Alan Watts: self, no-self, who controls me?

Alan Watts: Myth of Myself (full lecture), Part 1

Can I choose to sit and see for myself?

(Alan Watts Organization Official) Jan. 23, 2020) Purchase talks and lectures by Alan Watts: "The Works." THE WORKS OF ALAN WATTS AUDIO: alanwatts.com/products/the-works. Thanks for supporting the Alan Watts Organization. Please consider subscribing and turning on notifications for future publications. More about "The Works": The Works includes the following recordings: Essential Lectures Collection... (Official Alan Watts Org) Myth of Myself full lecture, Pt. 1

Choosing self over others is not selfish

(Alan Watts Echoes) Skin encapsulated ego

(Wiara) Let go of trying to control everything. Why?

4 'enlightened' masters who went 'insane'

(Asangoham) Four "enlightened" masters who went completely "insane"

The Zen secret to letting go

Zen Buddhism: What is Zen Buddhism, its beliefs and symbols | TheMindFool

When you seek it, you lose it | The Zen Secret to Letting Go

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

(Einzelgänger) Jan. 11, 2025: What is Zen (the Japanese version of Chinese Chan) Buddhism? Let’s explore its core, several key concepts, and the practice. How does it differ from the traditional teaching of the historical Buddha (Siddhartha "Shakyamuni" Gautama) as embodied in the ancient Theravada Buddhist school and its practice of "tranquility" (jhana, dhyana, channa, chan, zen) and "insight" (vipassana, lit. "clear seeing") in this very life or through lives of striving?

Fun fact: most footage was shot during my recent trip to Kanazawa and Tokyo. This video: When You Seek It, You Lose It | The Zen Secret to Letting Go. #zen #alanwatts #taoism

• As an American, I opt for a sudden awakening (because I ain't gots no time to be muddling through formal or intensive practice. I need to purify and clarify my inner vision and awaken ASAP!)

Where does "Zen" get all these non-Buddhist ideas? Lao Tzu's Taoism: The Art of Not Trying

Lao Tzu's Taoism: The Art of Not Trying

Lao Tzu: The Art of Not Trying

"Hi, Catty." My Tokyo culture created this.

(After Skool) July 9, 2024: The curious Taoist celestial sage Lao Tzu was aware of a human quirk. We get so lost in our intellectual prisons that we forget the "natural" way. We force and struggle, swimming against the stream [like the historical Buddha said his Dharma or Teaching traveled, not the way of the world but something counter to it]. We do this so much that sometimes we end up farther from our goals than when we started. So what if we stopped "trying" so hard and pursued a different way, an effortless way, of getting things done? This video explores Lao Tzu and the art of not trying or what one modern American author has capitalized on in his book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life. Because if there's one thing we Americans love, it's our misconceptions of what "Zen" is, teaches, and does. Happy Kensho or Satori.

Why does Theravada waste time with effort?

Early Buddhist Studies

Theravada ("the Teaching of the Elder Enlightened Disciples of the historical Buddha") is such a drag. Why so slow, traditional monks and nuns? Get with the new program, the Hindu-fueled fast track to enlightenment and riches and everything you ever wanted. "Zen" sounds great, but it's an amalgamation that's gone off the rails.

It may be fun. It may be Taoism and Confucianism (and Shinto) with a whole lot of Vedanta and Hinduism thrown in, as is the way with Mahayana Buddhism. If only it worked as promised. What if we stripped away all the add-ons and cultural baggage? There might be nothing left but some naked Brahmanism/Hinduism.

Most of what people think is so "Buddhist" about Zen is actually Taoist. Have fun, but probably we shouldn't confuse it with or call it "Buddhism." That suggests the Buddha Shakyamuni was talking like this when he very much was not. What was he saying? His stripped-down teachings are reduced to misleading lists. The lists are good. The misleading part is that one can just memorize a list and think one knows anything.

Lists are a shorthand. They refer to very detailed teachings, most of which are not in the written texts but handed down in the teaching lineage of Theravada meditation masters. The suttas (discourses) are great for a broad understanding, and the Commentaries (like the Abhidhamma) are great for a pedantic detailed understanding (in ultimate terms), but actual practice always has been and is likely to always in the future be handed down through the practice.

