How does one deal with it ?
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For instances,
a boy was bitten by a dog when he was young.
When he grows older, he has a phobia for dogs.
Another example is,
when you saw something and it reminds you of an incident that is long over.
Suddenly, all the anger feeling and thought arise inside you.
You begin to have opinions and critcism about it in ur head.
My question is how does one deal with it ?
Thanks
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I keep dogs so maybe i can help.
First of all, must remove the fear. This fear stems from the wrong concept that all dogs are ferocious or all dogs bite and attack.
Yes, certain breeds are dangerous when left alone with kids or strangers, but not all breeds are like this. And dogs bite or attack with a reason eg when provoke, sudden shock by loud noise like shouting, screaming or big bodily movement like moving too close to them or raising the hand to their head, or when faced with unfimilar objects etc. Sick dogs are another story.
So, can start by introducing puppies to him. Puppies are playful but gentle, they may bite with their baby teeth( sometimes quite sharp!) but no harm done, just pick them up. Then slowly progress to adult dogs that are well trained or naturally docile. He should realised that his fear is unfounded once he found out the true nature of dogs.
So i guess this is also what Buddha taught us that all sufferings come from our own ignorance.
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The 2nd eg is difficult for me...still practising the dharma with lousy results, so can't help.
So yes, for ppl like me the bitter emotions are hard to put down. We understand that all things are transient and clinging to falsehoods is the way to sufferings, but to attain such true wisdom is still a long way. So naturally would go with our defiled minds easily. But no excuses, haven't attained doesn't mean we shouldn't try our best, at least must always make ourselves remember the phenomenon of nature. Life is short, no time to loose over attachments.
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http://www.springwatercenter.org/teachers/packer/articles/anger/
Anger
The following article was adapted from a talk by Toni Packer on Day 5 of the September 1998 retreat.
Let's talk about anger. Everyone experiences it at one time or another. Can something be done about anger?
A retreatant reported experiencing lots of energy during sittings, mostly generated by feeling angry about the sitting itself. Thoughts were running about wasting her time here while there was so much work to do at home. "What should I do with all this energy? At times I feel like screaming! Is it all right to scream?"
We have all agreed to maintain outward silence during retreats. Screams are disturbing. If one really feels like screaming that's OK, but maybe one can find a ravine in the woods where it would not impact others. But it's a good question, what to do with powerful energy like anger. My immediate response to the questioner was, "Let it be awareness! Awareness is energy!"
Years ago a man came to see me before applying for retreat, asking if it would be all right to express anger during a meeting. I said it was all right. So one day he entered the meeting room with a tense, flushed face, asking if he could vent his anger at me right then and there. I nodded, and quietly asked: "Have you ever looked at it directly?" No answer came just a charged silence. We sat wordlessly for what seemed to be an eternity, and then he burst out laughing: "It doesn't have to be expressed!" When a powerfully driving emotion gives way to simple awareness, it is like a miracle. What emerged from awareness wasn't screams, but laughter and insight.
Psychological theories about what to do with anger abound and change with time. I do not know if anger should be expressed or shouldn't be. The fact is that we do get angry, and it expresses itself instantly, verbally as well as non-verbally, throughout the body. So what is this anger? Can we go beyond the question, "What should I do with it?" and beyond answers like, "I should feel it in my body, or I should express it verbally, physically, or I ought to control it."
There is plenty to feel when we're angry. It mobilizes the entire organism, mentally and physically no single cell remains unaffected. Storylines run wildly, keeping the agitation going. Can we feel all these amazing physical and mental manifestations without resistance? If resistance is there, then feel it, look at it. Don't try to shut it down by telling yourself that it is dangerous to experience anger, or try to convince yourself that we are wholly justified in what we are feeling. We really don't know. Every thought, every judgment about it intensifies confusion and agitation! Can simple awareness shed light, create space?
Trace anger as it is happening! Why am I getting angry? What is at the base of it? Can it be irradiated with attention? By looking at it, questioning it, observing it in the light of the question, what reveals itself is that we function in rigid patterns that do not want to be interrupted. Memory structures in the brain and throughout the body about how we are, how things ought to be, what is right and what is wrong keep us functioning fairly smoothly, but when they are interfered with, anger results.
These memory structures are wired into us from day one. Even an infant, who does not yet understand the spoken word, understands judgments conveyed by mother's and father's voice, eyes, and touch. What brings smiles, warmth, and protection is good, is right, is worth repeating over and over again. What brings rejection, hardness, sadness, or pain is bad, wrong, must be avoided. So, from early on, memory structures solidify organismically about what is right and what is wrong to do, to be, to feel, to think, to say. Schools, churches, and daily living together reinforce these structures. What we want and what has given us pleasure becomes the dominating pattern that needs to be maintained, incessantly fulfilled, and defended against disturbance.
When what we want is interfered with or thwarted, or when somebody transgresses what is deeply felt to be right, the energy that keeps the system intact explodes. "What they did was wrong!!! How dare they!" I could see something like this happening in our grandchildren. Our little grandson was quite obedient, having learned through punishment and reward what his parents felt to be right and wrong, what to do and what not to do, and, above all, what not to touch. Several years later when his little sister came toddling along, playing with the buttons on the stereo that he had painfully learned to leave alone, he would get furious with her, slapping her little hands. He could not tolerate seeing her do what for him had become a rigid pattern of "No!" Anger was the result of the disturbance. And so it is with all of us. Observing someone do what the brain has encoded as wrong triggers an eruption of energy that wants to keep the pattern intact. It feels as though we had been personally injured.
I have been wondering about this for a long time: why do we get angry when someone else acts in a "stupid" way? What reveals itself upon examination is that we easily feel irritated toward somebody who "doesn't get it," like a parent or schoolteacher getting exasperated at a child. This sort of anger isn't questioned very much it seems justifiable. We feel righteous anger toward those whose ways are in collision with our own. Can we question this deeply?
