Apparently November 2021 was a break so December is month 4 of “The Pāramitā Challenge” (which I previously wrote and spoke on the first three months.)
In addition to contemplating topics about the Pāramitās or Perfections, so far, this challenge also includes precepts, the (10 Abodes from the) 52 Stages of the Bodhisattva Path and Bodhisattva vows.
Instructions are to journal contemplations resulting from observed intentions, opportunities, and actions to be generous, moral and ethical while arousing faith in the Triple Gem then seeing where/when confident and where/when in doubt.
This month includes the Pāramitā on diligence, the Right Speech precept (also doubling as a past Insight Timer live event) and the middle stages of the 10 Abodes from the 52 Stages of the Bodhisattva.
I’ve not taken Bodhisattva vows, and so with little instruction in Mahāyāna Buddhism, apart from maybe a smidgen of the zen stuff, there’s the benefit of beginner’s mind is a nice way to put it. I continue to shoot from the hip in this recording and will use a Theravada lens now and again plus a lot of inquiry as I ponder out loud. It may come off at times as criticism, and sometimes it may actually be, but these are mostly solo efforts at summonings what is really meant by the material.
(Past) material for the Pāramitā Challenge is now at https://maba-usa.org/paramita-challenge.
The Pāramīs in Theravāda Buddhism:
- Dāna pāramī: generosity, giving of oneself
- Sīla pāramī: virtue, morality, ethics, proper conduct
- Nekkhamma pāramī: renunciation
- Paññā pāramī: wisdom, discernment
- Viriya pāramī: energy, diligence, vigour, effort
- Khanti pāramī: patience, tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, endurance
- Sacca pāramī: truthfulness, honesty
- Adhiṭṭhāna pāramī : determination, resolution
- Mettā pāramī: goodwill, friendliness, loving-kindness
- Upekkhā pāramī: equanimity, serenity
The Pāramitās in Mahāyāna Buddhism:
The Prajñapāramitā sūtras (प्रज्ञापारमिता सूत्र), and a large number of other Mahāyāna texts list six perfections and the Ten Stages Sutra gives pāramitās 7 – 10:
- Dāna pāramitā (दान पारमिता): generosity, giving of oneself (in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, 布施波羅蜜; in Tibetan, སྦྱིན་པ sbyin-pa)
- Śīla pāramitā (शील पारमिता): virtue, morality, ethics, discipline, proper conduct (持戒波羅蜜; ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས tshul-khrims)
- Kṣānti pāramitā (क्षांति पारमिता): patience, tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, endurance (忍辱波羅蜜; བཟོད་པ bzod-pa)
- Vīrya pāramitā (वीर्य पारमिता): energy, diligence, vigor, effort (精進波羅蜜; བརྩོན་འགྲུས brtson-’grus)
- Dhyāna pāramitā (ध्यान पारमिता): one-pointed(ness) concentration, contemplation (禪定波羅蜜, བསམ་གཏན bsam-gtan)
- Prajñā pāramitā (प्रज्ञा पारमिता): wisdom, insight (般若波羅蜜; ཤེས་རབ shes-rab)
- Upāya pāramitā (उपाय पारमिता): skillful means (方便波羅蜜）
- Praṇidhāna pāramitā (प्राणिधान पारमिता): vow, resolution, aspiration, determination (願波羅蜜）
- Bala pāramitā (बल पारमिता): spiritual power (力波羅蜜）
- Jñāna pāramitā (ज्ञान पारमिता): knowledge (智波羅蜜）
This month more or less includes slightly edited original notes both for week 4 and for the Insight Timer live event doubling as week 3:
Week 3 — (Also doubled as a “Mindfulness of Speaking” Insight Timer Live event I did with some mostly initial rough notes being:
Event description:
Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? Is it helpful? Is it the right time? We’ll explore these guidelines for wise and skillful speech and share stories, challenges, insights and do some practice
The Ten Non-Virtuous and Ten Virtuous Actions:
The Unwholesome and the Wholesome
Speech:
4. False speech, lying
4. Speak only what is truthful
5. Harsh words
5. Speak with a tone of gentle caring
6. Divisive speech, slander
6. Use harmonious, unifying speech
7. Idle speech, gossip
7. Discuss beneficial topics
58 Bodhisattva Vows:
- 4th — Don’t lie or engage in wrong speech.
From The Brahmā’s Net Sutra:
- Prohibition of Intentional Lying:
My disciples, if you engage in lying on your own, encourage others to lie, or lie through deception, then you are involved in the causes of lying, the conditions of lying, the method of lying, and the act of lying. This also includes saying that one has seen what one has not seen, saying you have not seen something that you have seen, or lying [implicitly] through bodily actions or within one’s own mind. Bodhisattvas always give rise to right speech and right views, and also lead all sentient beings to practice right speech and right views. If, on the other hand, you lead sentient beings to wrong speech, wrong views, and wrong activities, this constitutes a bodhisattva pārājika offense. The fourth major precept prohibits false speech. A disciple of the Buddha must not himself engage in false speech, encourage others to do so, facilitate false speech, nor may he involve himself in the causes, conditions, methods, or karma of false speech, to the extent of saying that he has seen what he has not seen, or that he has never seen what he has actually seen, or lying through physical or mental deeds. A Bodhisattva should always maintain proper speech and proper views and lead all other beings to maintain them as well. If, instead, he causes all beings to give rise to deviant karma, he thereby commits a Bodhisattva Parajika offense.
- This talk puts stuff under a microscope but coming from a place of kindness and care usually supersedes this approach
- millennial texting
- Pain
- Lashing out with speech
- Victim/victimizer cycles
- Shutting down
- my background with this:
more emphasis on how words are spoken than what - kind of abusing power of speech for influence and gain
- not respecting power of speech
- not saying I don’t know, or giving a quick answer as not to appear stupid or not helpful
- forgetting significant key points then remembering later and wondering whether to go back and mention them
- Not so much me clinging to negative speech anymore but me not remembering what I said or overemphasizing something I said where the other (says) they don’t even remember it
- Started off behind the scenes organizing and editing podcasts with little interest to be public myself
- awkwardness of hearing voice recorded
- inferior ego prevented from even considering doing such a thing
- now the spiritual ego has other challenges like balancing as long as there’s no harm intended is it all OK with am feeling too loose so over regulating, self-censoring, or putting speech under a spiritual microscope
- recording dynamics: slow, fast, (no)time limits, relaxation, energy
- um, like, aaah, you know, right, and other shutterings
- Buddha’s guidelines for speech:
- true
- kind
- necessary
- helpful
- unifying
- right time
- (Priority order for these guidelines in general and in certain situations?)
- (What takes priority over these guidelines?)
- saying things that lack other truths thus some statements aren’t really fully accurate, only in one sense
Misc:
- an acquaintance seems in love with hearing their voice and I can’t discern if it is based in egotism
- Mirror teachings. Most fond of what we notice in others is what’s we’ve already addressed in ourselves; and maybe reflect back my own light
- Dominating and foisting unrequested wisdom in real life mostly with groups so thank goodness for online outlets to share wisdom as alternative to compulsion to force something on somebody, or step on their path. This way others can choose. What’s the real life version of this? Speaking events?