Find a teacher who actually sits and teaches the art of sitting meditation, walking meditation, mindfulness, and the contemplations. The secret formula is this: Develop the jhanas (zens, dhyanas, chans, or meditative absorptions, which can be called the "meditations") to some extent, preferably to the fourth absorption, then apply the Satipatthanas or "Fourfold Setting Up of Mindfulness Practice."

Burmese Pa Auk Sayadaw (buddho.org)

That may sound fancy, but it's easy: Systematically practice mindfulness (sati) on four things: the body, feelings, mind, and mind objects. There's no need to figure it out. It is explained in the Satipatthana Sutta and the Maha Satipatthana Sutta. That's the conceptual part. The practice part is learned from an experienced teacher. There is one great one in Burma known as Pa Auk Sayadaw. Why is he great? He is a scholar-monk-practitioner. He actually did it, succeeded, and can explain it in terms of the texts. He is both a textual expert (scholar) AND a successful practitioner of it. Of what? He is a success at the practice of the Path that leads to enlightenment here and now in this very life. His greatest contribution may be that he left a line of awakened teachers able to teach -- monks (bhikkhus) and nuns (sayalays) and successful lay practitioners. They are out there.

• (It is not true that Theravada advocates anyone take many lives; it may not be possible for everyone to reach full enlightenment in this life nowadays, but it remains true that nearly everyone can attain stream entry, the first stage of enlightenment, which assures full enlightenment in no long time, or what the Buddha promised was a maximum of seven more lives. That may sound like a long time, but compared to the countless lives we've already endured in samsara or the countless rebirths to come, it is as nothing, and it is a maximum. Most can finish in one more life, if they so wish, but now there's no hurry or stress because one is assured of no more rebirths in worlds of woe below the human plane, and one is likely destined for some very sublime and wonderful lives in the deva and brahma planes).

American Ajahn Sumedho | Buddho.org

There may be others (Thai Ajahn Chah and his Western students British Ajahn Brahm and American Ajahn Sumedho), but successful practitioner-teachers are rare. Most monastics prefer the easier route ("career") of study and teaching when it would be far better to apply those teachings to one's own life. In that way one could teach from experience and success, but this only very rarely happens.

Theravada may sound slow, but it is a back-to-basics movement about what the real Buddha, the historical human figure (rather than the Cosmic Buddhas and divine figures like Amitabha, Budai or Hotei, Guanyin or Kwan Yin, Avalokiteshvara, Ksitigarbha, and others) taught. The Buddha was not a Hindu (there was no Hinduism then) and not a Brahmin, not an advocate of the Vedas (though very familiar with them), and not an advocate of non-dualism, which many Mahayanists (acting like Hindus) equate with some kind of "enlightenment." Buddhist enlightenment is about penetrating the Four Ennobling Truths that lead one to the "noble" state of enlightenment/awakening. It is the way of direct wisdom, which is full of compassion.

• Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Einzelgänger, Jan. 11, 2025, After Skool, July 9, 2024

Bliss without exertion and striving? (sutra)

Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans.), SuttaCentral.net (11.1. Suvira) edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Sakka (Indra in the Vedas) atop a white elephant battle a titan (asura) in a minor heaven (VF).

Who sits atop mythical Mt. Sumeru as the shining ones and titan battle endlessly?

.

Sutras: Book of Protection (Bhante G)

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One (the Buddha) was dwelling at Savatthī in Jeta’s Grove, in Anathapiṇḍika’s Park. There he addressed the meditators: “Meditators!”

“Venerable sir!” those meditators replied. The Blessed One then said:

“Meditators, once in the past the titans (asuras) marched against the shining ones (devas). Then Sakka, lord of the shining ones, addressed [General] Suvīra, a young shining one:

“‘Dear Suvīra, these titans are marching against the shining ones. Go, dear Suvīra, launch a counter-march against the titans.’ — ‘Yes, your lordship,’ Suvīra replied, but he became negligent.

“A second time Sakka addressed Suvīra…but a second time Suvīra became negligent. A third time Sakka addressed Suvīra…but a third time Suvīra became negligent (sn.i.217).

The Power Within: Black Asuras and White Devas (Manojbaitha)

.