I remember feeling uncomfortable at the Zen Center when we recited the precept not to become angry. How could we make this vow, knowing full well that we would become angry again? And then get angry about having transgressed a vow! I also wondered about the teacher's saying that there were appropriate, righteous angers not included in the vow. What is anger? This was my query, tracing it to its very foundation. Why do we get angry? Not making explanations or excuses or accusations, but watching directly what is actually taking place. Why do we keep on being angry, what maintains the agitated mood after the explosion has happened? Does it necessarily have to continue for any length of time?
We may assume that we continue being angry because of a deep reservoir of rage established within us over time that can only be depleted over time. But I have actually observed that physical agitation dissipates amazingly fast if the personalized picture story about what has happened to us is clearly seen as story, and is understood as the culprit that keeps the anger burning. With ever-fresh insight the brain can actually cease composing agitating scenarios, abstaining wisely from picturing ourselves as sacrificial victims of other peoples' stupidity or meanness. Without clear insight, incendiary storylines keep running, fueling the anger time and time again.
With insight we may realize that there exists a tenacious attachment to our stories and to the resulting anger. We actually feel good in this powerful release, even though remorse may set in when the storyline changes: "After this they won't like me anymore!" But, it is an ever-amazing discovery that emotions can dissipate when the story is seen and ends in the seeing. Some physical sensations may linger for a while, but need not become a problem. Watch the stories and let them go! The body has an amazing ability to establish harmony when left alone.
You may be thinking right now, "Aren't there situations in which we ought to stand up for what is right, feel outrage against exploitation or abuse?" I do not know what we ought to feel, ought to do. Establishing oughts and trying to live by them doesn't lead to insight into what is. What does happen when we are exploited, abused, humiliated, made fun of, or when we see it happening to others?
We have never learned a wise way to deal deeply with this stuff because we are so used to either putting up with it, suffering from it, fighting it, or exploding over it. Either we continue darkly in our conditioned patterns, or there is an awakening of interest in what is going on for all of us, the abuser as well as the abused. This has nothing to do with sanctioning hurtful behavior, excusing it, or allowing it to continue.
Can we simply behold each other as we are from moment to moment? See ourselves, see everyone, as results of millennia old conditioned patterns which have rigidly governed our behavior even though we do not consciously want it to be so? Not just an intellectual understanding of this, but direct insight into the power of our overwhelmingly strong conditioning. Then, maybe, we can begin to question things together and communicate with each other in a new, intelligent, and compassionate way. Anger, with its chemical toxins, is not conducive to clearly examining and investigating. On the contrary, it spells confusion in the mind.
What is needed is unpolluted looking into what is happening for all of us. Out of clear insight comes the energy to act in a clear way. Such action is difficult for us because we are so heavily conditioned in our patterns of reacting that we are not even cognizant of them most of the time. But that is not an immutable state of affairs. There can be ever-increasing awareness of how we react and how others react to us because of our reactions to them. We are all entangled together in chain reactions! Bring them to light! Realize that when you talk to someone with an angry demeanor they are likely to respond in kind, triggering further irritation in you and, then again, you in them, and on and on.
Most of us are scared of people who are angry, shouting, attacking, blaming. Out of fear, we respond angrily ourselves. This immediately touches memories of our childhood, years of helplessness and utter dependence on adults who often exploded in incomprehensible ways. Fear of angry people makes us not want to be near them it is too upsetting, too intimidating. So, turning it around again, can we question, while we are angry, whether we are actually upsetting and intimidating other people? Maybe we don't really want to upset other people. A moment of clarity and insight brings astonishing sensitivity and care.
As a child I was very scared of my mother's anger, particularly when it was vented against my brother or the cook or nanny. I was deeply attached to all of them. My brother was often sullen, moody, obstinate, and did poorly in his schoolwork. I felt excruciating pain every time he was scolded, punished, or humiliated. Later, in my teens, I told my mother that I had been afraid of her anger all my life. She was visibly shocked. She didn't realize at all that I could have felt that way. It obviously did not fit the image she had of herself.
Memories now arise of times when I was not afraid of mother. We would sometimes go together into town to do shopping. We often walked quite a distance, and she would hold my hand, and it was such a wonderfully happy feeling. Sometimes I would arrange my small hand in hers in a special way, and she would go along with it. One time we were walking through a department store, passing through many narrow isles with merchandise tables left and right, and I felt my mother's deep sadness, looking for something she couldn't find.
Just to complete that story, we visited my parents in Switzerland after I was married. One day I saw my mother in the dining room alone, looking toward me, and suddenly there was just this beautiful woman standing there without any images. So much love in this moment without images. No feeling that I had to be anything she may have thought of me. It was completely natural. From that moment on, our relationship changed.
So, can we have infinite patience with our own anger and the anger of others? Can our habitual reactions for or against someone be replaced with a wondering awareness that does not know? Can we try to understand each other on the deepest level, without images? We are the only laboratories for unfolding this understanding anger wells up in all of us. Why? Not that it shouldn't, but just WHY? Let it reveal itself fully in awareness beyond limitation.
-
Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
http://www.springwatercenter.org/teachers/packer/articles/anger/
Anger
The following article was adapted from a talk by Toni Packer on Day 5 of the September 1998 retreat.
Let's talk about anger. Everyone experiences it at one time or another. Can something be done about anger?
A retreatant reported experiencing lots of energy during sittings, mostly generated by feeling angry about the sitting itself. Thoughts were running about wasting her time here while there was so much work to do at home. "What should I do with all this energy? At times I feel like screaming! Is it all right to scream?"
We have all agreed to maintain outward silence during retreats. Screams are disturbing. If one really feels like screaming that's OK, but maybe one can find a ravine in the woods where it would not impact others. But it's a good question, what to do with powerful energy like anger. My immediate response to the questioner was, "Let it be awareness! Awareness is energy!"
