Basic meditation instructions with Buddhist teacher Joseph Goldstein.
The cycle of life is a struggle.
And through the vortex of birth and death,
I searched for the creator of this world.
I never found him.
Now I have found you,
The creator.
Your structure is dismantled.
The mind
Has stopped creating.
The delusion
Is destroyed.
~ (Dhammapada verses 153 - 154)
Through the practice of very careful momentary attention, we see and connect very directly with the nature of thoughts and emotions, not getting so lost in the story. What is the nature of anger? What is the quality of happiness? What is the quality of compassion? The momentum of mindfulness begins to build. This is our first clear glimpse of the nature of the mind itself. We see that all we are is a succession of mind moments - seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, thinking, feeling. At this stage, we have a very direct understanding of what the Buddha called the Three Characteristics. We have a visceral experience of the truth of anicca, impermanence: everything is changing constantly. And out of this intimate understanding of the momentariness of phenomena, we begin to comprehend more clearly what the Buddha meant by dukkha, suffering-the unsatisfactory nature of things. When we see that even pleasant things are changing-and changing rapidly-it becomes obvious that they are incapable of satisfying us. Not because they are inherently bad but because they don't last. This insight leads to an understanding of the characteristic that is most difficult to see-anatta, or selflessness. There is no one behind this process to whom it is happening; what we call "self" is the process of change.
~Joseph Goldstein
You see, dear reader (speaking frankly, without any intention to offend), you are a ramshackle collection of coincidences held together by a desperate and irrational clinging, there is no center at all, everything depends on everything else, your body depends on the environment, your thoughts depend on whatever junk floats in from the media, your emotions are largely from the reptilian end of your DNA, your intellect is a chemical computer that can't add up a zillionth as fast as a pocket calculator, and even your best side is a superficial piece of social programming that will fall apart just as soon as your spouse leaves with the kids and the money in the joint account, or the economy starts to fail and you get the sack, or you get conscripted into some idiot's war, or they give you the news about your brain tumor. To name this amorphous morass of self-pity, vanity, and despair self is not only the height of hubris, it is also proof (if any were needed) that we are above all a delusional species. (We are in a trance from birth to death.) Prick the balloon, and what do you get? Emptiness.
Take two steps in the divine art of Buddhist meditation, and you will find yourself on a planet you no longer recognize. Those needs and fears you thought were the very bones of your being turn out to be no more than bugs in your software. (Even the certainty of death gets nuanced.)
~From the novel, Bangkok Tattoo by John Burdett
May all beings learn to free themselves from the poisons of hate, greed and delusion.
May the Buddha Dharma reach all beings.
May all beings have happiness and its causes.
May all beings be free from suffering and its causes.
For freely offered dharma teachings, please visit:
dharmaseed.org/