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Notes from last week:
སེམས་ཀྱི་བྱེད་ལས་སམ་ཁྱད་ཆོས།
The special qualities of the Mind
༡༽ སེམས་ཀྱི་འཆར་སྒོ་གྲངས་མང་བ། Our mind has numerous experience.
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༢༽ སེམས་དེ་ཧ་ཅང་གྱི་རང་དབང་ཆེ་བ། The independence of the Mind (or internal-oriented)
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༣༽ སེམས་རྣལ་དུ་གནས་དཀའ་བ། To stablize the mind is difficult.
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༤༽ བྱ་བྱེད་ཐམས་ཅད་སེམས་ཀྱི་གཞན་
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༥༽ སེམས་ཀྱི་རྒྱུན་བརྟན་པ། The continuum of Mind is steady.
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༦༽ སེམས་ཀྱི་གོམས་པ་མཐའ་མེད་དུ་འཕེ
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༧༽ གཞན་སེམས་རྟོགས་དཀའ་བ། To understand other’s mind is difficult.
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༨༽ རང་སེམས་ལ་བརྟག་པ་གལ་ཆེ་བ། To examine one’s own mind is significant.
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༩༽ སེམས་ཤིན་ཏུ་འདུལ་དཀའ་བ། To thoroughly subdue the mind is difficult.
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༡༠༽ སེམས་འདུལ་ན་དོན་ཆེ་བ། To subdue one’s own mind is very meaningful.
What is the best meditation to do to subdue the mind.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the mind of an enlightened Buddha experiencing?
1) If the mind is not only reflective but also imaginative and creative how does one develop the discernment necessary to avoid wrong view?
ReplyDeletePresumably, the mind is this way so as to have intelligence to discover and develop new ways of seeing and understanding itself. How is one able to discern the difference from wrong view and doctrine? How is one able to use this reflective and imaginative quality in a way that promotes a right view, especially since it is my understanding that the practice strongly encourages one to use their intelligence to understand? We should not be like sheep.
4) All activities are powered by the mind. We are not less than our mind's power. This does not seem clear to me. Does a "weak mind" imply fewer activities? How does one empower our mind? Going to point #6 is meditation the only way to grow and therefore strengthen the mind? Does one come into an incarnation with a mind possessing a particular strength, or are they of the same, starting strength?
5) The continuing mind is steady...until enlightenment. Once again, is this the "mind stream" that follows us through each incarnation? Is this mind the one that exists with the "ego" mind of afflictions, wrong view, imprints and karma or is it something else? Does this continuing mind have any sense of the "I" or "self" or is it very different from that aspect of the mind?
9) To thoroughly subdue the mind is difficult....What is the purpose of mental afflictions? Are there positive aspects of mental afflictions? Do they help us develop compassion? Some traditions posit that suffering is a path towards compassion. Is Buddhism that way? Is that the purpose of mental afflictions? Do we create them through our actions or are our actions influenced by our mental afflictions or imprints?
Reviewing the ten qualities of mind that Geshe la explained last week, I find there is quite a lot of freedom that comes from holding these qualities in mind. For instance, that there are numerous ways a mind can perceive things, that its actions are not limited, that the mind is powerful, and that we are not less powerful than the mind’s power, are all very liberating, even in just considering the potential. The qualities that I found myself reflecting on most frequently throughout this past week is that the continuum mind cannot be destroyed, and that it can grow infinitely. I take this as inspiration that there is “something” in my mind that I can find, like an anchor, to hold my mind steady and firm, regardless of other things that are happening in my immediate life. And, while the quality that through the subduing of the mind, afflictions can be eliminated, and enlightenment can be achieved, is practically impossible for me to fathom, the fact that it is in fact a quality, and that it is possible, encourages me to strive to continually strengthen my practice.
ReplyDeleteThe qualities such as the mind being difficult to stabilize, that to thoroughly subdue the mind is difficult (until we become familiar with it), and to understand the mind of another is difficult, are all good reminders that there is lots of work to be done!
Even though I know Geshe la answered this question last week, I am still unable to really integrate the understanding of one of the qualities discussed: “…you control the mind; don’t let the mind control you…” I am having trouble finding who/where is the “I” that controls the mind vs. being controlled by the mind? And then, of course, the question follows: who/where is the “I” that seeks enlightenment? The implication seems to be that there is an “I” that is separate from the mind – well probably not totally separate from, but dependent upon? – and – well - this just makes my head spin when I try to nail down where all these things are!!!