- “you need to think a little before talking so much” “yes, i agree, thank you”
- “Why do I need to think before I speak; why can I just talk?”
- Righteousness
- While we do have freedom of speech it carries responsibility.
- Repression versus excessiveness
(Quasi-formal, experimental) speech practices:
- read neutral text with main intention to hear your voice, secondary to what’s going on in your experience. Or read something charged like contract revocations for contrast
“Monks, there are these five aspects of speech by which others may address you: timely or untimely, true or false, affectionate or harsh, beneficial or unbeneficial, with a mind of good-will or with inner hate. Others may address you in a timely way or an untimely way. They may address you with what is true or what is false. They may address you in an affectionate way or a harsh way. They may address you in a beneficial way or an unbeneficial way. They may address you with a mind of good-will or with inner hate. In any event, you should train yourselves: ‘Our minds will be unaffected and we will say no evil words. We will remain sympathetic to that person’s welfare, with a mind of good will, and with no inner hate. We will keep pervading him with an awareness imbued with good will and, beginning with him, we will keep pervading the all-encompassing world with an awareness imbued with good will — abundant, expansive, immeasurable, free from hostility, free from ill will.’ That’s how you should train yourselves.
“Suppose that a man were to come along carrying a hoe & a basket, saying, ‘I will make this great earth be without earth.’ He would dig here & there, scatter soil here & there, spit here & there, urinate here & there, saying, ‘Be without earth. Be without earth.’ Now, what do you think — would he make this great earth be without earth?”
“No, lord. Why is that? Because this great earth is deep & enormous. It can’t easily be made to be without earth. The man would reap only a share of weariness & disappointment.”
“In the same way, monks, there are these five aspects of speech by which others may address you: timely or untimely, true or false, affectionate or harsh, beneficial or unbeneficial, with a mind of good-will or with inner hate. Others may address you in a timely way or an untimely way. They may address you with what is true or what is false. They may address you in an affectionate way or a harsh way. They may address you in a beneficial way or an unbeneficial way. They may address you with a mind of good-will or with inner hate. In any event, you should train yourselves: ‘Our minds will be unaffected and we will say no evil words. We will remain sympathetic to that person’s welfare, with a mind of good will, and with no inner hate. We will keep pervading him with an awareness imbued with good will and, beginning with him, we will keep pervading the all-encompassing world with an awareness imbued with good will equal to the great earth — abundant, expansive, immeasurable, free from hostility, free from ill will.’ That’s how you should train yourselves.
Kakacupama Sutta: The Simile of the Saw (excerpt)
- identify challenges with being down on ourselves then just start talking focusing mostly on them. for me: um, like, aaah, you know, right, and other shutterings
- How much do we want to amplify the unskillfulness of any perceived challenges balanced with not denying them?
Week 4
https://twitter.com/JJDippold/status/1476261788710838282
- How about “impending immediacy” [in addition to emptiness, stillness, (light of) presence] for a translation of suññatā / Śūnyatā?
- empty of what?
- only encouraged to study, contemplate and practice emptiness with very stable, gathered, collected and unified mind
- can investigate phenomena by going behind, behind, behind, beyond, beyond, beyond
- [Did not mention in the audio:] what are the similarities and differences between emptiness and 7th formless jhana of nothingness? Between emptiness and voidness?
- Notion of “emptying” referencing a talk on the “Shorter Discourse on Emptiness”
- essence
- unbalance of cart blanche because nothing is really real and substantive, what does it matter. unbalance of the inferior ego of I’m insignificant, less than and futile
- womb
- consider pairing with non-emptiness because with how existence is now how would we know one without the other?
- reference points for emptiness
- some other talks on emptiness (not mentioned in the audio)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prajnaparamita
- [Did not mention in the audio:] Fond of “Ever Beyond” (from Ever Beyond radio show) in reference to:
Gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā
“gone, gone, everyone gone to the other shore, awakening, svaha.”
literally: “Gone gone, gone beyond, gone utterly beyond, Enlightenment hail!” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_Sutra
Audio: Pāramitā (Perfections) Challenge: December 2021
Or listen via Insight Timer (app or website)
Months 1-3, August thru October 2021 of the Pāramitā Challenge
The raw unedited YouTube transcription of this podcast:
this is month four of the parameter challenge december 2021 there was a
month off last month in november and here we have the first week being the
six perfections and their subdivision from the sutra on understanding the
profound and esoteric doctrine number four diligence also effort and zeal
and these pervade all the precepts it says here and there’s three dis subdivisions
zeal to exert effort like one who has put on an armor zeal to exert effort and
engendering good zeal to exert effort in benefiting
sentient being so first off this word zeal it’s interesting
how there’s also a similar word called zealot and i think it’s beyond the scope of this podcast to
go into that but i just pointed out as interesting diligence
and effort is the one i’m inclined more to now this first one zeal to exert effort
like one who has put on an armor it’s interesting this image of armor right so
in the positive sense this is someone who feels protected so there’s really a lot less fear right because
there’s a protection already in place so there’s less apprehension that they’re
going to get it wrong and something might backfire and get hurt really easily
so that’s the upside now the maybe the drawback of this image of armor is
that we can kind of shut down and protect ourselves from opening our heart right
for armoring up then there’s no vulnerability there to
possibly feel deeply and also connect deeply with others that comes
from that vulnerability lack of armoring and defensiveness and closing
down and shutting and placing an artificial barrier between us and the world
but let’s just go with the the protection thing and say yes the
kind of unifying idea that makes sense to me here is what’s needed to be able to feel safe
enough to arouse and sustain energy effort and diligence for what’s
needed you know the for right efforts are eliminating unwholesome states
preventing unwholesome states from arising maintaining wholesome states that have arisen and generating
wholesome states that have yet arisen so the second one here is zeal to exert
effort and engendering good now it’s interesting here they got the two kind
of energizing words zeal to exert effort so in one way maybe that’s a little bit
redundant it’s basically motivation though to amp up the energy the effort
the diligence to do good and this engineering it’s it’s interesting how
popular this gender thing has become like out of the blue all of a sudden relatively speaking here um and of
course engendering so interesting choice of word there but
this just speaks in general the way i take it to our goodness and
how that’s what it’s all about you know goodness and raises the
questions well what is goodness how do i recognize that how do i promote that how do i
serve that how do i increase that with effort there’s this interesting phrase called the greater good and i think this is
important enough to point out now and i don’t think it’s been used as much
recently as it has in the i don’t know recent memory before that so for me it’s
like a kind of a red flag if somebody just says greater good do it for the greater good well
the obvious question there is the greater good of who and then this can if it’s not specific it can allude to
well there’s good but this group here is a greater good you know so
when i see that i all it could very well have good intentions but it could also not so much so that is
why i’ve placed importance on well the greater good of who and if i had to answer that myself it would be the
greater good of all greater good of all beings everywhere so this third one zeal to exert
effort and bent of benefiting sentient beings so this ties in with goodness and
again this is sealed to exert effort zeal and then exertion and then effort
so this is like i guess it was my bad on the previous thing so it’s actually like a triple energy thing here yeah and i’ve
spoke to this before once we’re in a good enough space to help ourselves then it just
really doesn’t make sense to really do much anything else but be of service right to
share what we know with others because what are the other options we can just
keep piling up merit and goodness and good for ourselves but that would be
service to self and you know we can’t take that all with us right so what do we do it seems like the
