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We have an ordinary mind which is conceptual, delusional, and dualistic. The Enlightened Mind is also known as the awakened mind. It is pure mind untarnished by dualistic concepts, unhealthy emotions, and obsessive sensations-particularly strong clinging and craving- of our ordinary mind. These obsessive thoughts and sensations are the coverings that obstruct us from realizing and manifesting our true nature like the clouds covering the sun.
Wisdom is defined as insight knowledge endowed with virtue. It abolishes the darkness of delusion. It emerges by following the spiritual path of awakening, realizing and manifesting our true nature. A wise mind understands the three characteristics of all things:
There are three types of pragna or wisdom: 1. Learned pragna- knowledge and wisdom acquired form books or listening to teachers.(Skt-sravana) 2. Reflective pragna-by asking questions, by using logic and reasoning until you fully understand the true nature of reality.(Skt-manana) 3. From a higher state of meditation, from direct spiritual experience. (Skt-nididhyasana) <-Go back to Pragna Paramita
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The Buddha considered Patience as one of the highest spiritual qualities. What is patience?
Patience means being here. Not going somewhere. Being full present with yourself, with some other, with activities, place and time. In a relationship, patience means embracing the present with a cool head and a warm heart. Waiting in this moment is patience. Waiting on others and serving others with no expectation in return is patience. The more we are in the moment, the more patient we are, we learn faster and better. Patience helps us from making errors. Waiting for something yet to come in the future may cause anxiety and apprehension. What if and when if mindset hijacks us from the present and makes us impatient. There is an interesting story about what happens when we lose our patience and when we are captivated by impatience. It was time to plant seeds in the garden. The father gave a handful of seeds to grow in the garden. The son planted the seeds in the soil. He waters them everyday. After a few days little green shoots came out from the ground. He decided to water the green shoots two times a day so that they grow faster. His mind was captivated by impatience. He decided to stretch the green shoots to make them grow faster. He killed everyone of the green shoots. I want it now, not later. He paid the price for his impatience. The Buddha formulated the two arrows theories for understanding and reducing mental suffering. We have two kinds of pain: physical pain and mental pain. Our physical pain is the first arrow. It hurts. How we relate to the experience of physical pain makes the difference. If I become anxious and worry about the physical pain I create mental pain. This is the second arrow. The pain is in the mind. If I patiently relate to the physical pain, acknowledge it with loving kindness, I stop the second arrow. In one of Tolstoy’s stories, the emperor is asked three essential questions: 1. When is the most important time? 2. Who is the most important person? 3. What is the most important thing they do? Answers: 1. Now is the most important time. 2. Not self, but the other person with you. 3.The most important thing to do is to care for the other, serve the other. If we follow these simple rules of living our heart blossoms and our relationships also blossom. Patient life is calmer and richer. Patience creates good will. Impatience creates bad will. Patient lifestyle helps us to be free from anger and irritability and regrets. We get many opportunities everyday for cultivating patience especially at our home, with our friends, neighbors and colleagues. <-Go back to Pragna Paramita Energy is the fifth Pragna Paramita. According to the Buddha suffering arises in the mind
by holding on to and getting attached to unwholesome cravings called tannaha. When Gautam became the Buddha he wanted to teach his wisdom to the people living in Sarnath. As he was walking on his way to Sarnath, he met a young boy. The young boy saw the radiance on the Buddha’s face. He asked the Buddha,”What are you? Are you a man? Are you an angel? Are you a God? “ The Buddha said,” I am the Buddha-the awakened one.” When do we feel uplifting energy? When do we feel down grading energy? Awakening is one of the ways of understanding our energy. When we are “sleeping” we take wrong steps and hurt ourselves and others in our life. When we get stuck with and attached to unwholesome desires and cravings, we suffer and drain our energy. When we forget the first noble truth, anicca-impermanence and live under the delusion of permanence, we get disappointed and depressed and we drain our energy. The Buddha taught the Noble Eightfold Path to give for reducing and ending our self-created suffering- physical, mental, emotional, and relational.
