Withstanding the Defilements

[@HillsideHermitage]

Check out the excellent post on the nature of jhana practice by Ven Anigha and refuting some of the mainstream, physical technique based, ideas of meditation: reddit.com/r/HillsideHermitage/comments/1e2hztc/on_thinking_about_jh%C4%81na_by_ven_thanissaro/ ____________________________________ If you wish to support the Hillside Hermitage Sangha and this channel you are very welcome to do so via: www.hillsidehermitage.org/support-us

[@Samphappalapa-56912]

Thank you, bhante 🙏

[@JoshSmith-ff8dw]

I've been putting this into practice and it's worked wonders. I have always been very sensitive to my moods and impressions. I am sure I suffer from some form of OCD. I've intuited that non-resistance is the way out, but in the moment an unwanted impression demands that I wrestle with it. Resistance degrades me to its level. I sense a kernel of denial buried deep, too, a resistance to my own given self and its true constitution. I have had to raise myself above that concern. For some this feeling is so knotted that pop mindfulness does nothing. But channels like this work wonders, like I said. Thank you.

[@pug7053]

The mind has a protector part which tries to shield U from feeling pain, discomfort from emotions that are distressing, so the mind represses them .

[@eli174]

Dear Venerable I see what you want to express about the way to watch after the arising of kilesa. I see that awareness and right view does the job. Right view of letting go and understanding why to let go, and this just becomes natural with subjects we are able to detach from. As long as i am attached to a kilesa or idea or subject, the observation and letting go is blocked. Which is normal because the attached mind makes one with the object. But from my experience and training I also see that the higher aim is to purify the mind. In this regard, once it is pure there will be no arising of impurity. I haven't mastered it fully in any subject. But I see that many kilesa that I used to have don't even arise anymore. And to my experience, what makes it to not even arise is right view. I see that if I have corrected my attachment, view and understanding entirely about a subject or kilesa, the natural path of the mind has changed. Which is what i aim for, but don't get disappointed when it is not yet ripe. Good practice

[@JoshSmith-ff8dw]

I would also like to say I've been reading Bonhoeffer's works on Christ, and he says that "turning the other cheek" is another way of saying that the only way to overcome evil is to witness it, not resist it. Evil that is patiently endured is deprived of its sting and vitality. It got me thinking of how Mara eventually tires of setting traps for prey that will never come. Thank you again. The work that you all are doing is wonderful.

[@celeste3968]

Thank you. I've been grappling this all my life and slowly, slowly, having a lighter spirit.

[@sampajano]

Nice similes.. Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu 🙏

[@vortex2177]

🙇‍♂️🙇‍♂️🙇‍♂️ Thank you Ajahn. 🙏🏻

[@thrylos32]

Bonjour ajahns ❤ thanks merci ευχαριστούμε!

[@InsightToAlchemy]

This is gold

[@SophLotus]

Lovely.

[@StanleyFamilyFun]

Good morning Dhamma family

[@hariharry391]

🙏

[@felasfa1]

Thank you for a great talk. In the past, I acted out of desire for sensual pleasures and aversion to difficult emotions and feelings. This was rather implicit, with little awareness of my actions, and lack of responsibility. Having practiced self-restraint and virtue, and still working hard, it almost feels I can’t almost relate to my past self. At times, as emotions arise, I see them almost devoid of any substance except what I inject into them, as when i used to act out. The exceptions are emotions, feelings and thoughts that pertain to a gap in my virtue or responsibility. As a beginner, I find the voidness of these emotions overwhelming at times and get slight concerned. I would appreciate your advices on this matter.

[@djanpo993]

I'm not a Noble disciple, just a committed follower. Just one comment from personal experience: the "voidness of emotions" feels scary because of our human nature and because we are raised in a society that highly values emotions. But actually even if one were to lose this "richness" in emotions, nothing bad would happen. Live would continue, equanimity and contentment would sustain an aggreable abiding and no harm would occur. Actually, it would be beneficial. We might not see the safety net at the bottom of the abyss, but it's there. The Buddha and the Dhamma have our backs. Take care!

[@ToKiniAndy]

After watching I took a few moments to try and capture in my own words what I thought was said. Does this seem to be an accurate representation of what Ajahn Nyanamoli said? Phenomena arise on their own. You can not stop that. If annoyance arises within me, the unpleasant feeling of annoyance itself is not the problem. The problem is if I start dwelling on that arisen feeling. If I start getting worked up about it. The problem is if I lash out at someone next to me due to my aversion to that arisen annoyance. If the annoyance is noticed for what it is, and is neither welcomed, dwelt on, or acted upon, it can not actually effect me. Not seeing that, I act in order to rid myself of the annoyance. Acting **because** of the annoyance allows it "in" so to speak. When it is allowed in, it becomes a problem. It becomes a problem because without realizing that manifested phenomena themselves are not even accessible to you, you act upon them in order to get rid of them (or get more of them) and thus cause yourself to be effected by them, causing you to suffer. (The part that is hardest to see...) Restraint provides the practitioner with the necessary field to see for themselves that manifested things are not a problem, unless they are acted upon. Without restraint, this is not possible. When it is fully seen that manifestation is essentially can't touch one unless welcomed, the practitioner realizes safety. Slowly, the intention to act away from unpleasant feelings or towards pleasant feelings dries up, and in the manifested it becomes apparent that there is nothing but the manifested.