Years ago a man came to see me before applying for retreat, asking if it would be all right to express anger during a meeting. I said it was all right. So one day he entered the meeting room with a tense, flushed face, asking if he could vent his anger at me right then and there. I nodded, and quietly asked: "Have you ever looked at it directly?" No answer came just a charged silence. We sat wordlessly for what seemed to be an eternity, and then he burst out laughing: "It doesn't have to be expressed!" When a powerfully driving emotion gives way to simple awareness, it is like a miracle. What emerged from awareness wasn't screams, but laughter and insight.
Psychological theories about what to do with anger abound and change with time. I do not know if anger should be expressed or shouldn't be. The fact is that we do get angry, and it expresses itself instantly, verbally as well as non-verbally, throughout the body. So what is this anger? Can we go beyond the question, "What should I do with it?" and beyond answers like, "I should feel it in my body, or I should express it verbally, physically, or I ought to control it."
There is plenty to feel when we're angry. It mobilizes the entire organism, mentally and physically no single cell remains unaffected. Storylines run wildly, keeping the agitation going. Can we feel all these amazing physical and mental manifestations without resistance? If resistance is there, then feel it, look at it. Don't try to shut it down by telling yourself that it is dangerous to experience anger, or try to convince yourself that we are wholly justified in what we are feeling. We really don't know. Every thought, every judgment about it intensifies confusion and agitation! Can simple awareness shed light, create space?
Trace anger as it is happening! Why am I getting angry? What is at the base of it? Can it be irradiated with attention? By looking at it, questioning it, observing it in the light of the question, what reveals itself is that we function in rigid patterns that do not want to be interrupted. Memory structures in the brain and throughout the body about how we are, how things ought to be, what is right and what is wrong keep us functioning fairly smoothly, but when they are interfered with, anger results.
These memory structures are wired into us from day one. Even an infant, who does not yet understand the spoken word, understands judgments conveyed by mother's and father's voice, eyes, and touch. What brings smiles, warmth, and protection is good, is right, is worth repeating over and over again. What brings rejection, hardness, sadness, or pain is bad, wrong, must be avoided. So, from early on, memory structures solidify organismically about what is right and what is wrong to do, to be, to feel, to think, to say. Schools, churches, and daily living together reinforce these structures. What we want and what has given us pleasure becomes the dominating pattern that needs to be maintained, incessantly fulfilled, and defended against disturbance.
When what we want is interfered with or thwarted, or when somebody transgresses what is deeply felt to be right, the energy that keeps the system intact explodes. "What they did was wrong!!! How dare they!" I could see something like this happening in our grandchildren. Our little grandson was quite obedient, having learned through punishment and reward what his parents felt to be right and wrong, what to do and what not to do, and, above all, what not to touch. Several years later when his little sister came toddling along, playing with the buttons on the stereo that he had painfully learned to leave alone, he would get furious with her, slapping her little hands. He could not tolerate seeing her do what for him had become a rigid pattern of "No!" Anger was the result of the disturbance. And so it is with all of us. Observing someone do what the brain has encoded as wrong triggers an eruption of energy that wants to keep the pattern intact. It feels as though we had been personally injured.
I have been wondering about this for a long time: why do we get angry when someone else acts in a "stupid" way? What reveals itself upon examination is that we easily feel irritated toward somebody who "doesn't get it," like a parent or schoolteacher getting exasperated at a child. This sort of anger isn't questioned very much it seems justifiable. We feel righteous anger toward those whose ways are in collision with our own. Can we question this deeply?
I remember feeling uncomfortable at the Zen Center when we recited the precept not to become angry. How could we make this vow, knowing full well that we would become angry again? And then get angry about having transgressed a vow! I also wondered about the teacher's saying that there were appropriate, righteous angers not included in the vow. What is anger? This was my query, tracing it to its very foundation. Why do we get angry? Not making explanations or excuses or accusations, but watching directly what is actually taking place. Why do we keep on being angry, what maintains the agitated mood after the explosion has happened? Does it necessarily have to continue for any length of time?
We may assume that we continue being angry because of a deep reservoir of rage established within us over time that can only be depleted over time. But I have actually observed that physical agitation dissipates amazingly fast if the personalized picture story about what has happened to us is clearly seen as story, and is understood as the culprit that keeps the anger burning. With ever-fresh insight the brain can actually cease composing agitating scenarios, abstaining wisely from picturing ourselves as sacrificial victims of other peoples' stupidity or meanness. Without clear insight, incendiary storylines keep running, fueling the anger time and time again.
With insight we may realize that there exists a tenacious attachment to our stories and to the resulting anger. We actually feel good in this powerful release, even though remorse may set in when the storyline changes: "After this they won't like me anymore!" But, it is an ever-amazing discovery that emotions can dissipate when the story is seen and ends in the seeing. Some physical sensations may linger for a while, but need not become a problem. Watch the stories and let them go! The body has an amazing ability to establish harmony when left alone.
You may be thinking right now, "Aren't there situations in which we ought to stand up for what is right, feel outrage against exploitation or abuse?" I do not know what we ought to feel, ought to do. Establishing oughts and trying to live by them doesn't lead to insight into what is. What does happen when we are exploited, abused, humiliated, made fun of, or when we see it happening to others?
We have never learned a wise way to deal deeply with this stuff because we are so used to either putting up with it, suffering from it, fighting it, or exploding over it. Either we continue darkly in our conditioned patterns, or there is an awakening of interest in what is going on for all of us, the abuser as well as the abused. This has nothing to do with sanctioning hurtful behavior, excusing it, or allowing it to continue.
Can we simply behold each other as we are from moment to moment? See ourselves, see everyone, as results of millennia old conditioned patterns which have rigidly governed our behavior even though we do not consciously want it to be so? Not just an intellectual understanding of this, but direct insight into the power of our overwhelmingly strong conditioning. Then, maybe, we can begin to question things together and communicate with each other in a new, intelligent, and compassionate way. Anger, with its chemical toxins, is not conducive to clearly examining and investigating. On the contrary, it spells confusion in the mind.
