Four Foundations of Mindfulness #5

[Guest guest]

By Dzogchen Ponlop Rimpoche

Tiny Slippery Spot of Mind

Buddhadharma spring 2005

 

THE SECOND FOUNDATION OF MINDFULNESS

 

"The practice of the second foundation, mindfulness of feeling,

is relating to our basic existence as *samsaric beings. In the general

Buddhist approach, "feeling" refers to working with our

basic fear, which is the fear of suffering, or the fear of fear."

Actually, fear itself is not suffering, but the fear of fear is the

most troubling presence in the realm of our feeling.

 

* (samsára: 'round of rebirth', lit. perpetual wandering', is a name by which is designated the sca of life ever restlessly heaving up and down, the symbol of this continuous process of ever again and again being born, growing old, suffering and dying. More precisely put, samsára is the unbroken chain of the five-fold khandha-combinations, which, constantly changing from moment to moment follow continuously one upon the other through inconceivable periods of time. Of this samsára, a single lifetime constitutes only a tiny and fleeting fraction; hence to be able to comprehend the first noble truth of universal suffering, one must let one's gaze rest upon the samsára, upon this frightful chain of rebirths, and not merely upon one single life-time, which, of course, may be sometimes less painful. - Cf. tilakkhana, anattá, paramattha, patisandhi.)

 

Therefore, mindfulness of feeling relates with the three

objects of our existence in the samsaric world: the pleasant

object, the unpleasant object and the neutral object, we feel a fear of

attachment, a fear of desire. Towards the unpleasant object, we

feel a fear of hatred or aggression. And towards the neutral

object, we feel a fear of neutral feeling, of numbness or stupidity.

Every day we experience these three aspects of feeling

in surviving our existence in the samsaric world.

 

To relate with these three feelings, the Buddha taught that we have

to relate properly to the three objects- to understand them

and work with their nature. He said that when we examine

the nature of these three feelings and their three objects, we

discover that the fundamental nature of all of them is suffering.

the pleasant object, the unpleasant object and the neutral

object all have the same nature of suffering, regardless of

whether we're relating to attachement, aggression or ignorance,

Consequently, practicing mindfulness of suffering is the mindfulness

of feeling, and relating with the three objects is the way

to relate with the three levels of suffering.

 

The Three Levels of Suffering

 

The practice here is to meditate on the three expressions of suffering

and to experience their nature. The Buddha said there is one

word that can describe the meaning of suffering, and that is fear.

Fear is what suffering means. But what is this fear? It is the

fear of losing something that is pleasant, something that is

very dear and beloved, something to which you have become

attached. It is also the fear of gaining something that is unpleasant

and that you don't want. Overall you always get what you dont

want, and you don't get what you really want. therefore, we have

three levels of suffering, which we call the suffering of suffering,

the suffering of change and all-pervasive suffering.

 

All-pervasive suffering is the fundamental fear that exists

whether we're feeling happy of down. All of our feelings are

pervaded by this fundamental fear, which is why it is called

all-pervasive suffering. It's compared in traditional Buddhist

literature to developing a fatal disease that has not fully ripened.

You haven't really experienced it yet, but its presence is there

all of the time, growing every minute. That kind of fundamental

situation is known as all pervasive suffering, which grows into

the suffering of change.

 

The traditional metaphor for the suffering of change is a

very delicious cookie baked with poison. When you eat that

cookie, it's very pleasurable- but it is deadly poisonous. In order

to show that more dramatically, Shantideva, in the Bodhicharyavatara,

said the suffering of change is like honey on a razor blade.

When we lick this honey, its very sweet, and because of

our desire and attachment, we want more and more all the time.

With our poverty mentality, we lick the honey

harder each time we experience its sweetness, and the harder

we lick the honey, the deeper we cut our tongue on the razor blade.

So the suffering of change is experienced initially as a

pleasurable, pleasing feeling, but it leads us to suffering.

 

The suffering of change leads us to the suffering of suffering,

which is the most obvious level of suffering. This simple means

that, in addition to our fundamental fear, we accumulate further

sufferings, one on top of the other. For example, after experiencing

the delicious honey, we notice that we have cut off our tongue.

 

When we notice that our tongue is gone, not only do

we feel the pain of our wound, we also realize we wont be able

to taste the sweetness of honey again in this lifetime.

 

As we work with and examine the three levels of experience

-pleasant, unpleasant and neutral - we can see they are related

with the three sufferings. Pleasurable feelings are connected

to the suffering of change, unpleasant feelings connected to the

suffering of suffering, and the neutral state of mind is connected

to the fundamental suffering , all-pervasive suffering. So mindfulness

of feeling is being totally watchful and present with every

level of our fear. this is the mindfulness of feeling from the perspective

of the general Buddhist approach.

 

Mahayana Approach: Fearlessness of Selflessness

In the Mahayana tradition, mindfulness of feeling means seeing

the selfless nature of suffering, which is seeing the true nature

of fear as not being fear. On the most fundamental level, our

suffering is fear of being in the state of fear. Relating to this

fundamental fear without fear is the way to practice

Mahayana mindfulness of feeling.

 

What we are doing here is simply looking at our fear. We

experience our suffering - our so called suffering - nakedly, without

any filters of fear. That 's how the Mahayana mindfulness

works. Looking at it directly, face-to face, we transcend our fear

and become a fearless warrior on the Mahayana path. Without

working with the mindfulness of feeling, which deals directly

without fear, it is very difficult to follow the path of Mahayana.

Without it, there's no way to become a fearless warrior.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i