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ambiguity has a destabilising effect... very few have the courage or strength to hold the tension between opposites until a completely new standpoint emerges... this is because, in acknowledging contradictory truths, one has to create an inner equilibrium to keep from being torn in two.
aldo carotenuto [as quoted by anodea judith, eastern body western mind]
for me this quote captures the essence of buddhist insight meditation (vipassana) which is designed to work through unsolvable conflicting thoughts and emotions to find a new and integrated sense of who we are.
normally our minds are filled with thoughts that make sense of and validate our experiences. quite a lot of the time we are trying to paste over some level of conflict. sometimes this is just wanting to get on with the neighbours but always finding that they are keeping you awake till late; this is a conflict of wanting peace but being prevented from peacefulness by someone else. sometimes this is a conflict of a deeper nature; a conflict that makes us question our own identity.
for me the key conflict that i have had to struggle with is a philosophical one: does all arise from mind(formless awareness or god; dissociating us from the world) or is all matter(mindless energy; robing us of meaning)? for me this is was the most difficult conflict that sustained my personal issues around my own identity.
in the end we can't really find an answer to these kind of questions by sitting down and trying to work them out... but answers do come! how do they come? how can we find a way to solve these problems more quickly?
silent, "calm abiding" meditation (shamata) allows us to reach a point of relative quiet from the bustle of our busy minds. we can then begin to experience the feelings that come up from the depths in this stillness and we can just watch them. we can begin to let go of the though fuelled dialogues that lock us into the sense of who we are and just listen. this is the essence of insight (vispassana) meditation
this becomes a practice that balances the energies in our subtle bodies and releasing stored somatic memories and tensions; bringing them to consciousness... a natural process of becoming integrated and whole takes place... the burning questions and needs resolve themselves as we watch with mindful awareness... barriers of suffering melt... the miracle of life unfolds... a deeper sense of cirtainty builds in us that is without need for any crutch... the touchstone of being is enough in itself... we learn to walk again... then run and leap with confidence... free of doubt.
(finding someone to teach the basics of meditation is always a good idea but the key is keeping your back straight, sacrum tucked in, chest open, chin in while sitting... gently bringing your attention back to your meditation object... try short periods on a regular basis and never push yourself!)
love and peace
norbu
Lama Sogyal Rinposhe says;
The essential nature of mind is the background to the whole of life and death, like the sky that holds the Universe in it's embrace.
Thanks norbu.....good advice....the true joys of life....are the easiest to obtain.
Much Love
Oakapple xx
Some interesting thoughts Norbu.
I have to say though I'm slightly uncomfortable with the connection between Vipassana and ideas of 'integration' and 'becoming whole'. For me at least, these terms are linked with 20th century psychotherapy - captured by Laing's (briefly popular) work 'The divided self'. It implies the presence of some entity that is now fractured, but can, in the future, be made whole. From my understanding of, e.g. the satipatthana sutta, the Buddha never makes this claim. In fact, his whole argument is predicated upon the very absence of such a thing, a 'self'.
It's true that in the context of an intense period of meditation practice, certain deep-set memories can arise. You referred to 'somatic' memories, and their physical release. I remember some years ago sitting an extended retreat. All was quiet in the hall, when suddenly there was an audible 'pop' and a lady let out the most primal of screams. It was totally involuntary, but the agony in her voice was like nothing I'd ever heard before. And the memory has stayed with me.
But I guess the rub lies in how such an experience is interpreted. From a Western, analytic perspective, one might say this was a cathartic event. The lady might have re-experienced some trauma, and somehow managed to construct a new identity in its aftermath, one which was more 'unified', perhaps affording a better balance between the Id and Super-ego, or whatever.
But the Buddha was interested in dukkha as a universal. It's not unsatisfactoriness or suffering associated with 'my' story, 'my' history. It's simply dukkha, and its inherent potential in all conditioned phenomena. Quite simply, the Buddha showed no apparent interest in the narrative of experience, but rather the very building blocks of experience itself. I suppose it is for this reason that (so far as I can remember) the Pali texts do not contain any such equivalances of 'integration' or 'becoming whole'.
It is also for this reason that (one could argue) Buddhism is still relevant today, some 2500 years after its inception in India. Because, despite all the changes that have occured, despite the different lifestyles lead today in London from Lumbini 500 BCE, nothing has really changed as regards dukkha.
I'm not having a pop here. I've said it before, I'm no Buddhist. But I do get twitchy when I hear claims being made for Buddhism or meditation (esp. vipassana) which appear at variance with the very texts in which these techniques have been preserved.
Mates ?
Best, Shankar.
But I do get twitchy when I hear claims being made for Buddhism or meditation (esp. vipassana) which appear at variance with the very texts in which these techniques have been preserved.
hi shankar
i can't disagree with you at all. and i have read little original material from pali but, as i understand it, you are correct.
however, "buddhism" has evolved. i have drawn my key understandings of meditation from tibetan sources and teachers and there is still quite a lot of active debate, particularly about the nature of what "is"... buddha nature being a fairly recent idea in buddhist history... and i would think that the strictest interpretaion of the pali based traditions would have difficulty with this idea at all.
i have no reason to hide my agenda: i am interested in the practice that has come down from the traditions that have followed the buddha shakyamuni but and i am not interested in adopting any one in particular... i think they are all cultually expressed. i am prepared to be a little "ecclectic" and this is the only way that i am prepared to call myself buddhist... if you like i am no buddhist at all!
i believe that there are many flaws in the expressions of buddha dharma historically and i cannot ever accept there is an "original buddhism".
my personal view is that the the philosophy of no-self is about not clinging to a "self" and that all teachings have a provisional value and are just means of understanding; an understanding which is beyond words... i don't believe the teachings are truth in themselves... for me this is the meaning of liberation... liberation to practice and experience through practice... particularly the mahayana approach to cultivating a heart that is only filled with empathetic compassion and loving kindness as a basis for thought speech and action.
and thanks, it is really good to discuss different points of view about this. please don't think i have any problem with the points you make. this is all about making practice real and i'm not afraid to challenge the recieved wisdom of any particular traditional view.
after all: "i can only understand what i can understand and i won't believe the buddha just because his words are the words of the enlightened one." 
and oakapple: i really like your quote from sogyal rinpoche very much for it's poetic quality and its instructive value. this actually demonstrates the point of the discussion about the title of this string and the issue shankara has identified. in fact i saw an old friend who had spent one year of the three year (kagyu) retreat to become a lama before he dropped out; he was saying that they were told not even to read sogyal rinpoche. this is quite strange because the kagyu position (predominantly yogachara) is closer to nyngma position expounded by sogyal rinpoche as opposed to the position of the earlier forms of buddhism (pointed out by shankara) and, for that matter the position held by the dalai lama's school (prasanghika madymika; often considered the purest mahayana buddhist philosophy), which is largely an elaboration of the early buddhist position of no-self.
there is a lot more mileage in this line shankar... very pleased if you wish to develop this string further.
love and peace
norbu