Pāramitā (Perfections) Challenge (Month 5 - January 2022)

Meditation, concentration, contemplation, intoxicating substances, cravings, awakening, wisdom, and future Buddhahood round out the main topics for January 2022, month five of “The Pāramitā Challenge”

Transcript

Welcome to Month 5 of the Paramita Challenge for January 2022.

This one deals with Right Concentration for the first week from SN 45.

8.

And what is Right Concentration?

There is a case where a monk,

Quite withdrawn from sensuality,

Withdrawn from unskillful mental quality,

Enters and remains in the first jhana,

Rapture and pleasure,

Born from withdrawal,

Accompanied by directed thought and evaluation.

With the stilling of directed thoughts and evaluation,

He enters and remains in the second jhana,

Rapture and pleasure,

Born of composure,

Unification of awareness,

Free from directed thought and evaluation,

Internal assurance.

With the fading of rapture,

He remains equanimous,

Mindful and alert,

And senses pleasure with the body.

He enters and remains in the third jhana,

Of which the noble ones declare,

Equanimous and mindful he is.

Equanimous and mindful,

He has a pleasant abiding.

With the abandoning of pleasure and pain,

As with the earlier disappearance of elation and distress,

He enters and remains in the fourth jhana,

Purity of equanimity and mindfulness,

Neither pleasure nor pain.

This is called Right Concentration.

So for the first week of this month,

As from the ten paramitas in the doctrine of mere consciousness,

Are also translated as discourse on the perfection of consciousness only.

Number five,

Meditation and contemplation.

And the commentary says,

Meditation is of three kinds,

Meditation leading to samadhi,

Meditation leading to the unfoldment of supernatural powers,

And three,

Meditation leading to the successful accomplishment of great tasks.

So it's interesting,

I find that these are condensed into these three categories.

The first one leading to samadhi,

Which the above reading jhana is more of an absorption state,

And samadhi is kind of like the outcome of this.

Or all the jhanas could be lumped under samadhi perhaps,

Interpreted in different ways,

Like samatha is a practice that leads to samadhi.

And of course in this description,

It doesn't distinguish right samadhi from samadhi that's not right,

Or right concentration from wrong concentration.

But with that inclusion of right samadhi,

Right concentration,

That one I'm pretty much in agreement with.

Number two,

Meditation leading to the unfoldment of supernatural powers.

Out of all the different things meditation can be used for,

It's interesting how that one has its own category.

And today's standard,

Most people would consider that superstitious,

Or folklore,

Wise tale,

Or legends,

Mythology.

I'm going to have to disagree with the purely scientific standard that's been set on that,

Which takes anything that it can't explain off the table pretty much,

But we'll just leave it at that for now.

And number three,

Meditation leading to the successful accomplishment of great tasks.

I think that pretty much can lump everything else together under that I guess,

But it's really pretty vague.

I mean what is a great task to begin with?

I mean should we just be doing meditation for another task,

Like tying your shoes,

Brushing your teeth?

And what makes a task great?

Wouldn't that vary from person to person?

And this notion of accomplishment,

Well most things in life,

It's ongoing and there's really no completion to a lot of things in one way.

At least overall.

I mean one completion of one task might open up something that needs to be done with another task and vice versa.

Or something might need maintaining what we once thought was a complete task.

But anyway,

So here's some other things that I feel meditation and contemplation can be used for.

The first and foremost is truth.

So being able to better see and know,

Distinguish truth,

Discriminate what's true and what's not,

Discern what's true and what's not.

Especially the four noble truths,

The truths of the four noble truths,

The truth part of them.

Suffering,

The cause of suffering,

That cessation of suffering is possible and then the way leading towards that cessation.

Again we can use meditation to see and know things.

It's kind of like maybe more drilling down on what truth is when we can see and know it.

Investigation,

So we can use contemplation and meditation to investigate certain things.

Or a line of questioning,

Inquiry,

Just digging into causes and conditions of things.

Consciousness exploration,

Some people use meditation to explore consciousness.

And then we have mundane things like relaxation,

Calm,

Some people meditate for a cognitive advantage or for therapeutic reasons,

Therapy,

Health,

Pleasantness.

Maybe people meditate just out of curiosity to see what it's about.

Some people use it as a space for visualization.

Some people meditate to invite more balance and well-being into their lives.

Some people would even do it for a silly purpose of wanting to make an impression on someone just like just about anything else in life.

Some people have a devotion to it and use it as a healing modality.