“Then, meditators, Sakka addressed Suvīra in verse:

“‘Where one need not exert and strive

Yet still may attain to bliss:

Go there, Suvīra,

And take me along with you.’

Suvīra:

“‘That a lazy person who does not exert

Nor attend to duties

Might still have all desires fulfilled:

Grant me that, Sakka, as a boon.’

Sakka:

“‘Where a lazy person who does not exert

Might achieve unending bliss:

Go there, Suvīra,

And take me along with you.’

Suvīra:

“‘The bliss, supreme shining one, we might find

Without doing work, O Sakka,

The sorrowless state without despair:

Grant me that, Sakka, as a boon.’

Sakka:

“‘If there exists any place anywhere

Where without work one will not decline,

That is indeed nirvana’s path:

Go there, Suvīra,

And take me along with you.’

Right effort is the path to bliss.

“So, meditators, if Sakka, lord of the shining ones, subsisting on the fruit of his own merit, exercising supreme sovereignty and ruler over the Heaven of the Thirty-Three (Tavatimsa) shining ones, will be one who speaks in praise of initiative and energy then how much more would it be fitting here for you, who have gone forth (renounced worldly ways) in such a well-expounded Doctrine and Discipline, to exert, make effort, and strive for the attainment of the as-yet-unattained, for the achievement of the as-yet-unachieved, for the realization of the as-yet-unrealized?”

• SN 11.1: Suvīra Sutta — Bhikkhu Bodhi (suttacentral.net)

NOW is perfect for practice (Eckhart Tolle)

NOW is perfect for spiritual practice

(Eckhart Tolle, 7/28/22) If we think we need an ideal environment and life situation to start our spiritual practice, Eckhart Tolle shares that this moment in our life is already ideal. This moment is all there ever is.

Once upon a time in meditation...

Dharma editor, Wisdom Quarterly, July 15, 2022

I would be as a doll, molded into shape, sitting perfectly still...with great hair (lol)

.

Clearing the heart/mind is good.

Once upon a time in meditation, not much happened. I'd heard of lightshows and fireworks, visions and past life memories, mystical powers and great cleansings.

I was making a common mistake: holding expectations. Therefore, rather than being mindful, I was actually being hopeful and full of mental clutter (random thoughts), distracted and defiled by a subtler form of craving, the zeal or eagerness to get rid of these defilements and the desire to attain purification and enlightenment.

Western meditation master Ajahn Sumedho, an early student of Ajahn Chah, makes this point, calling out the three kinds of desire.

Sure there is the "desire" most meditators recognize as harmful: lust, avaruce, sensual craving for pleasures and amusements through the five senses.

I was keeping clear of that one, aiming at a higher pleasure called piti ("joy"), a kind of bliss that happens naturally as a result of the mind cohering in meditative absorption or jhana, as explained by Tina Rasmussen.

Even that desire for attainment was getting in the way. There was no such thinking about what the hold up was, only the mildly desperate and increasingly frustrated wondering, How long this is going to take?

Hey, it's Reality come a knocking.

It'll take what it takes, and what that is depends a great deal on when I drop the craving, which is immediately standing in the way of success.

As Ajahn Sumedho deftly points out, sitting there with desire hoping for enlightenment or really wanting to improve myself by suppressing or eliminating my

• passion (desire, greed, craving, grasping, clinging),
• aversion (fear, hate, revulsion), and
• delusion (ignorance, wrong views)

will not work when I try to do it with a mind full of craving -- whether it's craving to be rid of the bad or craving to gain the good.

I noted the breath, brought my mind back to the object of meditation, and smiled. Exhale, let go, I told myself, and I realized it's not an act of will. Seeing harm in holding on works better because letting go seems like the only sane thing to do. How then to give up hopes and fears and continue sitting?

Bad, good, self, no-self, who would win?

Then I remembered something my enlightened teacher said, or I think he said: You can't do it. Let the technique do it. That is to say, just keep applying the technique (without all the hopes and fears of what will or will not happen or when) and, like everyone else, it'll happen by itself.

That's no fun! My ego wanted to do it. Ah. There's the problem. This will happen, and the ego will be diminished or eliminated, so ego's clinging on. "I" can't remove it, and every struggle I make reinforces it. So all there is to do is relax and carry on. Exhale.

