Various locations | Jan 2020
This year we will explore the topic of Dependent Origination, one of the most important teachings of the Buddha. Pratītyasamutpāda, commonly translated as dependent origination, or dependent arising, states that all dharmas arise in dependence upon other dharmas: "if this exists, that exists; if this ceases to exist, that also ceases to exist". It describes the factors that create an independant, isolated sense of self, tying us to suffering.
Each month, Tuere and Tim will explore one of the twelve links of Dependent Origination.
Offered by Tuere Sala at SIMS on 2020 January 20
Reflections and Practices: Dhamma is the undefended fact, and facing facts is fundamental to Dhamma growth. Many times, it is more convenient to pretend the facts do not exist. Turning away does not eliminate the fact; it sustains its damaging effects through repression. Look at your life and see which facts you allow in and which facts are denied. Notice the fear that turns you away from the fact and how this fear competes with your Dhamma understanding. Is it fear of change, fear of insecurity, or fear of mortality? Consider contemplating the phrases, When this exists, this naturally exists; due to the arising of this, this consequently arises; when this does not exist, this naturally does not exist; due to the quenching of this, this consequently is quenced. Throughout the month, check to see if you notice this understanding. Can you see how certain occurrences are conditioned by the existence of other conditions? Be adventurous in your practice. There is no right or wrong way to understand this. All that is needed is a willingness to listen to your body and heart this month.
Offered by Tuere Sala at SIMS at University Friends Meeting House, Feb 3 2020
Practice and Reflection: Dependent Origination, Sankharas
Sankharas are Volitional Impulses that express Ignorance. To explore this in practice, bring attention to your daily life choice points, areas where you decide to do one course of action instead of another. This can be as simple as following a train of thought or responding to an email or text. Reflecting either at that decision point or afterward, can you sense the intention behind that action? Can you discern if that choice flows from ignorance or wisdom? Broaden the definition of action to include thinking, speaking, communicating or moving your body.
Practice and Reflection: Consciousness, Dependent Origination
Bring attention to when you are reactive or emotional. Reflect [on how] contact triggered that reactivity. See if you can recall a particular thought, sound, sight, sensation, smell, or taste. Without that contact, would the reactivity have arisen? Now more subtly, try to recall the consciousness or awareness that was receptive to that contact. For example, if the trigger was a word, hearing consciousness was engaged. See if you can sense the flavoring of that consciousness that inclined you toward reactivity.
Practice and Reflection
This week, notice how consciousness has a fluid quality. Depending on what is predominant, we shift back and forth from eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mental consciousness. Can you intentionally shift which of these six consciousnesses is highlighted? Practice this when caught in mental consciousness, particularly if flavored by worry. What happens when you shift your attention to one of the other five types of consciousness?
Practice and Reflection Notice how consciousness usually has a narrow quality when it feeds into a sense of struggle, resistance, or wanting. Practice allowing consciousness to be wider and more expansive. Not holding any one thing too strongly allows it to become less bounded and restricted. What happens to the sense of self when consciousness widens and broadens?
We can think of Nama Rupa (name and form) as the label we place on something and the impulse to act relative to that label. This often becomes a fast trip into reactivity and wanting. Practice pausing when you find yourself in a state of reactivity. What label are you assigning to the target of reactivity? Notice the impulse of movement or action embedded in that label. Can you imagine a different conditioning around that object? How would this shift your reactivity?
Practice & Reflection
This month we are exploring and practicing with the six senses. The sense doors are the fifth link in the chain of dependent origination. One of the main insights in this link is the recognition of mind as a sense door. This recognition enables us to become less identified with our thoughts. The less identified we are with our thoughts, the more aware we can become of the other five senses. From time to time this month, stop and let your thoughts settle. Open to what you are experiencing in the moment through the other five senses. Let the sense sensations be present but do not elaborate on them. Let the sights, sounds, smell, tastes, physical sensations, and mind activity (thoughts/ideas) be just what they are. Allow awareness to be large enough to hold them all. Ask yourself what else there is in life that is true beyond these sense impressions and this encompassing awareness? Is the commentary true, are reactions true, or are these merely arising in response to the six senses? It may dawn on you that the six senses and the awareness that holds them are all that is, and that everything else is an imaginative response to this.
Practice and Reflection: Contact, Dependent Origination
When quiet and attentive, practice with the actual moment of sense contact. Sound, sensation, smell and taste may be easiest. Try to relax and release the tendency to label and to react. Just rest with the direct knowing. Practice with sensitivity, with non-resistance, and with non-self. Notice how your relationship to the moment’s experience may shift.
We are constantly creating our reality from a moment of sense contact. This manufactured world defines how we think, feel and act. Practice seeing through this illusionary world by returning to the direct contact of your senses. Ask, what is my mind adding to this contact? What other points of contact are present, especially ones that don’t trigger reactivity? What is the overall state of mind and emotions? How does that state distort my interpretation of my senses?
Try this exercise when the mind is at ease, receptive, and still. Release into each moment of sense contact. Release the stories, impulses, and labels that arise with that contact. Simply rest in the knowing of each moment. Now, invite a deeper release of the idea of you experiencing this contact. What if the idea of “me” didn’t need to be present to be aware? With curiosity and innocence, allow the essence of awareness to simply, directly know. Let the sense of “me” rest, soften, dissolve.
Notice when the mind is gripped by wanting or not wanting. Underneath all the thoughts and stories, connect with the basic quality of pleasant or unpleasant. Try to distinguish between your engagement (thoughts, preferences, and emotions) and vedana itself. Acknowledge the vedana and meet the experience with compassion instead of resistance. Can your happiness be freed from the quality of vedana (pleasant, unpleasant, neutral)?
This week, notice how many things you do are initiated by vedana (feeling tone). In the midst of reaching, doing, speaking, or thinking, see if you can identify the initial vedana that triggered that action. Was it the subtle impression of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral? What happens to the impulse to act when you connect with its vedana?
This recording was edited and prepared for publication by volunteer John Stott.