The Hindrances - Craving

This is a talk given by Lloyd to the Insight Community of Denver, Colorado on The Hindrance, Craving. In the Buddhist tradition, the five hindrances are identified as mental factors that hinder progress in meditation and in our daily lives.

Transcript

Weird?

Does it sound weird?

Is that okay?

Maybe it's Katherine.

I'm weird.

Okay.

So let me take just a few moments to kind of recap some of what we've covered up until now and then go on this evening and talk about unrequited desire for evening.

So we're looking at these two sets of teachings in companionship with each other.

One is called the personality types or tendencies,

And that's a teaching that's found in the Vasudhi Manga which was created by these monks in Sri Lanka about a thousand years after the Buddha passed away.

It's kind of a user's guide to the Pali Canon.

It's kind of a compendium of their experience over time.

One of the things that they noticed over time is that this teaching,

One of the Buddha's core teachings about the sources of suffering in the mind,

The tendencies in the mind toward greed,

Hate,

And delusion,

That as those patterns become ingrained in one's consciousness over the course of a lifetime,

They begin to form patterns of reactivity.

And that depending on what your life experience has been and perhaps genetic predilection or whatever that one or another of those torments of the mind or poisons as they're sometimes called,

Will tend to be dominant.

Whether it happens to be aversion,

You know,

Continuously thrusting away that which you do not want that is part of your existence,

Or whether it might be craving and greed.

Okay.

And,

Okay,

Much worse now than it was.

So,

Who knows?

We'll keep going.

I will have to make my peace with this thing.

So,

Right,

That's something I don't want to be like it is when it makes that kind of noise.

Yes.

Greed or craving,

You know,

Whereas the first is wanting something to go away that's in your environment that you don't like.

Craving is wanting something that you don't have.

Sometimes I like to watch the weather,

It's probably my favorite part of the news,

Because it's the most predictable.

So,

If you look at the weather,

The maps and whatnot,

If you see like a high pressure zone,

You know,

It's turning clockwise and it's thrusting winds out in all directions and whatnot,

That's kind of like the aversive personality,

Right?

It's pushing things away.

Whereas the greedy type or the,

You know,

The craving type of personality is like a low pressure zone,

Where it's counterclockwise kind of sinkhole,

It's pulling,

Always trying to pull things in from the outside,

Never getting enough.

And then the deluded mind is kind of like the doldrums,

Right?

So,

These monks in the Vasudhi Manga,

They said,

Well,

You know,

If indeed,

You know,

These patterns begin to emerge,

The kind of simile that I use from modern times,

That some of you have probably heard me rely on before,

Is like a jazz combo,

You know,

And a jazz trio will be put together by,

You know,

One like Oscar Peters,

Meridiana Crowell or somebody like that,

You know,

And they're the person that kind of organizes the music and they usually take the lead,

But the other members of the combo from time to time play long riffs as well.

And so,

The teaching of personality types is basically a way to think about or conceptualize,

Maybe develop some insights into your personal predilections.

Okay.

So,

It's like,

Who's the leader of your band?

You know,

Who's running your,

Who's the lead player in your trio?

Is it aversion?

Is it attachment?

Is it delusion?

Okay.

Doesn't mean that the other two side men or women aren't going to play riffs every now and then.

It's just that for the most part,

You tend to revert.

Your default option tends to be one of those three.

The,

And it can be a useful construct as long as you don't get carried away with it.

There's this tendency,

You know,

To kind of identify with whatever's going on in mind.

So,

You get,

Oh,

I'm a greedy type or I'm an aversive type or whatever.

And the more skillful way to understand this teaching is it is kind of a predilection.

It's a tendency that is a product of our karma.

You know,

Our wiring plus our experience that tends for us to kind of respond in certain ways.

And so,

It can be used skillfully if you just use it to reflect upon how it is,

Or what are the lenses through which you happen to be seeing the world and interacting with the world.

In some instances,

You'll find much dearer to life than none of these seems to be particularly strong.

And it feels to you like you have a relatively clear vision of what's going on around you.