What is needed is unpolluted looking into what is happening for all of us. Out of clear insight comes the energy to act in a clear way. Such action is difficult for us because we are so heavily conditioned in our patterns of reacting that we are not even cognizant of them most of the time. But that is not an immutable state of affairs. There can be ever-increasing awareness of how we react and how others react to us because of our reactions to them. We are all entangled together in chain reactions! Bring them to light! Realize that when you talk to someone with an angry demeanor they are likely to respond in kind, triggering further irritation in you and, then again, you in them, and on and on.
Most of us are scared of people who are angry, shouting, attacking, blaming. Out of fear, we respond angrily ourselves. This immediately touches memories of our childhood, years of helplessness and utter dependence on adults who often exploded in incomprehensible ways. Fear of angry people makes us not want to be near them it is too upsetting, too intimidating. So, turning it around again, can we question, while we are angry, whether we are actually upsetting and intimidating other people? Maybe we don't really want to upset other people. A moment of clarity and insight brings astonishing sensitivity and care.
As a child I was very scared of my mother's anger, particularly when it was vented against my brother or the cook or nanny. I was deeply attached to all of them. My brother was often sullen, moody, obstinate, and did poorly in his schoolwork. I felt excruciating pain every time he was scolded, punished, or humiliated. Later, in my teens, I told my mother that I had been afraid of her anger all my life. She was visibly shocked. She didn't realize at all that I could have felt that way. It obviously did not fit the image she had of herself.
Memories now arise of times when I was not afraid of mother. We would sometimes go together into town to do shopping. We often walked quite a distance, and she would hold my hand, and it was such a wonderfully happy feeling. Sometimes I would arrange my small hand in hers in a special way, and she would go along with it. One time we were walking through a department store, passing through many narrow isles with merchandise tables left and right, and I felt my mother's deep sadness, looking for something she couldn't find.
Just to complete that story, we visited my parents in Switzerland after I was married. One day I saw my mother in the dining room alone, looking toward me, and suddenly there was just this beautiful woman standing there without any images. So much love in this moment without images. No feeling that I had to be anything she may have thought of me. It was completely natural. From that moment on, our relationship changed.
So, can we have infinite patience with our own anger and the anger of others? Can our habitual reactions for or against someone be replaced with a wondering awareness that does not know? Can we try to understand each other on the deepest level, without images? We are the only laboratories for unfolding this understanding anger wells up in all of us. Why? Not that it shouldn't, but just WHY? Let it reveal itself fully in awareness beyond limitation.
Thanks for sharing the nice article.
Thanks cycle too.
Amituofo
/\
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Experience = sightings + or / sensation + emotions
Minus one of them is not experience
That is the basic teaching in Yogacara ,mind-only school in Mahayana Buddhism
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I like animals but sometimes when i saw stray dogs along the street , there will be some fear in me. Not sure if they are my karmic debtors in my past lives , scare they suddenly bite me.
lol.
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
Trace anger as it is happening! Why am I getting angry? What is at the base of it? Can it be irradiated with attention? By looking at it, questioning it, observing it in the light of the question, what reveals itself is that we function in rigid patterns that do not want to be interrupted. Memory structures in the brain and throughout the body about how we are, how things ought to be, what is right and what is wrong keep us functioning fairly smoothly, but when they are interfered with, anger results.
Moderators are not called moderators for nothing. They always give the best anwers for our enquires.
Tks ETN.Yah, this is what I used to do (or at least try to do if I'm calm enough) when a situation starts to piss me off ie. to trace the anger, where it comes from, why it arises, for how long, where is this leading to...? Look at it squarely. It really works, not easy to start but it really works!
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Originally posted by knightlll:
I like animals but sometimes when i saw stray dogs along the street , there will be some fear in me. Not sure if they are my karmic debtors in my past lives , scare they suddenly bite me.
lol.
Please don't run, or else some may chase you. If they are far away, just u-turn and walk away( well, of cos can run if they r veeeeeery far from u
).If a lone dog is near, like face to face, then be calm and speak in a soft and gentle tone( anything, just to show it that u are not aggresive or a danger), then slowly step back and move away backwards facing it( no need to stare straight into its eyes, just around its face). It will be best if u hv something solid in your hands just in case it lungs at u ( usu won't, it most probably will move away too). Don't suddendly bend down to pick up a stone or stick, as your sudden movement may provoke it. if u must, then do it in slowwww motion while still talking softly to the dog.
If it's a pack of them, and they r agressive to u, like snaring at u ,then its a sticky situation. But actually one would notice such a pack of dogs quite soon, so to suddendly face them unprepared is rather rare, I guess.
And a pack of dogs doesn't always equate to agressive dogs. Some move along like a herd of sleepy sheeps. Harmeless.
But if a danger situation does happen, then no choice, have to be alert and pick up something fast, anything to fend yourself; shout for help or shout at them, bang something to make loud noises hopefully to scare them away. Ususally if the leader retreats, all will follow.Of cos, no matter what ,whenever we see dogs unleashed or stray dogs on the street, we don't have to be hysterical but definitely must be alert.
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Questioner: In certain situations in life I feel blocked by a fear which prevents me from acting. How can I be free from this obstacle?
Jean Klein: First free yourself from the word, the concept, 'fear'. It is loaded with memory. Face only the perception. Accept the sensation
completely. When the personality who judges and controls is completely absent, when there is no longer a psychological relationship with the
sensation, it is really welcomed and unfolds. Only in welcoming without a welcomer can there be real transformation.
We are in essence one with all existence; when we truly observe ourselves there is ultimately no observer, only observation - awareness.----
“In simple openness which is welcoming you will come to accept and get to know your negative feelings, desires and fears. Once welcomed and nondirected attention to these feelings will burn themselves up, leaving only silence. “
~ Jean Klein
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Originally posted by cycle:
Please don't run, or else some may chase you. If they are far away, just u-turn and walk away( well, of cos can run if they r veeeeeery far from u
).If a lone dog is near, like face to face, then be calm and speak in a soft and gentle tone( anything, just to show it that u are not aggresive or a danger), then slowly step back and move away backwards facing it( no need to stare straight into its eyes, just around its face). It will be best if u hv something solid in your hands just in case it lungs at u ( usu won't, it most probably will move away too). Don't suddendly bend down to pick up a stone or stick, as your sudden movement may provoke it. if u must, then do it in slowwww motion while still talking softly to the dog.
