[4/29/2022 UPDATE: Zero Pāramitā Challenge provided (to me) for Month 8 / April 2022 yet and 5/23/2022 UPDATE: same thing for the month of May and presumably ongoing unless — barring other possibilities — readers and listeners see a new Pāramitā Challenge from the source and/or a new post/podcast published on IntegratingPresence.com]
Expediency, supreme enlightenment, service to others, purity/wholeness/wholesomeness, (non-)acquisition, (non-)attachment, momentariness, loving-kindness, goodness, (discerning) Dharma, truth, integrity, helping, self-inflation and disparaging others round out the main topics for March 2022, month seven of “The Pāramitā Challenge”. See also Months 1-3, Month four, Month five and Month six.
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.
Again, 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 plenty 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.
Other than the thumping touch pad scrolling due to a sensitive mic, only a specific brief note to this month’s challenge to address an omission for the following portion:
We practice the perfect inconceivable roots of goodness, which are difficult to attain, and having supreme understanding of the Buddha’s teaching, which is also difficult to attain
While talking about verifying the authenticity of the version of the Buddha’s teachings in English we have access to today I omitted the relevance of the in-depth investigation and analysis at puredhamma.net particularly the likely significant misinterpretations and distortions of the Pali translations by early European scholars still perpetuated today that continue to color and shape our views and interpretations of the dhamma.
(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）
Audio: Pāramitā (Perfections) Challenge: March 2022
Or listen via Insight Timer (app or website)
Interesting related talk–> San Francisco Zen Center Dharma Talks — The Womb of Emptiness and the Paramitas
In his teachings, Bodhidharma presents a unique interpretation of the Six Paramitas (perfections) by associating each with the purification of one of the six senses, which he refers to as the “six thieves.” This metaphor emphasizes the importance of overcoming sensory attachments to progress on the path to enlightenment. Here’s a breakdown of his perspective:
- Charity (Dāna Pāramitā): Purifying the sense of sight.
- Teaching: “Casting out the thief of the eye by abandoning the visual world is charity.”
- Explanation: This suggests that true generosity involves letting go of attachments to visual stimuli and material possessions, thereby overcoming desires arising from what we see.
- Morality (Śīla Pāramitā): Purifying the sense of hearing.
- Teaching: “Keeping out the thief of the ear by not listening to sounds is morality.”
- Explanation: Maintaining ethical conduct entails not being swayed by alluring or distracting sounds, thus preventing the mind from being led astray.
- Patience (Kṣānti Pāramitā): Purifying the sense of smell.
- Teaching: “Humbling the thief of the nose by equating smells as neutral is patience.”
- Explanation: Developing patience involves perceiving all odors without preference, viewing them impartially to prevent attraction or aversion.
- Devotion (Vīrya Pāramitā): Purifying the sense of taste.
- Teaching: “Controlling the thief of the mouth by conquering desires to taste, praise, and explain is devotion.”
- Explanation: True diligence requires overcoming cravings related to taste and the urge for verbal expression, focusing instead on spiritual practice.
- Meditation (Dhyāna Pāramitā): Purifying the sense of touch.
- Teaching: “Quelling the thief of the body by remaining unmoved by sensations of touch is meditation.”
- Explanation: Deep meditation is achieved by not reacting to tactile sensations, maintaining equanimity regardless of physical feelings.
- Wisdom (Prajñā Pāramitā): Purifying the mind.
- Teaching: “Taming the thief of the mind by not yielding to delusions but practicing wakefulness is wisdom.”
- Explanation: Cultivating wisdom involves overcoming mental delusions and maintaining constant awareness, leading to true understanding.
Bodhidharma concludes that these six paramitas serve as transports or “ferries,” carrying practitioners across the sea of ignorance to the “other shore” of enlightenment. By purifying the six senses and overcoming their corresponding “thieves,” one can progress on the path to liberation.
This interpretation is detailed in Bodhidharma’s “Breakthrough Sermon,” where he emphasizes the importance of internal cultivation and mastery over one’s sensory experiences as essential steps toward enlightenment.
