I am trying to realize no self
and am trying to deconstruct things
like trying to see everything as the six senses,
taste, touch, sight ,smell,thought and ... forgot what else.
anyways, I am also reading the direct path at the moment
and trying to follow it.
dont know what I am doing wrong.
but I need some help, some kind of instructions as to proper practice.
please help me out.
p.s. I was trying to do vipassana earlier, but was more attracted to
the deconstruction of the self as in bahiya sutta and so tried to do it,
but not sure if I am doing it correctly.
dont know what I am missing.
would love to get some guidance.
Hello awakenedmind.
I'm wondering if when you're doing the deconstructing, if you're sometimes going "ok so it's seeing touching smelling etc... so what?" Would this happen to be true for you?
I think that the realization of anatta means that you are able to label everything in your experience accurately, so probably there's some "murkiness" that you're experiencing. For example, certain aspects like thinking are incredibly tough to label properly. Are you familiar with the awareness teachings, with the identification of the watcher/knower? It could be very useful to you. After all, how exactly do we refute the existance of a self if we don't even know what a "self" is referring to?
Hi awakenedmind
The below article and many others on this site are contributions from Moderator 'Thusness'. It may not be easy to grasp initially, but try contemplating on what is written and it may give you the direction you need in your meditation. Otherwise you may like to attend some meditation class where an instructor can guide and provide answers to your questions.
http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/2007/03/thusnesss-six-stages-of-experience.html
Hi,
Will like to recommend a book by Ajahn Brahm 'The art of disappearing' . It is a good book. You can buy it at Awareness Place in Bras Basah.
hi,
jui, I am actually trying to see it all as the 5 senses, but actually am unable to do so.
am feeling like I am in a body and therefore trying to get to anatta.
have read a lot of articles from the blog you linked to Aik, but I find them a little difficult to
understand as I dont understand a lot of buddhist terms.
simpo, I downloaded and read the book you mentioned and it was awesome.
really gave me a very good idea of what I am in for.
the book is really powerful and at the moment, I feel like giving up all
and go and live in a monastery. really.
my parents want me to get married, but all I can think about that
the happiness will be so temporary and I will be suffering throughout life
and therefore want to drop the idea of getting married. although it also seems
like I may be missing out. but I also feel it's no use to get married.
this book really has affected me.
Originally posted by awakenedmind:hi,
jui, I am actually trying to see it all as the 5 senses, but actually am unable to do so.
am feeling like I am in a body and therefore trying to get to anatta.
have read a lot of articles from the blog you linked to Aik, but I find them a little difficult to
understand as I dont understand a lot of buddhist terms.
simpo, I downloaded and read the book you mentioned and it was awesome.
really gave me a very good idea of what I am in for.
the book is really powerful and at the moment, I feel like giving up all
and go and live in a monastery. really.
my parents want me to get married, but all I can think about that
the happiness will be so temporary and I will be suffering throughout life
and therefore want to drop the idea of getting married. although it also seems
like I may be missing out. but I also feel it's no use to get married.
this book really has affected me.
Hi Awakenmind,
If possible buy the book instead of obtaining as a free download. It is so as to not to break a precept of taking what is not given... as it may impend your own progress.
Yah.. i find the book really helpful.
If you realise no-self (enter the stream) before you get married... you can perhaps see better why getting married is not always a good idea.... for example... is your spouse able to understand your realisation? Marriage is based on attachment and is maintained by attachment. ... Can one remain unattached and be in a marriage?
hmm,true that.
I would love to get my hands on a paperback copy,but I am unable to find it locally.
As to marriage, yes I can see that it's not possible to remain unattached in marriage
and it may even be a hindrance to my practice.
But, I am thinking that I do business and one cant remain unattached in business too. at least I think that business causes attachments and hinders one's practice.
mind cant be still when one's thinking how to make sales.
but I dont know how to stop doing that and still live in this world.
I am not asking this to argue, but I really want to know how to handle this.
marriage and business thing. I am at a kind of cross roads right now
and one decision could change my whole life.
to tell the truth, I am not very inclined to get married, but on the other hand I am a male who desires a female. I think that if I dont get married then this desire/lust may also hinder my practice. any solutions for that ? or can stream entry help me to get rid of this lusty desire?
And then parents are forcing me to get married.
any suggestions or advice will be really helpful.
hmm, that makes a lot of sense.
seems like I am trying to control things instead of letting go.
and the kind of letting go that is required causes fear in me.
how to make a living and all that kind of thing
and that makes me afraid.
but, I think your post was the gist of what's in the "art of disappearing " book.
hmm,thanks.
i'll let go of trying to control these.
things are not in my control anyway.
bareawareness: copy and paste the text to a notepad, then paste back on html format.
thanks bareawareness,
will look for the article on giving.
and will try to let go. seems like the most important thing.
Practicing altruism is *not* realizing non-self. Realizing the truth of anatta as a dharma seal must not be mistaken with altruistic/selfless acts, and selfless acts (although also a good form of practice) does not in itself lead to realizing the dharma seal of anatta. In and of itself, such acts only make more virtuous karmas that lead to more samsaric rebirths in the higher realms, it doesn't lead to nirvana.
That would require contemplation and vipassana meditation geared at investigating non-self at the sensate, experiential level.
As I wrote before:
"First I do not see Anatta as merely a freeing from personality
sort of experience as you mentioned; I see it as that a self/agent, a
doer, a thinker, a watcher, etc, cannot be found apart from the moment
to moment flow of manifestation or as its commonly expressed as ‘the
observer is the observed’; there is no self apart from arising and
passing. A very important point here is that Anatta/No-Self is a Dharma
Seal, it is the nature of Reality all the time -- and not merely as a
state free from personality, ego or the ‘small self’ or a stage to
attain. This means that it does not depend on the level of achievement of a practitioner to experience anatta but Reality has always been Anatta and what is important here is the intuitive insight into it as the nature, characteristic, of phenomenon (dharma seal).