understand yourself. Identify what causes suffering and drains your energy. What reduces or ends your suffering? What creates wholesome energy? What restores your energy? How do you bounce back? What inspires you? What supports you? Keep a journal. Spend five minutes everyday to reflect on what blossoms your energy and what hinders your energy. Keep on working on your journal to learn from yourself the wise ways of enhancing and preserving your energy. <- GO back to Pragna Paramita Four Noble Truths and The Noble Eightfold Path First Noble Truth: We all suffer. Second Noble Truth: There is a cause of Suffering. The cause is unhealthy craving. Third Noble Truth: There is a Way to End Suffering called Dhamma-Dharma- Pada- Path of Righteous Living Fourth Noble Truths: Walk on The Eightfold Path Consistently. The eight parts of liberation are grouped into three essential elements of Buddhist practice- moral or ethical conduct( (sila) , mental discipline (samadhi), and wisdom (panna). Ethical conduct is based on the vast conception of universal love and compassion for all beings. Here compassion (karuna) represents love, charity, kindness, tolerance-the qualities of the noble heart. While wisdom (panna) stands for the intellectual qualities of the mind, one should not be a good-hearted fool or a hard-hearted intellect. To be perfect one has to develop both head and heart equally. The Noble Eightfold Path:
They are to be developed simultaneously. They are linked together and each helps the cultivation of the others. The eightfold noble path is a way of life to be followed, practiced and developed by each individual. It is self-discipline in body, word, and mind, self-development, and self-purification. It has nothing to do with belief, prayer, worship, or ceremony. In that sense, it has nothing to do which is popularly called religious. It is a Path leading to complete freedom, happiness, and peace through moral, spiritual, and intellectual perfection. Four Noble Truths: 1. The Truth of Dukkha: The truth of suffering and dissatisfaction. There are different kinds of suffering, birth, aging, sickness and death-janma, jara,vyadhi and mrityu; not getting what we want 2. Cause of Suffering is the second Noble Truth. It is tannah, craving, desiring, wanting or greed. Craving for things that we want and getting rid of things we don’t want. Craving for materially, mentally, emotionally, relationally and spiritually: craving for permanancy, and stability. We suffer when our desires do not match reality. Origin of suffering is our mental state, craving (raga), abhorrence or aversion (dwesha) and ignoring (agnana). 3. The Third Noble Truth. Cessation of dukkha, suffering. There is a way, an alternative to end suffering. Suffering can be extinguished if we remove the cause. To quote the Buddha: “ Cession of suffering , as a noble truth is this: It is remainderless, fading and ceasing, giving up, relinquishing, letting go and rejecting of that craving.” If we let go of craving, we can extinguish the fire of our suffering. The fire is burning in our mind. It is mental fire. We must train our mind in a different way. That is the Fourth Noble Truth. 4. To quote the Buddha: “ The way leading to cessation of suffering , as the noble truth, is this: It is simply the noble eight path, that is to say right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. The Buddha taught that by learning to use our three doors , body, speech and mind skillfully. It would remove a lot of suffering. We can reduce or end our suffering by controlling our body, speech and mind in ways that help others, instead of harming them, and by generating wisdom in our mind, we can end suffering. Therefore, true happiness is achievable through personal endeavor. A question is raised. Are there good wholesome cravings or desires? Desire to live a life of virtue and non-violence, wanting to meditate, to discover peace, and discover what we deeply and truly attain. To learn how to be fully present in the moment. Exercise: What cravings can you identify in your life that might be causing unnecessary suffering? What cravings do you need to let go? Out of the Noble Eightfold Path, which steps you would like to work on? <- Go back to Pragna Paramita The core of all religions is spirituality. As seekers of Truth and Peace we
practice spirituality. By practicing spirituality we cross over the flood of suffering and reach the safety of the other shore called Nirvana, Moksha, Liberation and Salvation. There are different ways of reaching the other shore. In Mahayana Buddhism , ten inner qualities are prescribed to attain Perfect Wisdom, Pragna Paramita. The Buddhist path is a way of perfecting human nature, both by eliminating toxic imperfections and gradually cultivating and maturing the inner qualities of heart and mind that can help us cross over many difficulties we face to arrive safely on the further shore. The following ten qualities or paramis are prescribed for reaching the other shore. (Click on each one for individual notes about it)
The perfection is applied to these qualities needed to attain awakening (jagruti), to be Buddha. One needs to cultivate and perfect these qualities often over multiple life times. Only reading and talking about these qualities will not take us on this path of liberation from suffering. It requires consistent practice. Even mastering only one of the ten qualities will create noticeable change or transformation in our consciousness. Let us begin with one quality that you would like to cultivate in you. Check in and notice the progress you will notice in yourself and how it has a positive impact on your relationship with others in your life. The central message of the story of the Caterpillar Turning Into A Butterfly is the story of transformation and emergence of ourselves as we travel in our life's journey. We all change. Nothing remains the same. The challenge is how the change transforms our ways of thinking, feeling and doing. It's a deep qualitative change, like the caterpillar turning into a butterfly. We all grow but in which direction of our life. Are we repeating the same cycle or we are getting out of the routine and move in an upward bound direction?
I see myself growing slowly from childhood, to young age, to adulthood and old age. It has not been a steady journey of transformation. It has its ups and downs, its twists and turns. A couple of times I fell down. I leaned from falling down and moved on in my upward journey of life. As I look behind I see myself emerging and transforming. My outlook has been widened. I see myself unbound and freed from my judgmental stances of people different from me in many ways. My inner eyes have become clear and I see people as they are. As the Buddha says "see the isness." Cultivating healthy habits of mind and nurturing the mind in a healthy way has been very helpful to me. I keep my mind and heart open without tarnishing them with my preconceived notions. Practicing mindfulness meditation and non-judgemental awareness help me constantly emerging from my past caterpillar self into the present butterfly self. Namaste! Reading Ram Dass's passage The Game Is To Be Where You Are reminds me a beautiful poem "Come As You Are" written by Rabindranath Tagore. When we love someone, we don't love the outer form of the beloved. We love the inner being of the person which is just like us. Ram Dass uses the metaphor of taking the mask off to see the beauty of the original face without any makeups. I love the Zen Koan: Find your original face before you were born. The Indian poet Mira sings: Remove the veil and you will meet your beloved. This is the way I relate to the notion that the game is to be where we are.