really only option is service and it doesn’t have to be necessarily
you know service with time or money can just be an energetic thing a consciousness thing
or not just but in addition to a presence intent too
could be in our choices and knowing that even if we don’t see
an immediate effect or think it’s insignificant know that a bucket of water is filled up
drop by drop the classic saying that don’t think bad will come to you as
drop by drop of water buckets filled and the same as the the opposite don’t think that uh
goodness won’t come because again a bucket is filled up drop by drop and this is
the first week of the fourth month of the perimeter challenge december 2021
so week two of the parameter challenge this is month 4 december
2021 this is from the 10 parameters in the doctrine of your consciousness
the 10 excellent moral exercises are the 10 parameters this is number four
english translation is zeal in making progress and the commentary is zealand making
progress is of three kinds seal in producing great resolutions
zeal in acquiring good spiritual dharmas and three zeal and promoting the
well-being and happiness of sentient beings so zeal in producing great
resolutions so maybe in the west we hear the word resolutions
perhaps we’re thinking of like new year’s resolutions things we
hope to accomplish maybe goals that are more serious and that involve effort and
zeal to accomplish but what is a great resolution what are the criteria
and how is the zeal effort or energy involved in these great resolutions
and in producing great resolutions the most obvious
one would be making a resolve for again right effort
these are the things that are clearly laid out preventing unwholesome states from arising eliminating
unwholesome states that have arisen before that even maintaining wholesome states that are present
and generating producing wholesome states that have yet arisen
and we’re wholesome can also be skillful
as a substitute this is the word kusala and then the opposite a kusala
but this effort and zeal and resolution perhaps can be applied to
much of the path where effort and energy is required
it’s like the eightfold noble path they all enter weave within each other
kind of all interdependent and boost and support each other
really aren’t that separable in a way so when are
resolutions needed when it’s resolved needed and when does resolve need to be
backed up a little bit back down from a little bit and this is where wisdom and discernment
can come in to set the bar for what is a great resolution
what is not what new resolutions need to be produced and what current ones need
to be given more energy and effort so number two zeal in acquiring good
spiritual dharmas acquiring good spiritual dharmas that’s
interesting at one point at some point i feel acquiring is a good thing to have for
spiritual dharmas because there’s just kind of this natural or maybe unnatural energy to acquire things right in
everyday life people are trying to acquire a paycheck acquire a partner acquire a living place
or a better living place um acquire cars investments and acquire this and
that acquires experiences and knowledge and wisdom
so this acquisition there’s a lot more wholesome acquisitions and others and in this
instance yeah spiritual dharmas good spiritual dharma would be something beneficial to acquire at least for a
while it’s also contrasted with relinquishment letting go abandoning so
these are perhaps paradoxical values that are also wholesome and beneficial but
again it depends on what’s being acquired and what’s being relinquished let go of abandoned so yeah eventually
even good spiritual dharmas will likely have to be abandoned too just like the
parable of the raft the dharma being the raft once across the flood the river the
further shore there’s really no need to carry it around anymore so acquiring good spiritual dharmas
um so what is a bad spiritual dharma maybe these are just wrong teachings or
wrong paths or things that lead towards more suffering and away from
long-term happiness and well-being for ourselves and others of course the word spiritual is an
interesting one now because it’s been used a lot and i think its potency has been
diminished a lot and of course dharma’s here i guess refers to is the teachings of
the buddha or also the truth of the way things are so for me the spiritual
dharmas would be kind of a redundant usage here but so with the criticism
aside what does this mean how can we put effort into acquiring good spiritual
dharmas well in today’s day and age there’s so many different teachings out there at our fingertips
so there’s really not much excuse to dive into them study familiarize
yourself with teachings and truth in reality
no really shortage of ways to share these and actually seek them out
invite them in put out calls for these for things that aren’t already in existence and the energy and effort and
zeal behind this can get momentum so when we use kind of review knowledge or
just reflection on you know the benefits of good teachings knowing the benefits
of how certain teachings and ways to see reality can benefit not only us but
other people notice the changes in our lives for the better and perhaps this plays into more of like
some addictive tendencies but in a good way so instead of putting a lot of energy into acquiring
things that probably won’t do us much good we can if that energy is there redirect it into things more beneficial
and awesome finding a good teacher our teachers that we resonate with and spiritual friends too
pouring our energy and effort into that and reveling in the goodness
the rewards of this so number three zeal and promoting the well-being and happiness
of sentient beings as i’ve mentioned before once we’re at a certain spot in our
lives where our well-being and happiness is at a place that’s adequate
we can experience even more happiness and well-being by promoting the
well-being and happiness of others so it’s just this constant reinforcing feedback loop of the good
sort as we help ourselves we help others as others are helped we’re helped
benefited so anything we acquire in life we eventually can’t take with us
and while we continue to increase our well-being and happiness it
just doesn’t make sense to me to just serve ourselves at some point we have so
much to share and so many things we can do to help
and at the same time not stepping on anybody’s journey as well so just being open when the chance
presents itself when someone comes to us asking for help well-being
specific wisdom and also having online platforms where we can do this as well
and so we don’t have to wait for specific things we can share in in public without forcing it on
anybody and then if anybody’s interested perhaps they’ll come across it online
that way one specific example that comes to mind is i can’t remember where i heard this
is how many times that do we take for granted that we haven’t taken another
human life today more than likely anybody that’s listened to this hasn’t done that right and i mean it seems kind
of absurd in one way but just think if everybody on earth would just refrain from taking human human life for one day
how different this world would be and knowing that we like everyone else
desire well-being and happiness we all have that in common i don’t think anybody wakes up in the morning says i
don’t want to be well i want to be shitty today i want to be sad and miserable so in this way we all have
this in common and we can remember this when we see someone having a bad day or we’re having a bad day or we fall short
of our goals and expectations and also celebration too when things
are calling for celebration because it’s really challenging to be upset at something when we’re celebrating it
tying back into resolutions so we can resolve and intend for well-being and happiness for
ourselves and others can invite that in use the for right efforts to promote
this as well and that’s week two december 2021 month for the
parameter challenge wholeness and welcome this is josh deppel from integrating presence and today
is mindfulness of speaking and the description for this event
i’ve got is it true is it kind is it necessary is it helpful is it the right
time we’ll explore these guidelines for wise and skillful speech and share stories
challenges insights and do some practices so this is also going to double as the
parameter challenge that i’ve done one podcast on for the previous three
months and i’ll just fly through that real quick reading what’s
of that pertaining to this and happened to line up so this is week
three the fourth month of the parameter challenge that deals today’s topic the
10 non-virtuous and 10 virtuous actions divided into the unwholesome and
wholesome with speech so number four is false speech or lying
contrasted with speaking only what is truthful five is harsh words
contrasted with speaking with the tone of gentle caring six divisive speech and slander
contrasted with harmonious unifying speech seven idol speech and gossip contrasted with
discuss beneficial topics it’s also one of the 58 bodhisattva vowels which i haven’t
taken but i’m interested in studying them it’s fourth don’t lie or engage in wrong speech and um this is from the brahmas
the brahma’s net sutra prohibit prohibition on intentional lying my disciples if you engage in lying on your
