Buddhist Belief – More Impeccable Goodies …
“I teach that the multitudinousness of objects have no reality in themselves but are only seen of the mind and, therefore, are of the nature of maya and a dream. …It is true that in one sense they are seen and discriminated by the senses as individualized objects; but in another sense, because of the absence of any characteristic marks of self-nature, they are not seen but are only imagined. In one sense they are graspable, but in another sense, they are not graspable.”~~~ Buddha
Since I haven’t posted anything here since the middle of last month, I guess you could say the holidays absorbed more of my time than I thought they would. Although there is some truth there, I’ve also been dealing with some nasty health issues which have kept my energy levels lower than I’m used to. So, my apologies for not keeping up here.
There will be another delay before I post again after today. I will be having some surgery done next week and I can’t make a good educated guess as to when I’ll be here at the computer writing to you again. My hope would be for only a week or so to get back on my feet— but it could be a little longer. I’ll be sure to Tweet loud and clear the next time I post. Of course, if you would subscribe via the RSS link, you’ll be sure not to miss anything.
Now, let’s get back to our study of the Eightfold Path of Buddhist Belief.
We’ve looked at Right or Perfect View, Right or Perfect Understanding, and Right or Perfect Attitude. Last time we wrote about the second group in the Eightfold Path — self-discipline, character, and virtue, which are Right or Impeccable Speech — Right or Impeccable Action and Right or Impeccable Livelihood.
Moving on, we come to the last triad of meditation: impeccable effort, impeccable concentration, and impeccable mindfulness or awareness.
Right, Perfect or Impeccable Effort.There are different kinds of effort. There are the kinds of effort that get you started or get you launched onto some new aspect of your life. Then there’s the sort of effort which will sustain you over the long haul. It’s the effort of persevering — the effort of patience — the effort which will keep you focused on your goal and keep you moving forward.
So often we find ourselves great at starting things — we can jump into things but we tend to lose momentum after the honeymoon wears off. One example I can think of is getting started with meditation. There are so many people who jump into meditation, but later they begin to feel bored with it and find themselves joining in with the madness and chaos of their own mind. They sort of jumped on the mediation bandwagon but slowly fell off the wagon into their “old ways” of living and their meditation practice faded away.
Right, Perfect or Impeccable Effort is balanced effort, not compulsive effort. It implies continuous, joyous effort. It implies being delighted in what we find meaningful to do. There needs to be inner motivation — the same kind of motivation you would see if you were following your own true calling. We are passionately in love with what we are doing — our interest runs high — we don’t have to force or strain ourselves. We are naturally motivated, so it’s an effortless effort. It isn’t just a grim chore, something we want to get done with as soon as possible. It’s a step we’re passionate about taking since it leads to Nirvana.
Right, Perfect or Impeccable Concentration — you can also describe this as focus or contemplation. Right Concentration is about having balanced attention; being attentive to the moment and yet open. It means to be focused while still being free and lucid. It’s being one with what we are doing at the moment — not scattered and doing fifteen other things in our mind at the same time. It’s about being centered rather than distracted.
It’s really doing what we are doing, 100%. If you’re washing dishes, just wash the dishes. If you’re doing the laundry, just do the laundry. If you’re eating dinner, just be with the meal. Whatever you are doing be focused and attentive to what you are doing. Take your time — don’t rush so you can get onto the next thing. Use the time you spend on these tasks as quality meditation time. This is the way. This is enlightened living. We’re doing it anyway, we might as well really be doing it. Why wish we were elsewhere? Unless we practice Right Concentration, we find we’re always wishing we were doing something else or wishing we were somewhere else. Yet, if we were somewhere else, or doing something else, without Right Concentration we’d only be wishing we were still some other place or doing some other thing.
Right, Perfect or Impeccable Mindful Awareness is the last part of the concentration triad. It means to simply be aware with total presence of mind, rather than being absent-minded. It means being totally mindful, rather than mindless. There’s nothing mysterious about this. It is utterly mysterious, of course, but we don’t have to mystify it and make it into something we cannot understand, like some theological concepts or some kind of acey-spacey mumbo-jumbo. We must endeavor to be conscious, rather than unconscious; totally in the present, in the moment, in the Now, rather than absent or in the past or in the future.
