Mastering the Core Teachings of Buddha. An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book - страница 14

We assume that the teachings on wisdom point to universal truths, truths that can be perceived in all types of experience without exception.

We assume that if we can simply know our sensate experience clearly enough, then we will come to understand for ourselves.

The primary agenda for doing insight practices is to increase our perceptual abilities so that the truths mentioned by the great mystics become obvious to us. Thus, rather than caring what we think, say or do, or caring about what altered state of consciousness we are in, when training in wisdom we actively work to simply increase the speed, precision, consistency and inclusiveness of our experience of all the

Wisdom, The Third Training

quick little sensations that make up our experience, whatever and however they may be.

Thus, the esse

ntial formal insight meditation instructions are : find a

place where the distractions are tolerable, pick a stable and sustainable posture, and for a defined period of time notice every single sensation that makes up your reality as best you can. Just as with concentration practices, more time and more diligent practice pays off. These simple instructions can easily seem overwhelming, vague or strangely trivial to many people, and so I am going to spend a lot of time laying out a large number of empowering concepts and more structured practices that have helped countless practitioners over thousands of years to follow these basic instructions.

While the Three Trainings all contain some similar elements, there are some important contrasts that must be made between them. The gold standard for training in morality is how kind and compassionate our intentions are and how well we lead a useful and moral life. The gold standard for training in concentration practices is how quickly we can enter into highly altered states of consciousness, how long we can stay in them, and how refined, complete and stable we can make those states. The gold standard for insight practices is that we can quickly and consistently see the true nature of the numerous quick sensations that make up our whole reality, regardless of what those sensations are, allowing us to cut to a level of understanding that goes utterly beyond specific conditions.

It is absolutely vital that the differences between these gold standards be understood. Considered this way, these gold standards do not overlap and may even seem to contradict one another. This is a very practical assumption. As these differences seem to be extremely difficult to explain clearly, I will make this basic point again and again throughout this book.

So, having gained enough morality to be temporarily free of

excessive negative mind states and enough concentration to steady the mind somewhat, look into the bare truth of the sensations of this moment. This is called insight meditation and other names, and it is designed to produce wisdom.

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Wisdom, The Third Training

Sounds simple, and while it is, it also isn't. There are many types of insight that we may derive from experiencing the world. Usually, we might think of training in wisdom as having to do with relative issues like how to live our lives. In this sense, one might just try to be wiser.

Perhaps we could skillfully reflect on something that went badly and see if perhaps in the future some wisdom gained from that experience might change the way we live our life. This is an ordinary form of wisdom, and so the insights we derive from such reflections and observations are insights into the ordinary world.

On the other hand, these sorts of reflections can only take us so far, and to really get what the Buddha was talking about, we need to go far beyond these conventional definitions of wisdom and attain to ultimate insights by doing insight practices. Many people try to make insight practices into an exercise that will produce both insights into the ordinary world and also ultimate insights. I have come to the conclusion that we should not count on ultimate teachings to illuminate our relative issues or vice versa, and so I feel that it is extremely important to keep the relative and ultimate wisdom teachings separate. Failure to do so causes endless problems and makes progress on either front more difficult rather than easier. Thus, I will revisit this topic again and again throughout this work, doing my best to clearly differentiate those practices that produce ordinary wisdom from those practices that fall within the third training and lead to ultimate realizations that are independent of our relative insights.