Wisdom Wide and Deep

A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhana and Vipassana

Shaila Catherine

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9780861718528
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Buddhismus

Wisdom Wide and Deep is a comprehensive guide to an in-depth training that emphasizes the application of concentrated attention ( jhana ) to profound and liberating insight ( vipassana ). With calm, tranquility, and composure established through a practical experience of jhana meditators are able to halt the seemingly endless battle against hindrances, eliminate distraction, and facilitate a penetrative insight into the subtle nature of matter and mind. It was for this reason the Buddha frequently exhorted his students, Wisdom Wide and Deep follows and amplifies the teachings in Shaila Catherine's acclaimed first book, Focused and Fearless: A Meditator's Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity. Readers will learn to develop this profound stability, sustain an in-depth examination of the nuances of mind and matter, and ultimately unravel deeply conditioned patterns that perpetuate suffering. This fully detailed manual for the mind sure to become a trusted companion to many inner explorers.

SECTION III

Discerning Ultimate Realities

CHAPTER 11

Concepts and Reality: Penetrating the Illusion of Compactness

Perceiving what can be expressed through concepts, Beings take their stand on what is expressed.

Not fully understanding the expressed, They come under the bondage of Death.

Understanding what is expressed, The peaceful one delights in the peaceful state.

Standing on Dharma, clearly knowing, One freely makes use of concepts But no more enters into the range of concepts.

— THE ITIVUTTAKA¹⁷²

AN ABILITY TO CONCEPTUALIZE experience and to compare a current experience to a past one is a normal capacity of a healthy, dynamic, well-functioning mind. We apply concepts to our perceptions to make sense of the daily barrage of sensory data. We compare a current predicament to previous encounters in order to make decisions. We remember things via concepts and we learn by making comparisons; it is a regular part of how we interact with sensory input. Indeed, it is necessary for our survival as higher organisms on this earth. However, this conceptualizing process can also be reductive; our concepts often suppress insight and distort a truer perception of reality. Meditation examines a subtle proposition — that things exist in a mode radically different than the way we usually conceive them to be. For instance, the body is often considered to be an independent, enduring form, when it is actually a network of ever-changing interrelated processes. As the Buddha succinctly stated, “In whatever way we conceive, the fact is other than that.”¹⁷³ Concepts are merely mental constructions — they are useful, but limited and inaccurate.

Comparisons are always relative — something is “long” only as conceived in relation to something shorter. Similarly, measurements such as big and small, high and low, and success and failure are relative concepts. Since we cannot compare things of different classes — like the sight of a rabbit with the sound of rain on a roof, or the color green with an aspiration of compassion — we habitually reduce an immediate sensory encounter to a concept and then relate that concept to other concepts. For example, when we see a black color and hear a certain cawing sound, we might identify the visual and auditory encounter as a perception of a crow. Understanding that there is a crow in the field, we might compare the bird to another kind of bird that is twittering in a nearby tree, or relate the presence of the crow to a memory of previous visits of crows to that field. This ability to conceptualize serves as a survival strategy, helping us negotiate the rapidly changing field of sensory impressions that might otherwise degenerate into overwhelming and chaotic encounters with the world. By transforming perceptions into conceptual comparisons, the mind can quickly distinguish a dangerous threat from a welcome refuge. The formation of mental concepts, however, also has the effect of constructing a world of ideas that people tend to wrongly identify as their personal reality.

When beginning meditators experience physical twinges or discomfort during their sittings, they usually squirm because a habitual fear of pain follows on the heels of the sensation. In such a circumstance it can be useful to ask yourself if you are agitated by the present feelings of pressure, tingling, burning, and prickling sensations, or by an imagined future of agony and disability. When you can open to the basic fact of unpleasant sensations in the present moment, you may discover that they are not as dreadful as those imagined scenarios. When concepts proliferate, you forget they are merely mental constructions and take them to be the thing itself. This limits and distorts your perception of reality.

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The Comparing Mind

Sit quietly and observe your mind; reflect on the thoughts that arose today. Make a list of all your thoughts that are essentially comparisons; include ranking, judging, and assessing thoughts. Do you compare yourself with others or rate your performance against memories of how you functioned in youth? Do you compare the weather that you hope will occur on the day that you scheduled a picnic with the wind and sun as it is actually appearing? Do you assess your present mood against ideal standards? Note how frequently comparison occurs as a feature of your mental life. Are those assessments verifiable? Do you know them to be true?

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If you believe your concepts are real, you will dwell confused. I usually consider myself short, for instance. But recently I was walking with an elderly friend whose head barely approached my shoulders. I experienced an oddly unfamiliar feeling — I had the rare impression of being tall. So, am I tall or am I short? Comparisons, always relative, change with the situation. To the extent that you base an identity on characteristics defined through comparison, you will be disconnecte...