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Wisdom Wide and Deep

Page 55

by Shaila Catherine


  tongue-consciousness, 366

  tongue-sensitive element, 360

  teachers, necessity for

  accuracy of discernment and, 238

  developing these practices, 4, 291, 296, 330, 453, 467

  teaching stories

  on the appropriateness of the field of action, 46

  on balanced effort, 36–37

  the Buddha, on the four kinds of horses, 184

  on cause and effect, 325

  causes of experience, 326–27

  community, widening your sense of, 152

  compactness of continuity, 207–8

  on compassion, 153–54

  dangers that are just enough, 14

  hindrances, working with as a gardener, 14

  the king and the local craftsmen, 141

  the land-finding crow, 453

  mindfulness, concentration, and effort, 48

  monks in the forest with mischievous spirits, 147

  on the nimitta, 70

  paying attention, canine obedience class, 11

  Sariputta on mastery of mind, 24–25

  stability of the peaked roof house, the Buddha on, 52

  suffering and loving-kindness, 149–50

  on taking responsibility for our desires and distractions, 466

  a tiger’s patience, a spider’s diligence, 35–36

  See also metaphors; similes

  temperament of the meditator, 130, 230, 296

  temperature-produced materiality

  fire element, as the cause of, 339

  glimpsing, in the threshold between lifetimes, 333, 348

  meditation instruction

  analyzing the dynamics of matter, 247–49

  highlighting matter arising from temperature, 420–21

  in repulsive meditations, 413

  tender knowledge of arising and passing away, 436–37, 445

  terror, appearance as, 447–48

  thinking and thoughts

  letting go of, 21–22

  mastering your mind, 23–26

  two kinds of, 51

  wholesome thoughts, the Buddha on, 50–51

  See also mind; restlessness and worry (uddhaccakukkucca)

  thirty-two parts of the body

  external parts, meditation instructions on, 106–9

  internal parts, meditation instructions on, 105–6

  jhāna potential of, as meditation subject, 197

  as meditation subject, 102–5

  thoroughness, skill in (sakkaccakāri kusala), 198

  three characteristics. See characteristics, three

  threshold between lifetimes, 333, 348

  time

  contemplating, 415–16

  meditation instruction, contemplating phenomena in incremental time periods

  highlighting materiality that arises from kamma, 421

  highlighting materiality that is associated with happiness, 421–22

  highlighting matter arising from nutriment, 419–20

  highlighting matter arising from temperature, 420–21

  highlighting natural materiality, 422–23

  highlighting that materiality disappears stage by stage, 417–19

  highlighting that materiality is born and dies, 416–17

  working with, in meditative exercises, 332

  See also future; past

  tongue base, 238, 239

  tongue-consciousness (jivhāviññāṇa), 316, 366

  tongue decad kalāpas, 237, 239–40

  tongue door, 243, 349

  tongue-sensitive element (jivhāpasāda), 221, 360

  torpor. See sloth and torpor (thīnamiddha)

  tranquility (passaddhi)

  of associated mental factors (kāyapassaddhi), 376

  calming the mind, when it becomes overenthusiastic, 57

  of consciousness (cittapassaddhi), 376

  as one of the ten imperfections, 442–43

  See also calmness (samatha)

  translucent body, 234

  trust

  contemplation of objects worthy of, to enhance faith, 33

  faith and, 31, 32–33

  of the methodical approach, 128

  of your intentions, mettā and, 151

  truth

  of impermanence, 190, 392, 435, 436

  the knowledge of conformity with, 431, 454, 460

  twelve characteristics of matter, 226–30

  twenty-eight types of material phenomena (rūpa), 221, 236–38

  U

  The Udana, quotations from, 101, 215

  ultimate materiality, discernment of, 209, 220, 230–36, 400–401, 413, 420, 423, 436, 481n183