There is a big debate going on now in some Buddhist circles about whether a Buddhist meditator should be more and more absent, or more and more present.
The more we empty ourselves of our preoccupations, our dwellings in the past, our desires and our selfishness, the more present we might become. I know — I’m starting to use language which sounds too Buddhist — but mysteriously enough, the more we empty our minds of all the extraneous stuff we can’t do anything about, the more likely it is that Truth will show up to fill the void. Those who lose themselves will find themselves, as the good book says.
There’s a little mysticism everywhere if you look. Regarding this Right, Perfect or Impeccable Awareness or Mindfulness, the Buddha had some things to say in the original teachings, “In hearing there is just hearing. No one hearing and nothing heard.” There is just that indescribable moment — nothing else — just the moment.
Then we lose our awareness of the perfect moment and make it into something else: “Oh, it’s a beautiful bird.” Or “Ugh, look at all this traffic.” The next thing you know we’re onto our next, or our twentieth discursive chain of thought.
In the first fresh instant of any moment, there’s just hearing, just seeing, just thought. Nothing else, just seeing and just hearing, just thought. In thinking, there is just thinking, yet there is nothing thought. (There I go again — more of the Buddhist talk and I promised plain English, didn’t I?) I’m actually quoting Buddha with these words. Let’s see if I can clear this up for you.
The moment our thoughts go to “Me and Mine”, all we have is a concept. Plus, we’ve taken the fresh thought of the first instant and developed it into a lot of thoughts. Now, our original thought is a bunch of thoughts. And when you have a lot of thoughts together, it becomes a whole ball of wax. It becomes quite heavy. But it just begins with that original thought. If we can just stay with that first moment, just the thought; try to be present before we get into asking, “Who’s thinking?” or “Why am I always thinking?” or “Damn thoughts, when are they going to stop so I can meditate?” Before those discursive concepts get started, before we create the heavy ball of wax, there’s just a flashing, an incandescent, indescribable moment. That’s the dawn of creation, in every moment. Nothing has happened yet. It’s just you — the essence of you — and you are there before anything happens! How great is that?
As I said last time, this Eightfold Path sets out a way of life which seems to be contrary to the way we like to live — at least in some respects. It is the way for us to free ourselves from our attachments and delusions and it will lead us to understand the truth about all things. It is a way for us to end suffering in the Buddhist sense. I don’t know about you, but Nirvana sounds pretty good to me.
I’ll be back to write more about Buddhist Belief. as soon as I am able. I do know there will be some recuperation time with this surgery, but as my doctor said, “At your age, Ron, it’s hard to say how soon you’ll be back to normal.” (I tried to get him to tell me what “normal” was, but I struck out.) 
Until then,
Namaste — Be in Peace.
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For those who wanted me to repeat the links for the books I’ve mentioned in the last few articles, here they are again — And, I have added another wonderful book by Sharon Salzberg. Here’s some information about it. I highly recommend all these books to you:
Sharon Salzberg — The Kindness Handbook
“It takes boldness, even audacity, to step out of our habitual patterns and experiment with a quality like kindness–to work with it and see just how it might shift and open up our lives. This book is an invitation to do just that.” – From The Kindness Handbook — “The Kindness Handbook
Eckhart Tolle’s amazing best seller, “A New Earth”
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s wonderful book, “My Stroke of Insight” — “Nirvana is just a breath away!”
And this one by Sharon Salzberg and is entitled: “A Heart as Wide as the World: Living with Mindfulness, Wisdom and Compassion“.
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Always remember this wonderful quote from Buddha ….
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”~~~ Buddha
Shanti everyone, … (A sanscrit word meaning, “Let there be Peace. Peace, beautiful Peace. Peace within, Peace without. Peace in this world. Peace for all beings.”)
“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”~~~ Buddha
Have a peaceful day!! —
Ron Rink
http://www.theleaderinside.com
http://www.wecould2.com
http://www.buddhistbelief.com
Tags: Buddhist Belief, Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist, First Noble Truth, Four Noble Truths, Second Noble Truth, Third Noble Truth, Nirvana, inner peace, peace, attachment, detachment, Fourth Noble Truth, Eightfold Path, karma, meditation, loving kindness, metta