On May 14, 9:40 pm, DharmaTroll <dharmatr...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> Also, you've probably seen the old debate come up about whether
> awakening necessarily entails compassion or not. Many touchy-feely
> folks demand it does (and they may well be right): that if you are
> sufficiently awakened, you are so interconnected to others, that you
> can't help but feel compassion and act on it. Some, including Tang,
> have taken the other view: that you can be awakened but not
> necessarily be compelled to act out of compassion. You might just
> bliss out or be an amazing artist and create, or live as a hermit,
> etc.
>
> Anyway, the concentration theme sheds light on this issue. If one
> develops high levels of concentration without mindfulness or the other
> factors in the 8-step plan, one can easily become a very aware warrior
> or hit man, who is totally focused and can kill with emotional
> detachment and with no hesitation (indeed, such hesitation or
> compassion may just do him in and allow the other to get the first
> shot in). Martial arts are filled with egoless concentration.
>
> So perhaps the focus on right livelihood, right speech, etc. as well
> as right mindfulness, are included because one can get to a very high
> level of awareness with only concentration which involves no
> compassion and is morally neutral and can help one to be a good monk
> as well as a good hitman. Vipassana teachers tend to stress
> mindfulness as the most transformational aspect of meditation and
> concentration as only a means to be able to practice mindfulness
> effectively.
>
> --DharmaTroll
The Buddha's two meditation teachers, Alara Kalama and Uddaka
Ramaputta attained the last two formless attainments and thought they
had awakening. Kalama attained the "base of nothingness" and
Ramaputta "the base of neither perception nor non perception." Those
are the highest possible states of absorption in the canon.
In other words "You can't get any blanker."
The dominant myth about meditation (which I was suprised to find with
Raan just now) is that it's merely something like this, a state of
blank conciousness an nonactivity, and nothing else. It's easy
enough to think "ok, if i stop thinking, I'll stop suffering, *BAM*
enlighenment. These two teachers thought they were enlightened
because of it, and lots of other people with lots of other meditative
experiences have thought the same thing. The Buddha knew better and
left them.
The problem as you mentioned is lack of insight. Once you stand up
from a blank mind everything will just come flooding back again. It's
kind of like having a really powerful microscope but not using it to
look at anything. The Buddha had his awakening in the fourth Jhana,
which doesn't have thought (vitakka and vicara - applied and sustained
thought), but he applied his mind, though not his thoughts, to
different subjects which lead to his awakening:
"I entered & remained in the fourth jhana: purity of equanimity &
mindfulness, neither pleasure nor pain. But the pleasant feeling that
arose in this way did not invade my mind or remain.
"When the mind was thus concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished,
rid of defilement, pliant, malleable, steady, & attained to
imperturbability, I directed it to the knowledge of recollecting my
past lives...This was the first knowledge I attained in the first
watch of the night....
....I directed it to the knowledge of the passing away & reappearance
of beings...This was the second knowledge I attained in the second
watch of the night...
...I directed it to the knowledge of the ending of the mental
fermentations. I discerned, as it had come to be, that 'This is
stress... This is the origination of stress... This is the cessation
of stress... This is the way leading to the cessation of stress...
These are fermentations... This is the origination of fermentations...
This is the cessation of fermentations... This is the way leading to
the cessation of fermentations.' My heart, thus knowing, thus seeing,
was released from the fermentation of sensuality, released from the
fermentation of becoming, released from the fermentation of ignorance.
With release, there was the knowledge, 'Released.' I discerned that
'Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is
nothing further for this world."
MN 36
IMO, this may be the distinction that is made in zen between not-
thinking and non-thinking. The buddha did not apply thought, because
thoughts are ways of chopping up experience into bits, a bit like
trying to look at a large area with a small flashlight. But he did
apply his mind, which is better able to perceive the big picture.
-DaveK
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