Paramita

Adam Mizner's Dhamma Talk on Paramita. Adam Mizner has dedicated many years to the in-depth study of Daoism, western Hermetics and the Buddha Dhamma, is initiated into and teaches methods from these traditions. He is a senior lay disciple of Ajahn Jumnien in the Thai Forest tradition of Theravada Buddhism. This deep spiritual background has a large influence on his approach to internal development teaching.

Please note: This track was recorded live and may contain background noises.

Transcript

After practicing Maita when we observe the body,

We should recognize that the body is quite free from pain,

Much more free from pain than if you sat for the same period on another subject.

The reason is that at the base of Maita is acceptance.

If there's any aversion or ill will,

Maita cannot exist.

They cannot coexist.

Pain,

The primary cause of pain,

Is aversion,

Not wanting something.

When you don't want something,

It hurts.

So then the aversion and ill will that arises inside our own body as an energy habit inside our own body,

As well as an idea towards our own body,

Blocks the arising of genuine Maita.

When loving kindness fills the body and you begin to accept your own body and become kind,

Have a kind energy towards yourself,

Towards your own matter,

A softness towards your own body,

Then pain doesn't arise so easily.

Even if pain does arise,

You accept it and receive it with Maita and there's no problem.

The problem only exists with aversion towards pain,

With ill will towards pain.

Because that's just an issue of the body coming up.

The aversion and ill will is the part that we struggle with,

The part we call Dukkha.

If you only have acceptance in Maita towards the issues of the body,

Then we wouldn't call it Dukkha.

We would just call it the body following its own function,

The body following its own laws,

Just the nature of the body.

When we practice like this,

We practice first Samatha and then Vipassana,

The two primary skills in the Buddha Dharma.

Samatha or the practice of Samadhi and resting the mind on a single object,

That single object in this instance was the quality of Maita,

The feeling of loving kindness in the body and in the mind,

Towards the body and saturating and filling the Jita.

And what is the Jita?

The Jita is when consciousness,

When Jhana mixes with mental formations,

Or when consciousness mixes with perceptions.

The known quality alone,

Consciousness alone,

We call Jhana or Vinyana.

It is not yet mind or Jita.

When the consciousness mixes with perceptions and mental formations,

We refer to it as Jita.

So that which is experienced in the mind as thought,

As feelings,

As emotions,

As memories,

As ideas,

As concepts,

Is all the Jita.

So we fill the Jita,

We point the Jita towards the quality of loving kindness until the Jita becomes still,

Until nothing else arises except the feeling of loving kindness.

The body is still,

Accepted and received in loving kindness,

And the mind is still,

Accepted,

Received and filled with loving kindness.

This is Samadhi.

Samadhi leads to pleasure here and now.

Pleasure here and now,

The ending of Dukkha here and now.

But it's not a permanent ending of Dukkha.

So why do we bother with it?

If that's the case,

Why don't we only do the Pasana which leads to the ultimate ending of Dukkha?

Because Samadhi and Samadhi have many great benefits.

They are a skillful means.

One of them is that through the practice of Samadhi,

In this instance on the quality of Mehta,

We're building the perfections,

We're building the paramitas.

Mehta is one of the ten paramitas which are a support on the path towards awakening.

When we build them,

It's like filling up,

Putting money in the bank and we get a storehouse of energy,

The paramita energy.

You build it,

You build it and you get a storehouse of energy.

That energy functions as karma and manifests in our lives.

So we use up that storehouse.

One of the great benefits of cultivating Samadhi on Mehta is that you're adding to the storehouse of paramitas.

You're adding to the Mehta storehouse.

So you use it,

We reap the benefits of our past karma of our paramitas all the time.

One of the benefits might be that we were born in wealth or that we achieve wealth in this life cycle.

A lot of people think that it's all from their doing,

That they're well educated,

Smart,

Hardworking and willful and then they can manifest wealth.

But their classmate who is just as smart,

Just as educated and just as hardworking goes through life and never gets anywhere.

That's because there's only Anatta,

Not self.

We can't will the way things will be.

There are other causes.

One of the other causes is our storehouse of perfection.

It's our storehouse of paramita energy which we use up.

So we're born in a wealthy privileged life and we go on into work and make more money.

So we're using up that energy which would be the energy caused from dana.

Dana is another one of the perfections.

Dana is generosity or giving.