own encourage others to lie or lie through deception then you are involved in the causes of lying conditions of
lying the methods of lying in the act of losses also includes saying that one has
seen what one has not seen saying you have not seen something you have seen or lying implicitly their
bodily actions are within one’s own mind bodhisattvas always give rise to right
speech right views and also lead all sentient beings to practice right speech
and right views if on the other hand you lead sentient beings to wrong speech wrong views and wrong activities this
constitutes the bodhisattva project offense and then the fourth
major precept prohibits false speech disciple the buddha must not
himself engage in false speech encourage others to do so facilitate false speech nor may he involve himself in the causes
conditions methods or karma of false speech to the extent of saying that he has seen what he has not seen he has
never seen what he’s actually seen or lying through physical or mental deeds a bodhisattva should always maintain
proper speech and proper views and lead all other beings to maintain them as well if instead he causes all beings to
give rise to deviant karma he thereby commits a bodhisattva offense and that’s those are really the
last two paragraphs are very similar in language so we’ll come back to some of that stuff
i will probably put some stuff under a microscope here but just know that when we speak
and it’s coming from a place of kindness and care that usually supersedes all
this other stuff that i’m gonna mention it’s um really quite simple
um can be but just for thoroughness sake i’ll dive into this so one of the things
around that’s happening i think i’ve noticed and maybe somebody has to
um it’s the millennial texting with the millennial generation and
you know i think i’ve even seen people that are sitting right next to each other instead of speaking to each other
they’re texting each other right and so this has just become a culture if i had
to take a wild guess i would say texting takes a level of intensity
out of interaction perhaps you know it’s closely interwined with
our devices as well now there can be you know emotional charge interwoven within text but
sometimes it’s not coming directly with the person they’re texting you know it could be something that’s
recently happened or something that’s happened in the past um you know there could be so many things
that go into like emotionality and emotional charge around texting um
so it’s it’s really complex i know i have challenges when texting of misinterpretation
both ways of what’s what i’m getting as a text and what i’m sending
out sometimes i read way more into what the text is
or sometimes yeah i misinterpret it and then my response is off you know um
today speaking um i used to not see this so much but now it’s obviously become more apparent
that there can be a lot of pain involved in speech especially people you know acting out things that have
been done to them usually when somebody says something hurtful or negative or
whatever harm is done spoken to us and things we
rightfully say to others it’s usually a reflection of what’s already been done to us
and so this is kind of the victim victimizer cycle so when we’re not aware that what others say to us really
doesn’t have much at all to do with us it it’s showing us where the other person is at on their path
and what’s been done to them both you know negative and positive
and so becoming aware of that and where we have a choice to break these victim victimizer cycles in this victim
programming in victimizer programming and also victim shaming too that’s another thing
um of course the most obvious is when people lash out with speech um
i’m sure we’ve all done that as well because a lot of us are just going through so much pain it’s almost like a
an outlet and so and as well as anger so it can be a double-edged sword you know some people
deal with it by just shutting down and sometimes that could be the most helpful
thing for a little while instead of hurting others but then if we internalize it
then we can hurt ourselves too so it’s about finding a space in a way to
release what’s saying in a skillful way in a skillful environment
with friends maybe with professionals just with practice even maybe monologuing like
this i don’t know so my um i’ll just share some of my background with this
i guess maybe in high school maybe even grade school i wasn’t really comprehending why people weren’t
paying attention to what i was saying and it finally dawned on me they were paying more attention to how it was
being said and it seems so you know obvious now but it’s even more noticeable
when um someone is speaking very emotionally um and they’re really heated and it can
also be when clinging to views and opinions and ideas like i used to do even more so than now right
and so and realize especially people that identify more with emotions they’ll tend to pay
just as much if not more attention to the conveyance and the emotion behind the words than the actual content itself
right um to this expression and another thing i used to abuse speech by
just you know kind of having a decent grasp of the english language and using
it to really not respect its power but only using it for to gain influence
and um well gain and influencing people and so um you know like the silver
tongue right and away with words and so this and so that’s kind of an underlying
thing of uh there was at that point there was really no notice of um an emphasis on non-harming
okay so a lot of times also be quick to speak because we don’t want
to or at least i know in my experience that um i don’t want to look like i don’t know or i’m stupi or i’m stupid or
something or not helpful so sometimes i will just forget to say oh well i don’t really know here’s my best guess i’ll
just jump into just saying whatever in order to look intelligent or
come off as not stupid or not helpful so i’ll just kind of jump in
and say something and then i guess there’s the opposite where people are kind of more standoffish and maybe
indifferent to um something they they possibly could help out but for whatever reason
they just are indifferent towards it another thing that happens quite
regularly in my experience is i will forget significant key points and what i’m trying to say and then i
remember later and then um wondering if i should go back and say that now sometimes you know
it comes into where okay yeah i really need to go say that because it will completely
change what i really meant to say but it was an oversight or you know something wasn’t remembered and then it was but
then a lot of times you go back and you say that they’re like well i don’t even remember you know what you were saying
and then so it’s like we put sometimes too much emphasis can be said but other
times it’s like oh we just blow stuff off and then where we could easily you know it wouldn’t take but a second to go
back and go back and backtrack and um clear things up say things more wisely
skillfully and kindly or just things that have been forgotten okay so now i’m going to talk a little
bit about public speaking so this might not apply to too many people but i’m sure we’ve all had to do some kind of
public speaking and whether a job or school or maybe we’re considering more of it or whatever
i had um i worked in online marketing for a while and i was behind the scenes um you know organizing and editing
podcasts and whatnot promoting them and i was pretty much i would i mean
would have never considered going in front of a camera or a microphone i mean just i don’t know if it terrified me i
just maybe i don’t know i really didn’t have much interest in it at all i was just content with uh just
you know doing the behind the scenes work one of the things that was really awkward was hearing my own voice played
back and i’m sure we’ve all experienced this too and it’s interesting just to hear your own voice played back
and what kind of response and reaction we have to that and
now it’s almost like okay there’s a lot of room for improvement
and that’s okay it’s just being okay with stuttering and stammering a lot of us
and oz and you know so i mean that helps me in one way but in another way it’s like
okay well maybe there needs to be more practice with this um [Music]
you know in order to improve on that aspect and then also now you know um it’s more
of a spiritual ego than an inferior or superior ego so now you’ve got things
like balancing well you know as long as i have this intention of not harming then it’s
pretty much all okay i can just either be guided or
trust that whatever i’m gonna say is just gonna come out and it’s what’s meant to be said and so there’s that
side with okay am i being a little bit overly loose
with speech and so then i start over regulating self-censoring and putting all my speech
in actions and intent under a spiritual microscope and just process process process
instead of just trusting so there’s that dynamic and then when it comes to actual recording itself there’s some days where
when i do recordings offline that aren’t live i can get kind of into a meditative state and i just talk
very slow and deliberately and can take long pauses of depletion
until the next dawning of realization happens right and
then in the editing there’s this thing where you can remove silences so you can you know
get kind of almost where you want to be you can represent
