Post by donq on Jan 25, 2022 12:14:30 GMT
First of all, what mindfulness is for?
The situation is something like “keep your jack” situations. (I read it decades ago but could not find it and was too lazy to type it on my own, so the below is another version from somewhere on the internet).
“You are in your car, driving along in the forest, and you get a flat tire. You open your trunk, and you don’t have a tire jack. You are all alone in the dark. There are no cars coming by. You walk and walk along the road, but there are no houses. Finally, you see a light in the distance. It is a house! You are freezing, and you walk as fast as you can. It starts to rain. You wrap your jacket around you tighter. But as you get closer, you start to worry. You start to talk to yourself in a negative way:
“Can I really just go up to this house in the middle of nowhere and knock on the door? What if the owner doesn’t want to help me? What if he gets mad? What if he refuses to even open the door? Why should he care about me? He doesn’t care about me! He probably thinks I’m an intruder and I don’t deserve any help! He will view me as a trespasser on his property, and a threat to his home and family. If he comes to the door, he will come with a knife in his hand, ready to stab me! And here I am, an innocent person, needing legitimate help. What an not a very nice person he must be! Damn him!”
“So by then you have made yourself so angry, and are so sure what you can expect from this person whose help you need, that you are filled with rage. So you stand outside in the dark, shaking your fist at the house, cursing the owner and all the occupants. Finally, you pick up a rock from the roadside, and you throw it at a window of the house, and as the window breaks, you yell out: “You can keep your damn jack! I don’t even want it anymore! Go to hell! People like you make the world a terrible place. “
.......................
Many times, in fact, too many, we caught up it the situations like that because we didn't "see" our own thoughts. (talking to yourself or thinking in a negative way).
So, mindfulness is the system creating to observe your own thought (feeling etc.), your mind. (Note-if your system on this is already natural good, then you don't need to practice mindfulness at all).
I will not go any further more than this. I know that everyone is unique and, sure, will get his/her own unique experiences. But here's what I got after practicing (Buddhist) mindfulness for 40 years. Yes, including tons or reading and doing my personal researches. This is just to share it with my friends here. That's all.
One of my spiritual teachers gave an analogy between mindfulness and the encounter between a rat and a cat. The very first time the rat sees the cat, it is so afraid and stops. So, mindfulness is like a cat, our thoughts, rats. The problem is sometimes, so many times, our rats are already too able-bodied. Your mindfulness might see it, but could not stop it. You saw our thoughts and knew so well that it would bring very bad result, but you still could not resist it. What's why more practice is a must. A knife is to cut, but more practicing is like to sharpen your knife more and more. Or to make the hand that holds the knife stronger and stronger.
And after this system of "mindfulness observing thoughts" become familiar to you, it will bring to the next step. Stopping your thoughts might not be the good idea. It will always bring another hidden thoughts. Not to mention hidden/suppressed emotions. The rough example here is, you saw you thought that you wanted to drink, so you changed your mind. And finally you said to yourself, "Let have a drink for my victory/reward on his!". And no, you didn't see your very second thought.
So, just observing your thoughts. And see what will bring you to. Just not let it overcome you. That's it. That's all. This way you can always avoid any of your hidden second thought.
And the advanced steps will be something like this. (I apologize in advance, as I know so well about different cultures. Not to mention the real concept of Buddhist emptiness, and non-duality. Though I do understand this from my long time practice but for the sake of explaining it, I had to consult many resources before putting it into words).
As long as the mindfulness has not arisen
To seek to abide in the state of emptiness
The attachment/association arising from the two-fold grasping
As long as one tries to stop something before himself,
and, taking it as a thought,
declares that it is the nature of mindfulness,
He is really not residing in the real state of mindfulness (non-duality, or emptiness).
But when he knows, for the first time, that
what are 'grasped' as thoughts, all evolve from the very same mind (of mindfulness)
and they don't really exist, or exist only in this very context,
He then realizes that
Later he "touches" the state of "having gained nothing"
He recognizes definitely and confirms the non-existence of all perceived thoughts
and also spontaneously and gladly recognizes the non-existence of the perceiving
subject (the grasper/one who observes via mindfulness).