Okay.

Other times,

Not so much.

You know,

In the classic teachings,

Like for instance,

The Thai meditation master,

Forest meditation master Ajahn Chah,

You know,

Used to use the simile of the mind as a clear forest pool.

And then these classic forms of disturbance of the pool,

Anger,

Is like if the water in the pool is boiling instead of being clear.

Greed and craving are as if a brightly colored dye was poured into the water.

So you're seeing through this haze of desire.

You know,

You're always getting the environment for what you want but don't have.

You know,

Where there's a gratification of the senses and kind of the immediate sense,

More broadly can be understood as wanting the perfect job or the right relationship or more money.

Anything that you really want that you don't have that you are convinced that your life will not be complete without.

So that's the nature of the craving mind.

Somebody really wants me to go online with the password and the process they've done in my document.

Hang on just a second here.

So these hindrances that can arise,

If they're really strong,

Mindfulness is out the window.

There's no concentration.

There's no ability to do anything other than be absorbed in that in the mind state,

Whether it's the aversive state or the craving state or the dull state or the anxious and worried state or the doubting mind.

The antidote for all of those,

For all of them,

Is mindfulness,

Is simply being able to see what's going on.

It's viewing the pool and saying,

Oh,

It's turbid,

Oh,

It's grown over with algae,

You know,

The sloth and torpor,

You know,

Bubbling or are there strong winds that are rippling over the surface,

You know,

The nature of anxiety.

So first simply being able to recognize whatever lens that you're looking at the world through is really important.

For me,

It's also helpful from time to time to throw in this other teaching that is related,

Of course,

Everything that Buddha ever taught is related to everything else,

But some it's easier to see some connections more than others.

In classic Buddha Dharma,

There is this teaching about realms of existence,

You know,

In the full-blown kind of fully articulated system,

There are like 31 different hierarchical realms of existence.

And in the old days and in Asia even today,

When the monks are offering this teaching,

It's kind of like Bible stories.

There's realms in here that are kind of like hell and heaven and whatnot,

And they teach them literally,

You know,

That this is,

These are the different places that you might fall into and they're teaching you about it in terms of things like rebirth,

You know,

You kill a monk or a nun,

Cause a rift in the sangha,

This is a way to keep people quiet,

Or do something else terrible like that,

You're going to wind up in a hell realm,

A realm of ceaseless,

Unremitting,

Severe suffering of body and mind.

Next realm up is the animal realm,

And the animal realm is one in which sentient beings experience the pleasant and the unpleasant and the neutral,

But they don't understand where these things are coming from and they don't have any control over them.

They're receptors of what the world has to offer,

But they're ignorant of its sources,

Nor have they any control over it.

The next realm up is what's called the hungry ghosts,

And the hungry ghosts in Japanese icon,

Buddhist iconography,

They're depicted as these beings with huge swollen bellies and teeny little heads and mouths.

So they're always hungry,

They can never get enough to satisfy their desires,

They live in a perpetual state of unrequited desire.

Next realm up is the asuras,

Or sometimes that word is translated as titans,

It's kind of like in these video games where these monsters are in continuous conflict,

It's a state of perpetual conflict,

Being at war with others.

The fifth realm is the human realm,

All the realms above,

The deva realms,

There's several of those,

The brahma realms,

Those are these heavenly realms where the mind is in a perfect state of balance and delight and complete insight and whatnot.

So we have these deva realms and brahma realms above,

And we have the realms of perpetual conflict and unrequited desire and animal dumbness and whatnot below.

The human realm is supposed to be this balance point,

Where suka and duka,

Where the suffering and unsatisfactoriness of life and the selfless joy of life are in some degree of balance.

And all these teachings,

The human realm is the only one through which there is a portal of access to ultimate delight.

The reason being that the beings in the deva realms and the brahma realms don't suffer,

They're living in states of perpetual delight,

And they have forgotten what it's like to be suffering humans.

And that being the case,

They're really digging to be in there and they don't want things to get any different.

