Related, one of my replies from
My sincere apology if any offence taken
...Ultimately, through meditation
and practise one will realise and experience/get in touch with
one's primordial state of pure awareness, or one's Buddha Nature,
which is like a clear bright mirror reflecting everything we
experience in the world. This is just an analogy (and not a very
good one since ultimately even the mirror is not a separate entity
from its reflection, but rather it is a form of moment-to-moment
'participatory' awareness). It is also an all pervading presence of
'yourself' connected with the universe, so in this state of pure
awareness there is actually no seperation between you and me or the
universe, and everything is just spontaneous arising of this pure
awareness, and we and all Buddhas are all one in a sense. The
'self' is merely an illusion, based on identification with the 5
skhandas, which is why the Buddha taught about no self. If we were
to investigate, we will not find 'self' in the 5 skhandas (five
aggregates), or our sensory experiences, or even in our thoughts,
and therefore it would be meaningless to grasp on this fictitious
idea, which is the root of all ignorance, afflictive emotions and
sufferings. Through meditation one can also transcend this
attachment through insights and awakening.
Reality has always been so (non dual) but due to the layer of
illusion of separation, like the layer of dust covering the clear
bright mirror and preventing us from seeing what's the reality of
it all. Which is what the Buddha taught about 'purifying the mind'
is all about -- clearing the dust, or attachment to dualistic,
afflictive emotions (such as greed, hatred, jealousy, envy, etc)
and ignorance, to reveal the reality underneath it. And this is
what is special about Buddhism, as all 7 Buddhas Gatha says that
the 7 Buddhas taught Buddhism as 'Avoiding all evil, Doing all
that's good, and Purifying the Mind.' The third one, purifying the
mind, sets Buddhism different from the other religions. At the time
of death, if one can recognise the primordial clear light as one's
true, original nature, one's 7th consciousness dissolves into this
clear light and becomes liberated or enter into nirvana. Otherwise
our Karma, along with the 7th Consciousness (consciousness of a
seperate 'self' based on ignorance) will pull us back to undergo
the endless cycles of rebirth in the world of suffering -- Samsara.
Therefore to summarise, Buddhist meditation and practise has
nothing to do with attaining any states of trance, but rather, it
is a process of Awakening and Awareness...
To add.. not only attachment to afflictive emotions but also to
incessant thinking, and dualistic notions and ideas of things due
to ignorance (i.e not knowing the true nature/reality of all
phenomena as emptiness) and illusions... which is also form of
grasping, attachment. For example we grasp at appearances thinking
that they truly exist even though all phenomena are empty of
inherent existence.. as they are co-dependent arising and arise out
of causes and conditions.. and are ever impermanent. Because of
these illusions.. we suffer.. and cannot be liberated. We can start
to purify our minds by practising mindful awareness... with
mindfulness we will become more aware of the reality of ourselves,
our thoughts and behaviors, and the reality of our thoughts and
experiences (i.e emptiness, impermanence, the 3 dharma seals/4
seals, etc)... and with mindfulness we will also not become caught
up and lost in appearances and thoughts, and eventually through
practise and insights these thoughts and illusions will be self
liberated as they arise and there will be an immediate awareness
the moment they arise, and we will not become attracted and become
lost in them, we will not be deceived by our minds, illusions of
self and permanency, into attachment, seeking, or
aversion....
The following is from:
All About Buddhism ~ For Non-Buddhists and Buddhists
...What "circle" or "cycle of
life and death" means in Buddhism, is that sentient beings are
constantly being reborn in Samsara - the world of sufferings. They
are always reborn again and again in the 6 realms of existence in
samsara, according to their karma. Samsaric existence is full of
pain and sufferings, even in the Human Existence we have to go
through Birth, Ageing, Sickness and Death, and the eight
distresses. But even if you are born in a royal family, or even
in the celestial/heaven realms, samsaric pleasures are still
disatisfactory because of its transiency/impermanence... and by
attaching to these transient pleasures thinking they are real and
truly existent, permanent, we create even more sufferings. We
suffer as we do not know that all compounded phenomena are empty of
inherent, permanent, separate existence... and that all arises out
of conditions and are always transient. Therefore the Buddha taught
that suffering and disatisfactoriness is a fundamental truth in
life (i.e first noble truth), however he also teaches the cause of
suffering and the solution (second, third, fourth noble truth), the
path leading to the liberation from these sufferings.
Sentient beings cannot become liberated from samsara because they
are tied down by the bondage of their ignorance and karmic
propensities... due to an illusion of duality (means subject-object
separation) or a false sense of self, sentient beings are
constantly grasping on things and craving for samsaric pleasures
and existence, thus undergoing never ending suffering. Not only are
we being reborn lifetime are lifetime, we are constantly reborn
moment after moment even in this very life. This is because of our
illusion and attachment to our 'self' and our sentient thoughts
(our identification and attachment to thoughts and things caused by
ignorance), and the process of identification with a 'self' is
continued without an ending until we attain insights and
enlightenment. To gain these insights we have to practise the
eightfold path in our lives.
So therefore in Buddhism, Buddha showed us the path leading to the
complete ending of all sufferings, finding the abiding purity and
bliss of Nirvana, to become liberated from the cycle of rebirth in
Samsara. Buddha taught that the Buddhas of past and future all
teach Buddhism as "avoid all evil, doing all good, and purifying
the mind". Most religions only teach "avoid all evil and doing all
good", but only Buddhism teaches about liberation and the
purification of the mind. The problem with just "avoiding all evil
and doing all good" is that as a result we accumulate a lot of good
karma and avoid creating bad karma, meaning we can be reborn in the
higher realms or even the celestial realms like the heavens,
however we still cannot attain nirvana, we cannot be liberated from
the cycle of samsara.. and our enjoyment in these higher realms are
also limited and transient. Similarly as described just now even if
our lives are very good, there is still bound to be
unsatisfactoriness and sufferings.. if we cannot be liberated
moment to moment. Therefore when we practise Buddhism, also we
practise purification of the mind... through mindfulness we become
aware of and disidentify from all our sentient thoughts, our
habitual tendencies of the mind, the afflictive emotions and so on
due to identification with a false sense of self, and the
identification is also known as the false 'ego'. Our Buddha Nature
is like a clear mirror, our pure awareness, which unfortunately is
obscured from us because of a layer of dust, or mental defilements.
Through Buddhism we clean the mirror of its defilements to reveal
the clear bright mirror underneath. Therefore through practising
Buddhism we gain insights into the nature of reality, the nature of
our minds, our Buddha Nature, and through awakening from our
delusions we find the nirvanic bliss of clarity and liberation from
all sufferings in our lives...
Notes: Because I mentioned about Meditation, I must quickly state
that meditation here is not restricted to sitting meditation.
Meditation is not necessarily restricted in any particular forms.
Mindful awareness can be practised throughout our daily lives --
whether sitting... walking... doing work... whatsoever.