To deal with our mind, our thoughts. How?
The situation is something like “keep your jack” situations. (I read it decades ago but could not find it and was too lazy to type it on my own, so the below is another version from somewhere on the internet).
“You are in your car, driving along in the forest, and you get a flat tire. You open your trunk, and you don’t have a tire jack. You are all alone in the dark. There are no cars coming by. You walk and walk along the road, but there are no houses. Finally, you see a light in the distance. It is a house! You are freezing, and you walk as fast as you can. It starts to rain. You wrap your jacket around you tighter. But as you get closer, you start to worry. You start to talk to yourself in a negative way:
“Can I really just go up to this house in the middle of nowhere and knock on the door? What if the owner doesn’t want to help me? What if he gets mad? What if he refuses to even open the door? Why should he care about me? He doesn’t care about me! He probably thinks I’m an intruder and I don’t deserve any help! He will view me as a trespasser on his property, and a threat to his home and family. If he comes to the door, he will come with a knife in his hand, ready to stab me! And here I am, an innocent person, needing legitimate help. What an not a very nice person he must be! Damn him!”
“So by then you have made yourself so angry, and are so sure what you can expect from this person whose help you need, that you are filled with rage. So you stand outside in the dark, shaking your fist at the house, cursing the owner and all the occupants. Finally, you pick up a rock from the roadside, and you throw it at a window of the house, and as the window breaks, you yell out: “You can keep your damn jack! I don’t even want it anymore! Go to hell! People like you make the world a terrible place. “
.......................
Many times, in fact, too many, we caught up it the situations like that because we didn't "see" our own thoughts. (talking to yourself or thinking in a negative way).
So, mindfulness is the system creating to observe your own thought (feeling etc.), your mind. (Note-if your system on this is already natural good, then you don't need to practice mindfulness at all).
I will not go any further more than this. I know that everyone is unique and, sure, will get his/her own unique experiences. But here's what I got after practicing (Buddhist) mindfulness for 40 years. Yes, including tons or reading and doing my personal researches. This is just to share it with my friends here. That's all.
One of my spiritual teachers gave an analogy between mindfulness and the encounter between a rat and a cat. The very first time the rat sees the cat, it is so afraid and stops. So, mindfulness is like a cat, our thoughts, rats. The problem is sometimes, so many times, our rats are already too able-bodied. Your mindfulness might see it, but could not stop it. You saw our thoughts and knew so well that it would bring very bad result, but you still could not resist it. What's why more practice is a must. A knife is to cut, but more practicing is like to sharpen your knife more and more. Or to make the hand that holds the knife stronger and stronger.
And after this system of "mindfulness observing thoughts" become familiar to you, it will bring to the next step. Stopping your thoughts might not be the good idea. It will always bring another hidden thoughts. Not to mention hidden/suppressed emotions. The rough example here is, you saw you thought that you wanted to drink, so you changed your mind. And finally you said to yourself, "Let have a drink for my victory/reward on his!". And no, you didn't see your very second thought.
So, just observing your thoughts. And see what will bring you to. Just not let it overcome you. That's it. That's all. This way you can always avoid any of your hidden second thought.
And the advanced steps will be something like this. (I apologize in advance, as I know so well about different cultures. Not to mention the real concept of Buddhist emptiness, and non-duality. Though I do understand this from my long time practice but for the sake of explaining it, I had to consult many resources before putting it into words).
As long as the mindfulness has not arisen
To seek to abide in the state of emptiness
The attachment/association arising from the two-fold grasping
Cannot be stopped
and, taking it as a thought,
declares that it is the nature of mindfulness,
He is really not residing in the real state of mindfulness (non-duality, or emptiness).
Because he is still trying to grasp something before him.
what are 'grasped' as thoughts, all evolve from the very same mind (of mindfulness)
and they don't really exist, or exist only in this very context,
He then realizes that
the grasper does not exist either.
He recognizes definitely and confirms the non-existence of all perceived thoughts
and also spontaneously and gladly recognizes the non-existence of the perceiving
subject (the grasper/one who observes via mindfulness).