It also means that as long as they're attached to being that realm,

They can't come back and rebirth as a human in order to obtain ultimate enlightenment.

And the Buddha had this kind of rite twist on the received doctrines of his time,

That he was born into the world of the Vedic traditions.

And the understanding was that throughout one's practice,

Whatever caste you happen to be born into,

And you do the purifications and you get reborn into a higher caste,

And then ultimately when you're reborn as a Brahmin,

Your souls continue to be purified.

And for instance,

In Vedic traditions like some of the yogas,

When there is this salute or this homage where you say namaste,

I honor the divine in you,

I honor the atman in you,

And that in their teaching becomes one after endless stages of purification with Brahman,

The omniscient,

Omnipotent,

All-knowing Brahman.

And the Buddhists didn't disavow the existence of Brahman.

They said,

You know,

Brahman's only problem is that he lives in a deluded state,

He thinks that he's omniscient and omnipotent.

So he acknowledges Brahman but within this larger context,

Not as the be-all and end-all.

So there are the two ways that that's classically taught.

One is,

Like I said,

Kind of like the Bible story,

This is what happens if you do or don't do well in this lifetime,

You're going to wind up in one of these places next time around.

The other way,

However,

So that's kind of a literal way it was sometimes taught,

The more figurative way,

However,

And my view really has perhaps a greater degree of potency,

At least for our purposes in this day and age,

Because in that way what it's describing is states of mind that the human consciousness moves among.

So if you're blissed out and you're in a delighted state of mind,

You're doing deep samadhi practices or something like that,

You might find yourself in one of these states of bliss or happiness,

In one of the deva realms.

If your mind is really getting calm and you're experiencing the dissolution of self and whatnot,

Then you find yourself in the Brahman realm experiencing what the Buddha called looking outward through the windows and the doors of the houses of Brahma,

That the Brahma viharas,

Which is what those are,

Becomes your lived experience.

On the other hand,

If you're having a really bad day,

You can find the consciousness descending into one of these other realms instead.

So if you're finding yourself in a highly aversive state of mind,

Then you're in the realm of the titans,

You're in perpetual conflict or angry,

You're in an adversarial relationship with your environment and those around you,

And or in an adversarial relationship with your spouse.

If you find yourself in the hungry ghost realm,

You are in the state of perpetual craving.

And then of course,

If enough already,

I want out of here,

You know,

You deliberately wish to be in a state of not knowing,

Of ignorance,

Of shutting the world out of dullness.

You know,

As we talk about sloth and torpor and dullness when we get together next time,

It seems like you're just stuck in quicksand,

Nothing's going on,

But in fact,

That's not the case at all.

What's going on is a tremendous conflict happening within the consciousness between the desire to know and the desire to not know.

And when you begin to develop insight into the nature of that conflict,

Things start to kind of clear up a lot.

Tonight however,

We're focusing mostly on this realm of greed,

Of unrequited desire.

So I want to offer a couple of anecdotes,

A couple of personal experience.

And then I would like for us to open up to discussion whether this particular construct or way of looking at things has any relevance for you and any ways that you think it might apply to your own situation if you have any questions about it.

What happens eventually after you,

Kind of a process,

Knowing that these ways of thinking about things exist,

That you can get some idea of what your default option is,

How do you seem to be perceiving the world generally.

And then if you are able to be mindful of when you find yourself,

When the consciousness has come to rest in one of these states of mind,

Whether it's a highly aversive state,

You know,

Of anger or a state of intense craving,

You know,

Unrequited desire or a state of dullness,

But right now we'll focus mostly just on those first two.

Mindfulness is really crucial and important in order to become aware of the fact that this is where the mind has come to rest.

Aha,

I'm in an aversive state.

I'm in a craving state.

Whether or not it happens to be the leader of the trio or a side man doing a riff,

That's what seems to be going on right now.

But especially if it's a powerful one you find yourself going back to again and again.

The first is developing awareness of the fact that your consciousness has come to rest there.

When the mindfulness is well established,

Then you can turn your attention not just to being,

Oh yeah,

Well right,

Here I am,

Stuck back in,

You know,

Stuck here in Lodi again.