I have had several experiences of being loved as I am. My mother did not have any conditions for loving me as I was. She planted and nurtured the seeds of unconditional love as I was growing up. She was a role model for me. I was blessed to have her in my life. I learned from her how to love and relate to people in my life as they are. As years passed I have been able to cultivate spiritual maturity in me. To me life is a spiritual journey or as Ram Dass says it is a spiritual game. Trees look different when we look at them with outward eyes. When we look at the same trees with clear inward eyes we see the treeness, the oneness, the essence, among all trees. I follow three steps for cultivating spiritual maturity:
Namaste! Becoming yourself is a challenge for all of us. Right from our childhood we are asked by others in our families, schools and societies who we should be. Our mind's are conditioned to think, feel and act according to the norms established by others. Reading this poem written by May Sarton reminds me of a poem written by John Milton. " The mind is its own place, and itself can make a Heaven of Hell, and a Hell of Heaven." It is up to me to make my own choice to become myself. In order to hear my own voice I need to quiet my own mind. In the quiet moments I know who I am. It's a journey of self-discovery. Once I hear my own voice, I sing my own song. Once I know the rhythms of my life I dance my own dance.
I feel the fullness of life when I am my real self. Such realization grows in me like a plant rooted, watered and nurtured by love. Such inner growth takes place when I take time out and reflect deeply and feel my "own weight and density". These are the times when the song of life is born and it comes out with sheer love and joy. The people in my life who love me as I am hear my song and sing along with me. It is a song of love, a song of togetherness and harmony. These are the gifts of becoming oneself. My self-awareness is my guide, my companion, my guru. When am in an awakened state the light of self-awareness shows me the wise path of my spiritual journey. When I deviate from my spiritual path I stop and ask questions to myself: Where was I when I was with myself? Was I with me fully present with the presence of awakened awareness? Right answers come for within when I take time out and be still. Regular practice of Mindfulness Meditation and practicing mindfulness in my everyday life have been very helpful to me in my search of who am I and how to live fully. Namaste! Leah Pearlman is an artist, co-creator of the Facebook-like button, and most recently the founder of Dharma Comics. An excerpt from her most recent newsletter is published here and below is my reflection to it:
I have learned a long time ago that our mind is the cause of liberation or bondage. How do I use my mind is in my hand. If I dwell on negative thoughts negative feelings and actions I get negative outcomes. Research studies done by positive psychologists show how we create our own happiness or misery by what we think and what choices we make. We can reinforce our brain's negative bias by thinking negatively. It is up to us to decide how to use our mind. The inner light of wisdom of pure consciousness helps us to make positive changes in our mind and that way rewiring our brain. And this way we are creating positive or constructive brain's habitual patterns. It is helpful to have information about how the application of positive psychology creates positive changes in our brain and in our personal behavior and our social transactions. Transformation takes place when we apply the information in our actions. I know what I need to do to preserve and enhance my physical health. It is hard to break the harmful habitual patterns such as what to eat, when to sleep, and when to do physical exercise. Practicing self-discipline has helped me to walk on the healthy path. Knowing what is good and what is helpful and doing what is good and what is helpful has been very helpful to me. Living mindfully is my way of retraining my brain. I want to be master of my brain and not its slave. This is challenging and I love it. I am with the author Leah Perlman when she says, " I'm voting with my attention." Namaste! Author Anthony de Mello has written a thought provoking article that would apply to each one of us. Below is my reflection to it:
When my vision is clouded what I look out will be clouded and if swing into action with the clouded vision, I will make things worse. All wisdom traditions ask us to awake from the sleep of ignorance, to see the Light Within and see the world and act with the light of love and clarity. The Light Within is the Light of Being, the Light of Love. When my doing emerges form the Inner Light, it heals the wounds. In my daily life I remember the wise words of Meister Echart: "It is not by your actions that you will be [awakened] but by your being. It is not by what you do but by what you are that you will be judged." I remember and apply the wise saying in my daily life that the being in the doing, shapes our experience. I apply this wise saying in all areas of my life-personal and interpersonal. There are times when I act unmindfully which disrupts the clear and loving flow of my energy. With practice I quickly wake up and get connected with the Light of Being. As a teacher and as a counselor as well as a family member I get plenty of opportunities of becoming aware of my being in the doing. And if and when I goof I quickly correct my path. Remaining awake and aware of my bodily sensations, thoughts, feelings, emotions and actions helps me avoid the trap of substituting one unkind act for another. Awareness keeps the Light Within shining for making wise choices. Namaste! |
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