Beware of happiness, peace, inner contentment & compassion!

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Beware of happiness, peace, inner contentment & compassion!

 

More excerpts from "Mindfulness in Plain English"

 

"Trickiest of all, however, are those really positive mental states that

come creeping into your meditation. Happiness, peace, inner contentment,

sympathy and compassion for all beings everywhere. These mental states are

so sweet and so benevolent that you can scarcely bear to pry yourself loose

from them. It makes you feel like a traitor to mankind. There is no need to

feel this way. We are not advising you to reject these states of mind or to

become heartless robots. We merely want you to see them for what they are.

They are mental states. They come and they go. They arise and they pass

away. As you continue your meditation, these states will arise more often.

The trick is not to become attached to them. Just see each one as it comes

up. See what it is, how strong it is and how long it lasts. Then watch it

drift away. It is all just more of the passing show of your own mental

universe.

 

Just as breathing comes in stages, so do the mental states. Every breath

has a beginning, a middle and an end. Every mental states has a birth, a

growth and a decay. You should strive to see these stages clearly. This is

no easy thing to do, however. As we have already noted, every thought and

sensation begins first in the unconscious region of the mind and only later

rises to consciousness. We generally become aware of such things only after

they have arisen in the conscious realm and stayed there for some time.

Indeed we usually become aware of distractions only when they have released

their hold on us and are already on their way out. It is at this point that

we are struck with the sudden realization that we have been somewhere,

day-dreaming, fantasizing, or whatever. Quite obviously this is far too

late in the chain of events. We may call this phenomenon catching the lion

by is tail, and it is an unskillful thing to do. Like confronting a

dangerous beast, we must approach mental states head-on. Patiently, we will

learn to recognize them as they arise from progressively deeper levels of

our conscious mind.

 

Since mental states arise first in the unconscious, to catch the arising of

the mental state, you've got to extend your awareness down into this

unconscious area. That is difficult, because you can't see what is going on

down there, at least not in the same way you see a conscious thought. But

you can learn to get a vague sense of movement and to operate by a sort of

mental sense of touch. This comes with practice, and the ability is another

of the effects of the deep calm of concentration. Concentration slows down

the arising of these mental states and gives you time to feel each one

arising out of the unconscious even before you see it in consciousness.

Concentration helps you to extend your awareness down into that boiling

darkness where thought and sensation begin.

 

As your concentration deepens, you gain the ability to see thoughts and

sensations arising slowly, like separate bubbles, each distinct and with

spaces between them. They bubble up in slow motion out of the unconscious.

They stay a while in the conscious mind and then they drift away."

 

[Mindfulness in Plain English by Ven. Henepola Gunaratana.]

is downloadable free here:

http://www.realization.org/home.htm

http://www.realization.org/page/namedoc0/mipe/mipe_0.htm

 

 

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Love makes the heart laugh.

I wish you Love.

CyberDervish

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