[Carry on knowing that when the ego sees the Five Aggregates clung to as self, after samadhi/jhana, when the mind is applied to the fourth foundation of mindfulness, it'll let go all by itself.]

"Effort" to practice Buddhism (sutra)

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera, Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines (4th Edition edited by Ven. Nyanaponika, BPS.lk)

The Buddha in gold, brass, and stone, Thailand (MarmaladeToast flickr.com)

  

Under a sprawling pipal tree -- bodhi!

The Four Right Efforts (samma-padhāna), which together form the sixth factor of the Noble Eightfold Path, are the effort: (1) to avoid, (2) to overcome, (3) to develop, and (4) to maintain. That is to say:

One endeavors, strives, makes an effort to avoid unwholesome states (generally, those states motivated by greed, hatred/fear, or delusion/wrong view) that are not yet present.

One endeavors to overcome unwholesome states that arise. 

One develops wholesome states (generally, those motivated by nongreed, nonhatred/nonfear, and nondelusion) -- such as the Seven Factors of Enlightenment.

 

One endeavors to maintain (and consummate, bring to culmination, fruition) wholesome states that have arisen. 

SUTRA 

"Numerical Discourses of the Buddha" (Anguttara Nikaya)

Intensive sitting meditation is one kind of striving (meditationguidance.com)

 
"The meditator rouses the will to avoid the arising of harmful, unwholesome things not yet arisen... to overcome them... to develop wholesome things not yet arisen... [and] to maintain them, without allowing them to disappear, to bring them to growth, to maturity, and to the full perfection of development. One makes (a balanced) effort, rouses energy, exerts mind/heart, and strives" (AN IV, 13).  
 
NOTE: It is critical to bear in mind that overexertion is not right effort. The Buddha did not succeed under the Bodhi tree by overexerting as so many assume by not reading carefully. It is exactly because of struggling and overexertion that he could not succeed. Only when Siddhartha relaxed and began making a balanced-effort, which included the purifying meditative-absorptions (jhanas) he had fearfully been avoiding for years, did he finally reach the path to insight and enlightenment. He let go, allowed bliss of absorption and, remaining attentive, emerged to practice Dependent Origination -- the systematic pursuit of the 12 causal links that make up suffering. Siddhartha had set originally off to find the solution to the problem of suffering, so he asked: "Why is there suffering?" The practice of Dependent Origination answers this question through mindful application, insight-practice (vipassana), which begins as the fourfold setting up of mindfulness (on body, feelings, mind, and mind states). In this connection, the Buddha once taught a famous lute player to neither over-tighten nor under-tighten the strings of the instrument. Balance is the way to get the right sound -- balance between overexerting and underexerting.

Hi, I'm meditating (Kirsten Johnson)

(1) "What now, O meditators, is the effort to avoid? Perceiving a form, or a sound, or an odor, or a taste, or a bodily or mental impression, the medtitator neither adheres to (clings to, is entranced by) the whole nor to its parts. And one strives to ward off that through which harmful and unwholesome things might arise, such as greed and sorrow, if one remained with unguarded senses. And one watches over the (six) senses, restrains the senses. This is called the effort to avoid.

 

(2) "What now is the effort to overcome? The meditator does not retain any thought of sensual lust, or any other harmful, unwholesome states that may have arisen. One abandons them, dispels them, destroys them, causes them to disappear. This is called the effort to overcome.

 

(3) "What now is the effort to develop? The meditator develops the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, bent on solitude, on detachment, on extinction, and ending in liberation (deliverance, emancipation, nirvana), namely: mindfulness, keen investigation of phenomena, energy, rapture, tranquility, concentration (collectedness of mind), and equanimity. This is called the effort to develop.

 

OK, breaktime! (Vincenzo Rossi/flickr)

(4) "What now is the effort to maintain? The meditator keeps firmly in mind (attention) a favorable object of concentration, such as the mental image (nimitta) of [light, or the cemetery meditations of] a skeleton, a (very repulsive) corpse infested with worms, a corpse blue-black in color, a festering corpse, a corpse riddled with holes, a corpse swollen up. [In this way, one frequently given to lust is temporarily freed of lust so insight may dawn and permanently free one of hindrances, fetters, and defilements.] This is called the effort to maintain" (AN IV, 14).

