DHARMA PRACTICES
(STUDY, CONTEMPLATION AND MEDITATION)
The study of Spiritual teaching must involve a search for answers to the questions about the causes of our sufferings and the integration of those answers into our lifestyle. In eliminating our sufferings, we need to acquire an understanding of our reality and work on gaining some mastery over it.
To replace the suffering realm that we are used to living in, we need to begin a search for our true nature or our nature in a world without suffering and the true nature of a non-suffering reality, This is where the various tools that are called Buddhist or Dharma practices come into play.
It is very easy for we humans to create abstractions. We have the ability to separate ourselves from our reality and then look at it. One problem with spiritual practices is that we separate ourselves from our reality in order to look at it and then we never really re-enter our reality again.
Of course this is the result of our aversion to our suffering and confusion, but, in detaching from the suffering of our existence, we are also detaching from the joys either present or future.
It's while we are sad, or frustrated, or confused that we need to apply the Buddha's teaching in order to go beyond our suffering to reach the Buddha's peace and joy. There is a subtle but important difference between looking at our reality from the outside and actually living inside our reality but with awareness. It is the latter way of living that we are trying to accomplish with spiritual practices.
We have talked about reviewing our activities either at the end of the day or at least one day a week. This is an example of extracting ourselves from our world in order to observe what we have done in the past.
This involves reviewing actions resulting from Longing and Attachment and reviewing the suffering that these cause (including increased longing and attachment) and applying the ideas of impermanence and unsatisfactoriness to these actions.
It involves reviewing actions resulting from impatience and Anger and counteracting those with the ideas of interconnectedness and cause and effect.
It involves reviewing actions resulting from doubt, confusion, and indifference and applying the notions of interdependence and the lack of self centredness of reality.
Once we have developed regret for these actions, we take this new resolve and intention to avoid this thought speech and action into our present and future reality.
Then we review our actions resulting from Contentment, patience, Loving-kindness, and understanding and we rejoice in these virtues. Here we develop the resolve and intention to strengthen and repeat these types of actions in our future responses to our world.
This is the beginning of Dharma practice, but we soon realize that we need to have mindfulness in order to be aware of our virtues and non-virtues. We then begin to practice mindfulness of our Bodies, Feelings, and Mind and we practice being more careful in viewing and relating to our outside world.
To help in this mindfulness, we practice Shamata meditation which is designed to increase our Focus, Presence of Mind, and Awareness. Shamata meditation also helps us learn how to experience our Awareness, intentions, perceptions, feelings and outside world while being alert and relaxed without grasping, resisting, ignoring or being confused by it.
Because we are such creatures of habit, we need to interrupt our current habitual thought, speech, and action and we also need to remind ourselves continuously of what our goals are and how we can achieve those goals. We use ritual and prayer to remind us of our goals, reinforce our wishes to achieve those goals, and replace some of our negative habitual thought, speech, and action.
The more we can involve our thought, speech, and action in virtuous activity, the stronger the impression it will leave on our minds. The more that we involve sights, sound, smell, taste, touch, and ideas, the greater the imprint and the stronger the force these virtuous thoughts, words, and deeds will be in our life now and in the future.
We also use prayers and rituals to request help in accomplishing our goals, and express our appreciation and gratitude for any assistance that we get and to express our appreciation of the value of the teachings that we have received to guide us.
We also need to remind ourselves of the instructions for eliminating our Longings, Attachments,frustrations, fears, doubts and confusion. We may start working on one aspect of these causes of our suffering and then need to remind ourselves of the different techniques that can be used, the different ideas that we need to think about, and the new approaches that we need to try.
In order to make this work, we need to take some time during the day or during the week to take a part of the teaching and read about it. We can begin by reading different texts or searching out and listening to lectures about a specific issue or concern in our life.
When thinking about or listening to a discussion of a topic, we need to notice what feelings and ideas come to mind with each idea presented in that lesson. We need to note or even write down any doubts, or questions that arise. We need to look for any grasping, resistance, confusions or indifference and be clear about the causes of these feelings. If they can be resolved, then we should seek to resolve them.
When we reach the feelings or ideas that the teachings say should be generated by this particular lesson, then we allow our mind to rest in that feeling or mind state for a few moments, focusing our attention on that feeling. This helps to reinforce these feelings. This is called placement meditation.
For example, after contemplating and reading about the Buddha-Nature, when we reach the point where we realize and actually begin to feel that WE and ALL beings have Buddha-Nature, then we allow our mind to rest in that feeling, to welcome that feeling for several minutes.
When contemplating Compassion, when we come to the point where we actually feel the desire to be able to free others from suffering, we allow our mind to rest in that desire.
Using placement helps to reinforce these feelings and ideas in our mind. By placing energy and time in positive mind states such as these, these mind states will arise more often and eventually become completely a part of our way of thinking and feeling. It is like programming a computer to perform a certain task under certain conditions. We program our mind to bring up certain positive, helpful ideas under certain situations, which allows us to eventually develop into a freer, happier, and more skillful person.
The power of concentration and focus developed in Shamata meditation is very helpful in the practice of placement. The steps in this set of teachings are divided along the lines of first doing contemplation of the teachings and then practicing placement meditation on each topic.
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