yourself that you wouldn’t normally represent in just kind of other modalities or
other situations or places in life and so you could take like a 20 minute recording and cut it down maybe by a
half or two thirds with the silences removed um so another thing is you know how much
time do do we have in a public speaking so that’s obviously going to
affect how maybe anxious we’ll get to get through everything or if we’ll just
you know there’s there’s so much with that right so are we going to just speed up and try
to get everything done just say yeah skip it just got to stop here
so what amount of relaxation needs to be involved but which amount of energy i
tend to be a little more animated a little more energy when speaking and
you know but some people they’re really kind of
you know grasping for words and i can be like that too on some days right it’s like oh the brain just
mind isn’t really kicked in yet and kind of oh you know what’s the right word here and
[Music] am i slowing down too much right um
locking up freezing up but usually performance anxiety things like that and of course
identifying the words that
may serve us better and an audience better to be more mindful of when they’re spoken
spoken like for me there’s um’s like uh
ah you know right so
so so there’s a balancing act between doing those and how much emphasis do we
want to put on that so if we put a lot of emphasis on okay those are my challenges
and then we put so much energy into oh that you know these are so negative i should
just oh why do i do this and so we have we build up this energy in this mindset
of the things that we have challenges with with speech and then
that will seem to come across even more so when we speak right and so we can
become unconscious of those challenges but they’re still there
amplified right so sometimes we don’t realize those that unconsciousness is amplified so
when we go back and listen to how we talk it seems like if they weren’t as amplified they’re not as noticeable so
it’s okay if you do a little bit of stuttering uh um like but when i start to make a big deal out of it right
that’s when it becomes even more noticeable so it’s balancing that with okay well how do we
work on that without denying it and also
you know not giving it too much energy okay so the buddha’s guidelines
for speech um is it true is it kind is it necessary
is it helpful and is it the right time what is the priority what is our
priority for this these five things in general like if you summed up
your speech or speech speech in general you know which one of these comes to the top of the list of
which one i’m feel confident and succeeding at and which one needs a little more attention and then we can
also do this in certain situations because certain situations some might have more precedence over
others so with the truth one you know for me that’s always been
um i guess maybe uncommonly that’s been not a thing with me i would just
other than when other people can detect when they’re you know just kind of not really respecting
truth and little white lies and um you know even bsing and stuff like that
at a certain point especially if you can’t tell they’re doing that
and then other you know that gets there’s a fine line there because we can say things that lack other truths right
you can say something that’s true but you’re deliberately leaving out another part
of something truthful that’s vital that would also be kind to the other person
necessary for the other person helpful and it would be timely right um
so why it’s still accurate in one sense it’s not the full thing but then you balance
that with okay well how long am i gonna have to stay here to give the entire truth are we gonna be like in a court of
law where i have to just go through everything so again that’s where discernment comes in
some miscellaneous things there’s this acquaintance who just
yeah i guess one of my trick he just seems to love the sound of his voice it’s almost like when public speaking it’s
just like on a stage and oh listen to the golden
sound of my voice it’s so amazing and i have everybody’s attention just
captivated listening to me and it’s very important and of course i’m being sarcastic to um
illustrate a point here but you know so why does that trigger me there’s these teachings in spirituality
about things being a mirror right and you know kind of the negative part of that well would say oh well that’s what
you’re you’re showing what you um what you need um to work on or you know
that’s you being reflected back to you and well maybe i’m not gonna say it’s
totally wrong i like this tweak on it by saying what we notice in
others is what we’ve already addressed in ourselves so see how there’s kind of a
slight more positive or at least neutral thing instead of using it as a um
reward and punishment system this mere mere teachings and you know eventually it can get to a
point where we can see other people reflecting back our own light
so that’s kind of like a higher version of the mirror teaching i would think you know for that you would just be um
possibly you know um kind of a self respect and you know um
wanting honor um confidence perhaps
another thing is it was a time where i’d be joining groups and i would be just kind of foisting
unrequested wisdom in real life on people and just kind of dominating the group and it
easily caught up to me and you know for whatever reason some people aren’t ready to hear certain things some people are
don’t have the tools and um and a way to manage your
manage or address or how to deal with something that would come up possibly sharing certain things
one of the great things about insight timer in the wisdom app is that it can be in just online general is we can
share and not you know uh force it on someone and if someone’s interested they can
come to the platform instead of me going out and just you know being like a manic street
preacher or something yeah and then also especially in real life is not sharing
wisdom unless it’s specifically requested and this is a really hard thing for me to come to terms with
because you know the masculine just wants to jump in and fix everything right or okay i’ve got all this wisdom here here’s what you need to i still
struggle with this i can see this this this and so another suggestion is you go and
you actually practice what you would advise somebody else to do even more so before you would advise them over i
think it was over thanksgiving something came up and i was talking it’s kind of a challenging thing to say and
my dad came in and he said josh you need to think a little bit more before you talk so much and i said right away yes i
agree thank you it really just kind of um cut the tension of what was going on
and then my mom actually said this today though she said it’s maybe a little personal so i
probably but i’ll just say it anyway she says why do i need to think before i speak
you know why can’t i just talk and i won’t say that who that’s in reference to or whatever
but you know this speaks to righteousness you know this is
this is a righteous sometimes a indignation um but it’s just kind of me being
righteous just saying that too right so this it brings to mind some people have to walk on eggshells to
say something you know can there be an ease with saying things but also
you know with this freedom of speech we have it also carries a big
responsibility so i think it’s balancing that because they’re like i said earlier
repression versus excessiveness we can shut down and repress we want to say but there’s the other end of where
just speaking excessively and compulsively too right
steve says i find those transition words so right are not even noticeable unless
spoken very often when a person never uses them it’s even more distracting
that’s interesting yeah when a person never uses them then it’s more it’s even more distracting so that’s interesting i
have to pay more attention to that when people usually don’t do them and then all of a sudden maybe they’ll come in there and
um you know throw those in maybe just uh to match who they’re talking to to make them feel more comfortable or something
um one of the practices here is um reading neutral text with the main intention to
hear your voice so actually the content will be secondary to what’s going on in your
experience so if we read a script then we can focus on other aspects besides
the meaning trying to put together what we’re going to say next you know thinking about what’s been said you know
all this stuff what they’ve said before what i said in the past how are they going to perceive this
on and on and on so if we read a script then we can pay more attention to kind of how we’re speaking and kind of
our own experience of just letting words out that we can also read something very charged and contrast it with something
read neutrally there’s something called contract revocations and possibly i’ll link those in the show notes
if i do if i include this portion and a podcast which can really get lit up with uh emotions
so i’ll just read this is a suita here and this is actually kind of beautiful
monks are practitioners there are these five aspects of speech by which others may
address you timely or untimely true or false affectionate or harsh beneficial
or unbeneficial with the mind of good will or with them with inner hate