So there's just a few other things that meditation and contemplation can be used for.

I guess you could lump some of those under samadhi or successful accomplishment of great task.

But there it is.

And that's week one,

Month five.

Week two of month five of the Paramita Challenge,

January 2022.

This is from the six perfections and their subdivisions from the Sutra on Understanding the Profound and Esoteric Doctrine.

Number five,

Meditation slash concentration.

The three subdivisions are meditation of abiding and happiness,

Which counteracts all the suffering of passion because it is non discriminative,

Tranquil,

Very tranquil and irreproachable.

Second one is the meditation that engenders functions and virtues.

Three,

Meditation that engenders benefit for sentient beings.

So I guess we'll start at the first one here.

Meditation of abiding and happiness,

Which counteracts all the suffering of passion because it is non discriminative,

Tranquil,

Very tranquil and irreproachable.

So obviously,

Abiding and happiness is a wonderful thing.

But what about those times when it doesn't really seem possible to abide in happiness?

Then what?

Well,

Can we even look at that as an opportunity to have a better knowing and understanding of happiness and the suffering of passion?

Not too fond of this either.

Just on a technical note that,

Well,

What about passion for the Dhamma,

Passion for meditation and concentration?

What about wholesome desires and then non discriminative?

Well,

Actually,

We need discrimination in the sense of discernment to be able to tell what is even happiness and what's not happiness.

What's passion?

What's not passion?

And tranquility is a very admirable quality as long as it's balanced and not overly tranquil,

Docile when efforts needed and irreproachable almost seems like in.

I'll just leave that for now.

Speak to that so much.

But the point here being if we're happy and we're in happiness,

Then there's really no need to chase our tail.

Chase tail too,

For some,

I suppose,

Looking to gratify certain urges when beings oftentimes think that one thing will make them happy,

But they're actually doing things that are completely counter to their happiness.

So number two,

The meditation that engenders functions and virtues.

Here's this word engender again.

So functions and virtues.

It seems like virtues are included in precepts.

Sila,

Samadhi,

Panya.

Sila being ethics.

Ethics seem more foundational than meditation bringing about ethics,

Although they can for me personally.

I wasn't really even able to see my non ethical conduct and that from others even until I started meditation.

At least see it where it really struck a chord and resonated,

Connected all the dots and knew the impact and seeing and knowing that ethics are for our happiness,

Not our constraint.

Constraint in and of itself for constraints sake.

In functions,

I think most meditation has some kind of function,

But what kind of function is it bringing about or not bringing about?

What counter function does it have?

Surely most everything is done for a reason.

Meditation's exception.

So meditation that engenders benefits for sentient beings.

This is pretty much straightforward.

However,

It seems like benefits and wanting to help other people.

I don't know what so much that has to do with meditation.

Specifically,

It's an aid in being of benefit to sentient beings,

But meditation bringing about that in and of itself.

I think maybe meditation can allow us to see the truth more clearly and seeing that once our needs are taken care of and that we're all interconnected,

That it just makes sense to then be of benefit to sentient beings.

And this would just happen naturally in most kinds of meditations,

I suppose,

Unless you're doing some kind of dark sorcery or service to self practices.

And that's week two of month five of the Paramita Challenge.

This is week three of the Paramita Challenge for month five,

January 2022.

This week deals with intoxicants,

Including alcoholic beverages,

Recreational drugs.

From the 58 bodhisattva vows,

Number five,

Don't sell or consume alcoholic beverages or other recreational drugs.

If you yourself sell alcohol or you encourage others to do so,

Then herein are the causes of selling alcohol,

The conditions for selling alcohol,

The methods of selling alcohol,

The act of selling alcohol.

All kinds of alcohol should not be sold as consumption of alcohol leads to the commission of other crimes.

Instead,

Bodhisattva should give rise to penetrating wisdom and all sentient beings.

If on the other hand,

They lead sentient beings into distorted states of mind by selling them alcohol.

This is a bodhisattva rajjika offense.

So it's different than the fifth lay precept of I undertake the training rule to abstain from alcoholic drink or drugs that are an opportunity for heedlessness.

It's interesting that it's an opportunity for heedlessness.

It's presumed that the bottom.

So there's some commentary here about the fine line between medication and recreational use.

I'll come back to that.

And this is an interesting thing from the Chinese Agama da 16.

Also single low with a suit.

My Sanskrit's pretty poor discourse to single Chinese Buddhism argues the reasoning for non intoxicating,

Non intoxication based on the loss of reputation.

