You know,
We've been easing into this fourth group of contemplations,
The objects of mind.
And I wanted to take a couple of minutes just to talk a little bit further about that.
The different stages of this set of contemplations,
Impermanence,
Fading of attachment,
Which we talked about most recently,
Cessation of suffering,
And relinquishment of self.
And you know,
The idea of impermanence,
That's an old friend.
A few weeks ago,
We talked about the fading of attachments.
And I,
Like I say,
I want to take a minute and see if we can put that into some perspective,
Because,
You know,
Fading of attachment seems like a noble thing,
Like a good goal,
You know,
And then as such,
It's something that we might become attached to in and of itself.
Up until this point,
Our contemplations have had to do with the body,
The breath,
Feelings,
Our different mental states,
Breathing in,
I'm aware of the mind,
Breathing out,
I'm aware of the mind.
That's the third tetrad or group of four contemplations in the overall scheme of 16 in Anapanasati.
And you know,
This third set,
Contemplations of the mind,
They do a lot to relieve our suffering.
Indeed,
Think about it,
The fourth contemplation in that group is breathing in,
I liberate the mind,
Breathing out,
I liberate the mind.
We become aware of the contents of our mind,
We observe them with equanimity,
Not attachment,
We watch them fall,
We gladden the mind,
We concentrate the mind,
And in doing so,
We find a sense of liberation in clarity.
And this is work of insight,
Coming to see with clear and fresh eyes the power and the effect of the hindrances.
And in so doing,
We find a clearing and welcome space,
Greed,
Hatred,
Fear.
In this fourth set of contemplations,
We consider objects of mind,
Not the contents of our minds that we considered in the third set,
But rather given mental objects which become manifest as objects of contemplation.
The first of these last four that we contemplate is impermanence,
And we've talked about impermanence all along.
Breathing in,
I observe the impermanent nature of all things.
And we're encouraged with this first step of the fourth set of contemplations,
We're encouraged to go back through all of the prior contemplations,
Working to bring our sense of impermanence into the realm of actual experience.
Not considering the idea of impermanence,
You know,
The notion that it is so,
But rather finding ourselves existing within it as a reality.
We're given license to experience the futility of,
You know,
Really the needlessness of attaching to things which will pass away,
Just as surely as day into night and into day.
And so a few weeks ago,
We came to the second contemplation in objects of mind.
Breathing in,
I'm aware of the fading of attachment.
Breathing out,
I'm aware of the fading of attachment.
Not detachment,
You know,
It's not that we don't care for our body and our breath,
It's not that our feelings aren't important,
It's not that our suffering thoughts don't need to be understood,
Cared for.
We're not trying to leave things behind,
But rather to not bring them along.
And that's a fine distinction.
To set something down,
We first have to have picked it up.
To see a thought fall,
We first have to have accepted it's arising.
There's a story that I like,
And I'm sure some of you have heard it,
About the two monks who are walking through the forest,
The elder sort of master and the young junior monk,
And they're not supposed to have any contact with women.
And they come to a river and they find a young woman there who's trying to cross,
And she has some baskets she's carrying and the water is moving swiftly.
And the elder monk picks the young woman up in her arms,
Carries her across,
Sets her down,
And the elder monk and the younger monk continue on their way.
Well,
The younger monk is very put off because they're not supposed to have contact with women,
And he's just really stewing about this.
And they continue to walk for,
You know,
Most of the afternoon.
And finally he just can't take it.
He says,
Master,
I don't understand.
You know,
We're not supposed to have any contact with women,
And you pick up this woman with your hands and you carried her across the stream.
I don't understand.
And the older monk looks at the younger monk and says,
I left that woman by the stream three hours ago.
Why are you still carrying her?
It's not about experiencing attachment and letting them go,
But to begin to live where attachments,
Which at their root include aversion,
Where attachments no longer arise.
Sounds crazy,
Right?
I mean,
I'm not there.
This is deeper insight still,
And we all have to find our place on its path.
For me,
This is where I find myself again,
You know,
Needing to pause,
Needing to dwell on this particular aspect of Anapanasati practice,
The fading of attachment.
I'm working on it.
But we can still see,
You know,
And we'll discuss down the line,
How the fading of attachment can lead to the cessation of suffering,
Which is the next contemplation,
Attachment and aversion having truly been removed.
And that's what the third noble truth is about.
You know,
This is a result of our work.
It's a result until the final attachment is resolved and we relinquish even our attachment to self,
Merging into interdependence as a lived reality.
They tell me.
So I'd like you to consider,
After we're through this evening,
Where you are in this practice and only you can know,
You know,
Deepening your relationship with body and breath,
Stay there.
You know what I always say,
Grow that and keep the rest of it all for later.
Working to calm the feelings,
That's so important.
Stay there,
Grow that.
It's worth the effort.
Keep the rest for another day.
Working to understand and practice open-handed release,
With the nature of your mind.
This insight can be the work of a lifetime.
Stay there.
The rest will be waiting for you.
Either way,
I encourage you to be glad in your practice.
Be diligent with right effort,
Right mindfulness,
Right concentration.
This is the path that's been handed down to us.
It's the path which calls to you,
Or you probably wouldn't be here.