Maita and dana often coexist.

One of the kindnesses,

A way to be kind to another being is to give.

So we develop the mental quality,

The feeling of Maita,

Of kindness and we carry out the action and we give to another being,

Cultivating dana.

So building more perfections.

And our past perfections support our life now but we use up the storehouse.

So you achieve,

You're wealthy and then you just indulge,

Indulge and live and live and never give anymore,

Never cultivate the perfections anymore and then all of a sudden it all runs out and you end up with nothing.

What happened?

I invested everything perfectly.

You're not refilling the storehouse.

So you have to keep building the perfections on and on and on.

Always build the perfections.

The 10 perfections,

Build it continuously in mind and body,

In concept,

In feeling and in function.

Not simply sitting down contemplating the idea or simply sitting down building the energy of the idea but also getting out there and doing the perfection.

Doing giving,

Giving donations,

Helping people that are underprivileged,

Giving your time,

Dana,

Paramita.

All the paramitas that are divided into three levels.

The first level being outer,

Outer giving,

Giving of money or projection of mejna.

All the perfections are cultivated first,

Outer.

The second level being of your body or of yourself,

Giving your time,

Giving your blood,

Giving your endurance,

Your own suffering,

Giving limb,

Giving organ.

The second level.

The third level,

Paramata,

Paramita,

The highest level,

The perfected level is giving your life.

So the life,

You're maintaining mejna even towards somebody as they beat you to death,

For example.

Receiving a beating like Maha Moggallana was beaten to death due to past karma that only had mejna towards the people that were beating him as it was happening.

That is paramata,

Mejna,

Paramita,

The highest level of the perfection of mejna.

Outside of the body and all the way to death or to life.

In the ending of your life or cultivating it from now until you die for your life span.

Cultivating the parameters in this way builds the storehouse.

That storehouse feeds back into our practice and our samadhi deepens.

Our shamata becomes deep,

Becomes samadhi.

Samadhi manifests,

It builds,

It gives us the mental power to cultivate and to build the perfections more and more.

So it's a cycle of growth,

A cycle towards enlightenment.

That's why the perfections are called the support of enlightenment.

But if we just use up our past storehouse,

It's like somebody that doesn't work and just spends and spends and spends and well in the end they'd go broke.

Broke of perfections.

So you're educated,

You have your degrees,

Your position,

You work 48 hours a day.

You go hard but you never get anywhere.

We don't have the bun,

The perfections aren't supporting us,

The merit is not there.

All beings are not equal.

It's up to us what we build.

It's up to us what we build.

We build the perfections continuously.

Giving hudana,

Generosity is easy to begin to cultivate.

Simply do it.

You see somebody in need,

Simply give.

Give your time,

Give your money,

Give your sweat,

Whatever it takes.

Give and let go.

Give and let go.

That's the first perfection.

The second perfection is seelah.

Seelah is our conduct,

Often described as virtue or restraint.

The way you restrain your behavior is seelah.

One example of seelah is not taking life.

The first level of course is not taking life.

The second level is not taking life even when you're directly under threat,

Under harm.

Somebody is harming you,

Harming your loved ones,

Taking your wealth but you still do not break the perfection.

You don't take life.

And the baramata,

The final level of course is even if somebody kills you,

You refuse to take life to defend yourself.

Keeping the seelah until death no matter what.

This is the correct cultivation of seelah.

Renunciation is the third perfection,

Letting go,

Letting go.

The essence of the path is nothing but letting go.

If we go back to the first perfection of giving,

What's giving?

Letting go.

Renouncing something.

What is seelah?

Letting go.

Letting go of negative qualities.

Restraining yourself from acting in negative and evil ways.

And the third perfection is renunciation itself.

Cultivating the perfections to build the storehouse,

Build an energy to support your practice.

To support your practice.

There are ten perfections which becomes the thirty paramitas,

Three levels for each.

But in the practice we sit down and we practice shamatha,

Rest the mind,

Saturate the body with metta,

Notice pain disappears,

The softness arises,

The body becomes light.

It's pleasant to abide in the body saturated with metta.

When you have kindness towards your body,

It's a pleasant place to be.

The body stops fighting you,

The body stops hurting,

It becomes a pleasant abiding.

Then you fill the mind.

The mind becomes a pleasant abiding.

For yourself and radiates out towards those around you.