  ultimate reality

  absorption based on, 139

  characteristics of, 398

  contemplation of, 426

  four ultimate realities, 216–18

  ignorance and, 384

  nibbāna as, 455

  unconditioned element, 216, 217, 398, 399, 453, 455, 457

  See also nibbāna

  understanding, full. See clear comprehension (sampajañña)

  unification of mind, 47, 49, 80, 117

  See also concentration (samādhi)

  universal factors

  beautiful universal factors, nineteen, 258

  beautiful universals, and the characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate causes of, 374–78

  ethically variable universals, and the characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate causes of, 371–72

  mental components of all conscious processes, eight, 257

  mental factors, four unwholesome, 257

  unwholesome, and the characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate causes of, 380–81

  See also specific universal factors

  unreal materiality. See nonconcrete materialities

  unsatisfactoriness (dukkha). See suffering (dukkha)

  unspecified categories of beings

  in equanimity practice, 176

  in mettā practice, 166

  unwholesome states and factors

  applications of energy/effort, 38

  formations that comprise the impulsion consciousness of, 275–77

  fourteen, table of, 256

  meditation instruction, observing mind-body responses, 259–61

  mental factors, and the quality of lived experience, 253–54

  occasionals, and the characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate causes of, 381–83

  occasional unwholesome factors, ten, 257

  universal mental factors, four, 257

  universals, and the characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate causes of, 380–81

  unwholesome five-door cognitive processes, mental formations in, 282–84

  See also specific unwholesome states

  upacāra samādhi. See neighborhood concentration (upacāra samādhi)

  upekkhā. See equanimity (upekkhā)

  uprightness (ujukatā)

  arising with tranquility, 442–43

  of consciousness and associated mental factors, the characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate cause of, 378

  urgency, sense of

  the Buddha, on the four kinds of horses, 184

  necessity for, and equanimity, 443–44

  spiritual urgency, death and, 41, 57, 181–90

  urine, as focus for yellow kasiṇa, 122–23

  V

  verbal intimation (vacāviññatti), 246, 362–63

  verified faith, 32–33

  vicāra. See sustained application (vicāra)

  vicikicchā. See skepticism (vicikicchā)

  view, right, 456

  views, wrong. See wrong views (diṭṭhi)

  The Vimuttimagga

  on access concentration, 77

  definition of kasiṇa, 117

  on the white kasiṇa, 118–19

  vipassanā (insight)

  disenchantment, detachment, and dispassion, 398–99

&nb
sp; impermanence (anicca), characteristic of, 391–94

  insight, deepening, 407–8

  insight, flashes of, 399–400

  insight, repelled toward, 408, 412–13

  meditation instruction

  contemplating jhāna factors as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self, 404–5

  contemplating material and mental phenomena as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self, 402–3

  contemplating phenomena one by one, 401–2

  contemplating the bases and elements as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self, 405–7

  contemplating the characteristic of materiality, 400–401

  contemplating the five aggregates as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self, 403–4

  contemplating the repulsiveness of animate material phenomena, 413–15

  contemplating the repulsiveness of inanimate material phenomena, 412–13

  focus on mentality through seven exercises, 424–28

  forty ways of viewing phenomena with the three characteristics, 408

  meditation techniques, as countering misperceptions, 396–97

  not-self (anattā), characteristic of, 394–96

  objects for, 390–91

  objects for, and four elements meditation, 216, 218, 251–52

  origins of term, 389

  phenomena, contemplating in incremental time periods, 415–23

  phenomena, ephemeral nature of, 423–24

  suffering (dukkha), characteristic of, 394

  See also insight

  virtue

  and the divine abodes as meditation subjects, 159

  and generosity, reflection of, 34

  visible object (vaṇṇa), 359, 360

  Visuddhimagga, quotations from

  anger, 20

  balanced effort, 36–37

  the base of nothingness, 140

  the breath, 68

  cultivating equanimity as a jhāna practice, 173–74

  the desire for deliverance, 450

  disenchantment, 449

  the kasiṇas, 129

  the knowledge of appearance as terror, 447

  learning from others’ mistakes, 38

  the object of mettā practice, 163

  path knowledge, 457

  seeing formations as danger, 448

  the state of neither-perception-nor-nonperception, 142

  story of the king and local craftsmen, 141

  on vicāra, 63–64

  vitakka (initial application of the mind)

  characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate cause of, 372

  in the first jhāna, and absent in the second, 83

  first jhāna factor, directing the attention to the breath, 63, 67

  subsiding of, upon establishing the second jhāna, 80–81

  vocal intimation. See verbal intimation (vacāviññatti)

  void (suññyata)

  of all conditioned formations, nibbāna as, 455

  of a self, 411, 452

  and space, understanding, 136–37

  voidness liberation of mind, 454

  volitional formations

  and the arising and perishing of causes and effects, 440

  characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate causes of, 371, 384

  coming into being, with ignorance, 315–16

  as link in dependent arising, 314, 337

  W

  water element (āpodhātu)

  body parts and, 250

  characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate causes of, 358

  as concrete materiality, 221, 358

  properties of, 219, 222–23, 229

  water kasiṇa, 126, 132

  white kasiṇa, 117–20, 123, 131

  wholesome kamma, 350

  wholesome states and factors

  applications of energy/effort, 38–40

  associated with jhāna, discerning mental factors and, 263

  attention to repulsiveness and, 110

  cultivation of, 39

  loving-kindness and, 149

  meditation instruction, observing mind-body responses, 259–61

  mental factors, and the quality of lived experience, 253–54

  wholesome five-door cognitive processes, mental formations in, 279–81

  wholesome mind-door cognitive processes, mental formations in, 285–87

  See also specific wholesome states

  wieldiness, as nonconcrete materiality, 236, 246, 363

  wind element (vāyodhātu)

  bodily intimation and, 246, 362

  body parts and, 250

  characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate causes of, 359

  as concrete materiality, 221

  properties of, 219, 224–25

  wind kasiṇa, 127, 132

  wisdom (paññā)

  characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate cause of, 380

  the faculty of, 50–52

  as one of the fifty-two mental factors, 259

  quotation from The Dhammapada, 389

  wisdom, light of. See light of wisdom (paññāloka)

  workability (kammaññatā)

  arising with tranquility, 442–43

  of associated mental factors, the characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate causes of, 377

  characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate causes of, 363

  of consciousness, the characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate causes of, 377

  as mental factor, 256, 258, 283, 286, 291, 377

  as mental formation, 262, 273, 281

  as nonconcrete materiality, 221, 363

  worry (kukkucca), 21, 27, 256, 276, 383, 461

  See also restlessness and worry (uddhaccakukkucca)

  wrongdoing

  shamelessness of wrongdoing (ahirika), 256, 257, 276, 380, 461

  shame of wrongdoing (hiri), 256, 262, 272, 280, 283, 286, 374, 379

  wrong views (diṭṭhi)

  characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate cause of, 381

  removing, meditative exercise for, 427–28

  role of, in exploring dependent arising, 328

  Y

  yellow kasiṇa, 122–23, 131

  About the Author

  SHAILA CATHERINE began her meditation practice in 1980 and has accumulated eight years of intensive silent retreat experience. For nearly a decade, Shaila studied with masters in India, Nepal, and Thailand. Since 2003, she has focused on using the deep concentration of jhāna as the basis for insight, and since 2006, her practice has been guided by the teachings of Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw of Burma (Myanmar). Shaila has taught meditation since 1996, and in 2006 she founded Insight Meditation South Bay, a Buddhist meditation center in Mountain View, California. She authored Focused and Fearless: A Meditator’s Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity (2008), and she leads retreats and courses on the cultivation of concentration and mindfulness-based insight practices internationally.

  Insight Meditation South Bay

  www.imsb.org

  About Wisdom Publications

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