Quotation

He who learns must suffer, and, even in our sleep, pain that we cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Buddhist Meditation: The End of Ātman

Ātman is the self, the self which is personal and unchanging, a thread of continuity in the weave of life's tapestry.  This self is what the Buddha tells us is an illusion, that in ending our ignorance about ourselves we will find through direct realization that the self to which we are so attached is just as impermanent as the rest of the cosmos of suffering.

The way to reach this direct realization is through meditation, as we learn in the Pāli canon:

On one occasion the Venerable Sāriputta was dwelling at Sāvatthi in Jeta's Grove, Anāthapinkika's Park.  Then one morning he dressed and, taking  bowl and robe, entered Sāvatthi for alms.  When he had walked for alms in Sāvatthi and had returned from the almsround, after his meal he went to the Blind Men's Grove for the day's abiding.  Having plunged into the Blind Men's Grove, he sat down at the foot of a tree for the day's abiding.
Then, in the evening, the Venerable Sāriputta emerged from seclusion and went to Jeta's Grove, Anāthapinkika's Park.  The Venerable Ānanda saw him coming in the distance and said to him: "Friend Sāriputta, your faculties are serene, your facial complexion is pure and bright.  In what dwelling have you spent the day?"
"Here, friend, secluded from  sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, I entered and dwelled in the first jhāna, which is accompanied by thought and examination, with rapture and happiness born of seclusion.  Yet, friend, it did not occur to me, 'I am attaining the first jhāna,' ..."
"It must be because I-making, mine-making, and the underlying tendency to conceit have been thoroughly uprooted in your mind for a long time that such thoughts did not occur to you."

Meditation should cause a transformation in our lives which is visible to others; they should be able to discern immediately that the self is diminished and compassion has grown.  But this transformation does not happen all at once.  It happens by a gradual process after much diligent practice.

[On another occasion the Venerable Sāriputta said:] "Here, friend, with the subsiding of thought and examination, I entered and dwelled in the second jhāna, which has internal confidence and unification of mind, is without thought and examination, and has rapture and happiness born of concentration.  Yet, friend, it did not occur to me, 'I am attaining the second jhāna,' ..."
"It must be because I-making, mine-making, and the underlying tendency to conceit have been thoroughly uprooted in your mind for a long time that such thoughts did not occur to you."
[On another occasion the Venerable Sāriputta said:] "Here, friend, with the fading away as well of rapture, I dwelled equanimous and, mindful and clearly comprehending, I experienced happiness with the body; I entered and dwelled in the third jhāna, of which the noble ones declare: 'He is equanimous, mindful, one who dwells happily.'  Yet, friend, it did not occur to me, 'I am attaining the third jhāna,' ..."
"It must be because I-making, mine-making, and the underlying tendency to conceit have been thoroughly uprooted in your mind for a long time that such thoughts did not occur to you."
[On another occasion the Venerable Sāriputta said:] "Here, friend, with the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the passing away of joy and displeasure, I entered and dwelled in the fourth jhāna, which is neither painful nor pleasant and includes the purification of mindfulness by equanimity.  Yet, friend, it did not occur to me, 'I am attaining the fourth jhāna,' ..."
"It must be because I-making, mine-making, and the underlying tendency to conceit have been thoroughly uprooted in your mind for a long time that such thoughts did not occur to you."

We learn over and over that when we practice meditation effectively, the result is a dissolution of egotistical thinking, the thoughts about one's own selfish desires, a termination of the scheming to actualize those desires regardless of the consequences, and a selflessness which is not a theory but rather an understanding that the self is an illusion in which choose to participate over and over.  We also learn that our attachment to the illusion of self is endlessly consequential; as long as we are attached to the illusion of self, the wheel of suffering continues to turn for us.

Ānanda, guardian of the Dharma, recognizes that the ultimate power of meditative practice is to burn away our conceitedness and selfishness in this life so that we do not continue to be subject to death, subject to being burned in the oils of a fiery naraka for millions or billions of years, or subject to rebirth which begins the process of suffering over again.

The telos of meditation is the end of Ātman, the gentle shattering of our illusion that we are any more permanent than any other piece of flotsam in the stream of blood, the final realization of the utter impermanence of our existence.





By ntennis - I (ntennis) took this photograph., Public Domain, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25270523

Note: The above is a picture of a mural depicting people being judged by Yama and fried in a large oil cauldron.

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