The commentary on the five signs of decay is applicable to one who transgresses the precepts of five signs are listed as a following one,

Although they seek wealth,

It does not come to them to although they get something they wasted.

Three,

They are not respected by their social group for they they're bad reputation spreads five when they die,

They enter the hells.

So and this is commentary on the fifth precept from the Brahman at Sutra.

Actually,

I'll just read this Sutra and not the commentary.

So I'll just jump right into my own personal experience with this.

I started drinking alcohol before it was even legal.

So that was not so good.

I won't go into details beyond that,

Other than to say I quit drinking in 2013.

It used to be the guy who would go out and be able to drink all night and then tell other people what they did when they blacked out.

I'd wake up most times without any kind of hangover.

And so there wasn't much incentive to stop drinking.

And it was in certain cultures and that I was in part of the culture of the people I hung out with.

Very accepted.

There's a big brewery here in town.

It was Anheuser-Busch now in Bev.

It just kind of built into the culture where I grew up,

Where I've lived in Missouri.

When I finally got into meditation,

Though,

It didn't take too long,

Probably less than a year,

Before just drinking one beer,

I started to get hungover for almost a whole day,

Sometimes even longer than that,

Just from a single beer.

I mean,

It was wild how much it changed.

So I'm like,

What is the point of this?

Why even bother?

So I just quit.

Now going back to some things I want to address in this.

It does seem like selling alcoholic beverages and consuming,

You know,

There's this whole thing like,

Well,

You know,

Well,

Drug dealers,

They're the one that should get more time in jail.

But if there wasn't a demand for the drugs,

Then wouldn't they even be around to sell the drugs?

So it's all kind of interdependent.

And then you have the whole kind of culture and society built around this,

You know.

Well,

Do you attend an event that's been sponsored by alcohol or drug money?

Or what about the hidden money laundering around drugs and alcohol?

Probably not alcohol so much since it's illegal,

Which doesn't really seem to make it much better.

And,

You know,

Alcohol by itself isn't,

There's nothing really wrong in and of itself that I know of.

It's just that other than it leads to,

It makes the other precepts more likely to be broken.

Like,

I'm sure we've all been around somebody that's had a few too many drinks,

And they'll probably say something they're horrified at,

Mortified when they're sober,

Right?

Or they might engage in certain behaviors,

Lying,

Stealing,

Cheating,

Misusing sexual energy,

Just on and on,

Right?

Harming,

Physical,

Mental,

Emotional.

For some reason,

It just seems more likely when alcohol's thrown in the mix.

For some people,

Though,

It helps them unwind at least a little bit in the short term.

But then where does that leave in the long term,

You know?

Do they need more and more?

Do they start getting into this thing like,

Oh,

I can just have one,

And then some people can't have one,

But then there's people social drinking,

And you can have one,

But if you start drinking with them,

Well,

They can't have one.

They have to have more and more and more.

But then there's the opposite thing of like you go to a cocktail party and you're not drinking,

Right?

Or you go around people and sometimes they're like,

What's wrong with you?

Why aren't you drinking?

So that's another interesting dynamic with this.

So the medicinal use of alcohol and certain substances,

Chemical substances,

Substances that are designed and created for therapeutic use,

You know,

This is a whole huge rabbit hole.

Some of these pharmaceutical drugs have therapeutic use,

Great therapeutic use.

A lot of them have side effects,

Too,

That lead on to other being prescribed other drugs.

Some are good short term,

But not long term.

And then you get into the hallucinogenic drugs that are now being considered for therapeutic use by licensed physicians.

You know,

It's interesting because it used to be certain shamans would administer these drugs because they would spend their whole life engaging in ceremony and study and administering these psychedelics to people who needed treatment for various things.

And now they're considering,

I guess,

Letting medical doctors prescribe these for therapeutic means.

And I wonder what kind of training is involved in that and how that would compare to,

Say,

A shaman.

There's a lot that goes into it.

And we get something as simple as,

Or maybe not as,

Cannabis and certain people's reactions to it and certain people's response,

Therapeutic responses to it.

Got different legalities around that,

Obviously,

We all know this.

So lots of research and study recommend.

And then paying attention to one's own experience on and off these if they're being prescribed or looking into as alternatives.

So many studies to consult,

So many experts to consult and talk to.

But don't overlook your own experience when and if these come into play,

Looking for markers and reference points within one's own use.

