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what is real, here and now, we can be happy in any situation. When we engage in anger and hatred, we may likewise feel a sort of pleasure in the adrenaline rush that comes from thoughts of violence and conflict. This pleasure blinds us to the fact that we are destroying ourselves from within, burning up with anger and aversion, becoming habitual in our reactions to negative stimuli. The Buddha once pointed out that when we are angry, we do to ourselves what our enemies could only wish, destroying both our physical and mental well-being to the delight of those who wish us harm. Actually, both desire and aversion trigger chemical responses in the body, as do crying, laughing, and even yawning. It is therefore no wonder that such emotions are easily habit forming, causing both physical and mental addictions well-documented by experts in addiction research. I once taught meditation to a professor at a large university in America whose main field of expertise was addiction. His interest was pertinent because he himself was on medication for obsessive-compulsive disorder. During our discussions he taught me many things about addiction, and I turned around and showed him how to use the Buddha’s teaching to understand empirically all the things he taught me on an intellectual level. His wife later came to tell me that he had remarked to her after the course that “he is a genius!” I am not a genius, of course, but I think it is fair to say that the Buddha was, because he was able to see through mere belief and intellect to actually understand how reality worked on a practical level. This professor was subject to fits of violence towards his family out of hyperbolic concern for their safety and well-being. Through the meditation practice, he was able to apply what he had studied for so many years to overcome his attachments to his own thoughts and emotions. <strong>In</strong> many cases this is the true problem – not that we are angry or lustful, but that we misapprehend the emotions, forgetting all that we have learned and observed in favour of blind addiction and belief that there is a never-before-attained satisfaction waiting just around the corner. As the famous quote goes, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” 54
Delusion too can be incredibly intoxicating, blinding us as easily as greed or anger. One might say that greed and anger are in-and-of-themselves fairly benign; it is delusion-based mind states like self-righteousness and conceit that make them deadly, leading one to cultivate unwholesomeness and thinking it a virtue. The Buddha said that he didn’t see any evil greater than holding steadfastly to wrong views. Just as a person who cuts themselves on grass or leaves due to an improper grasp of them, a person with wrong view will fall into great suffering due to their ignorance. When a person likes or dislikes something, there may still be room to understand the dangers in reacting to it; when one believes it proper to like, dislike and even react violently in response to one’s partialities, this belief poses a much greater threat than any single emotion it might cultivate. It is common in society for people to feel abused or mistreated by others and demand equal or even special treatment. We often rationalize our desires based on some perceived privilege we “deserve”. <strong>In</strong> the same way, we tend to rationalize our aversions with self-righteous thinking, as in, “I don’t deserve to be treated like that!” and so on. Such thoughts are only to our detriment, destroying respect and friendship and replacing it with fear and loathing. A person who looks down upon others, expecting special treatment, demanding obedience or respect, will never truly be respected by anyone; they will only find themselves alienated from their fellow human beings as a result of their unpleasant behaviour. Likewise, a person who has low self-esteem will find themselves alienated through their clinging to thoughts of their own worthlessness. They will ever act in ways that are self-defeating and never succeed in accomplishing anything worthwhile including spiritual enlightenment. All forms of self-appraisal are associated with attachment to self. We spend much of our time defining ourselves as some entity that we never experience but somehow imagine to be real and really “I”. Because such an entity is fixed in our minds irrespective of reality, it can only serve to hinder our 55
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Lessons In Practical Buddhism Yutta
Page 3 and 4:
Introduction This book is based on
Page 5 and 6:
Celebrating A Buddhist Holiday When
Page 7 and 8: eons and 100,000 great eons to beco
Page 9 and 10: any of us know how we became human
Page 11 and 12: - AN 1.331 Rare are the people who
Page 13 and 14: Thailand: “So today is a holiday
Page 15 and 16: “Whether a bhikkhu or a bhikkhuni
Page 17 and 18: great suffering. This is a danger t
Page 19 and 20: actually most apparent in good peop
Page 21 and 22: suffering that comes to the recipie
Page 23 and 24: good ones, cleaning the defilement
Page 25 and 26: teachers, refusing to listen and ev
Page 27 and 28: since the brain and mind together b
Page 29 and 30: A Comprehensive Practice Introducti
Page 31 and 32: from external interruption. One of
Page 33 and 34: future advancement based on this kn
Page 35 and 36: when they hear such a teaching. To
Page 37 and 38: teaching that the Buddha advised in
Page 39 and 40: immediately judge and react to just
Page 41 and 42: If we want to remain free from slav
Page 43 and 44: to support one’s practice, protec
Page 45 and 46: however, for people to possess dwel
Page 47 and 48: clearly uncontrollable - it is mere
Page 49 and 50: tiṭṭhikā” - “patience, for
Page 51 and 52: end his practice forever. The merce
Page 53 and 54: unpleasant. Certain situations are
Page 55 and 56: truly beneficial - how much more so
Page 57: entered into absorption, their comp
Page 61 and 62: The first step in our progress, the
Page 63 and 64: towards observing the nature of phe
Page 65 and 66: further refine their observation; t
Page 67 and 68: A person who has realized nibbāna
Page 69 and 70: other recommended him to disrobe an
Page 71 and 72: the fact that “mindfulness” is
Page 73 and 74: cultivation of objective understand
Page 75 and 76: many minutes, hours, days, or even
Page 77 and 78: experience, not impersonal space-ti
Page 79 and 80: “Rising” and “falling” are
Page 81 and 82: meaning is actually closer to “ac
Page 83 and 84: emembrance. It is called memorizati
Page 85 and 86: 8. sabbaloke anabhiratasaññā, pe
Page 87 and 88: Once you see impermanence, it’s n
Page 89 and 90: disgusting it is because, if you do
Page 91 and 92: angel is still not as good as being
Page 93 and 94: to create, wanting to become. When
Page 95 and 96: knowledge, “I am freed!” - MN 7
Page 97 and 98: their beauty. This is likely the re
Page 99 and 100: 2. paṇīto - is subtle 3. asecana
Page 101 and 102: The Buddha taught that inside of al
Page 103 and 104: Both greed and anger are caused by
Page 105 and 106: of experience. Once we are able to
Page 107 and 108: was as “afraid, afraid”, as wel
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for themselves and others. Actually
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true freedom - to see that all thin
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When we undertake the practice of m
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you can build up that won’t fall
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and effect works incessantly. This
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When we practice meditation our goa
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Part Three: Subjective Experience N
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haven’t studied the Buddha’s te
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happy. Even giving rise to good int
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The Nature of Reality Reality is a
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Simple Truth Studying the Dhamma is
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it changes. You will come to see th
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see the simple reality of our exper
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until finally the kid gets fed up.
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peaceful indigenous peoples of the
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to perpetuate themselves; beliefs i
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must look at it quite closely, whic
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and to agree with it, but the key i
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something goes contrary to our expe
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you obviously won't bump into anyth
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would like it to be. The technique
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