The raw unedited YouTube transcription of this podcast:
[the section titles the youtube ai has come up with are kind of interesting not really hitting the mark and that’s kind of oddly reassuring]
wholeness and welcome to month seven of the parameter challenge
for march 2022 this month going to do it all in one
take again so only three major sections too and this comes from the doctrine of
mere consciousness the ten excellent moral exercises are the ten parameters
and this is number seven skill in resorting to appropriate
expedience the definition skill in resorting to
appropriate expedience is of two kinds skill in turning the mind towards
mahabodhi supreme enlightenment and two skill in delivering
sentient beings from suffering again the language on this i find fascinating
skill is pretty clear resorting though to me resorting means like okay
this this and this is happening and i have to resort to something that i normally wouldn’t do
um of course expedience is something that quick it quickens something else so
What is expedience
first off why would we have to resort to an expedient it seems like
within the expedient if it was wholesome skillful wise enough be
something to just keep in mind aspire to not something to have to resort to but the
word play here is interesting so usually when we think of resorting to something it’s kind of like maybe someone’s at
their wit’s end or something they normally wouldn’t do so maybe the psychology here is that if
we find ourselves in that place our people even fear such a place where they have to resort to things
instead of thinking that’s some kind of i don’t know hindrance or
disadvantage or someplace we nev never would like to be but you know inevitably we do find
ourselves in those types of situations in states so untelful enlightenment those
places and situations we’re gonna find ourselves and we’re have to resort to something so
you know it might not be often but if we have to resort to something why not kind of flip it and resort to this
first one turning the mind towards mahabodhi supreme enlightenment and i
think there was a typo in the copy i got pretty sure it’s mahabodhi but it was i
corrected it here and i’m not sure what the misspelling was but the key word
here to delineate all this or to suss it out is appropriate so what’s the
appropriate skill in any situation whether you have to resort to expedience or not right so this supreme
enlightenment mahabodhi turning the mind towards that and from what i
understand at this point that’s kind of like maybe not kind of like but this
turning the mind towards the end goal from what i understand is the
last meditation object before our hot ship and so
maha bodhi i’m guessing goes beyond that because this is supreme enlightenment bodhi is awakened
enlightenment um in maha is like the the great or the supreme
version of that so when the mind turns towards this notice the effect for ourselves even if
it’s just kind of imagination or fantasy even something out of a
storybook or if there’s closer progress towards this
and people have really tasted it or touched into it and noticed the benefits of this
and yet if not fully realized an awakening then the mind will inevitably
slip away from this turn away from this or not be turned towards this mahabodhi
and why is that how does that happen i don’t know but it does seem to take
ongoing effort to have this it’s not like you can just snap your fingers and
lock it into place where the mind is turned towards it unwaveringly at least
for a decent portion of the path that i’m aware of i know in my own experience that’s
how it tends to be now and number two so this is skill in resorting to appropriate expedience
Delivering sentient beings from suffering
of this kind number two skill in delivering sentient beings from suffering
so in a past parameter challenge i think we mentioned this and denny and i talked about this and one of the ask us any
things how this word delivering is kind of not really problematic but it’s
just kind of a distortion i feel because if we’re this is like a savior complex
are falling maybe into messiah hood if i’m going to deliver someone from their suffering right like this superman thing
hero thing the unwise unskillful perceptions of a hero
where they do all the work and people rely on them to do everything for them so instead of this delivering someone
else from suffering look at this more skillfully of course this is just my
view of being available for teaching and helping and more times than not reserved until
someone specifically asked for help teachings
and advice and practices or however
to ease suffering to have suffering come to cessation and by suffering here i mean
dukkha which can also be interpreted probably more relevant to people as
stress or even unsatisfactoriness like this just isn’t doing it for me you know this is okay but
there’s got to be something better oh i might have found something better but then it’s good for a while but then oh
this just really isn’t doing it either so on and on and on so that’s the
The 10 practices
from the doctrine of mere consciousness number seven skill in resorting to appropriate expedience
and now onto the 52 stages of the bodhisattva path from the 10 practices
and it says stages 21 through 30. these are number six seven
eight nine and ten and this is kind of the bulk of the new material since the next
section is pretty much already been addressed and prior pair meet the challenge
episodes and those will be gone over probably more briefly but now to these
10 practices number six the practice of skillful manifestation and i’m just
