Escape
 

I was thinking about how we react to things - and the different moods that we can get caught up with. I found this short article by Ajahn Sumedho called 'Escape' and wondered if anyone had any comments.




[size=10pt] Escape


A few words on cittanupassana-satipatthana - mindfulness of the state of mind (the mood): with this, I've found it very helpful to ask myself and to contemplate what mood I am in, because it's easy to be living life mechanically. We can be so wrapped up in our habits and reactions that we don't fully know the mood.

There was one time when somebody told me I was angry, and I denied it; actually I was angry, and I didn't even know - I couldn't admit it to myself. But it's only in admitting these things to ourselves that we can resolve them.

The energies and emotions that we have can be frightening, even to oneself. My character is one that wants to have a nice life where everybody is smiling and saying: 'Everything's OK' - even if it isn't!

Life can be lived on that level: not daring to bring up or to admit, let alone to contemplate, the way things are - because we feel so threatened or frightened, and a part of us doesn't really want to know. We don't feel we can take it; we don't know or understand ourselves in a way that allows us to deal with what we think are bad habits or personal problems.

I think there's also a fear of insanity, or that there might be something basically wrong with us: 'Maybe there's a screw loose, or I've missed out on something when I was born' - because when we look at ourselves, we don't really understand why we are this way.



Continued here: http://www.what-buddha-taught.net/Bo...dho_Escape.htm

This part:

There was one time when somebody told me I was angry, and I denied it; actually I was angry, and I didn't even know - I couldn't admit it to myself. But it's only in admitting these things to ourselves that we can resolve them. reminded me of when some people complain that the 1st NT, dukkha, is pessimistic and that the Buddha and Buddhists are just whining about their lives. When I say that we can observe some degree of unsatisfactoriness in every life, many respond with something like, "Well, I'm happy!"

They often go on to declare very stubbornly that they're happy with their life. However, I know that within 5 minutes of the end of the conversation, they'll be complaining about their job or their spouse or the government or society or something.

People are attached to their ideas and will often defend them when evidence to the contrary is as plain as the sun in the sky. We're a funny lot, aren't we?

Attachment to the khandhas is attachment to death: this is powerful! - because the khandhas are all we know of life, so attachment to life is attachment to death.

My two younger children are crazy about basketball, but even a few minutes after winning a grand final, they may well be complaining about what we offer them for dinner on the way home! Normal human activity is really not about lasting happiness - it is about highs and lows, like a roller coaster.

I like the implication that we could turn meditation on its head by making it our life instead of a special activity: "Well, I suppose I should make time to go out to work today, but after that I've got to get back to my meditation". http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/grin.gif

Easy! Get ordained! heh heh...

Very true! I didn't consider that possibility, though I have thought about it a lot at various times. For someone like me, though, who has always been a loner except for immediate family ... I don't know. What do you think? Did you know any loners who joined the order and did okay?

Lets not go off at too much of a tangent from discussion of the OP.

A new topic could always be started about ordination issues (or PM's) http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/grin.gif

No problem. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/grin.gif

I am really happy to encounter this idea of looking for the spaces between mental phenomena. I have encountered it before, but now it has reached the tipping point where I can start practicing it properly. Looking for the spaces between words, between thoughts, between feelings. Focussing on them, encouraging them to grow. Very nice. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/grin.gif

Ajahn Sumedho has a good skillful technique to experience this. He teaches to deliberately think in meditation. It can be anything so for example "I am John". He then teaches that, while being mindful, deliberately think it slowly but notice the space just before the beginning of the sentence, the space between words and the space after.

I found it quite a good way of developing a refined mindfulness


Note - The words and sentence dont matter its the space around them that does