Live Session Summary, Sunday, February 19, 2023: It was good to be with you today for our Live session on the Paths of Wellness and Awakening. I’ll begin with the poems and quotes I shared and then summarize the main points covered in today’s Live session:
Ram Dass, “Once you become somebody, then you are ready to start your journey to become nobody.’
Ajahn Chah, “Do everything with a mind that lets go. Don’t accept praise or gain or anything else. If you let go a little you will have a little peace; if you let go a lot you will have a lot of peace; if you let go completely you will have complete peace. Your struggle with the world will be at an end.”
Buddha, “Just as the mighty ocean has but one taste, the taste of salt, so too my teaching has but one taste, the taste of freedom.”
Carl Jung, “What is not brought into consciousness, comes to us as fate.”
Mingyur Rinpoche, Tibetan Buddhist teacher, “Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your mental afflictions and the discomfort of being ruled by them.”
After his awakening, the Buddha was asked if he was a god or divine being and he said ‘no’; asked if he was a man, he said ‘no’; when asked, ‘what are you then?’, he said, ‘I am awake.’
Poems: ‘The Way It Is’ by Lynn Ungar; a quote from ‘The Mind of Absolute Trust’ by Seng Ts’an; a quote from Dorothy Hunt’s poem, ‘Peace is this moment without judgment’; and ‘Clearing’ by Martha Postlethwaite.
I reviewed some of the main points from earlier sessions: The paths of wellness and awakening can be seen as distinct—having different goals—but can also be seen as on a continuum—and that developing wellness reducing stress and anxiety, and developing a healthy sense of ‘self,’ can be seen as necessary, if not sufficient conditions for realizing the goal of awakening. (See quotes from Ram Dass, Ajahn Chah, and the Buddha above)
I discussed the metaphor of the spiral as being helpful in seeing how we can keep going round and round, repeating old patterns and continuing to suffer until we bring our experience into the light of awareness and can see into the harm caused by being locked in this cycle—and letting go. (See quotes from Carl Jung and Mingyur Rinpoche above.)
I highlighted the earlier discussion of what awakening is: the radical transformation in our way of being in the world and seeing the world, the complete ending of suffering that comes from letting go of clinging, and shared the story of the Buddha above: ‘I am awake.’
Finally, I highlighted six central areas of Buddha’s teachings that lead to awakening and the end of suffering:
• The Four Noble Truths: 1) the existence of suffering; 2) the cause of suffering—clinging; 3) the end of suffering—Nirvana/awakening; and 4) the path to the end of suffering—the Noble Eightfold Path. This teaching can be summarized briefly as: When we cling, we suffer; when we let go of clinging, we end our suffering.
• The Noble Eightfold Path (the fourth noble truth), which has eight elements within three areas of training—and is the practical training to realize the end of suffering:
o The wisdom area: 1) Wise/skillful/appropriate understanding; and 2) wise intention
o The training in ethics: 3) wise speech; 4) wise action; and 5) wise livelihood
o The training in meditation, or training the mind: 6) wise effort; 7) wise mindfulness; and 8) wise concentration
• The practice of mindfulness as the ‘direct path to liberation’ (Buddha): Through bringing mindfulness to any area of our experience, we can see clearly which thoughts, words, and actions lead to suffering and which lead to freedom. It is insight, or clear seeing, that frees us from suffering.
• Abandoning the five ‘hindrances’ that prevent us from seeing clearly and waking up. These are: 1) the wanting mind; 2) aversion; 3) sloth/torpor; 4) restlessness/worry; and 5) doubt.
• Cultivating the ‘seven factors of awakening’ that lead to freedom. These are: 1) mindfulness; 2) investigation; 3) energy; 4) joy; 5) tranquility; 6) concentration; and 7) equanimity.
• Developing the beautiful qualities of heart and mind known as the brahma viharas, or ‘divine abodes.’ These are: 1) loving-kindness; 2) compassion; 3) spiritual joy, or appreciative joy (happiness in another’s happiness); and 4) equanimity.
Next time, we’ll look at how insight leads to awakening; the question of whether awakening happens ‘suddenly’ or ‘gradually’ or both; and we’ll return to the metaphor of the spiral to sum up.
It was good to be with you today. I have uploaded four new Live sessions (March 12, March 19, April 9, and April 23). These should be findable as soon as they are reviewed. Have a good week and see you on March 12, my birthday. Warmly, Hugh 🌻 💜 🙏🏻