going to read these and then come back to them we practice purity of thought word indeed as well as non-craving
non-acquisition and non-clinging number seven the practice of non-attachment we
practice with minds free from attachment entering in every successive moment into countless worlds with great loving
kindness and compassion number eight the practice of that which is difficult to attain we practice the
perfect inconceivable roots of goodness which are difficult to attain and having supreme understanding of the buddhist
teaching which is also difficult to attain number nine the practice of good
teachings we practice with a mind both pure and cool as a reservoir of truth for the sake of beings of all worlds
number 10 the practice of truth we practice perfect true speech and act in accordance with what is said and speak
in accordance with what is done okay so now back to number six the practice of skillful manifestation we practice
purity of thought word and deed as well as non-craving non-acquisition
and non-clinging so this word manifestation is interesting here skillful manifestation so i’m not
immediately saying its relevance to the description other than if our thoughts
Purity
words and deeds are considered manifestations i guess our deeds could definitely be and
our words in a way i guess when i think of manifestation i think more of bringing
something into the material plane creating something or having something
come before us in the material world so this we practice purity of thought word indeed this part what is purity um i
feel it’s a pretty important question so what one might think of as pure
one might think that’s not very pure or some people might say well some people
go overboard on purity you know well where’s the sweet spot i don’t really know it’s if i had to guess i like this
word wholesome maybe better the word holds and wholesome and so instead of being fragmented and partly this partly
that partly defiled partly pure what leads
towards and what leads away from wholeness and wholesomeness i guess maybe another way to look at purity is a goldsmith
where when gold’s melted down there may be some impurities that rise to the top and then that are skimmed away
and so there’s these some people say certain practices can
lead to purity and then from what i gather the more buddhist understanding is
our ethics sila help promote and develop purity and we’ll get into those ethics
in the next section which are the precepts and as a practice not as commandments
obviously so however we want to take this word purity i’m sure it’s people
will know examples and reference points from others or themselves of what thoughts
words and deeds seem to be pure and what thought words and deeds seem to be more unpure and i
feel it’s helpful to maybe notice or point out why this might be important you know what’s wrong with just living
in filth or not wrong but like so what if i live in filth or dirty
mind you know like a pig in their own excrement what’s so bad about that you
know you see these figures on media and stuff and a lot of them i guess some are
portrayed like that and kind of actually allotted and celebrated
for depravity you know i feel that’s maybe different from someone who’s actually
Wholesomeness
not so pure but is not in denial about it is open to
working or going towards a path of purity can see the benefits of it is
open to help assistance teachings along the way can see maybe the potential benefits
of wholesomeness how it does lead towards the benefit and happiness
especially long-term of myself and others because we know actions have
consequences a skillful beneficial wholesome action will tend to have
skillful wholesome beneficial results and vice versa maybe not immediately but
it just seems to be a law of this realm at the moment it’s like if we throw a ball up in the air no matter how
much we want to have it maybe launch into space it’s just not the way reality is structured here now and so
and then also this practice is non-craving non-acquisition non-clinging
so the non-craving and the non-clinging seems fairly obvious right
especially craving towards things that aren’t gonna do us any good whatsoever
and clinging is pretty much um not much benefit to that at all
except for maybe temporarily clinging on to the buddha dharma sangha but even that is
clinging really isn’t needed for that it’s kind of an abiding with and in that
craving
and so maybe some kind of craving for wholesome things could be a decent counteraction to
craving for unwholesome unskillful and wise things but on the whole feel into craving it just doesn’t feel
good and you know it’s not one of those unpleasant things that will help me grow either as far as i know
other than to have the reference point for non-craving to have it really sink in
how unbeneficial it is but this non-acquisition it’s interesting i definitely see this
in so much greed in the world how this could help people who are just completely deluded
and don’t even realize pretty much from the moment they wake up to go to bed at night or even then too
about acquiring acquiring you know material objects money fame fortune influence
and sex power knowledge skills although knowledge and skills can
be really beneficial if they’re those leading towards less suffering and realizing awakening
so that’s the obvious downside of craving and we see that you know we can see that play out doesn’t take much
effort to see that playing out in the world seems like it might have gotten a little bit better with the shutdown but
in a way that’s had a big downside too of just people’s livelihood and then