To put further emphasis on the importance of this point, I would like to borrow from the Bahiya Sutta (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/ud/ud.1.10.irel.html)
that ‘in the seeing, there is just the seen, no seer’, ‘in the hearing,
there is just the heard, no hearer’ as an illustration. When a person
says that I have gone beyond the experiences from ‘I hear sound’ to a
stage of ‘becoming sound’, he is mistaken. When it is taken to be a
stage, it is illusory. For in actual case, there is and always is only
sound when hearing; never was there a hearer to begin with. Nothing
attained for it is always so. This is the seal of no-self. Therefore to a
non dualist, the practice is in understanding the illusionary views of
the sense of self and the split. Before the awakening of prajna wisdom,
there will always be an unknowing attempt to maintain a purest state of
'presence'. This purest presence is the 'how' of a dualistic mind -- its
dualistic attempt to provide a solution due to its lack of clarity of
the spontaneous nature of the unconditioned. It is critical to note here
that both the doubts/confusions/searches and the solutions that are
created for these doubts/confusions/searches actually derive from the
same cause -- our karmic propensities of ever seeing things
dualistically"
Why rich people don't believe in karma. My sister one of them she did hurting me a lot since we are kid a year apart age. I m deaf. She is normal. Why lie and used me, order me around she feel shame to have deaf sister. We no more any relationship we ended for good. She greedy of money blind by money. she wait till parent dead then sold to the house she take money. Selfish.
There are many rich people that believe in karma and also many rich people that do not believe in karma. There are many poor people that believe in karma and also many poor people that do not believe in karma.
Each person has their own yin yuan/causes and conditions for believing and disbelieving in karma. However, karma is truth, causality is truth.
Those who harm others will experience negative karmic results. Rather than being angry with them, we should have compassion for them instead. Holding on to negative emotions causes ourselves suffering.
We practice the dharma, the eightfold path, that leads to the end of suffering, the end of craving, anger, and delusion, the path that results in attaining Nirvana - the termination, the cessation, of mental afflictions, the greatest peace and bliss.
Moderator: please refer to http://sgforums.com/forums/1728/topics/374821
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Originally posted by awakenedmind:
I am trying to realize no self
and am trying to deconstruct things
like trying to see everything as the six senses,
taste, touch, sight ,smell,thought and ... forgot what else.
anyways, I am also reading the direct path at the moment
and trying to follow it.
dont know what I am doing wrong.
but I need some help, some kind of instructions as to proper practice.
please help me out.
p.s. I was trying to do vipassana earlier, but was more attracted to
the deconstruction of the self as in bahiya sutta and so tried to do it,
but not sure if I am doing it correctly.
dont know what I am missing.
would love to get some guidance.
No self can never be realised. As self do not exist how could we realised the non existence of something ? What we do realise are the fabrications, the dependence, the causes and conditions that give rise to self.
In order to realise emptiness of phenomenon and nuomenon as well as all of the natural and artificial world we have to decondition, as opposed to deconstruction of our habitual mental formation. The zen style of stating this was "seeing the horn the mind conceive of a bull".
Such habitual conception can be seen for what it is through meditation - either concentration or vipassana.
There is no quick-fix. Which method you adopt slowing the mindstream is a pre-requisite.
Okay,this is what I have been doing
developing tranquility using meditation and letting go
and developing insight using contemplation on bahiya sutta.
sometimes, when I am walking I also ask,
who is it that is carrying along this corpse?
using sitting meditation where I concentrate on breath going in and out.
and practicing to let go - or as ajahn brahm advises
what arises - just say - it is none of my business.
since thoughts arise by themselves and what thoughts come up is really none of our business.
now, is the sitting meditation i.e. concentrating on breath, same as mindfulness?
or is it different?
and I am also experiencing some difficulty breathing when I concentrate on breath.
it seems like my breathing pattern changes when i focus on it
and so i am unable to breathe properly.
should I still be focussing on the breath or maybe some other object?
i will help. check your private messages.
Originally posted by awakenedmind:Okay,this is what I have been doing
developing tranquility using meditation and letting go
and developing insight using contemplation on bahiya sutta.
sometimes, when I am walking I also ask,
who is it that is carrying along this corpse?
using sitting meditation where I concentrate on breath going in and out.
and practicing to let go - or as ajahn brahm advises
what arises - just say - it is none of my business.
since thoughts arise by themselves and what thoughts come up is really none of our business.
now, is the sitting meditation i.e. concentrating on breath, same as mindfulness?
or is it different?
and I am also experiencing some difficulty breathing when I concentrate on breath.
it seems like my breathing pattern changes when i focus on it
and so i am unable to breathe properly.
should I still be focussing on the breath or maybe some other object?
actually too much words doesn't help...
for the breathe in meditation, you focussed too hard.
Just take it easy... there is nothing that 'you' can do to control the breathe. Just be aware of it.
It is not the focus of the breathing that is important... rather...it is that when there is no wondering and entangling with thoughts... there will only be awareness of the breathe.
After i had a breakup with my girlfriend i felt like the end of the world , but then i thought why should i end my life because of her she did not want live with me anymore, but then my friend suggested me too do meditation then i started googling then i found a website meditation finder i got registered with this website and started follwing the steps like training programs , how to keep ur body fit and how to keep a peace mind , anger management and i feel i got helped by this website so i would like to prefer this website for anyone who is looking for a peace mind http://www.meditationfinder.com/article/types-of-meditation-classes.html