If it's a pack of them, and they r agressive to u, like snaring at u ,then its a sticky situation. But actually one would notice such a pack of dogs quite soon, so to suddendly face them unprepared is rather rare, I guess.
And a pack of dogs doesn't always equate to agressive dogs. Some move along like a herd of sleepy sheeps. Harmeless.
But if a danger situation does happen, then no choice, have to be alert and pick up something fast, anything to fend yourself; shout for help or shout at them, bang something to make loud noises hopefully to scare them away. Ususally if the leader retreats, all will follow.Of cos, no matter what ,whenever we see dogs unleashed or stray dogs on the street, we don't have to be hysterical but definitely must be alert.
I am not afraid of dogs. Animals sometimes do turn wild for no reason. : p -
hmm Hey AEN,
I love watching MTV and sometime, i loved to associate myself with the main lead in the MTV. I think the love comes about becos it is a pleasurable thing to do. Similarly, people can get attached to suffering becos it is pleasurable. At the back of my mind, i know it is just a illusion that i'm playing with in my head and like a sort of enterainment. However I'm not sure if it is actually a good thing to indulge in such things often.
On the other hand, there is no bad or no good or true or false about the image that i'm conjuring .. ?
ps: the above posting is just an opinion. Please discern with wisdom.
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Originally posted by knightlll:
I like animals but sometimes when i saw stray dogs along the street , there will be some fear in me. Not sure if they are my karmic debtors in my past lives , scare they suddenly bite me.
lol.
In singapore, there isn't much stray dogs around liao, only plently of stray cats.One of my meditation teacher encourages people who meditate to practise metta regularly so that when a cobra suddenly come across your path ( in those ulu pandan meditation centre, anything is possible or you meditate in the forest ). You can immediately send strong metta to the cobra.
It is one of the protective meditation and also helps in gaining concentration.
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Originally posted by Isis:
hmm Hey AEN,
I love watching MTV and sometime, i loved to associate myself with the main lead in the MTV. I think the love comes about becos it is a pleasurable thing to do. Similarly, people can get attached to suffering becos it is pleasurable. At the back of my mind, i know it is just a illusion that i'm playing with in my head and like a sort of enterainment. However I'm not sure if it is actually a good thing to indulge in such things often.
On the other hand, there is no bad or no good or true or false about the image that i'm conjuring .. ?
ps: the above posting is just an opinion. Please discern with wisdom.
What do you mean by associating yourself?
-
Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
What do you mean by associating yourself?
It is like you become the main lead in your mind. -
Originally posted by Isis:
It is like you become the main lead in your mind.As I see it, any form of self identification is the cause of suffering. As someone once said, "All views are based on the belief of something as inherently existing, and necessarily lead to suffering because not in accord with reality." Similarly as long as you associate yourself with someone believing that the 'self' is inherently existing, it necessarily leads to suffering because it is not in accord with reality.
It is not thinking that is a problem, it is identifying and believing in a story of 'me' and 'things' as having some reality/inherency that is a problem. But upon investigation you realise that the 'self' cannot be found, it is a mirage -- they are merely thoughts, and that thought is made of, and is the miraculous activities (妙用) of Buddha-Nature. Like a mirage, it's just made of the same awareness-intelligence-energy (buddha-nature) vibrating into the various forms as thoughts, words appearing on screen, sound of music, everything. But being a mirage it has no inherent existence. It is in essence that awareness-intelligence-energy that is at the same time empty. Luminous-emptiness.
So, a thought itself is Buddha-Nature. All thoughts and experiences, which are appearances, are the play of Buddha-Nature, but we mistake the mirages/appearances as having some sort of inherent reality. And because we imagine that there is some sort of inherent reality out there, we grasp on them, not realising that all appearances are simply thoughts/experiences arising and vanishing spontaneously according to conditions -- utterly empty of inherent, graspable existence.
So the moment we �相, that is 妄 and leads to suffering. Means you grasp on appearances, thinking it has some sort of inherent reality.
As Buddha taught, 凡所有相，皆是虛妄。若見諸相�相，則見如來。
As 元音�人 says,
所以开悟之�，妄想�妄念�妄心，都翻�我的佛性的妙用了。今天�给大家下个注解﹕妄心�妄想�妄念，�相就是妄。�过���相，所有一切�想都是我们佛性的妙用，所有一切�想都是�就一切事物的妙用，都是我们佛性的妙用。
And as 元音�人 says,
1．一念ä¸�生处，了了分明的ç�µçŸ¥å�³å½“人的佛性。å¦äººæžœèƒ½äºŽæ¤ä¸�惊ä¸�怖ã€�深信ä¸�疑，立定脚跟，安ä½�ä¿�æŠ¤ï¼Œå‡€å°½å¦„ä¹ ï¼Œåœ†è¯�佛果，诚é�žä¸€ä½›äºŒä½›ä¸‰å››äº”佛所ç§�å–„æ ¹ï¼Œè€Œæ˜¯æ— é‡�佛所ç§�è¯¸å–„æ ¹ã€‚2．观照就是回光返照，å�‘心内看，ä¸�是å�‘外看，观这一念ä¸�生处（念头未起处）。念头起æ�¥å°±çœ‹è§�，ä¸�ç�†ç�¬å®ƒï¼Œä¸�éš�之æµ�浪。这一æ¥æœ€è¦�紧。如念头起 æ�¥çœ‹ä¸�è§�，就ä¸�行了。è¯�è§�本性å�Žï¼Œè¦�于行ã€�ä½�ã€�å��ã€�å�§å¤„观照ä¿�护，“外ä¸�为境牵，内ä¸�éš�念转”å�³ä¸ºæœ€å¥½çš„ä¿�护法。念起ä¸�ä½�，ä¸�éš�之æµ�浪ä¸�å�œï¼Œå�³ä¸ºæ— 念。ä¸� 是压念ä¸�起，亦ä¸�是将一念ä¸�ç”Ÿçš„æ—¶é—´æ‹‰é•¿ä¸ºæ— å¿µã€‚
.