And then also it depends on certain causes and conditions throughout one's life,

Where one substance at one point in life might have had a different effect then compared to maybe 20,

30 years later when certain things have changed fairly significantly.

The easy guideline though is if you do not need these or can abstain from them,

Then it's easier just to put them aside unless this is a really interesting topic to jump into and study for one.

There's really some clear-cut substances that really have no beneficial use whatsoever.

That's pretty easy.

And the alcohol thing,

If you don't see it as an issue for one's spiritual practice,

Then there's probably a lot less likely chance that you'll even consider stopping alcohol.

But if you can see,

Or when you see and know it for yourself,

Then it's an easier choice to make.

Of course,

Meditation helps a lot with that.

But at the very least,

Just considering the fact that,

Hey,

Maybe down the road I might be open to abstaining from alcohol and seeing what the effects might be like on my spiritual practice,

My obtainment of knowledge and wisdom,

Progress,

My long-term happiness,

And the long-term happiness of others.

And you just have to try it out for yourself,

But it seems like that initial kernel of curiosity or faith needs to be present for such a chance like that to even occur down the road.

And that's month five of the Paramita Challenge,

Week three,

January 2022.

Week four of month five of the Paramita Challenge for January 2022.

This is from the 50's to Bodhisattva stages.

The ten abodes,

Stages eleven through twenty.

Focus on stages eight through ten.

So I don't know the numbering there,

What's going on,

But anyway.

Number eight,

The abode of the true child.

Number nine,

The abode of the Dharma Prince.

Number ten,

The abode of illustration.

So number eight,

The abode of the true child.

We abide in being born into the Buddha family,

Letting go of worldly cravings.

And instead we abide where deluded views do not arise and where awakening does not cease.

Number nine,

The abode of the Dharma Prince.

We abide in producing wisdom in accordance with the Buddha's teachings and being assured of becoming a Buddha in the future.

Number ten,

The abode of illustration.

We abide in being able to view the principles of signlessness and emptiness.

So number eight,

The abode of the true child.

Abiding in being born into the Buddha family,

Letting go of worldly cravings.

And instead we abide where deluded views do not arise and where awakening does not cease.

It's actually quite beautiful.

Awakening does not cease.

It's awakening upon awakening.

So being born into a Buddha family,

This is a first I've heard of that term.

It's quite lovely too,

Without having any real idea what this means since I've never heard it before.

And that to me would mean wherever one takes birth,

There's interest in the Buddha at least.

If not full awakening,

Realizing full awakening and Buddhahood,

The path to get there.

So this would also mean,

To me,

Associating with like minds,

Immersion into truth and the culture around truth and reality and also around the heart qualities,

Kindness,

Compassion,

Rejoicing,

Inequanimity,

Wisdom,

These things leading to release.

So letting go of worldly cravings,

That's pretty obvious,

Right?

We think we get something that will satisfy our sense desires and then,

You know,

There's a type of happiness in that,

But where does it end?

It just goes on and on and on.

And you know what happens when we can't get it?

And we do things to get more things satiated and sometimes not for our own benefit in others.

But then beating ourselves up over this fact isn't going to help much either.

It needs to be strategy and lots of love involved,

Lots of kindness and compassion towards ourselves and others.

Seeing the world suffer in this way or seeing only the minuscule happiness that things involved with worldly cravings can bring compared to the beautiful fruit of the Dharma,

The Buddha Dharma,

Truth and reality.

And instead we abide where deluded views do not arise and where awakening does not cease.

Well,

The deluded views,

There are plenty of those and I'm no exception for that.

This is where wisdom comes in and discernment to know what view is going to lead towards our happiness and others happiness in the long term and what's not.

This is where teachers and friends can come in to give a check to this.

Study and practice of course can develop right view,

Right view at the start and then along the path,

All the other path factors informing right view.

So I don't know what stage it's going to be when deluded views don't arise.

I mean a deluded view can arise and we can know it and not have to give it any more energy,

Power,

Credence beyond that.

It's really when we don't see the deluded views that it becomes a problem.

But then again,

If we see a view and know it's deluded,

Then that's more right view than it is wrong view.

So the big question on that is how?

How do we abide where deluded views do not arise?

Closest thing I could come up with right now would be immersing yourself in a Sangha,

Which is not just practitioners who are interested in the same type of things as these,

But also in the kindness and the fruit of our practice and the heart qualities that we can show ourselves and others,

Or even just the intent of that to begin with.

But of course,

Intent is not enough on its own.