because of the whole monetary system in the way the economy structured and then
even maybe more on wholesome proposed solutions to that so it is really a big
mess but non-acquisition i guess i don’t want to completely write off
acquisition because the examples i mentioned before are in the context of service to self only
right so there are things we can acquire wholesomely skillfully and we all have to make some
kind of living or pay the bills too so when we acquire i i think in and of itself acquisition isn’t necessarily a
unpure thing again we have to look at how things are acquired and what they’re going to be used for particular
acquisitions can actually be used to help others as well humanitarian service
to others even just going to a restaurant if it’s viewed in the way that okay
this restaurant actually has wholesome food it’s not been corrupted with chemicals pesticides
practices that promote the land to be in a state of
distress we can go there and if it is good food then we’re supporting the farmers
if it’s been transported well to the restaurant then that’s beneficial for the people who
transported it if the establishment is doing practices to help others and be
mindful of their energy usage and where that comes from has done what they can
in the moment to help with that situation and then we’re helping the employees who cook and
prepare and serve the food and clean up and all the other people interacting and supporting
that whole interdependent system i think that’s enough for that one for now number seven the practice of
non-attachment we practice with minds free from attachment entering in every
successive moment into countless worlds with great loving kindness and compassion so i love this
every successive moment most people when you hear someone say oh i just take it day by day or you have to take it day
by day and it’s almost like a i don’t know like like they really have to give up something to
stop their planning or you know really having everything figured out in the future and be so
forward thinking that it’s kind of like a you know just this unfortunate break
or check that they have to look at the day by itself you know and so
that kind of cliche saying i don’t i never really knew how to take that take it day by day but you know
this really it is this every successive moment because it’s we just live in
moment after moment everything in the future is a thought in the mind the concept of
a day is that it’s a concept you know it’s kind of based on light and time periods
and i don’t know working hour or transitions between
conceptions or perceptions of night and day and side note here i go into some of
these perceptions of light day and night in the series on the yeti pada the bangla
so if anyone’s interested they can check that out seven part series but this free from attachment so it
usually goes craving can lead to attachment and then attach attachment
links leads to clinging again we’re not talking about non-attachment it’s this thing
where what are we attached to does that need to be there is it adding extra weight
extra burden a dependence how are we when we’re not attached do we go back to
craving the attachment what would be the benefits danger and escape from whatever
attachments we currently have in our lives maybe another word for it is dependence
and so if there is attachments or even if there’s not entering into every successive moment into countless worlds
with great loving kindness and compassion so yes if those brahmavihara qualities are called for
sometimes altruistic or vicarious joy is more appropriate when we enter into certain
worlds so to speak and equanimity is kind of like the underlying basis for that so but to have these beautiful
expansive boundless qualities going into every moment no matter where that moment
may be or how that moment may be and you know the buddha says in the metasuta as
long as you’re not drowsy you should sustain this recollection mentioned in the metasuta about non-hostility not ill
will all beings having this deer quality for all beings like a mother would have
for our only child wishing in safety and with happiness may all beings
be at ease and this practice is beneficial for
a mind free from attachment also having a mind free from attachment
helps increase this boundless beautiful sublime quality of
loving kindness and compassion and the others of equanimity and altruistic joy and so
this is like your ideal living situation right they’ll never be like a physical ideal living situation i mean if it gets
too plush then there’s no room for growth you know if it gets too shabby then
you’re not gonna be spending much time in spiritual development just going to be dealing with think one thing after
another and there’ll be things either way right in addition to that but
these inner dwelling places these vaharas especially loving kindness can actually
act as a protector too since we’re not a threat to any being beings pick up on
that and if you only have their best welfare in mind now this is not saying you have to be a doormat get walked all
over have somebody energetically vampire you but there is no
end to this state it’s boundless there’s there’s no end so that’s no limitations
and so it counteracts this kind of hostility and fear of not having enough
and also of you know i’m gonna be lined out or harvested from taken advantage of
i’m not saying those things don’t happen but if there is no boundary so to speak
in the goodness that’s available then if any and if we’re dwelling in that then
anybody that seems to take anything from us they can only be taking this goodness that’s enveloping us in a certain way of