[@Phynastor]

I'm doing what your doing and putting mine here with yours. Mine is as follows. "Your responsibility is to not act out of it and to endure the fullness of the unpleasant experience without looking away. After it passes, deeply acknowledge what happened and the error in your attitude that resulted in it. Also it's important to understand that the world exists its own. What matters is your attitude towards it which is determined by your conduct and how you've lived your life. As long as you continue to feed the behaviors that caused you suffering, you won't have changed your attitude towards that thing and you will continue to suffer, even if you mentally understand that it's undesirable."

[@dicsoncandra1948]

the presence of annoyance is itself already an indication of aversion towards (or craving against) a presently enduring unpleasant feeling (at the bodily level). What needs to be done is to endure it ‘at the right level’ of citta (to endure the pain without expecting it to go away). To act out of the annoyance would be to exacerbate the problem of craving and thus suffering (it becomes a recurrence). It’s the nature of phenomena that is inaccessible to you, which is why even successful attempts to remove the unpleasant feeling (by attending to agreeable perception) or hold on to the pleasant feeling does nothing to change the inherent and inaccessible domain of your liability to suffer (which points to the nature of phenomena that you are inaccessible to or have no control over). Restraint helps the practitioner to see the pain of craving, which is the unwholesome inclination or motive of the mind to seek out agreeable or even more agreeable perception to replace the presently enduring feeling (to remain pleasant). With right attention (yonisomanasikara) and the right striving, one develops one’s mind (citta) to not-incline towards craving (because it sees the harm and pain of it). It is not so that there is just the manifested-citta remains there and the only difference is one of attitude: with craving (greed, aversion, distraction) or without craving (non-greed, non-aversion, non-distraction).

[@HillsideHermitage]

@ToKiniAndy Yes, that's it in the nutshell. But the difficulty lies in the fact that you must develop an attitude of not-acting out of the body, speech or thoughts, that goes into infinity. So, even if the pressuring thing is going to pressure you forever, you will not go against the understood principle of not acting out of it, regardless of how long that thing lasts. That's usually where people fail. The information regarding not acting out of the unwholesome states is not hard to grasp, but it is very hard to stick to, especially when it comes down to subtler mental states and choices to follow certain thoughts or not. A person can endure non-acting for a while, but then as the mind begins to increase its tactics of scaring you through presenting you with the scenarios that if you don't act towards them will become more and more extreme, that's when one would fold and give in. And this is inevitable. But if the person keeps this in mind as the goal to strive towards, the non-acting out (through development of virtue and sense restraint) can gradually become more and more established, until no amount of irrational extreme hypothetical outcomes, thrown at you by your own mind that refuses to be tamed, will move you or even make you flinch.

[@kzantal]

​@@HillsideHermitageWhat about failing and directly witnessing how it always spirals out of control with more and more pressure and dukkha? Would you say this slow realisation would eventually lead to fully embracing sense restraint? I am ashamed to admit that my mind always ends up getting the better of me. But every time, the drawback, the pit of glowing hot coals, hits me in the face harder and harder. After every relapse, I yearn for freedom more and more. Yet, I always eventually give in to the mind. I am weak, and being a layman with a family doesn't help. Yet, I hope that dispassion will continue to increase until it finally clicks. When I re-embrace sense restraint, it is always with the yearning "no more of this, I renounce it". Yet, some time later...

[@zorananda]

It seems so obvious and simpel and yet it is so hard to reverse that belief ,that the arisen feeling that pressures you to react with greed, aversion distraction is a part of you , when in reality it is only part of your experience, arisen on its own, ultimately unownable and uncontrollable. Not your responsibility. The acting out of it and reacting to it can obviously only be done when the true ,self arisen, unownable , uncontrollable nature of the wave is not discerned. The wave could never touch you to begin with, but your attitude of ownership and wanting to control it opened the door for it. It's not surprising that , provided the restraint of acting out, it takes constant repetition of reminding oneself that when craving is there , there is also a simultaneously arisen feeling there, uncontrollable, unownable, arisen on its own. Because the misconception and attitude of desire for control and ownership have been there unbroken since time immemorial. Beginningless. Great talk once again. Thank you Ajahns for providing such straightforward simplicity and clarity.

[@pra1005]

Thank you Bhante 🙏. How should one approach and understand Right Effort, then, in this context? With respect to making effort for the unwholesome mentate states to cease, and prevent their airisng?

[@ady38]

Mmm I would have thought at the end of the day, the fact of the sea being rough and pounding the shore is the result of us agitating the waters via engaging with lustful thoughts and actions...so that is our responsibility ultimately right? But we perceive the problem as being the rough sea because it disturbs us and makes us uncomfortable..and we have no tolerance for that disturbance. So is it that our best action is in fact no action with regard to the pounding? If we try to act by trying to actively calm the sea, we only achieve more agitation? 🙏

[@jaredj797]

Are there any @HillsideHermitage videos on the nature of citta? Just citta itself, not citta nimitta. In the Bhikkhu Anīgha essay "Sīla is Samādhi" there is a note that has, "In brief: citta (sometimes rendered 'heart') is responsible for actions and all unwholesome states and is what needs to be purified."

[@jaredj797]

@ThaniyoThero I see many videos on mano, which Bhikkhu Anīgha describes as "[that] which is responsible for dhammas (thoughts/images), is Māra's property and is where he sets up his bait." But I can't seem to find any on citta, other than talks of citta nimitta. Thank you for your time, Bhante.

[@chrislanziotti9179]

Arise becose Sankhara

[@kevintoohey8043]

The mind sent outside is the origination of suffering. The result of the mind sent outside is suffering. The mind seeing the mind is the path. The result of the mind seeing the mind is the cessation of suffering. Ajahn Dune