not-self – Page 2 – Integrating Presence

An Integrating Presence (Three Minute) Meditation And Reality (Characteristics) Contemplation

Meditation:
Meditate continuously for three minutes on an object

Contemplation:
Able to keep attention on the object the entire time?

If not, why is that?

If yes, did the quality and degree of attention change?

Why can’t we lock a consistent, unchanging attention to something without it wavering, or changing, or without distraction?

Perhaps then consider that in life, and especially noticeable in meditation, we sometimes think we should able to keep a consistent, unchanging attention to something. Maybe we can now better see how this erroneous view of deceptively defaulting to expecting constancies in life can result in stress and unsatisfactoriness

Dharmic Strategies For Empaths

This niche topic for empaths, or energetically sensitive beings, encapsulates years of note taking from experience, study and practice, provides nine categories of approach:

1) Gratitude for opportunities
2) Mindfulness (– especially of contact and vēdanā)
3) Hedonic Tone and the Three Characteristics of Existence
4) Self and identification
5) Equanimity and compassion
6) The Four Right Efforts and Five Hinderances
7) Energy
8) Non-attachment
9) Miscellaneous strategies

Form And Formless | (6/29/2021 — “Ask Us Anything – LIVE” With Denny K Miu)

For this month’s regular open-audience, open-discussion “Ask Us Anything LIVE” — continuing discussions about meditation and related topics — Denny draws from, and summarizes the teaching of Shifu Ji Ru to link together the Four Great Elements, Four “Mighty” Postures, Four Right Knowings, Four Foundations of Mindfulness, Three (or Four) Dharma Seals, and Three Gates of Liberation.

Dharma Questions: Miscellany — Part 4

This irregular “Dharma Questions” series deals with “dharma” meaning both the truth of the nature of reality and some Buddhist teachings. Amongst other things these questions can be:
• thought experiments
• borderline musings not meant to be answered
• from laziness of not contemplating or researching them yet

There’s 18 questions. Here’s two:

Why is truth not a perfection/Pāramitā in Mahayana?

Can (the whole cycle of the) 12 links of Dependent Origination go backwards due to retrocausality?

Dharma Questions: Miscellany — Part 3

There’s 19 (groups of) questions. Here’s a sampling of two:

How do sankhārā [formations/mental formations/volitional formations] come from ignorance? What is the process?

How does effort for vitakka wax and wane? How does vitakka turn into, or allow, or go along with vicāra?

The Buddha’s Images For The Five Clinging Aggregates

“What is your definition of self,” is often one of the first questions I ask someone once it is clear they are serious about seeking, and/or clear about their spiritual path, or even someone heavily seeped in philosophy. From what I innerstand, while the historical Buddha never simply denied that there’s a “self” directly andContinue reading “The Buddha’s Images For The Five Clinging Aggregates”