Hi people, this is one of my replies to 'january' from the
Atheism forum, I do appreciate any comments and I would also like
to encourage Buddhists to discuss there as well.
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so where does buddhism wisdom leads us to now?
To ask about me is irrelevant here.. I am now 17 years old and I
am still studying as a student. Anyway surprise is ok (I don't see
any reason why a person, even someone enlightened cannot be
surprised), fear, I still have fear at times (but generally I don't
get feared easily perhaps that's my character), embarrassment..
well, over the years I am no longer as attached to ego, but I guess
it still happens at times.. nervousness, sometimes it arises -- but
when it arises I very quickly remain mindfulness, awareness, just
watching the thoughts and physical sensatoins come and go, all
these fear, nervousness and all those feelings just come and go and
is allowed to be as they are -- I no longer identify with them but
is just there as witnessing, participatory presence, like a mirror
that neither rejects or pursues reflections, all appearances arises
and passes instantaneously leaving no trace in the mirror, yet the
mirror expresses the luminuos clarity of all appearances. The
mirror (i.e our Buddha Nature) simply reflects all things as it is
and is at one with all things it reflects.
But I think it is irrelevant to ask me about this, because as I
said, I am not yet enlightened therefore I cannot represent an
enlightened person's character. One who enters deep into
non-duality is constantly in a state of fearless samadhi, he
experiences no self and no fear. (this is what those enlightened
told me from their experience) It is difficult to imagine such a
state, but once duality is completely seen through as illusion, the
mind/body is completely dropped off (disidentified), there is no
longer an 'inside' experiencing the 'outside world' -- one can no
longer experience fear due to illusions of self. This does not mean
they cannot run for their lives when they need to, but whatever
their action is, their action only arises spontaneously out of
Prajna, with no dualistic attachment involved. I am of course no
where close to that yet. This is about the Deathless, one cannot
reach the Deathless state through any means other than the dharma
and attaining Insights/Enlightenment to the nature of
reality.
It is possible through mundane wisdom, psychology, and shamatha to
gain better control over one's emotions, have peacefulness, become
a happier person, etc. However that is like treating 'surface
problems' -- for example, a weed is growing on the ground, you use
a stone to suppress it to stop it from growing. Or you trim it..
or.... (etc) You are developing skills to deal with emotions, and
you know how to control them. But this is nevertheless still a
limited skill, you can improve it but you'll never reach a point
where you can use such wisdom to deal with all kinds of situations.
And sometimes even if you put a stone on the grass, it will grow
back or some other grasses will grow, because you never treat the
problem at the root. You will still experience these negative
emotions in many situations, when you lost something you are
attached to deeply, or perhaps you know you got cancer and is dying
in a few months, just an example. It will be difficult to manage
then, because these skills are limited and depends relatively on
how identified you are to those things (i.e your neighbour died you
may still be ok, but if it happens to your family or yourself
you'll be more affected). Anyway as my friend Thusness said,
'growing wisdom' and 'prajna wisdom' is different, though 'growing
wisdom' is very important as well.
That is treating the problem on the surface -- the Root of the
problem is not uprooted, the root of the problem is ignorance of
reality. With this ignorance of reality there will constantly be
Dukkha - even when you do not have negative emotions, there will
always be subtle dualistic attraction, aversion, and delusions
(often translated as 'greed', 'hatred', 'ignorance' but these are
not very good translations and are limited to the emotional model,
not non dual model) all the time. This is not just a matter of
conscious control and management of emotions and mental wellbeing.
It sometimes requires a lot of Mindfulness/Awareness practise and
ultimately transcendental Insights into the nature of
reality.
However, to even talk about emotions is not good enough, though it
is true that many negative emotions have their main problem/root in
Ignorance of Reality, due to dualistic seeking and aversion and
delusion, they still cannot describe the true essence of Buddhism.
If going by getting rid of 'greed, hatred, ignorance' and not
'fundamental dualistic attraction, fundamental dualistic aversion,
and delusion of duality' as the fundamental thing in Buddhism, then
anyone with certain levels of self control can be considered as
highly enlightened, which is not the case. It is also possible for
fundamental dualistic attraction, aversion and dukkha (suffering)
to arise in us all the time without displaying major negative
emotion outbreak, in fact to anyone unenlightened this is
inevitable.
When Buddhism talks about fundamental attraction, aversion and
delusion (a.k.a greed, hatred, ignorance) it is dealing with
something much much more fundamental:
Source:
31. Models of the Stages of Enlightenment, III -- The Emotional
Models and The Theravada Four Path Model, which is a very good
read and states the usual dogmas and ignorance that even some
Buddhists fall prey to.. regarding shallow understanding of terms
such as 'Greed, Hatred, Ignorance' rather than in terms of Reality
and Non-Duality
Anyway I wanted to quote this regarding fundamental attraction and
aversion:
...What they are attempting to
say is that the sense of the observer, center point, continuous and
separate subject, watcher or however you want to describe the sense
that there is some Self at the center of all this stuff that so
compelling seems to divided into Self and Other is, in fact, just a
bunch of sensations, and when these begin to be seen as they are,
the sense of how special the center point is begins to lose its
grip on perception, which begins to become wider, more inclusive,
and more even in its basic treatment of phenomena. Thus, as there
doesnt seem to be so much of a this side and a that side, attempts
to get away from that side when it is bad, get to that side when it
is good, or just tune out to the whole thing when it is boring
diminish at some basic perceptual level, and so the system
functions better as it is better at realistically interpreting the
information coming into it....
Please re-read
'The Four Noble Truths' to get a better idea of what exactly is
fundamental attraction and aversion.
Lastly, in Buddhism though we always talk about Liberation from
Suffering, it is equally important to mention the effects of
practising Buddhism in Positive terms -- the development of
Clarity, Highest Everlasting Unconditioned Bliss and Rapture,
Equanimity, Energy, Wisdom, Tranquility, Concentration, etc (also
see Seven Factors of Enlightenment, info available on the net and
on 'Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha by Dharma Dan)