speaking right i mean that’s kind of the that’s where it can expire expire
that’s what we can aspire to if we’re not already there and again yeah the expiration until it’s completely
perfected it’s not there all the time i mean that’s realistic too right it’s a
practice so number eight the practice of that which is difficult to attain
we practice the perfect inconceivable roots of goodness which are difficult to
attain and having supreme understanding of the buddha’s teachings which is also
difficult to attain so obviously probably wouldn’t be listening
to this if you didn’t see some kind of value and at least considering some of the teachings of the buddha i know when
i first started out and heard some of the the dharma some of the buddhist teachings you know they
obviously didn’t make as much sense now then as they do now excuse me well
in a way there’s still you know a lot of room for really letting them sink in and this
buddha teachings
also speaks to you know of this kind of doubt in a way
it is but it’s kind of a skeptical doubt that will lead on to this next one of truth that how do
we know for sure these things that are written down were actually spoken by the buddha how do we know that they’re not
really distorted what is the veracity of the source and all these questions i feel are somewhat
important but have to just take as a starting point at least what we’re
giving what’s here now and so we can go into that and study that and see if it’s helpful
useful wise for our benefit and benefit of others and we can really hone in on the
stuff that really resonates with us especially starting out and see the benefits of that
and then we can have friends and teachers to talk about these teachings with too and they’re this is really kind of
solidified when we can verify these teachings in our own life have a real
lived experience of what’s taught there in our own lives clearly seeing and
knowing from our own experience what the buddha has taught and this whole notion
though of difficult to attain in a certain respect yes you know
if waking up and realizing awakening was easy you know everybody would be doing
it you could get it done you can go back to your netflix or your video games or whatever you know whatever is popular of
the moment when we look around the world and you know why we do see some very wise and sage-like beings who really seem to
have some kinds of attainment progress knowledge wisdom it just seems like the
whole society is kind of more inverted regressed reversed and so if we frame
buddha jokes
this as difficult to attain i wonder how much that plays into these kinds of
perceptions in dharma circles at least a few years ago up to a few years ago
that it was kind of a joke to consider becoming enlightened or realizing enlightenment or even kind of like these
entry-level attainments like stream entry it was kind of like considered a fairy tale or you know that’s something
in a story i mean it’s admirable but you know that’s never possible and so i’m going to make a joke about it and
i just want to get together and do this to feel good and have a kind of
community where you know i can get some kind of a worldly benefit while i go on and do
mainly just kind of run-of-the-mill ordinary things and it does sound like a discouragement but it’s kind of an
encouragement though that this is possible you know the buddha taught that if it wasn’t possible i wouldn’t teach
this and so i just don’t see the wisdom the benefit of disparaging oneself that
it’s not possible and having this kind of mindset like totally unattainable
just have a good laugh about it but at the same time you know we’ll just go along with what everybody else is doing
with this and that kind of thing feeds into the next one too where we can help cut through
that with truth and but one brief note before we go on to that is that yeah this can also be difficult to
attain i would use the word challenging because we do not have a living buddha that i know of that’s also a teacher on
the world stage right in fact our society it would be funny i think if if a buddha did manifest in the world today
that what kind of media spin would be that how much would be demonized or
overly praised by some extremes that were in in society especially in the
united states here it would be kind of like a media circus sideshow maybe is what i’m thinking
that doesn’t help much of the perception i just mentioned breaking out of it because we’re so
conditioned to viewing the world at least having some kind of reference point to
popular media right i mean the whole world um pretty much at least part of it is
familiar with what comes out of hollywood what comes out of the the media in the united states right
and as we all know it’s a little bit different from actual reality
the perfect inconceivable
and yet how much confusion there is between the two and how much kind of bleed through how one affects the other
the perfect inconceivable roots of goodness i love this phrase i don’t know much what to say about it other than
once we kind of see and no goodness it’s just kind of like a natural commitment towards it however we wanted to find
goodness and there’s this saying life is too perfect to be fair i guess maybe way to couch that in
buddhist language is everything’s unfolding due to lawful causes and conditions or due to causes
and conditions and a lawful reality but i wonder if the buddha could
conceive of the roots of goodness and what makes these roots perfect
that’s a larger topic and exploration i think that goes beyond the scope of this podcast episode
so number nine the practice of good teachings we practice with the mind