Cultivating the perfection through shamatha.

But still this only is a support that leads to the heavenly path,

The heavenly plane.

You want to become super mundane,

Transcendent,

Above the world,

Beyond the world.

The path to that is in vipassana,

Not in shamatha.

So we have to break through from shamatha,

Break through from the mind to awareness itself,

To jnana,

To the empty knowing quality.

The empty knowing begins to know the mind is saturated with metta.

There is metta.

The loving kindness is infinite in all directions,

But there's nobody there being kind.

The awareness is simply empty,

Clear and pure.

That's all it is.

Empty,

Clear and pure.

The awareness is not metta.

The awareness does not have kindness.

That is the jitta.

The jitta has kindness.

The jitta has kindness towards the body.

There's a separation,

The object being the body or others.

The doer,

Which has the metta being the jitta,

The perception of metta,

The fabrication of metta,

The feeling of metta,

And the knower which experiences,

Which only knows,

Which is empty and knowing,

Which is non-dualistic,

Cannot fall in or out of metta.

Seeing the separation,

Not identifying with the body which is pleasant from metta,

Not identifying with the mind which is saturated with metta,

Knowing they are not self,

Knowing that they are changing dependent on causes and conditions,

Anatta not self.

Recognizing the space between mind and awareness is vipassana.

Vipassana is the direct path to awakening,

The direct path.

Cultivate,

Seela,

Sit down,

Calm the mind,

Restrain the senses.

This is seela.

Samadhi,

Resting the mind,

Shamatha,

Focusing the mind on the single object.

Because the mind is focused,

It's restrained.

It is seela.

Samadhi grows out of seela and cultivates the perfections,

Metta,

Having the ability to focus to keep the mind on track.

Seeing that both body and mind are not self or anatta,

Are impermanent,

That they are changing,

That they are dependent,

They are co-arisen,

They depend on causes and conditions and therefore they will fall away,

Therefore they will dissolve,

Therefore they are a cause of suffering is vipassana.

Not identifying with them is insight.

Liberation,

Being free,

Being unbound from mind and body,

Is vipassana.

Seela,

Samadhi and panya,

Panya,

Transcendental wisdom,

Is another one of the perfections.

So we cultivate,

Metta and then panya,

In one sit,

Two of the perfections.

Every shamatha sit,

You should strive to break through to vipassana,

Because vipassana leads to the cessation of suffering here and now.

Shamatha is a skillful means,

It's pleasant.

Now,

But it is very dependent.

Example,

If it's extremely noisy,

Shamatha doesn't work.

You can't sit with the rock music in the background.

Shamatha is dependent on time.

I'm going to do shamatha at 1 pm,

Then 1 pm comes around,

It's really hot,

Maybe I'll wait till 9 pm.

You plan for your second shamatha session at 9 pm.

Now I'm too tired,

I'll go to sleep,

I'll practice at 6 am.

Shamatha is dependent on cause and condition,

Dependent on time,

And therefore it falls away.

It's difficult to cultivate,

It's difficult to maintain.

Vipassana dha yang,

The knowing eye,

The eye that knows clearly the way things are,

Knows dukkha,

Knows anitra,

Knows not self,

Sees suffering,

Sees impermanence,

Sees not self,

Sees anitra,

Breaks through into emptiness,

Is akaliko,

It is timeless,

It is here all the time.

Walking you know,

Sitting you know,

Lying down you know.

There is no time.

The rock music plays,

You know there is rock music,

Let go and be free.

In tiredness there is knowing.

When it's hot,

It's too hot to do shamatha,

I'm really hot,

That's lokaya,

Stuck in the world,

The way of the world,

And I am hot.

Vipassana knowing,

Separating the knowing from the qualities in the mind and body,

There is still hot,

There's hot,

But there's nobody that's hot,

Lakuttara.

Free from the world,

Transcendental from the world,

The path towards nibbana,

Separation between mind and body,

And between knowing and mind.

It doesn't mean you don't get hot,

There's still hot,

But there's nobody that's hot,

There's no problem,

There's no suffering,

Vipassana.

Release relinquished suffering now,

Extinguish suffering in the here and now,

Vipassana.

Suppress suffering by stilling the body and stilling the mind,

Ensuring a passage of time which is peaceful in the here and now,

Shamatha.