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4．è¯�è§�本性å�Žï¼Œæ‰€æœ‰å¦„心ã€�妄想ã€�妄念皆化为真心的妙用。妙用与妄作的分别å�³åœ¨“有ä½�”与“ä¸�ä½�”之间，ä½�å�³å¦™ç”¨åŒ–为妄作，ä¸�ä½�å�³å¦„作摄为妙用。It is like falling asleep and entering the dream state, even though you are sleeping and the dream isn't real but there is ongoing identification and belief in a 'you', 'experiencer' and what is happening in the dream is almost hypnotic -- it blinds us and makes us believe in the story as having some inherent reality -- and there being a 'me' who is seeing 'a monster in front of me' -- and as a result you undergo all sorts of samsaric emotions even in dreams -- fear, happiness, anger, sadness, and so on.
It operates on a dualistic basis, that you are a separate self who is experiencing unpleasant states or pleasant states. But in reality, there is simply experience, but no separate experiencer. And the experience is empty, simply being thoughts and sensations arising and vanishing according to conditions.
So liberation is in seeing through the sense that there is a continuous, separate, or special controller, doer, observer, or centerpoint that is "who they are" in a very direct perceptual way that is not merely an intellectual or conceptual understanding. And the sensations that seemed to imply these to be just more sensations arising and vanishing according to conditions as they always have been. And because this is realised, everything is simply spontaneously arising according to conditions -- and self-liberate immediately! Thoughts have no sticking power, it's only when you believe that there is some essence or inherent reality that you grasp on the thought.
So in this way, in seeing through the reality of a separate self and the inherency/solidity of our experience, the stories of a self are no longer seen to have any reality and so can no longer cause us sufferings. Dispassion arises and there is naturally no more grasping, only spontaneous arising of Dharma.
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What 元音�人 said is rather similar to this:
Essence of Dzogchen Meditation
by Sogyal Rinpoche
The essence of meditation practice in Dzogchen is encapsulated by these four points:
• When one past thought has ceased and a future thought has not yet arisen, in that gap, in between, isn't there a consciousness of the present moment; fresh, virgin, unaltered by even a hair's breadth of concept, a luminous, naked awareness? -- Well that is what Rigpa is!
• Yet it doesn't stay in that state forever, because another thought suddenly arises, doesn't it? This is the self radiance of that Rigpa.
• However if you do not recognize this thought for what it really is, the very instant it arises, then it will turn into just another ordinary thought, as before. This is called the "chain of delusion," and is the root of samsara.
• If you are able to recognize the true nature of the thought as soon as it arises, and leave it alone without any followup, then whatever thoughts that arise all automatically dissolve back into the vast expanse of Rigpa and are liberated.
____________________________________
From The Tibetan Book Of Living And Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche. -
Someone asked me if I coined the term 'intelligence-energy', actually nope.
Bob: That separate entity, the belief in that entity or person, has never done a damn thing! It never can and never will. You must realize that you have been lived. That body-mind that you call 'you' is being lived, and it is being lived quite effortlessly. As Christ said, 'Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit to his stature?' That separate entity can’t do a bloody thing.
Q: What does that mean in terms of choice, conscious free-will, willing choices that people make or don't make? If I'm following you, there isn't anyone who makes the choice.
Bob: No, there isn't. Choices are made, but there is no choice-maker. What seems to be choices are made. Like, you think you will do something, and you turn around doing something else. That is all coming from that pure functioning. But we take delivery of it and believe 'I am the choice-maker' or 'I have got free-will'. But we have just seen that if you look at it closely the thoughts 'I am' or 'I'm this or that' haven't got the power to do any of those things. You haven't even got the power to think that thought, itself. Thinking happens. It is the same with seeing. Seeing is happening right now. What do you have to do to see?
Q: Nothing.
Bob: It is spontaneously happening. Be that presence-awareness that is spontaneously happening of itself. It is effortless. If that 'I thought', that image you have about yourself, were running the show, what would be the most important thing you would do?
Q: I have got no idea!
Bob: Well, I do! The first thing I would do is make sure I take the next breath, or make sure my heart has got another beat in it. But all those things are happening quite effortlessly. We talk about choices. But if you are the choice maker, why would you ever have an unhappy thought, if you could choose your thoughts? Why would you ever be miserable or sad?
Q. So, the intelligence-energy is vibrating into all these different
forms.Bob: Exactly.
Q: It is appearing as the chair, this life (pointing to someone in the room), this life, this life. What about the life of somebody who is suffering? Why would it do that? Why would it vibrate into the form of a life of a kid in a war-torn country? Do you know what I'm saying?
Bob: Yes.
Q: From my mind, I look at it and I say, 'That is madness'.
Bob: Yes. It is madness. The intelligence-energy vibrates into the mirage, too. The heat shimmering off the road appears to be a pool of water. But what is it in actuality?
Q: Just vibrating energy.
Bob: Yes.
Q: From my mind, I look at it and I say, 'That is madness'.
Bob: Yes. It is madness. The intelligence-energy vibrates into the mirage, too. The heat shimmering off the road appears to be a pool of water. But what is it in actuality?
Q: Just vibrating energy.
Bob: Yes.
Q: But that kid seems to suffer.
Bob: Yes. But, as I say, you have got a million microbes crawling around your face right now.
Q: You do that (wipes hand on his face) and you kill them all.