Cure for STRIVING: a Relaxed Approach

Mirka Knaster, Inquiring Mind (Vol. 24, No. 2, Spring 2008); Wisdom Quarterly
Catholicism, born-again Protestantism, and lack of religion found to shrink brain. Religion and atheism should improve brain and heart not damage them (integral-options blog).

Taking a Relaxed Approach with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

In 2007, Sayadaw U Tejaniva, a Burmese [Theravada] monk, made his second visit to Western Dharma centers in the US. I had the opportunity to hear his teachings in several places, to interview him and his excellent translator, Ma Thet, and to speak with teachers and yogis about their experience of his transformative approach to Dharma practice.

Sayadaw’s particular way of teaching is now influencing a number of Western vipassana [insight] teachers. He emphasizes:

• practicing in a relaxed but continuous manner rather than forcing one’s effort;
• opening the field of awareness to all experience rather than beginning with a primary object to establish concentration;
  
• walking at a regular rather than slow pace on retreat;
  
• not imposing a fixed retreat schedule; and
  
• focusing on one’s relationship to objects rather than on the objects themselves.
  

Insight or vipassana as a supportive group effort (findameditationclass.com)

The integration of these elements appears to strengthen the five spiritual faculties (indriya) -- faith [confidence in the practice], energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom -- and deepen practice in everyday life.

Practicing with Ease

“At this point in the Dharma’s unfolding in the West, there seems to be a ripeness for Sayadaw’s relaxed and open approach,” says Myoshin Kelley, teacher-in-residence at the Forest Refuge in Barre, Massachusetts.

For people who have done many years of practice, like herself, subtle levels of striving, wanting or trying to create something get exposed. That exposure of yet another layer of holding or attachment allows a certain ease to occur as well.

“Natural awareness is recognizing everything that’s happening without using a lot of effort,” says Sayadaw U Tejaniya. “You need to watch all day long, but you can’t be concentrating all day long. Meditation is for all the time -- now, always, everywhere -- not just to enjoy a stay in the forest on retreat.”

Meditation with headphones (binaural beats, Holosync induction, or recorded instructions) are far more preferable than straining or boredom (Image: soulpancake.com).

He compares vipassana [insight practice] to running a marathon, not a 100-meter dash. We need to keep at it relentlessly, but in a relaxed manner. Instead of excessive mental and physical energy, a sense of patience and perseverance will build up natural momentum and further our practice.

Natural is a word that comes up a lot with Sayadaw and those who have practiced with him. Alexis Santos, who practiced long-term at Shwe Oo Min Meditation Centre, employs it when referring to what he learned:

It’s natural -- practice Dhamma, understanding who we are and what reality is -- it’s a natural event, and it’s always happening. So there is nothing really to control. There’s never an opportunity that is not open for reflection or engagement, for learning, for opening the heart and mind to what is arising, for listening deeply. There’s a total sense of allowing this life not to be broken up into agendas.

Santos describes an image from nature, the sunflower, that helped him to establish awareness with the right attitude: “It just rests there and faces the sun and, in this very open way, receives everything it needs to grow and flourish as a flower. It doesn’t require straining to get light into itself.”

“Don’t see something as a problem,” Sayadaw advises. “Just see it as it is.” Allan Price reflects on how he had always perceived his practice as a problem. That has changed through his work with Sayadaw’s approach on a retreat with senior vipassana teachers Steve Armstrong and Kamala Masters:

I’ve tended to have striving in my personality, so if I was supposed to feel the breath, then come hell or high water, I’m going to feel the breath. It was very typical for me on a retreat to go into one of my interviews and say, “I’m not getting it.”

I just found the new instructions so helpful because it was much easier to be with the experience. With this approach, I can really sit with anything that comes up because it doesn’t matter what comes up. I don’t feel like there are experiences that are more or less valid now.

Strengthening the Faculty of Wisdom

“If you only want peace, understanding won’t come,” Sayadaw says. “And the other danger is, if you only want peace, then you’ll get angry more easily.”

He laughs as he remembers learning this himself as a young man. He tells a story about a time when he was so concentrated and blissed out all day that he decided to keep practicing and not sleep that night. His energy was great for hours and then, around 2:00 am, a bedbug bit him and broke the samadhi [deep concentration].