both pure and cool as a reservoir of truth for the sake of beings of all
worlds so i guess i don’t see a absolute link
and where pureness and coolness is a reservoir of truth for the sake of of
beings all over the world now i can see the benefits of purity and coolness
as a resource for beings in the world but i i guess i don’t see the how pureness and coolness in itself
is a reservoir of truth i mean there obviously there can be true pureness
true coolness and it can be beneficial for beings and it can definitely lead
towards more truthfulness and pursuit of truth
understanding of truth abiding in truth but i’m not really seeing how that in and of itself is a reservoir
of truth but i don’t maybe it’s a technicality here sometimes truth though is not
cool sometimes truth is hot or
truth
evokes heat action sometimes truth is spoken to
impure things i don’t know if truth is either pure impure it just is the
reality of things but i’m taking from this is that yes being pure
of pure mind with a cool calm collective mind tends to be
of more benefit for ourselves and other beings in many situations now
certain situations might call for some heated action it’s going to be wholesome and skillful wise and appropriate but i
don’t know how good it would be to just be standby coolly and calm and collectively
when some kind of dire action is called for to help someone but then
keeping that state sustained when it’s not needed can be unhelpful too so truth is a big
part of my journey and i’ve done blog posts on this one’s wisdom snippets
on truth done these other wisdom snippets on other topics and then also on a full moon gathering about truth
anyone interested you probably just search my website for truth and find these so number 10 the practice of truth
we practice perfect true speech and act in accordance with what is said
and speak in accordance with what is done this is very important when i heard this put this way what i’m going to say
next really put things in proper context really explained a lot is why do some
people say one thing mean another and yet act in an entirely
different way you can kind of or i can kind of tell when somebody will say something but not you know actually mean
what they’re saying they’re mean they’re meaning something else almost like a code and then
their action is not even in accordance with what they say or even what they mean as well so you know why is this why
do people do this and behave in this way you know where did this type of conditioning
come from you know what are the benefits dangers and escape from this so this is
about keeping true to one’s word one especially men they’re not really worth
much in a way you know not really just disparaging it’s just
if someone says something and then they don’t follow through on it even if they know they can’t do that and
don’t address it and just let it go you know it’s just kind of like wow
can really see their state of stress and suffering this acts as cohesion for society too
with someone acting in accordance with their word or even when they can’t when certain circumstances come up and they
can’t they take an effort to address that or like me sometimes i get
a little loose in the lips and the in the gums and don’t really respect the
power of language sometimes loosely say things without sometimes
having the power to follow through on them exactly the same way or more than likely kind of forget the exact details
of what i had said and we’ll maybe remember later that i have
feared off course slightly from the t of what i said and so it’s also
about forgiving ourselves and making resolves to act in accordance with what’s said and
speak in accordance with what’s done you know and this speak in accordance with done speaks to
seeing something and then saying something other than what it is to spin it
to one’s advantage or to the advantage of one’s agenda for gain that’s not in
the best interest of oneself and others and or you know so this speaks to
integrity this final section is a 58 bodhisattva vows and then within
that i guess the 10 major bodhisattva precepts and i’m not gonna go over these
bodhisattva vows
again um although they’re listed here other than maybe briefly or maybe not so
number one don’t kill number two don’t steal number three don’t engage in
sexual misconduct number four don’t lie or engage in wrong speech number five
don’t sell or consume alcohol or other recreational drugs don’t discuss
the faults of the sangha number six and number seven don’t praise yourself or
disparage others so the seven is the one that has not yet been addressed so that will be the one that will be addressed
here so this first one and on through number six or their
parameter challenge months respectively so this first one don’t kill pretty sure
that’s month one i address that and then in month two address don’t steal number
three don’t engage in sexual misconduct month four don’t lie or engage in wrong
speech and month four might have also included without me checking though i don’t know
for sure but also included the first three as well as the fourth one number five don’t sell
or consume alcoholic beverages or other recreational drugs i was addressed in month five i feel number six don’t
discuss the faults of the sangha and went over kind of the analysis criticism
and exploration of that in month six
the positive upside
so overall instead of addressing these each individually i also look at these as what is the positive upside because
it’s saying don’t do this don’t do that well what’s the opposite thing that we should do and then go over the benefits
