Mastering the Core Teachings of Buddha. An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book - страница 29

There are many techniques for waking up to the truth of our

experience, of which noting is just one. I have found it to be extremely powerful and fast, but each person must find what works for them. The trick is to get to know one's reality as it is, and what techniques one uses to do this do not matter much so long as they work and bring results.

What is meant by “results” will be clearly spelled out in The Progress of Insight in Part III.

INVESTIGATION OF THE TRUTH

Once we start to know what our objects are, what our actual reality is, then we can get down to the good stuff: knowing the truth of these things, called appropriately investi gatio n of the truth

, also called

investigation of the dharma. Dharma just means truth. So, once mindfulness has made things a bit clearer we can know that things come 40

The Seven Factors of Enlightenment

and go, don't satisfy and ain't us. Hey, the Three Characteristics again!

They are the truth, the sooner we understand this the better, and nothing helps us understand them like seeing them again and again.

Forgive this brief digression, but I am no fan of the popular term

“mindfulness meditation,” as mindfulness is essential for both concentration practices (which lead to temporary bliss states) and insight practices (which lead to fundamental freedom). The crucial difference between these meditation practices is that insight practices also stress investigation of the Three Characteristics, whereas concentration practices emphasize stabilizing in the illusion of solidity and continuity while ignoring the fact that the sensations that make up this are all impermanent, etc. Thus, I hope that one day the modern meditation world drops this confusing term in favor of more precise language.

In addition to the categories of sensations mentioned above in Mindfulness, one could also consider consistent investigation of all sensations that seem to have to do with the direction and movement of attention, as well as investigating all sensations that have to do with questioning, wanting, the application of energy and even the individual sensations that make up the process of investigation itself. These are very interesting objects, as are “the hindrances.”

Traditionally, books on meditation spend a lot of time discussing the possible hindrances to meditation. I will not. The hindrances are an important topic, but they can easily begin to seem more ominous than they really are. Hindrances are just anything of which we were not mindful and of which we did not investigate the truth. Now that we know to be mindful and investigate the Three Characteristics of all moment-to-moment experiences, there will only be hindrances when we forget to do this.

If we do not forget to do this, there will be no hindrances. No phenomena are inherently a hindrance unless we do not understand them. If we did not understand at least one of the Three Characteristics of each of the sensations that make up a phenomenon, no matter what it was, it was a hindrance. Remember that the content of reality is not our concern in insight meditation, but the ultimate truth of the sensations that make up experiential reality is. So whatever seems to be in the way of your practice, remember that the experience of that 41

The Seven Factors of Enlightenment

moment is the practice and contains all the truth you could ever need!

All phenomena are of the nature of ultimate truth. When we know deeply that these are all of the nature of ultimate truth, phenomena cease to be a fundamental problem.

The Buddha was a master of teaching through analogies that were easily accessible to those listening to him. I am certainly not in his league in this regard, and this will be clearly demonstrated by the analogy I am about to use for investigation. However, it has its points, and so after much consideration, I have included it here.

The Buddha gave his analogies names, and I have named this one

“The Analogy of Shootin’ Aliens.” Bear with me here! Just about all of us in this day and age have at least seen if not played video games involving shooting aliens. As the game goes on, the aliens come in faster and faster, some taking multiple hits to kill them. Some of these games penalize us for wasting ammunition, causing us to really focus on exactly where and when these aliens are arising, so that we may shoot them exactly when they arise as efficiently as possible before they shoot us.