they may address you with what is true or what is false they may address you in an affectionate way or a harsh way they
may address you in a beneficial way or an unbeneficial way they may address you with a mind of good will or inner hate
in any event you should train yourselves our minds will be unaffected and we will
say no evil words we will remain sympathetic to that person’s welfare with a mind of good
will and with no inner hate we will keep pervading him with an awareness imbued
with goodwill and being with him we will keep pervading the all-encompassing world with an awareness
imbued with goodwill abundant expansive immeasurable free from hostility free
from ill will this is how you should train yourselves suppose that a man were to come along carrying a hoe and basket
saying i will make this great earth be without earth he would dig here and
there scatter soil here and there spit here and there urinate here and there saying be without earth be without earth
now what do you think would he make this great earth be without earth no lord why is that because this great
earth is deep and enormous it can’t easily be made to be without earth the man would reap only
a share of weariness and disappointment in the same way monks or practitioners there are these
five aspects of speech by which others may address you timely or untimely true or false affectionate or harsh
beneficial or unbeneficial the mind of good will or within or hate others may address you in a timely way or in an
untimely way they may address you with what is true what is false they may address you in an affectionate way or a
harsh way they may address you in a benef a beneficial way or an unbeneficial way they may address you
with the mind of good will or with inner hate in any event you should train yourselves our mind will be unaffected
when we say no evil words we will remain sympathetic to that person’s welfare with a mind of good will and with no
inner hate we will keep pervading him with an awareness imbued with good will and beginning with him we will keep
pervading the all-encompassing world with an awareness imbued with goodwill equal to the great earth abundant
expansive and measurable free from hostility free from real will this is high in yourself
and speaking you know the inverse of that is well what are we listening to what are we taking in you
know are we listening to like really crappy programming on television
or media right a lot of times we wouldn’t listen to something
it’s flipping that in and saying well do we want to be putting out something that isn’t beneficial that isn’t helpful that
isn’t timely that isn’t true that isn’t kind the timely thing is interesting i don’t
think that gets mentioned enough it’s just like you wouldn’t really kind of bad-mouth somebody at a funeral right or
gossip about them and say how all the bad things they did like right next to their immediate family at their funeral
it just doesn’t seem timely i guess well it’s also it’s also unkind and you know
even this talk it’s uh maybe there might have been a more beneficial talk uh closer to christmas time speaking when
people aren’t really focused as much on speaking i would think as all the other stuff going on maybe caroling or
something but so this is more experimental uh for a practice so can we identify our
challenges with being down on ourselves and then just start talking focusingly
mainly on them so we identify what where we think we have challenges where we feel we have
challenges in our speech make it in an intent maybe in regular conversation instead of
focusing so much on how we usually go about our speech in the background now this is
challenging you might have to do this with a friend focus on those challenges see
when they start to come up uh what our response is to them and so we can put more
maybe emotional energy mental energy into those challenges just kind of like
a laboratory to study them through our speech i know it’s kind of challenging so for me it would be like
just talking and now just focusing on whether i’m going to say um
like ah you know right in other stutterings however i
won’t waste your time by just getting ready to say uh right
there said right again so probably need to practice my own suggestions
before i um um ask others to do the same so it’s an idea
perhaps i’ll practice that and share it at some other point in time
and then again re-enter anything this point of how much do we want to amplify this unskillfulness
and these perceived challenges and then how much are we going to
balance that with not being in denial about them being conscious about them too so
and maria says this talk is very timely especially right before the holidays where i can practice being more skillful
with kinds of course yeah i stand corrected because of course we’re all going to be socializing around the
holidays maybe some people are already there and have got all their preparations made of course that’s
that’s a no-brainer right way under my radar thank you uh sam i found it effective to work on my throat
chakra and area i’d recommend others looking to yeah and that’s another thing there’s um
like generational trauma in my family around the throat and neck like broken necks or well a broken neck
not for me but um thyroid conditions spots on the thyroid
uh throat cancer was one so yeah plenty of that stuff
not to mention just harshness and the connection between um the head and the heart right that’s
the bridge um some people not expressing enough some people expressing um very
unskillfully unwise and communication right yeah i mean um even if it’s non-verbal communication
that’s how we’re in relationship in the world not just to others but to all kinds of things especially with
ourselves a brief addendum here on the omitted decisive speech in
slander balanced with harmonious unifying speech
or maybe not balanced so much as abandoning one for the other and how
relevant is it to completely forget about unifying speech in the united states the
united states not the divided states however it seems almost more accurate
these days to be a divided states divided amongst ourselves divided within
ourselves in this country how many times do we or at least i know i do
prioritize certain views opinions agendas
preferences in doing so in a righteous or entitled way or maybe even
just out of pain lashing out maybe doing what’s been done to us doing what’s been
done to me before and so we lose sight of concord unification togetherness maybe some call
it oneness more accurately i find interconnectivity
interconnectedness interrelated unable to exist in a vacuum
for long anyway and so what can we do to bring more concord to speech how can we
unite instead of divide how can these choices be made and how can we choose the opposite how
can we choose not to cause polarization division separation alienation conflict
pushing people away and apart elevating some over another compartmentalizing this and that as it’s
desired or needed or fitted to how we feel things ought to be
our preferences and how do we not get down on ourselves and beat ourselves up
when we fall short while resolving intending concord unification and also
noticing what effects unifying speech has on ourselves and
others and noticing the opposite where we can see and know in this
life we have now and that’s week three for december 2021
of the parameter challenge month four with the parameter challenge december 20
21 this is from the ten abodes stages four through seven i’ll read these and
the brief description or explanation and then we’ll come back to them individually
number four the abode of producing virtues we abide peacefully in the principle of quote
unquote no self where the seed natures are purified five the abode of being
endowed with skillful mean we abide in innumerable good roots
and use expedient mean to aid in the view of emptiness number six the abode
of correct mind we abide in the completion of the wisdom of emptiness as
found in the prajna paramita suttas 7 the abode of no backsliding we abide
wherein one does not retrogress from the experience of the three gates of
liberation wishlessness signlessness and emptiness within all
four of these the common theme is emptiness and i’ve likely mentioned this before
some of the things i’m ready to talk about maybe some new things as well
so in pali it’s sanskrit
from pronouncing this right they’re often translated like i said as emptiness stillness even heard maybe
light of presence and i offer this up maybe in addition to those or
maybe this would be more accurate for some similar notions of senuta i don’t
know but how about this impending immediacy
so i’ll just leave it at that without really going into explanation now maybe if that deserves unpacking later
that will happen then so i always wonder empty of what empty if if something if there’s
emptiness that means there’s been some emptying done right but what’s been emptied out
and what remains i’ve heard some of the teachings on emptiness are really only encouraged to
practice study and contemplate these this concept maybe this truth this notion of
emptiness only when we’re in a very stable gathered and collected in a unified
state of being and state of mind because it has the possibility to
destabilize to scatter to fragment and to divide
the mind in being potentially however with my understanding if there’s
some stability to be able to look at this then a deeper truth