Bob: You just wiped out a few million of them. Some of
them might be suffering. Some of them might be crippled. But you couldn't care less. We think we are so important, but we are only small in the scheme of things. Looking from out in space down on this earth what would you be? You would be even less than a microbe on someone's face! Yet, because we are here, we give ourselves so much importance. In the scheme of things, life is continually living on life. Life appears in all sorts of forms and shapes. But it is still the same life, the same intelligence-energy. And you are that life.Q: Does compassion fit into what you are saying?
Bob: Yes, there is a natural compassion that comes up of itself. You don't have to try to be compassionate.
Q: No.
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
As I see it, any form of self identification is the cause of suffering. As someone once said, "All views are based on the belief of something as inherently existing, and necessarily lead to suffering because not in accord with reality." Similarly as long as you associate yourself with someone believing that the 'self' is inherently existing, it necessarily leads to suffering because it is not in accord with reality.
It is not thinking that is a problem, it is identifying and believing in a story of 'me' and 'things' as having some reality/inherency that is a problem. But upon investigation you realise that the 'self' cannot be found, it is a mirage -- they are merely thoughts, and that thought is made of, and is the miraculous activities (妙用) of Buddha-Nature. Like a mirage, it's just made of the same awareness-intelligence-energy (buddha-nature) vibrating into the various forms as thoughts, words appearing on screen, sound of music, everything. But being a mirage it has no inherent existence.
So, a thought itself is Buddha-Nature. All thoughts and experiences, which are appearances, are the play of Buddha-Nature, but we mistake the mirages/appearances as having some sort of inherent reality. And because we imagine that there is some sort of inherent reality out there, we grasp on them, not realising that all appearances are simply thoughts/experiences arising and vanishing spontaneously according to conditions -- utterly empty of inherent, graspable existence.
As 元音�人 says,
1．一念ä¸�生处，了了分明的ç�µçŸ¥å�³å½“人的佛性。å¦äººæžœèƒ½äºŽæ¤ä¸�惊ä¸�怖ã€�深信ä¸�疑，立定脚跟，安ä½�ä¿�æŠ¤ï¼Œå‡€å°½å¦„ä¹ ï¼Œåœ†è¯�佛果，诚é�žä¸€ä½›äºŒä½›ä¸‰å››äº”佛所ç§�å–„æ ¹ï¼Œè€Œæ˜¯æ— é‡�佛所ç§�è¯¸å–„æ ¹ã€‚2．观照就是回光返照，å�‘心内看，ä¸�是å�‘外看，观这一念ä¸�生处（念头未起处）。念头起æ�¥å°±çœ‹è§�，ä¸�ç�†ç�¬å®ƒï¼Œä¸�éš�之æµ�浪。这一æ¥æœ€è¦�紧。如念头起æ�¥çœ‹ä¸�è§�，就ä¸�行了。è¯�è§�本性å�Žï¼Œè¦�于行ã€�ä½�ã€�å��ã€�å�§å¤„观照ä¿�护，“外ä¸�为境牵，内ä¸�éš�念转”å�³ä¸ºæœ€å¥½çš„ä¿�护法。念起ä¸�ä½�，ä¸�éš�之æµ�浪ä¸�å�œï¼Œå�³ä¸ºæ— 念。ä¸�是压念ä¸�起，亦ä¸�是将一念ä¸�ç”Ÿçš„æ—¶é—´æ‹‰é•¿ä¸ºæ— å¿µã€‚
.
.
4．è¯�è§�本性å�Žï¼Œæ‰€æœ‰å¦„心ã€�妄想ã€�妄念皆化为真心的妙用。妙用与妄作的分别å�³åœ¨“有ä½�”与“ä¸�ä½�”之间，ä½�å�³å¦™ç”¨åŒ–为妄作，ä¸�ä½�å�³å¦„作摄为妙用。It is like falling asleep and entering the dream state, even though you are sleeping and the dream isn't real but there is ongoing identification and belief in a 'you', 'experiencer' and what is happening in the dream is almost hypnotic -- it blinds us and makes us believe in the story as having some inherent reality -- and there being a 'me' who is seeing 'a monster in front of me' -- and as a result you undergo all sorts of samsaric emotions even in dreams -- fear, happiness, anger, sadness, and so on.
It operates on a dualistic basis, that you are a separate self who is experiencing unpleasant states or pleasant states. But in reality, there is simply experience, but no separate experiencer. And the experience is empty, simply being thoughts and sensations arising and vanishing according to conditions.
So liberation is in seeing through the sense that there is a continuous, separate, or special controller, doer, observer, or centerpoint that is "who they are" in a very direct perceptual way that is not merely an intellectual or conceptual understanding. And the sensations that seemed to imply these to be just more sensations arising and vanishing according to conditions as they always have been. And because this is realised, everything is simply spontaneously arising according to conditions -- and self-liberate immediately! Thoughts have no sticking power, it's only when you believe that there is some essence or inherent reality that you grasp on the thought.
So in this way, in seeing through the reality of a separate self and the inherency/solidity of our experience, the stories of a self are no longer seen to have any reality and so can no longer cause us sufferings. Dispassion arises and there is naturally no more grasping, only spontaneous arising of Dharma.
Hmm thanks for insightful posting. You put effort in reading up and listening attentively to dharma talks.And hell, it reminds me of my "poor" own learning attitude. Hahaha
There is a conceptual me but in reality, the me is just a mere thought that comes and goes. However, when there is pain or fear, human usually react to the fear with fear in their eyes or tears. Sometime, one can't help it. I'm just wondering... i know the reality does not exist inherently but "i" can't help grasp at fearful feeling for instances.
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Originally posted by Isis:
Hmm thanks for insightful posting. I can see you put effort in reading up and listening attentively to dharma talks. And hell, it reminds me of my poor own learning attitude.There is a conceptual me but in reality, the me is just a mere thought that comes and goes. However, when there is pain or fear, human usually react to the fear with fear in their eyes or tears. Sometime, one can't help it. I'm just wondering... i know the reality does not exist inherently but "i" can't help grasp at fearful feeling for instances.
It's not easy. Because our karmic propensities of seeing dualistically and inherently are so deeply rooted, our tendency is to grasp on appearances is always there.
