Clear the Smoke & Put Out the Fires of Desire.
Are you able to see the smoke and smell the fire in your mind & body?
Resting Buddha
Are you able to rest in peace of mind & body?
Do you think of your self as multi-colored & multi-facited?
Begin to Get to Know Yourself.
To know yourself, you need to go inward not outward. Do NOT rely on the external world as a method to know yourself. THAT would be akin to the blind leading the blind. Take the backward step. We study our awareness as in how aware are you and what do you focus on?
We loosen our grip on our form, feelings, perceptions, impulses and consciousness of self.
It is a trip that most do not take. This trip, however, is the greatest trip of all.
Do NOT Judge Yourself – loosen your hold on all the skandhas.
Do not get attached to your form, feelings, perceptions, impulses and conscious thought. Take form as an example. Are you able to know that your form consists of earth, fire, water, air and ether. Release your attachment of the skandhas and try to understand the form according to earth, fire, water, air and ether.
It Requires Devotion.
Faithful loyalty to the work.
It requires time, silence, instructions and methods. It requires attention and awareness. Methods of calm and insight are needed. Insight arises but it cannot arise in chaos and jumble in the mind.
Insight always refers to some wisdom about suffering, our transitory nature and non-self.
When the mind is occupied, nothing can arise. Most of us are preoccupied with something or another. Worry, doubt, tasks, food, money, and piles and piles of other stuff fill the mind. Calm and tranquility cannot arise in the jumble of stuff.
These preoccupations need to settle down and drop away.
Our attitude and posture shifts when we settle down, when the mind settles and the stuff drops away. Nibbling, chewing and gnawing ceases and we see the snacks and bits and pieces scattered about.
Be Aware of What is Happening in Your Mind.
Like a young puppy, bring the puppy-mind back to the cushion repeatedly. Gently, bring the puppy-mind back to the cushion and settle down with care. No blame, no worry, just careful attention.
Get acquainted with your thinking patterns, mostly, it is about the future or the past. DO not get attached to these two patterns.
The present is often left out. We are looking off while we are right here. The future has not yet come, and the past is no longer here…it’s lunacy to keep the mind on these two things, the future imaginations and the past memory, both are made-up and fantasy.
What is Happening Right Now?
This moment is all you can take care of with attention and awareness. This moment is purification, as though you cleaned up your room, made room for wisdom to arise. BUT, as long as you keep gathering up the stuff of the future or the stuff of the past, the mind stays cluttered, and purification does not occur.
Don’t Give Up! Keep Going.
www.asinglethread.net ————- www.zatma.org