To Be or just to be

Had a long discussion recently with a friend who practices Jhana. He encouraged me to return to this practice.

Have considered this and it brings into relief my own approach.

In Jhana we set up the causes and conditions of certain mind states namely Kindness, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity. The 4th in particular is important for its perfect and undistracted concentration which is needed for deep investigation of reality.

What is notable is this is an active "practice." We can build a beautiful house, we can build a beautiful mind. We can Be. This is very much in keeping with the idea that there is no underlying fixed reality. But it might lead practitioners to think that in some way "I" have made this. In the 8 Fold Noble Path this is the Right Concentration.

The diametrical opposite of this is also a "practice" but rather than seeking to manifest states of mind it simple expands to observe any states of mind that arise. This is particularly useful for coping with difficult states of mind. We are not interested in what arises only that it has arisen. If we do not interact with the phenomenon then it has a short life and decays just as it arose. Now we understand that everything arises through causes in the right condition. The arising of mental states is the same. This is called karma. Things we have done before have set up the causes and when the conditions are right we get the arising of a state of mind. Jhana practitioners will get their jhana, people who have been unskilful and been "sinful" to adopt the Jewish word will manifest unwelcome states of mind. But both these are just states of mind that we can watch come and go. This "practice" is not trying to manifest anything it is just letting the world occur and giving it a change just to be. This practice is the Right Mindfulness.

Now in this blog I have taken the second one to extremes. It is not just the aware mind that lets the world be, it is our whole life. We let the sun rise in the morning, we let the rain come and go, we let hunger come within us and let unhappiness come and go. With this view there is very little to life in fact, and nothing to gain or strive for. Life is a wonderful thing that comes and goes. It has no direction or purpose it is sufficient just to exist. To this end there are some basic things we need to do like find food and water and a place to sleep but this is just natural processes governed by our body. All the hullabaloo of economics is a complete waste of time. we can do without it all and it serves no purpose. Indeed all of Modern Life is the same. Completely irrelevant. Take it or leave it. Or perhaps most importantly just watch it come and go.

Now this is quite a radical interpretation. It may cause unhappiness and worry. We may not own any thing, we may be poor, we may feel our life a waste, we may feel directionless and purposeless, we may feel unloved. But for all these there are the opposites. We will feel free, unburdened and pure. And again most importantly we can just watch all these states come and go.

Now Buddha stressed Right Concentration and Right Mindfulness. Somewhere in here is a middle path between extremes. Perhaps I should examine that.