Annoyed, he groaned, but he also thought he could get it back. Because he didn’t see the mind’s attitude -- craving bliss -- the harder he tried, the more irritation and tension he generated.

After three days, he was worn out. “I give up,” he said. “Never mind if it doesn’t come back. I’ve got a headache. I’m not going to try anymore.”

Suddenly, there was samadhi again. By over-focusing, he had zoned out and couldn’t use his intelligence; the faculty of wisdom had become weak. More

• INSET PHOTOS: indoor meditation (sevenchakrasmeditation.com); outdoor meditation (gaynerdlife.blogspot.com)
  

Symptoms of Struggle while Sitting

For a peaceful meditation, we need not go to the mountains and streams. When thoughts are quieted down, fire itself is cool and refreshing. Poignant but misguided Vietnam War protest (newbuddhist.com)

Be on the lookout for symptoms of inner-turmoil. Lately my meditation -- and the world at large, judging from the news headlines -- has been alternating between anguish and amazing peace. There are miserable realms inhabited, no doubt, by people who think too much. All that thinking means holding, and acting from, wrong-views.

Eckhart Tolle says, "If there were nothing but thought in you, you wouldn’t even know you are thinking. You would be like a dreamer who doesn’t know [s/he] is dreaming. When you know you are dreaming, you are awake within the dream."

Our hearts are exposed to turmoil, suffering, and harm. As the individual goes, so goes the world at large. And to that Eckhart adds: "To end the misery that has afflicted the human condition for thousands of years, you have to start with yourself and take responsibility for you inner state at any given moment. That means NOW." Pain isn't in the future. It's only now. It will only ever be now. There is, after all, no other time.

So inner-peace is possible, too, but only now. And it is possible for everyone right now. This could ruin the news and sales sectors. Fear drives us, attracts our attention, motivates our poor choice in actions. Who would we be without fighting?

Signs and Symptoms

• Tendency to over-think based on fears, past experiences
• Inability to enjoy the present moment
• Heightened interest in judging other people
• Heightened interest in judging self
• Heightened interest in interpreting the actions of others
• Heightened interest in conflict and confrontation
• Inability to stop worrying
• Frequent, overwhelming episodes of anguish
• Disturbed feelings of separation from others and nature
• Frequent grieving or feelings of being aggrieved
• Increasing tendency to control and make things happen
• Increased susceptibility to fear others and the uncontrollable urge to attack or escape the perceived danger
• Effects of the Mental Hindrances on Meditation

GOOD NEWS: If you experience one or all of these symptoms, your condition is curable. The cause is thinking; the external conditions just help you think and confirm it. Exposing yourself to more sitting (with less thinking) will help right away.

• Eckhart Tolle spiritual quotes (ineedmotivation.com)
• Oil spill will poison the planet's seafood
• Ask & It Is Given (expandingthoughts.us)

Struggle for Enlightenment

"Easy to do are things that are bad and not beneficial to oneself, but very, very hard to do indeed is that which is beneficial and good." (Dhammapada)

Struggle
Disappointed but not discouraged, the ascetic Gotama [the future Buddha], seeker of the incomparable peace, the highest Truth, wandered through the district of Magadha, northern India.

He eventually arrived at Uruvela, in the market town of Senani. There he found a lovely spot of ground, a charming forest grove, a flowing river with pleasant sandy fords, and nearby was a village where he could obtain almsfood. Then he thought:

"Lovely, indeed, O Venerable One, is this spot of ground, charming is the forest grove, pleasant is the flowing river with sandy fords, and nearby is the village where I can obtain food. Suitable indeed is this place for spiritual exertion for those noble scions who desire to strive."

The place was congenial for his meditation. The atmosphere was peaceful. The surroundings were pleasant. The scenery was charming. Alone, he resolved to settle down there to achieve his desired objective.

Hearing of his renunciation, Kondanna, the youngest brahmin soothsayer who predicted his future, and four sons of the other sages -- Bhaddiya, Vappa, Mahanama, and Assaji -- also renounced the world and joined his company.