Right thought,

Right speech,

Right action have to follow through with that.

Otherwise,

It's just right intent or maybe not even,

I don't know.

Where awakening does not cease,

Abiding where awakening does not cease.

So awakening may be into higher and higher levels,

Deeper and deeper levels,

Broader and broader levels,

More expanded and expanded levels of awakening.

And of course,

This word is being used a lot now.

Obviously,

It's like a dream.

A dream might seem so real,

But then when we wake up out of it,

We realize that that was a different state of consciousness,

A different,

Something different from waking consciousness.

And so there's the possibility to awaken within the dream as well.

Lucidity throughout every moment and greater and greater lucidity ongoing.

Number nine,

The abode of the Dharma Prince.

This is the first I've heard of this term,

Dharma Prince.

We abide in producing wisdom in accordance with the Buddha's teaching and being assured of becoming a Buddha in the future.

So this is not like being promised eternal life in heaven.

To me,

This means the end part of this being assured of becoming a Buddha in the future ties in with this thing of Buddha nature.

So given,

You know,

I guess it has to be hypothetically here speaking,

That given the process of rebirth,

You have to just consider that for hypothetical postulations,

That if there's rebirth of sorts,

Then eventually after eons and eons of time,

Statistically speaking,

Given one doesn't go into a false system or a false cycle or devastation,

Then the longer time goes on,

The greater chance of becoming a Buddha if on the path,

Right?

Realizing full,

Complete,

Total awakening.

We look at the Jataka tales of the Buddha's past lives,

Eons and eons,

But if there is no discernible beginning,

No discernible end,

Two cycles of time,

Then that plays a huge role in this and also answers a bunch of metaphysical questions,

Or not answers them,

But kind of puts them to rest.

Then back to the first part of this,

We abide in producing wisdom in accordance with the Buddha's teaching.

It's interesting,

Abiding in producing the wisdom.

So this implies like an activity,

Something that has to be done in accordance with the Buddha's teachings,

Wisdom.

So it's interesting,

I guess wisdom is not just wisdom,

I don't know.

I would like examples of wisdom that aren't in accordance with the Buddha's teaching.

I guess maybe if you're considering wisdom like something like wise guys in the mafia or something,

I don't really consider that wisdom,

Being a wise guy.

But what does that mean?

What are you wise about?

Wisdom,

As far as I know,

Is information into knowledge and then using knowledge in one's life to know for oneself the application of knowledge.

And of course,

This is where it needs to be balanced with the heart qualities otherwise.

Wisdom can get cold,

Hard,

Brittle,

Even if we know that when we're wise,

We help not ourselves,

But others as well.

Not only ourselves,

I mean.

Wisdom is the antidote to ignorance,

Where this whole mess is a mess.

So number 10,

The abode of lustration.

We abide in being able to view the principles of signlessness and emptiness.

It's interesting here,

This word lustration doesn't happen too much.

It's even,

Looking it up here,

It says,

So it's interesting this is used in the context of Buddhism,

Even though the Buddha redefined certain terms of his day.

Another word here I don't hear very often,

Expiatory.

We abide in being able to view the principles of signlessness and emptiness.

So these have been talked about on the last month's Parameeta Challenge,

So if you haven't listened to that,

You can go back and listen to that.

But basically,

Signlessness is the gate of liberation to the first mark of existence,

First characteristic of existence.

And that is Anicca,

I like the translation of inconstancy,

That in the long run nothing will stay constant.

And emptiness is the liberation gate of not-self.

So it's a very complex teaching that I don't need to go into here.

And I went into depth on emptiness in the last month,

Like I say.

But just really briefly here,

We abide in being able to view the principles.

So this is just being able to view the principles in being there.

So it doesn't say there's really an understanding or a realization or even abiding in those,

But just the ability to view the principles.

So are the principles different than signlessness itself and emptiness itself?

Is there anything in addition to the principles of these things?

And are there other ways to approach the principles than viewing them?

Kind of nitpicky points here.

Oh,

And then the ability.

So,

You know,

Can there just be a realization without an ability?

Or does ability need to be ongoing once realization has been complete and finalized?

I don't know the answer to any of these.

I don't even know if they're worth asking,

But there they are.

And of course,

You know,

What are these principles of signlessness and emptiness?

They're liberating.

Is there a tendency towards one over the other?

And the third one missing here is wishlessness.

I think that's going to do it for this month,

January 2022,

The fifth month of the Paramita Challenge.