A Moment of Wisdom

geis SG

http://themindfulmoment.blogspot.com/2010/11/attachment-to-insight-and-right-view.html#comment-form

Sadhu!

simpo_ SG

Good article. Thanks :)

Buddha's wisdom really takes time and refining of insights to appreciate.

Sadly, there are some people who always like to say that Buddhism at this current age is flawed... without even firstly experiencing and knowing how the insights gradually can liberate one's psychological suffering.

PS: When i wrote this, i am not in right view.. LOL.

geis SG

i feel its really not easy... to both point out the path to others whom we see are suffering from their life experiences, and to at the same time keep reapplying the practice again and again in my own daily interactions.

like Dean writes in this article, it points to a constant letting go..

simpo_ SG

Bro,

I agree with you. Recently, had some breakthrough... but will take time to stabilise.

That is, i chose to liberate myself first and not engage in pointing out to others...unnecessarily. When i try to point out to someone (in a reactive way), the one that is suffering is myself. This is because (most probably) i have view that someone as separate and there is an angst/ desire to correct this person out there. By this, one has already fall out of Right view.

Until Right View is fully stabilised in the moment, our pointing out to others is already out of right view.

There will come a point of realising that there is utterly no one out there. ... and it is liberating !

This is just my experience.

geis SG

Bro,

I agree with you. Recently, a had some break through... but will take them to stabilise.

That is, i chose to liberate myself first and not engage in pointing out to others. When i try to point out to someone, the one that is suffering is myself. This is because (most probably) i have view that someone as separate and there is an angst/ desire to correct this person out there. By this, one has already fall out of Right view.

Until Right View is fully stabilised in the moment, our pointing out to others is already out of right view.

There will come a point of realising that there is utterly no one out there. ... and it is liberating !

This is just my experience.

i see, thank you for this valuable sharing!

An Eternal Now SG

Geis, thanks for sharing the article... very well written! Indeed... having insight is far from an end, it is just the beginning. Still much work to be done... even though there will never be a point where it is 'done' - As we learn to sustain the view the mindfulness in the present moment we awaken to the ongoing and endless changing moment of which we are a part and at the same time it's utter wholeness and completeness. There is no "done" because there was never any "undone".

The past few weeks have made me more aware of my own 'momentum and conditioning' as well.

simpo_ SG

Fully agree with AEN that mindfulness is important.

Another mumbling...

Although in the previous post, i say to chose to liberate myself first and not engage in unnecessary 'preaching'..., there are 'merits' in telling people about the teaching especially the 3 characteristics. Somehow, by helping 'others', we also help in our own progress. I try to do so in a manner that do not expect outcomes but is just a sharing kind of thing...

Also, in my experience, the time that we are not in right view are also the times that we are giving ourselve excuses that 'this thing on hand is more important than anything else'. We have already got suck into the 'spell'.

The duration in Right View will get longer and longer.... the times that we get kicked out of it are the times when reactive karmic habits (or sankaras) has overtaken and pulled one's (attention) into a spell. More often that not, they are the same few habits that we have taken for granted.

An Eternal Now SG

Fully agree with AEN that mindfulness is important.

Another mumbling...

Although in the previous post, i say to chose to liberate myself first and not engage in unnecessary 'preaching'..., there are 'merits' in telling people about the teaching especially the 3 characteristics. Somehow, by helping 'others', we also help in our own progress. I try to do so in manner that do not expect outcomes and just a sharing kind of thing...

Yes good point...

Reminds me of something I posted before:

I remember years ago (in fact even today) Thusness would have me explain the dharma to people from various forums. One time many years ago I thought it would be better if Thusness explained by himself to the others, so I told Thusness why don't you post yourself or something like that. Thusness suddenly appeared serious (he seldom talk in this tone) and asked me so are you going to do this or not? Then he told me the reason (not exact words now but along this line) he had me to do this was because I was lacking in merits to gain enlightenment. And then he said something like... you think I'm joking? Suddenly at that moment I realized why he was always taking the trouble and instructing me to do all those things... when he could have done it himself.

Not long later I had a meditation experience... he informed me it is due to my merits ripening due to explaining the dharma to someone some time ago. He informed me there is a direct causal relation. When asked how does he know that merits is important for experience and realization, he simply says this is his experience. He says it may not make a lot of sense to a dualistic mind, but this is how it (dependent origination) works.

An Eternal Now SG

Bro,

I agree with you. Recently, had some breakthrough... but will take them to stabilise.

Until Right View is fully stabilised in the moment, our pointing out to others is already out of right view.

There will come a point of realising that there is utterly no one out there. ... and it is liberating !

This is just my experience.

Indeed... we should have the thought to cause all living beings to awaken and liberate, and yet if we try to 'save the world' thinking that there is a self and others, then we are not true bodhisattvas.

Diamond Sutra:

The Buddha told Subhuti, "All Bodhisattvas, Mahasattvas, should subdue their minds thus: 'I must cause all living beings--those born from eggs, wombs, moisture, by transformation; those with form, those without form, those with thought, those without thought, those not totally endowed with thought, and those not totally without thought--to enter Nirvana without residue and be taken across to Cessation. Yet of the immeasurable, numberless, boundless numbers of living beings thus taken across to Cessation, there is actually no living being taken across to Cessation.' Why? Subhuti, if a Bodhisattva has an appearance of self, others, living beings, or a life, he is not a Bodhisattva."

geis SG

thanks guys for all the valuable sharings.

sharing the dharma and being compassionate to all beings does progress one's practice, and makes one's physical life better as well

lately, by almost doing nothing, i had an opportunity in work which i can say was presented on my table. this opportunity helped reset my career as well as wiped clean all the financial deficits i had accumulated in the past. the only thing i did in this whole excercise was to be honest with my co-workers and watch the events as they unfold. along the way, there were occasions that pushed me to react, but glad that i was able to spot them and let them rest, thus stopping the auto spiral.

experiences of insights is still conditional in nature, but its these conditional experiences that points to that which is unconditional. reading the article and contemplating over it, i realize the habitual momentum of the mind to even cling to insights is something that is so subtle yet so strong, that really constant mindfulness is required. i thank Dean for bringing this to awareness, and also to all in this forum. u guys are my long distance teachers haha.

Sadhu!