about reality can be seen in this notion of emptiness so one way we can investigate this
is by investigating phenomena and whatever phenomena has experienced we can keep
going behind behind behind and so something is presented and then well what’s behind
that their investigation maybe get an answer and well then what’s behind that and behind that and behind that
underneath that underneath that underneath that and i’ll just leave that there without coming up with any
conclusions for you to try for yourself and also beyond beyond beyond
some more in instead of the more deconstructive taking away method
the going beyond so what lies beyond beyond beyond and this ties right into the
third one or the sixth one here biting in the contemplation of the wisdom of the emptiness found in the
prajnaparamita sutras so there’s a culminates in the line
kategate paragate and have a couple translations here but
i’m not really fond of either one gone gone everyone gone to the other shore awakening
[Music] are gone gone gone beyond gone utterly beyond enlightenment hail
i don’t know about this word hail it’s just kind of a kind of an awkward um
unused phrase in current english especially at the end of a sentence but anyway you kind of get the idea
so mentioning previously this emptying version i recently heard
it was gail franstel when speaking on the shorter discourse on emptiness
the suta he looked at emptiness as a verb of emptying
so this process or act of emptying instead of looking at it
like a thing another thing objectifying emptiness which is kind of
contradictory maybe a misnomer so this process of well what’s extra what’s not needed
and what is the relationship like for emptying do we take it as grief and loss
lack or is it a clearing a releasing a freeing an unbinding
and shedding off of that which no longer serves us or those we love especially in
the long term perhaps another concept to explore with emptiness is
essence so can we really tune into an unchanging
static essence of anything that can be captured
and reproduced just the way we like it for as long as we like it and i would say
probably not in the long run that i know of but how much do we try to do something like this to really pin
something down and say that’s the way it is or i i know this i’m going to get
exactly what i want from this and act on the way that i want and this is
going to have the certain outcome that i desire and then well we might be able to do that for a while but is that a
long-term solution for happiness i don’t know i invite you to investigate that for
yourself a little vague and it would help to illustrate this with
specific examples but maybe you can use our imagination here
our memory our theory on real life examples of that well one way
is expectations right if let’s say your expectations are met
is that going to really provide ultimate lasting happiness or is it just going to be on to the next expectation
under the guise of oh that might do it for me really or maybe if i can just get enough expectations met in a certain
amount of time then then that’ll do it and i can just keep that up
and so that turns kind of into micromanaging with a lot of energy
and of course not all of our expectations are always met and then we’re not aware of that truth then there
can be disappointment let down this kind of deluded thought that it
should have went one way but it didn’t go that way and so we don’t realize that we that’s not a
lasting long-term strategy for satisfactoriness
and just think for a moment if you would get your way all the time then how boring would that be where would
their low growth and learning be in that okay so another notion of emptiness is
unbalance that can come with this misunderstanding notion of having carte blanche because
nothing is really real and substantive so what does it matter what happens or anything i do or
anything happens it’s all empty there’s you know there’s there’s nothing to it
so i you know what what does anything matter just kind of this nihilistic misunderstanding
and you know maybe that is on an ultimate level but until i get there we get there you know this
doesn’t that kind of line of thought doesn’t really apply you go you know you get pulled over by
authority or you come in with authority and you start saying something like that see how that’s gonna you know how how
that’s gonna help you out probably not too much or anybody else around you and then there’s also this unbalance of
the inferior ego because of this notion of oh i’m insignificant i’m less than i’m
everything’s futile nothing i do matters nothing matters this kind
of small me which is actually still an ego and this is a
not a helpful wise or skillful view of life and reality in the world
and of this notion of self we have but sometimes it doesn’t
help either to just say condemn somebody for having this few either right
so how do we convey that and resolve that and turn towards
a more helpful view so this is this lovely quote by the
sargadatta maharaja something like wisdom tells me i’m nothing love tells
me i’m everything between these two my life flows i just love the truth of that so another
notion of emptiness is like this womb-like nature a womb where something
is born from where sometimes it can be empty of
life and sometimes it can be incubating um
growing preparing for life to launch into this world right
not like a dot-com so much but we all understand this right to some degree anyway
and then when investigating emptiness consider pairing it with non-emptiness because
without exist the way existence is now how it is now how would we know one
without the other how would we know emptiness without non-emptiness and then
what kind of reference points do we have for emptiness i think the most the classic example i can think of is a a
cup being full filled and full and then it being turned and emptied out
so or once it held water or liquid of some sort now
after it’s been emptied and becomes emptied it becomes empty so now going back to each individual one
number four the abode of producing virtues we abide peacefully in the principle of no self where the seed
natures are purified the abode of producing virtues we pretty much know
what an abode is it’s a kind of a living place a dwelling place a location where
one abides and producing virtues so virtues will just kind of maybe sub out
goodness that can be put into action kind of like a value or an ethic that can be
played out in real life and also as an ideology but i guess the question
is can these be produced don’t they inherently exist aren’t they there so
they really need producing or perhaps they need kind of more realizing knowing
and then implementing but i guess it can be said that okay if they’re not there then they need to be
brought into being and that could be a production of sorts this word of
production has these kind of like mechanistic capitalistic
maybe the bad parts of capitalism anyway are the um unhelpful parts of capitalism it’s
machine-like nature of production so i don’t know if maybe i’m reading too much into that but
i like exemplifying virtues or realizing virtues would be a preference
and then we abide peacefully in the principle of no self where the seed natures are purified so we abide
peacefully that’s pretty straightforward in principles so in the principle of no self so this might have been also said
before but if something is true does it need to be a principle or what are principles and then of course i prefer
not self to no self because not everybody can immediately see
a no-self right tell people oh um who are you
oh there’s no self okay what are you talking about but not self
is more of like a strategy can we really pin down a self this has been gone over before so if you
investigate what we normally take for self as five aggregate five aggregates of body
feeling or hedonic tone perceptions synchara
perhaps fabrications or formations volitional formations
mental formations and then the last one is consciousness and then
further look into those by each one saying well am i the body do i own the body
is the body in me am i in the body so after investigating all those and
coming to the knowledge you have of those now what exactly is a self of course we have some
kind of notion that’s how we navigate the world so um in one respect there’s a
you know there’s a self this i i call josh you know i that’s what you know i go through the world and
that’s um people call me josh i’m josh and you know in one respect that’s that but if you go
deep deep deep into it none of those things they’re they’re not self so it in the respect that um they’re
always the same and that we have control over all those different aspects of it okay so circular spiral spiraling back
around to the rest of this we abide peacefully in the principle of no self where the seed natures are purified so
again i think the seed natures are are a mahayana term about a layer
consciousness and i’m still very unclear of course you know a seed contains within it all the
i guess instructions or information to grow the full plant within that given
the right causes and conditions but you know where are these
how do we pin them down how can we investigate these especially with our the current state of consciousness and
conditions for investigating something like this you know why are these why is this concept um