of these not just like some kind of rote duty you know just to say oh good
buddhist bad buddhist or something like that again these are for our long-term benefit and happiness and that of others
and i know it’s really challenging to see this for some people in some of these but especially for me with it was
a drastic change with the alcoholic and recreational drugs thing you know i would have fought tooth and nail to say
oh that doesn’t matter and in a way some teachers say that in and of themselves they’re not
it’s just the likelihood one has once intoxicated of breaking these other ones
so it’s kind of like an amplifier to the other one so i really noticed a big improvement in life from
ceasing these um ceasing alcohol recreation drugs just
do things to get high for the sake of getting high with substances right and then so this
lots of sows number seven don’t praise yourself or disparage others and this is
from a sutra on the brahmanat sutra and i’ll just read the sutra here the
seventh major precept prohibits praising oneself and disparaging others a disciple of the buddha must not praise
himself and disparage others encourage others to do so or involve
himself in the causes conditions methods or karma of praising himself and disparaging others a bodhisattva
should be willing to stand in for all beings in undergoing slander and insult
he should accept unfortunate situations and let others receive favor favorable
ones hence if the bodhisattva boasts of his own virtue and conceals the good works
of others thus causing him to be slandered he thereby commits a bodhisattva project
offense i find this one to be challenging for myself and many i
interact with it really takes a quite an accomplished being to
really either not boast of oneself when i see more of them when i have more
challenge with is disparaging others it doesn’t have to be even out loud right um so there’s a few ways to address this
setting boundaries
but the really challenging one is if you’re talking to somebody you’re having some kind of rapport
with them and then especially if there’s a strong habit pattern to
kind of put down others or notice their faults and then find
camaraderie and some kind of bonding and connection by that activity and it’s it’s a habit
pattern right and part of it is in a good place too which makes it more challenging that a lot of times we’re
just addressing the behavior and things we see that are
not beneficial for the other person or other people they’re interacting in with but it’s their behavior that’s needs
addressing and so how do we set boundaries and keep boundaries for
ourselves not allow others to do harm to ourselves and others that we love and
care about without talking down to them and going into slander and insult yeah
slander and insult is a pretty pretty strong things so i feel it should still
be you know okay to call out unwise action unskillful action
obviously saying something is not really wholesome and helpful and beneficial and it
doesn’t have to slide into slander insult you know because these folks or
or even ourselves are just kind of doing things that’s been done to them been conditioned these are
habits and patterns playing out and then how do we go about doing that without even causing more
slandering insult
challenges than we need to or issues that we need to how do we address this and not just let it slide off but then
not going into the other extreme of slandering insult it seems to be kind of two types of people that i
notice around this the one that has more the tendency to praise themselves kind of boast have kind of a superior ego and
kind of lets everybody know it and feels good about themselves and how they build themselves up how they find kind of not
the best kind of self-esteem this way i have to constantly pump up this ego
or the other one is kind of more maybe an inferior ego but just more
that’s kind of more like i’m not good enough but the other one is going into disparaging others always finding fault
criticizing blaming shaming guilting and not really having much access it seems
two types of people
like two and less called out on that even to uplift people to see their good
qualities to offer words of encouragement to see silver linings to see where
whatever situation it is can be an opportunity for growth and advancement progression and so it all depends on how
strong this habit pattern is of putting down others disparaging others and how much effort
it’s going to take to change such a habit and put energy into remedies for that it also helps to hang
around folks that don’t do this to make conscious effort to break from this
habit when around people that we have to be around call on support to get teachings
to give reinforcements for such behavior petering out and it really
next level if you can stand in for beings if someone’s talking bad about someone and instead of either obviously
stand for beings
joining in and just ripping them a new one or even just saying staying silent which can be i feel helpful and
wholesome to begin with is to actually stand up for them you know what if you’re the only person in the group
talking about someone else and happen to go against that one way i’ve done this is just oh you know remember that time
though when they did this or trying to and also trying to really put yourself in their
shoes these things like they’re doing the best they can if they could do better they would that necessarily not
necessarily works in all cases around all people obviously but this kind of notion that you know they’re doing the
same thing that’s been done to them that hurt people hurt people that one resonates a lot with folks too seems to
