Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org
Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org
Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org
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horrible state of affairs, don’t settle for any suffering at all.<br />
There is a way to become totally free from suffering.”<br />
For most people, however, ordinary life seems like a<br />
wonderful state of affairs, just like pigs in the mud, or dung<br />
beatles in a dung pile; they are very content in their filth, but<br />
humans who see them will think, “what a horrible way to<br />
live!” <strong>In</strong> the same way, though ordinary people take great<br />
delight in lives filled with suffering, those who have practiced<br />
meditation come to realize that this state of affairs is truly<br />
horrible, because they have begun to actually pay attention<br />
to how much needless suffering there is.<br />
The Buddha said there is a way out. We don’t have to put up<br />
with this. We can be free. We can be happy. We can be<br />
totally free from suffering. pahānasaññā means giving up<br />
the causes of suffering, seeing clearly the suffering in<br />
clinging, seeing the truly undesirable nature of those things<br />
we cling to. When you have pain, just looking at it, teaching<br />
your mind, this baby of a mind, that it is impermanent,<br />
unsatisfying and uncontrollable – that clinging to it can only<br />
bring suffering; until the mind says, “Oh, I understand now,<br />
let’s let it go!” This is pahānasaññā. The practice of<br />
vipassanā is pahāna. When you see the impermanence,<br />
suffering, and non-self in all things, the mind abandons the<br />
desire for them. The pinnacle of vipassanā is this<br />
abandoning.<br />
virāgasaññā & nirodhasaññā<br />
With abandoning, there is dispassion, the mind released.<br />
There is the mind without greed, virāgasaññā. With the<br />
dispassion, then there is cessation. So these ones go<br />
actually quite quickly. They go together. Giving up brings<br />
dispassion, and from dispassion comes freedom, nirodha.<br />
This is the standard description of the process of<br />
enlightenment:<br />
nibbindaṃ virajjati; virāgā vimuccati. vimuttasmiṃ<br />
vimuttamiti ñāṇaṃ hoti.<br />
With weariness, one becomes dispassionate. With<br />
dispassion, one is freed. <strong>In</strong> one who is free, there is the<br />
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