open up to your intention for meditating. When you suddenly awaken to the fact that you are trying to get something out of it, that is a moment of enlightenment. With an open mind, you begin to see what is really happening. But if you sit for a year trying to become and attain, you will feel terribly disappointed at the end of it. You will have lost everything because, if you don’t have the right attitude, you will not have the wisdom to learn from failure.
“In our meditation, we learn from both successes and failures. People fail all the time. Mindfulness of the breath is one of the most frustrating meditation practices ever conceived because, if you try to get something out of it, it is not a very giving practice. You have to be patient. You have to learn from your successes and from your failures, until you no longer really care whether your experience is pleasant or unpleasant. Then both conditions can take you to enlightenment, to nibbana.”
–text from The Mind and the Way: Buddhist Reflections on Life
–image from Phantasmagoric Theater Tarot
The Fragrance of Virtue
The perfume of sandalwood,
Rosebay or jasmine
Cannot travel against the wind.
But the fragrance of virtue
Travels even against the wind,
As far as the ends of the world.
Like garlands woven from a heap of flowers,
Fashion from your life as many good deeds.
–from the Dhammapada,
translated by Thomas Byrom
We Are What We Think
We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with an impure mind
And trouble will follow you
As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.
We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with a pure mind
And happiness will follow you
As your shadow, unshakable.
How can a troubled mind
Understand the way?
Your worst enemy cannot harm you
As much as your own thoughts, unguarded.
But once mastered,
No one can help you as much,
Not even your father or your mother.
— from the Dhammapada, translated by Thomas Byrom
(image: Elvira Resting at a Table, by Amedeo Modigliani)
Breath and Body
The Dancing with Life KM group meets tonight. The passage I chose for our discussion is from Chapter 15: When the Dance Ends, Freedom Begins.
“Ajahn Chah used to say, ‘We focus on the here and now dharma. This is where we can let go of things and resolve our difficulties. We look at the present and see continuous arising and ceasing. When the mind starts to realize that all things without exception are by their very nature uncertain, the problems of grasping and attachment start to decrease and wither away….’
“To practice Ajahn Chah’s style of moment-to-moment awareness in daily life, when your mind is engaged in a specific task, you train it to automatically rest in awareness of breath and body sensations. Eventually breath and body awareness will become the ‘default’ position of your attention.
“Once you develop this ease of attention on the breath and body, you begin to note that every breath and every sensation ceases. At first, practicing noticing these endings may feel mechanical, but gradually a realization of wonder emerges: It is really true–everything that arises disappears! Such a moment of wonder is the direct experience of cessation.”
Phillip Moffitt says, “If you only develop one practice for cessation, this is the one I recommend.”
(image: Kitty Kahane Tarot)
How to be Happy
This from a talk by one of my teachers, Kate (Lila) Wheeler, featured in this month’s BSBC Insight Journal:
“True happiness is the reward for doing things for their own sake, for the joy in being whole-hearted and present. So if we want ultimate liberation…and we also just want to be happier….being present when we’re doing something is critical.
“You may have heard about experiments in which they sent messages to people on their smart phones at random intervals asking how happy they were. Of 5,000 people involved, about 3,000 answered. They would ask them what they were doing, and to rate their happiness on a scale of 1 to 10. About 60 percent of people were totally distracted, and when distracted, the mind is not that happy.
“The upshot of the whole study would be: if, when you’re ironing a shirt, you are present and mindful, you will be happier than if you’re ironing a shirt and fantasizing about being in the Caribbean.”
Skeptical?
Check it out for yourself!
Just Show Up
Two KM groups has been reading and discussing Phillip Moffitt’s, “Dancing with Life,” for more than a year now….and all I can say is the more I read and reflect on this book, the more it speaks to me.
I leave you to savor this quote (from page 167):
Just show up for your deepest intentions, as best you can, and then allow the dharma, the truth of awakened presence, to do the work.
(image: Insight Meditation Society)