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the third basket and what i’m studying for the next week mostly is called the abhidharma, or buddhist psychology. this is primarily to help people teach the view and logic of meditation and it describes how mind, afflicted emotions, and consciousness form and create the three types of suffering. you could also consider this the prajna section of the three types of teachings.
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i won’t say much here about the second basket, except that samadhi is more often rendered in english as absorption but i think that gives the wrong idea. to me that word implies almost checking out of reality, whereas meditation is really about getting more involved with our life and what’s going on by practicing being open to it and strengthening our mind. in tibetan the word for meditation is rooted in the word “familiar”. one could think of it as becoming familiar with our own mind, as well as becoming familiar with the nature of reality.
the reason i meditate is three fold. first, to calm the mind and clarify what’s going on. then, some strength develops to stay with the situation and not get pulled this way and that by thoughts and emotions. it’s not as disruptive and turbulent. lastly, once some calmness, clarity, and strength develops real insight into the inner working of mind and emotion develops. from there one can start to untie the knots. in once sense it’s a form of self-psychotherapy. in another it’s just learning how to walk around without bumping into and stepping on everyone all the time.
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in sanskrit one word for basket is pitaka (pronunciation: emphasis on the first syllable as in ‘pit of snakes’, not the second syllable). this is used to describe three different collections of teachings by the gautama buddha around 500 B.C.E. it’s possible that the teachings were originally carried in baskets. the first basket is called the vinaya-pitaka (pronunciation: emphasis again on ‘vin’ and not ‘aya’, then on ‘pit’ not ‘aka’) and it is about discipline.
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most if not all early buddhist teaching can be broken down into three categories: about discipline, about meditative involvement, and about wisdom. in sanskrit these are shila, samadhi, and prajna. you should know they don’t discuss enlightenment so much, it’s hardly mentioned in the original teachings, but more so it’s oriented towards everyday life situations and how to live in terms of less confusion in our mind.
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there are three kinds of suffering described in my tradition. this is different than the felt experience of pain. suffering here refers to the anxiety or anguish that we feel that may or may not be connected with a felt experience of pain. some suffering even occurs when we feel pleasure or encounter good situations.
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my meditation tradition is a tantric one. but we all begin with study of the sutras. the sutras and tantras are two collections of teachings in the buddhist tradition. many buddhist traditions carry forward many different collections of teachings, we all don’t agree on what was actually said nor by whom nor what teachings are an authentic and complete path. though some things we can agree upon and much of what i’m studying this month is in that latter category - the most basic points.
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sorry everyone, but i’m going to blog some as a way to help me study during seminary. i’ll try to keep the topics straightforward and not too esoteric. but i’ll be covering a fair amount of content about buddhism for anyone that’s interested.
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this is the first day of silence and the first of three days of intensive practice. i arrived three days ago, and my sixty or so fellow seminarians spent that time cramming for yesterday’s oral entrance exam. our oral exam recalls the days of nalanda university, the harvard of buddhist studies from about 700 CE to 1200 CE in india. to enter that university you were quizzed at the gate by a pundit. so we start seminary in the same way.
we all knew our panic over the exam was self-inflicted — none would fail the exam — but the embarrassment of not knowing an answer was enough for our neurosis to reach a frenzy. funny how the mind works, even knowing the exam was empty of inherent meaning we still became completely crazed and panicked.
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getting ready for my next retreat, i leave tomorrow. this one will be a roughly 50/50 mix of meditation practice and study about meditation, and it will be about a month long. i’m excited, but today and tomorrow are full just getting packed and finishing things up at work. see you all in a month.
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have good conditions for peace and safety for everyone on the planet, and be enriching and inspiring for us all.
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