in my experience anyway accepting unfortunate situations now this it depends right okay is is there some
action we can take to address an unfortunate situation if there is i would say do that
take action but if there’s not then what good is it gonna do to
um whine and moan and complain about an unfortunate situation if there’s nothing
that can be done it just makes it worse right it’s the teaching of the two darts the two arrows the unfortunate situation
the painful situation is the first one you know that’s going to be kind of unavoidable or so it’s happened so
there’s no need stabbing yourself with another dart or arrow about complaining what was me beating
your breast you know wailing moaning about how bad it is how it shouldn’t have happened well
let others receive favorable situations
it did happen that’s the way it is and so if there’s nothing he can do about it there’s no need adding extra suffering
stress on top of how painful it already is and to address it with mindfulness and and compassion and kindness and what
other beneficial energies and views and responses are going to help letting others receive
favorable situations yes this one i find a lot easier because i can if you can really see the
suffering and stress in the world then it’s easier to let people receive favorable
situations even if just for briefly to relieve some amount of suffering
sometimes i mean sometimes you know certain behaviors and actions are just actually making things worse they seem
like they are but on the whole here yeah with that aside a favorable situation
you know this comes into the bravahara of vicarious joy being happy for someone’s
happiness so not only this isn’t like something we’re losing by letting someone else gain a favorable situation
if we can rejoice in their you know their favor a really good situation for them if we can be happy for their
happiness well then that increases our chances for happiness too one of the more challenging raviharas for me by the
way so this boasting of one’s own virtue i really don’t see the benefits of this
i mean who what and who do we have to prove to who about you know who we are
boasting of ones own virtue
what we’re doing a lot of times it can be the exact opposite where because someone’s
doing something unskillful they need to do the opposite of or not necessarily
the opposite putting aside the unskillfulness not addressing it instead shoring it up with
their own virtue and boasting of that to either redirect or feel better about
themselves or whatever but that’s also not to neglect one’s goodness as well so this these can be
taken to the extreme too of okay if you’re totally
putting aside praising yourself to the extreme then this could potentially be
deprecating to one’s self-esteem right have to also recognize our own goodness as well doesn’t necessarily have to you
come up and tell everybody how wonderful i am all the time but if that’s taken to
the extreme it could cut into one’s self-confidence and one’s notion of goodness in oneself and others it
doesn’t necessarily have to be praised all the time but it can be recognized acknowledged and celebrated our goodness
and our virtue and our ethics as well just doesn’t have to involve necessarily
a strong sense of me i did this i’m responsible for this look at me i’m so great but just revel
slandering others
in the goodness and kind of accomplishments and aspirations too
likewise likewise with this disparaging others if we just accept everything
then there’s really not going to be much chance for discernment for action for
really getting out of this self-cystic motive nothing really matters don’t get involved with anything
don’t discern what’s helpful and not helpful so taking to the extreme if
there’s no kind of criticalness at all then it can fall into solipsism where
there’s just kind this notion of well there’s no truth nothing really matters it’s all random who cares what i do or
don’t do kind of thing and so it’s just recognizing what’s helpful and what’s
not helpful that there is negativity in the world and there is positivity in the world so back now to
this last section of here concealing the the good work of others thus causing
them to be slandered so yeah this is when we step in and this is another challenge of mine actually giving praise
honor and respect where it’s due at the very least on the um higher end of that is honor
and respecting everything in life to a certain degree right respecting and honoring another because there’s always
something at least it seems that way if we look hard enough sometimes i know it’s hard to find
something horrible and respectable in some folks but just if it’s their own potential their own buddha nature if you
go into kind of metaphysical stuff or at some point back in countless
tons and tons of lives ago that one act they may have done that really did a lot
of good and help people help themselves so this is important to speak up
especially for encouragement empowerment of others if in a situation where you know
someone’s not done something that someone’s accusing them of and you could stand up for their goodness
so they’re not so they don’t get slandered and their reputation doesn’t get degraded then that should be done
maybe one of the reasons this isn’t done a lot is someone’s maybe takes one out of their
comfort zone have to be uncomfortable for a little bit because there might be a little bit of friction
to speak up for someone or kind of go against the flow of what someone or a
group is saying about someone i think that’ll do it for month seven of the parameter challenge
for march 2022
Integrating Presence 