In ancient India great importance was attached to rites, rituals, ceremonies, penances, and sacrifices. It was popularly believed that no liberation could be gained unless one led a life of strict asceticism.

Accordingly, for six years the ascetic Gotama made a superhuman struggle to practice all forms of the severest austerities. His delicate body was reduced almost to a skeleton. But the more he tormented his body, the farther his goal receded from him.

How strenuously he struggled, the various methods he employed, and how he eventually succeeded were graphically described in his own words in various discourses. The Maha Saccaka Sutra describes his preliminary efforts:

"Then the following thought occurred to me:

"How if I were to clench my teeth, press my tongue against the palate, and with (moral) thoughts hold down, subdue and destroy my (immoral) thoughts! More>>

• Definition: "Reviling" the Noble Ones
• Ancient "lost tomb" found in Egypt sout of Cairo
• VIDEO: Message from the Galactic Federation

Quest for Enlightenment (film short)

The Happiness Project: There are moments in history when the world stands at the brink of a new era. The relentless march of time pauses for a seemingly endless breath -- before the floodgates of massive change burst wide open. The time is now. Are you ready? (OmHappy1)

Buddha Boy (multilingual subtitles)

(Supreme Master TV) Buddha Boy, aka Ram Bahadur Bomjan, Tapaswi Palden Dorje: The Meditating Buddha Boy from Nepal (English/Nepalese), Part I.

Attaining Enlightenment (with Keanu)

Born in Lumbini, Nepal [disputed by Ranajit Pal], Siddhartha was destined to a luxurious life as a prince. He had three palaces specially built for him by his father. But at 29 he escaped these royal trappings on his horse Kanthaka, accompanied by his servant Channa, leaving behind his luxurious life to become a wandering mendicant in search of Truth.

• The Historical Buddha

Coming to the edge of his father's kingdom, he continued on foot alone. He went to eminent yoga masters in adjoining lands. First he studied under Alara Kalama and thereafter with Uddaka Ramaputra. With them he reached the heights of the meditations they taught (jhanas). Dissatisfied at not becoming enlightened nor released from rebirth, even though he successfully attained samadhi, he undertook the old path of severe penances and austerities.

That got him nowhere, he was later to say. Buddhism or the Middle Way thus avoids the extremes of princely sensual indulgence and ascetic self-mortification. Eventually, sitting under a banyan tree, now known as the Bodhi tree in Buddha Gaya (Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India), he vowed never to rise until he realized the Truth. He entered the jhanas, emerged, analyzed the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, reflecting on the Three Marks of Existence, and attained liberating-insight. He recalled his former lives, the working out of karma, and other supernormal things.

That night, now 35, he attained enlightenment (bodhi) and glimpsed/touched nirvana. From then on, he came to be known as the "Buddha" or the "Awakened One." Buddha is also sometimes translated as the "Enlightened One." He is referred to by many epithets, such as Shakyamuni ("Sage [muni] of the Shakya Clan"), Tathagata ("Thus Gone One"), Bhante ("Venerable Sir"), Bhagwan, and even Mahavira ("Great Hero," an epithet now exclusively applied to one of his contemporaries, Vardhamana, the founder of Jainism). His name, of course, was originally Prince Siddhartha Gautama of the Shakya Clan.

Hindus are fond of saying that he is a Hindu avatar, namely, a reincarnation of the God Vishnu (according to the Puranas). This effectively keeps Hindus from studying Buddhism since they regard it as simply a part of Hinduism. In the Bhagavata Purana, the Buddha is said to be 24th of 25 avatars, prefiguring a forthcoming final incarnation. A number of Hindu traditions portray Buddha as the most recent of ten principal avatars, known as the dasavatara ("ten incarnations of God").

One of the Buddhist morality tales -- tales and parables similar to Aesop's Fables, which are meant to be more instructional than literal -- depicts Rama as a previous incarnation of the Buddha, who was not yet the Buddha but rather the Bodhisattva, a "being intent on enlightenment." This suggests that "Rama" is the name of a celestial station or post (like Sakka, Mara, Brahma, Surya, and Chandra are), not a singular entity. (See Jataka Atthakatha 461).