so important especially that it’s its own delineation of consciousness and then this notion of
purity so obviously we can see certain things on a relative level that are cleaner than
other things that have more purity levels than contamination levels
but how are seed natures purified if something’s truly natural in its natural state
what needs to be purified and what doesn’t and who’s to say or what’s to say
um what does or doesn’t and how does this notion of no self
self and no self not self come into seed natures and purification we abide
peacefully in the principle of no self for the seed natures are purified so if i had to guess what this means is if we
don’t have this entrenched story notion and solidification of a i am this
me this is who i am this is the way it is and that’s just how it is without you
know questioning or being open to looking deeper then that can potentially
cause problems and so maybe the longer we keep that notion and keep
reinforcing that notion and disseminating that notion like a seed
then we plant those seeds and then they have a potential to
either bear bad fruit or not sprout at all and not be helpful
so maybe that one is meant by seed natures and then so if we give that up
those entrench stories and notions then perhaps
that’s how they’re purified by not clinging to a fixed notion of self this is who i am
this is how it is this is mine i’m made of this so when we can lessen
those bonds then there’s a type of purification that takes place okay number five the abode of being endowed
with skillful means we abide in the innumerable good roots and use expedient
means to aid in the view of emptiness the abode of being endowed with skillful
me so endowment means right you’re given something you’re something is bestowed upon you if
i’m getting that right skillful means it’s pretty straightforward like um there’s certain
ways a goldsmith would operate that will produce a
beautiful finished piece of gold and whatever is being done like a piece of jewelry or
um an adornment on some other object and there’s ways that could happen where
that wouldn’t be the outcome or the case at the end so so are we actually endowed with these skillful means
well some people would say yes there’s a certain degree that you’re born with certain
talents and proclivities and predisposition towards certain things
perhaps because of genetics maybe if you’re into previous lives and maybe you’ve already
had tons and tons of practice and training for that but that gets into
well is it really endowed or is it come by um
association by associating with people who will support and nurture and foster
those things and or has there been a lot of effort
and desire to develop skills so that’s the question i have with the being endowed with skillful and then we
abide in innumerable good roots and use expedient means to aid in the view of
emptiness this whole notion of abiding in roots that’s really interesting right so i love this notion of roots how it’s
kind of underground and dark yet it’s a huge support and necessary part
for the rest of the plant this spreading out this absorption
being able to take in nutrients goodness while still completely
in the dark so what would a bad root be well you know there’s the poison roots
which i think is more accurate than bad roots of creed ill will
and ignorance or delusion and the good roots are the opposites of those so
generosity loving kindness wisdom so innumerable good roots all of that it’s
kind of expands on those so i guess it’s just variations of those there’s all kinds of
other good qualities too i would suppose and use expedient means to aid in the view of emptiness this notion of
expedient means kind of comes back to this impending immediacy but there’s also expedient means there’s also this
notion of spiritual urgency so yes we can use quickness and speed without being in
a hurry that’s possible i would like to know what these expedient means might be
and if there’s a also an upside to having slower means
or if both can be possible and the view of emptiness it’s interesting how it’s mentioned as a view here so when would
be skillful to use a view of emptiness and when would it be skillful not to view
have a view of emptiness or once it’s fully realized how would that affect things okay number six the abode of
correct mind we abide in the completion of the wisdom of emptiness is found in the prajnaparamita sutras sutras so i
haven’t read all these i just pretty much heard the the heart sutra which includes um what i’ve gone over before
here the kategate paragate bodhiswaja
gone gone gone beyond going utterly beyond enlightenment hail so it’s it’s hard for me to
comment on the completion of the wisdom of emptiness found in those sutras because that would take a lot of study
and commentary to go over um just trying to verbalize um the penetration and
knowledge and realization of the wisdom contained there and so you know how do you really talk about abiding in the
completion of that i guess you can point at it but more than likely it would be an exemplification and
state of being how we conduct ourselves in life that would show and abiding in that wisdom
and also in actions and speech and thought of those so that is the abode of correct mind right
right view right intention what am i missing here basically the wisdom part okay number seven well
before that correct mind so what would be an uncorrect mind right or non-correct mind and of course
i don’t know if anybody really can just give a definition of mind that’s
just immediately apparent and realizable to everybody everywhere it’s
a kind of a complex thing to say the least but i’m not saying it’s not possible it’s just kind of out of
the scope of this podcast to define correct mind and expound on the wisdom
of emptiness and the prodigal parameters anyway seven the abode of no backsliding we
abide wherein one does not retrogress from the experience of three gates of liberation wishlessness signlessness and
emptiness so we’ve gone over the emptiness quite a bit so i’ll just set that aside for now and i’ve kind of
mentioned the wishlessness and signlessness before about this notion of self no self not self and how
um having views of the solid self and having
things remain the way we want them in the long term is a set up for disappointment
or at best just keep self-perpetuating so that’s the what leads to dukkha
and tuka has stress or unsatisfactoriness and so when we see that nothing really
can provide lasting satisfaction in the long run at least in this world the worldly realm then we don’t get so
attached to our wishes and so it’s okay if things come it’s also okay if things don’t come so
this wishlist this this non-devastation
for not having our preferences met what we really want
not getting what we want getting what we don’t want the emotional charge tends to leak out of
that and where we really yearned and wanted something so bad before
lessons and where more wish can become less of a wish and not as big as a deal
doesn’t mean we still can’t have choices and preferences and you know make goals
achieve things but we’re not clinging to that or what happens or doesn’t happen
that’s the wishlessness signlessness this one i have more challenges of understanding this term but it goes to
a nietzsche the um this this notion that in constancy so
maybe a sign so we see a sign and it’s not exactly what it is it
represents something else right so one thing stands for another
one thing will inform us or we think it will inform us of what we need to do or don’t need to
do so what happens when signs lessen
and we come into seeing more of things the way they are instead of
representation or ideas of one thing again the story of living in story
instead of reality living in an interpretation of reality instead of direct reality so maybe we’ll just maybe
this is a bad example take a road sign so it will give directions to turn right
but if you actually go up to that sign maybe it’s made out of metal and you can
hit it with the hand it’ll make it a loud sound it has you know paint and
maybe an arrow on it maybe some letters in a language
and it’s a certain shape and it’s on a certain sign post and maybe it’s attached to another post
or the ground and so that would be kind of more of the reality of that sign
even though it may contain some kind of information and then prompting for a choice or
an order to follow or a recommendation to follow but the actuality of that sign
is one way is the physical description i gave so that would be maybe one notion of what is the actual
reality of that sign and what is our story about that sign or
what are we taking that sign to mean or b and what aren’t we
taking that sign to mean or b and how helpful is this or not
or what’s beyond and behind these things and how relevant
is that or could that be so yes we take the practicality of the information
and then in times of reflection we can realize there’s so much more
to existence and reality than a lot of times we’ve been taught or led to believe are the current capacity
that we have and instead of this being another thing to fall short of turn into a project
um strive or fail at it can be uh wow that’s amazing
how amazing so that’s week four of the parameter challenge december 2021
Integrating Presence 
7 thoughts on “Multi-month Pāramitā (Attainments/Perfections) Challenge For December 2021”