You know,

This,

I'm back in that particular frame of mind.

The next step,

When the mindfulness is strong and the mind is relatively calm,

Is to inquire into the nature of that mind state.

What's really going on here?

Why am I feeling so aversive?

What's the object of my aversion?

What's the strength of my feeling?

What's happening?

How do I feel threatened by what's going on?

Or in the state of desire,

What's the object of desire?

How strong is it?

Does it fluctuate?

How would my life be perfect or fulfilled if that desire was satisfied?

Many,

Many years ago when teacher and friend Jack Cornfield was sitting for years with Ajahn Chah in a rural forest monastery in eastern Thailand.

He'd been there for some time taking vows,

He was in robes,

And he was just in it for the long haul.

He'd actually wind up sitting for several years in Thailand with either Ajahn Chah or Ajahn Buddha Dasa from time to time.

He was very dedicated.

So one of these periods of study where he'd been sitting for quite a long time,

You know,

Alone out in his hut in the jungle and coming in for interviews and whatnot,

Doing chores around the monastery.

Every time he went to sit,

What would happen would be these really powerful sexual fantasies.

They would just come over him every time,

Over and over and over again.

Every time he would sit down,

The mind would get concentrated and whatnot.

He'd be a fresh reel of some X-rated movie.

He'd just come back again and again and again.

The mind could go nowhere else.

He'd try to sit with him,

And he'd say,

Oh,

You have Rising and Passing.

Nope,

It was Rising and it wasn't Passing.

It was just what was going on.

It was like this nasty film festival.

It just wouldn't stop.

So he'd go and talk to Ajahn Chah and say,

What is happening here?

What's going on?

Why can't I shape this one?

Why is it so completely absorbed in my mind?

What's going on?

And basically,

Well,

Ajahn Chah says it's because you're not looking at it closely enough.

So we're talking now about gradations of practice.

First stage is to get mindful and clean and aware.

And then secondly,

You can practice this mindful inquiry and say,

What's going on?

Why does the mind continue to go to that place?

What's behind it?

And Jack says that what he realized after he began to just turn his attention to really focus on what's behind the movie screen.

Why is this happening?

He came to realize that he was tremendously lonely.

He was all alone out there in the jungle.

No one else spoke English.

He was getting by with his tie and he was following these 235 precepts.

And he was this young,

Ardent practitioner out there.

And he was terribly alone.

And he was terrified that he was going to spend the rest of his life alone.

You know,

That if he stayed in rogues and remained a vindicate monk and whatnot,

That that would be his life forever.

And he felt just absolute despair in his loneliness.

And once he was able to see that that was the true driving force behind the craving,

It abated.

He was able to put it in context.

He was able to see what was going on.

He gained insight into the relationship between his thoughts and his emotions,

His feelings.

And the world opened up for him in a broader way.

And the obsessive desires,

You know,

Weakened,

Came less.

And at some point just fell away.

So it was a moment of real,

What we call a path moment,

A moment of insight into some powerful force at work in our minds that leaves us with a sense of freedom,

Having kind of come unlinked from our karma in some kind of important way.

A personal experience in this general realm is one that's very fresh in my mind,

Since I'm still kind of working with it.

As sometimes happens when I'm feeling sorry for myself during the winter,

Between Thanksgiving and New Year's,

I manage to put on five pounds.

Pretty much,

You know,

Just eating and drinking everything in sight.

Because I was trying to make myself feel better,

Right?

Then after the holiday,

My birthday is on February 9th.

So I thought,

Okay,

After the New Year's,

I'm going to start losing weight here.

So I get back down,

You know,

Lose this weight I just put on,

Certainly by the time my birthday rolls around.

Guess what?

No progress whatsoever.

And so this is my 70th birthday.

So we had kind of made a big deal out of it.

We went out to see close friends and family in the San Francisco Bay Area.

My brother flew in from Hawaii.

And we'd go out and hang out on the beach.

And everybody in this group was pretty good cooks,

So we ate well.