• Jataka Tales

Kalyani: "Meditation Now" (1-2-3)

Text, Seven; camera, Bright Idea; filmed on location in Southern California

It is not easy finding anyone who can explain Buddhist meditation after having succeeded. WQ tracked down and filmed a famed student of the tradition. Legend says that one initially makes an applied-effort. But generally no one gets much beyond this step. There are steps beyond, an entire Path, which result from sustained-effort.

• Questions? Comments? wisdomquarterly@yahoo.com

The Buddha's meditation analogies

The difference between initial and sustained effort is explained by analogies to pouring, flying, and tolling.

• Water pours in huge droplets, whereas oil pours in a more or less unbroken stream.

Initial-effort in meditation is a series of fitful attempts to focus and concentrate with fleeting snatches of calm/clarity. Sustained-effort is long, unbroken segments of serene, one-pointed awareness.

• A bird wanting to fly leaps from a branch and flaps vigorously, whereas a bird in flight simply glides, rides an updraft, a rising sheet of air (thermal).

Initially there is great effort -- awkward struggling, and flapping. Eventually there is elegance and equanimity, majestic soaring with no apparent effort at all. One becomes unflappable once one gets the hang of it.

• A bell to be tolled must be struck with vigor, whereas a ringing bell simply resonates with nothing being done.

One applies initial-effort like a person taking up a mallet and striking a bell just right. As soon as it is struck just so, a great effortless sound resounds. There is nothing to do but keep the bell producing a soothing sustained ring.

Without first applying initial-effort, there is no sustained-effort to maintain. One takes up meditation by focusing on a single object and bringing attention back to that object, attention that is freed of habitual thinking, evaluating, and reacting. Then one flows, rides, passively glides, and resounds at a harmonious frequency as the meditation does its part.

The art is BALANCING effort with receptivity (yang with yin energies), striving for with receiving what comes, struggling to achieve with acceptance.

Effort

How much effort is ENOUGH effort? Just enough effort is enough. Sit. Stay. Gingerly, singlemindedly maintain the object by cheerfully returning to it as often and as frequently as the mind wanders. When thinking starts, when the mind strays off, when one of the Five Hindrances makes an appearance, simply let go or apply an antidote and again passively receive/accept. Let the meditation happen. Do your part, and let the meditation do its part for you. Take a step towards it, and in turn it approaches you.

Traditionally, "striving" is spoken of simply in terms of Right Effort, which is fourfold:

1. Abandon unprofitable states that are present
2. Avoid new unprofitable states that might arise
3. Cultivate profitable states that have not yet arisen
4. Maintain until perfect those profitable states

What is "unprofitable"? There are three poisons that are obstacles hindering the mind and corrupting the heart.

What is profitable? Generosity, friendliness, wisdom, courage -- the opposite of the poisons. This is true in life but comes into particularly sharp relief in meditation.

Striving vs. Balancing

Rural children from the Midwest to India play a game that has no formal name. Call it stick-wheel. The goal of the game is to keep a wheel in steady motion by goading and tapping it with a stick. The art is to use the least amount of effort, seeming to keep the wheel moving on its own. Any excess effort causes the wheel to wobble, become unstable, and fall. Insufficient effort has the same effect. One loses control. One can get so good -- effortlessly good -- that the wheel seems to roll all by itself.

Children, walking for miles down country roads, expertly pace themselves, remaining steady. They achieve with practice. They become skillful without thinking or doubting.

Even if it falls (again and again), which it is SURE to do at the beginning, judgment-free they quickly set it right and carry on. Foreseeing bumps and potholes, obstacles and hindrances, they avert them or ride them out. The wheel remains upright, flowing with whatever comes its way for as long as they wish. Gliding along, they can go and go -- that's the point, keeping something that wants to be inert in motion, keeping something that wants to wobble steady, keeping something that wants to stray in check with the least stress or striving.

The same understanding of balanced-effort is found in most sports: Surfing is riding a wave as long as possible, neither being in control nor losing it. One finds the wave then lets the wave do all the work. Spinning a basketball on a finger is a trick of momentum; momentum provides the balance. The same is true of coasting on a bike or walking a tightrope or long distance running. Too much effort and one is soon spent. Too little effort, and one stumbles and struggles. Skill is toning down effort until all doing seems effortless. Look, the wave is surfing me! The ball is spinning itself. This wheel is accompanying me on the way.