So we need to be mindful at all times, and I remember mentioning about a lucid nightmare where 'I' overcome the fear in the nightmare itself (dreamt of some ghost or monster coming towards me and a surge of fear suddenly became very very strong -- more than what I probably ever felt) by suddenly becoming aware that the fear is actually a false projection, and I stopped believing in its reality. And because I was becoming so mindful and aware in the dream, even though there is still this tense feeling I was aware that the dream monster was actually my own projection, and I stopped believing in it. I was also aware if I lose my mindfulness and started believing in the seeming reality of the dream, I will return to the nightmare again.
And I just maintain that bright presence-awareness in the dream itself and also feel whatever feelings and emotions are arising, but I do not project a story, and so I stopped projecting the dream -- so everything disappeared into a white light and I woke up.
As I pasted in the other post on fear, "Face only the perception." If we can face only that perception without projecting more stories, believing in the reality of the me-story (someone is going to get me, I'm going to get hurt, etc), then that fear can dissolve in its own accord. But there is no attempt to try to push away that feeling, it dissolves on its own accord in its own time.
Reacting to fear with fear simply perpetuates the belief in the me-story further, and worse, -- now there's 'fear' to fear, or unpleasant feelings that I want to push away -- instead of Facing What Is -- Reality in bare, without mental commentary.
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
It's not easy. Because our karmic propensities of seeing dualistically and inherently are so deeply rooted, our tendency is to grasp on appearances is always there.
So we need to be mindful at all times, and I remember mentioning about a lucid nightmare where 'I' overcome the fear in the nightmare itself (dreamt of some ghost or monster coming towards me and a surge of fear suddenly became very very strong -- more than what I probably ever felt) by suddenly becoming aware that the fear is actually a false projection, and I stopped believing in its reality. And because I was becoming so mindful and aware in the dream, even though there is still this tense feeling I was aware that the dream monster was actually my own projection, and I stopped believing in it.
And I just maintain that awareness in the dream itself and feeeel whatever feelings and emotions are arising, but I do not project a story, and so I stopped projecting the dream -- so everything disappeared into a white light and I woke up.
As I pasted in the other post on fear, "Face only the perception." If we can face only that perception without projecting more stories, believing in the reality of the me-story (someone is going to get me, I'm going to get hurt, etc), then that fear can dissolve in its own accord.
The "me" is still strongly. Sometime i will just check myself. Sometime i find myself loving myself too much in the "unhealthy way".
Btw thanks for sharing. Hope it makes a good imprint in my mind.
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Originally posted by Isis:
The "me" is still strongly. Sometime i will just check myself. Sometime i find myself loving myself too much in the "unhealthy way".
Btw thanks for sharing. Hope it makes a good imprint in my mind.
How do you love yourself? Question that... Are you an image of who you think you are? Or is that just an arising thought.
In the first place, who are you?
Before the arising of a thought, who are you?
Or as Thusness asked, “Without using any languages, ‘I’, ‘me’ or any signs or symbols, how is ‘I’ experienced?”
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
How do you love yourself? Question that... Are you an image of who you think you are? Or is that just an arising thought.
In the first place, who are you?
Before the arising of a thought, who are you?
i'm having this "similar of feeling of who i am" for some time but i know i'm more than just that. Subconciously, i might have choose to believe in it. Sometime, i like to grasp and believe that this conceptual me which i have thought of at there particular time is really me. That conceptual me could be a postive one and one hold onto the idea the idea that.. hey you are so "great", "wonderful" for example but all in all it boils down to a matter of perception. The qualties do not have inherent existence.ha ha so koan?
I'll try...
In the first place, who are you?
Don't know who am i.
2nd question..
Still the same. Don't know who am i
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Originally posted by Isis:
i'm having this "similar of feeling of who i am" for some time but i know i'm more than just that. Subconciously, i might have choose to believe in it. Sometime, i like to grasp and believe that this conceptual me which i have thought of at there particular time is really me. That conceptual me could be a postive one and one hold onto the idea the idea that.. hey you are so "great", "wonderful" for example but all in all it boils down to a matter of perception. The qualties do not have inherent existence.ha ha so koan?
I'll try...
In the first place, who are you?
Don't know who am i.
2nd question..
Still the same. Don't know who am i
Yes, in reality you cannot know who you are! Because who you are is not an object that can be grasped (because whatever object grasped or anything that can be observed is by definition not you!), and all belief in a self are simply more thoughts arising about an apparent separate and inherent self... how can it be who you are? How can you be a separate self you believed to be?
You said 'Don't know mind', and Zen Master Seung Sahn would say, just keep this don't know mind! This don't know mind is at the same time, clear mind. It is not a 'confused' mind. It does not mean you are not aware, in fact 'dont know mind' is clear, and aware. And when we can dissolve that mind completely, that 'me', we can 'be' everything -- table, screen, trees, are just one 'substance'.
Whenever we think we are something, question it and the thought dissolves back into Reality itself. And the thought itself is a manifestation of that Reality.
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I said who you are cannot be an object of knowledge, but even so there is an undeniable sense of presence-awareness. It's not something 'out there' separate from you (but it is all-pervasive), you can't objectify it and make it an object of knowledge or observation.... but it is a self-evident, self-shining, self-felt Presence. You cannot observe it from the perspective of a separate observer or self. The Presence just Is.
Is that who you are? In a sense yes but to even form the concept 'I am' is to miss its action. 'I am' sounds like there is a constant being. But that Presence is as much being as it is be-coming, because it is not apart from the transient flow of phenomenality. And it is non-separate, there is no boundary which you can separate the 'you' from the 'not-you' -- it is also the trees, the table, the sounds, the thoughts also. But there is a constant presence-ING. Like the wind blowing, the river flowing, ungraspable, empty, and yet undeniably present.
Trying to grasp 'me' is like trying to grasp the wind, can it be grasped? No, but nevertheless its Presencing flows.