Shamatha,

Dependent on causes and conditions,

Dependent on the quiet,

Dependent on the singleness of mind,

Dependent on the quality of the breath,

Dependent on such things,

Dependent on your peaceful surrounding,

Shamatha.

Fabricated by will,

Fabricated by the jitta,

Dependent on the jitta,

It is peace in the jitta,

Peace away from the movement of the jitta even,

The tranquility away from the movement of the jitta,

The stillness is shamatha,

Is samadhi.

Vipassana is the tranquility away,

Removed from kalashas,

Not away from the jitta.

The jitta and the body still function,

We can walk,

Talk,

Speak,

Do whatever we will and still be practicing knowing,

Recognizing,

Letting go into emptiness,

Vipassana.

It's timeless in this way,

In this way it can be practiced at any time.

So it doesn't cause problems,

Shamatha can cause problems,

You go home and you're really strict,

I'm going to practice now,

One hour every night,

I'm a good practitioner so you sit one hour every night.

But your partner gets bored and lonely,

What's wrong with him?

He just sits staring at the wall for an hour every night,

So shamatha can even cause problems in the household.

Shamatha can be seen from the outside,

It can be destroyed,

People can break it down,

People can judge it,

Oh he's introverted,

Oh he's only thinking about himself,

Cultivating peace for himself,

Just a meditator caught in the psychological shamatha has errors,

It can be blamed.

Vipassana has no shape,

Has no form,

Has no time,

It's internal,

Can be practiced at any time,

Nobody can take it away from you,

No matter how difficult they make it for you,

No matter what situation you're in,

Vipassana is timeless,

It's at hand,

It can be done here and now.

It is to be known and experienced by the wise directly,

The direct extinguishing of dukkha through vipassana.

In the formal practice,

Sila samadhi panya,

Sitting down restraining the self,

Becoming still,

Focusing the mind samadhi,

Breaking through the recognized anatana-self panya,

Transcendental wisdom vipassana,

Cultivating the perfections,

Sila,

Cultivating metta,

Cultivating panya,

The storehouse feeding back into our practice,

Supporting our practice,

Giving us more power,

More mental power,

More physical power,

More pleasure in the here and now.

But don't use it up,

Keep replenishing the storehouse.

Don't think I'm lucky,

I'm of noble birth,

I'm blessed,

And use it up,

Use up your talent,

Use up your health,

Use up your wealth until there's nothing in this life cycle or the next.

Keep cultivating,

Keep cultivating,

Keep building here and now.

You achieve ten,

Give back one,

You achieve a hundred,

Give back ten.

Keep refilling,

Keep refilling,

Keep filling,

Keep filling,

Keep cultivating until you're full of merit,

Full of the perfections,

The perfections which support you,

Support your sila,

Support your samadhi,

Support your panya,

Breaking through to vipassana,

Anata,

Sunyata,

Emptiness through to nibbana,

Unbound from mind and body,

Unbound from mind and body,

Unbound the extinguishing of dukkha,

Nibbana.

But that doesn't happen all at once,

That's why we keep cultivating the perfections.

They are our boat,

Our support to help us cross the river of suffering.

Often people don't know,

They question how do we practice in daily life,

The saying in daily life,

Which really means off the mat.

How do you take your practice off the mat?

The perfections are how you take the practice off the mat.

Learn them,

Know them and cultivate the three levels of the perfections.

The better you can cultivate them,

The more your storehouse,

The richer you become rich with paramitas,

Rich with perfections.

If you can choose rich with material wealth or rich with perfections,

Rich with perfections is much better.

The perfections will give you whatever you want in life.

Somebody that's cultivated the perfections to a high degree is somebody that we consider quite perfected.

Everything they do they're skillful at.

The timing is always right,

The support is always there.

They try something new,

They can work it out quickly,

They're intelligent,

Talented,

Coordinated.

The perfections support their practice,

Support their life.

So there's no loss.

The time and effort,

The giving,

Giving outside,

Giving of body,

Giving of life in the perfections only leads to benefit for oneself.

Until you realize completely and separate completely and achieve arahant completely separated from the delusion of self of the khandhas of body and mind,

We need the support of the perfections.

Cultivated through the three pillars of Buddha Dharma.

Siva samadhi panya.

Reviews

Adam Mizner explains complex ideas in a way that are easily understood.

This was a really good learning tool for me.
Thank you.