And then when we weren't eating in,

We'd go to all our favorite restaurants.

We'd do Burmese,

And we'd do Thai,

And we'd do Mediterranean,

We did tapas.

And then of course they threw a couple of birthday parties for me where we brought in all our favorite foods and yucked it up.

And a lot of the people at these parties were folks I used to play music with back when we lived in the Bay Area.

So there was a lot of music going around.

And it just felt like this sort of total Dave around,

Right?

And when I'd sit in the mornings,

I was doing meta,

You know,

May I be happy.

I realized that I was happy,

You know.

And I was feeling peace of mind,

You know.

And I did feel free from all the inner and outer harm.

And it was just absolutely delightful,

You know,

That entire period of time.

And then we came back home again,

And the next morning I got on the scales.

And believe it or not,

I managed to gain another five pounds,

You know,

Way more than I ever had in my life.

And all the clothes in my closet had shrunk.

Nothing was fitting right.

It is fitting right.

And I all of a sudden realized that I wasn't in Oz anymore.

And I was back in Kansas.

And you know,

This is unacceptable.

This has just got to stop.

And so,

You know,

I fired up the Food Diary app on my phone.

And I started keeping track of everything.

And began this,

You know,

Long,

Arduous process of trying to take off,

Little bit at a time,

All this weight that is so briefly and quickly,

You know,

Taken over my body.

Which left me with the necessity to start developing a relationship with hunger.

Because before that time,

You know,

During all this period of time,

As soon as there was any little hint of hunger,

You know,

Of emptiness or something,

Then I'd run off and satisfy it,

Right.

And realizing what a fix that I'd gotten myself into,

It became obvious that for my own health and well-being,

You know,

Hoping to,

You know,

Look,

You know,

Be around for the next few birthdays,

This weight just really had to come off.

And so I actually,

You know,

Have begun to do the things I know I need to do as far as getting the weight off.

Just,

You know,

Eating less,

Being more mindful of what I do eat,

Trying to make sure I get some exercise every now and then.

Little bit by little bit,

You know,

It's like trying to turn an oil tanker in.

It could feel just a few degrees,

You know,

If I'm here,

It's starting to happen.

But in the process of this going on,

I've had ample opportunity to look at what the nature of this craving was.

This craving that would not be denied.

It would immediately be stated every time it arose.

Ultimately,

To my real detriment.

And what's going on here?

So I began to really get inquired,

Just like Jack was.

And a couple of things gradually began to come into focus.

One is that we attach cultural baggage to certain ages,

You know,

One of them being 70,

That,

You know,

Pretty good chance that more of my life is behind me than in front of me.

The days seem to progressively go by a little faster than they did before,

Even the winter ones.

And so there's that,

You know,

Just the three messengers,

You know,

Aging,

Infirmity,

And death.

Somehow or another it seems a little closer.

The other thing is that,

Oh,

A mere 78 days from now,

But who's counting,

Will be the last day of my 30th year of service on the University of Colorado faculty.

You know,

The retirement,

The end of the spring term.

And looking,

You know,

This,

For me,

This is what was behind the screen.

This is what was behind the curtain.

First,

You know,

The three messengers,

As there they are,

And they simply need to be befriended or acknowledged or a more intimate relationship with and developed.

You know,

The sooner you do that in life,

The easier it will be for the rest of your life.

And now it's becoming quite evident that those are,

You know,

Those are facts of life that I simply need to become more accepting of and more open to.

The other is this sense of loss of who I am,

Attendant upon retiring from a profession I've been practicing 30 years.

I'm already starting to do it.

I'm not signing up for any more committees.

I'm not.

Reviews

New insights on a familiar subject.

Great talk as always Lloyd!
Thank you.
💐🌸✨🌺🌷🐾

If I could give this 10 stars I would! It blew me away, utterly and completely. You answered so many questions I have and provided concrete solutions and pathways thru the maze, tying very personal to global perspectives and needs. I am beyond grateful! Thank you!

Really helpful talk, I learned so much. This made my day. Thank you.