Meditation June
2002/6
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Center Of Meditation SAMATHA-VIPASSANA, S. Andrea of Compito and Lucca.
Whoever can freely participate and free to the group meditation , on
Saturday at the 15,30 to S. Andrea of Compito, Tower street 9 (telef.
0583.977051 - Loriano) or the Thursday, times 19,45, Lucca, 42 Citadel
street (Alexander, tel. 0583.956302).
Whoever wants to receive "Meditation" by e-mail, can communicate
his/her own e-mail to Loriano (asiaticus@tin.it). In case of change of
e-mail, it is begged to communicate it. Thanks. Mail: Loriano Belluomini,
55065, S. Andrea di Compito, Lucca.
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THE 7 FACTORS OF THE AWAKENING: sati: awareness 2)
dhamma vicaya: analysis of the phenomenons 3) viriya: energy 4) piiti: joy
5) passaddhi: calm 6) samadhi: meditative absorption 7) upekkhaa:
equanimity.
'ALL THE CONDITIONED PHENOMENONS HAVE FOR NATURE TO DECAY: Untiringly
practice you' (Mahaaparinibbaana Sutta).
Recapitulation
To fifteen years from the beginning
of the meditative practice and in the anniversary of the death of my
parents, a glance is given to the experience of this long period.
Fifteen years ago it began the
experience of the meditative practice. I was in a strong personal crisis
and this it brings me to a consideration. There is not progress
without crisis. It needs to touch the fund to resurface. A crisis, even
though painful as it can be the end of a marriage, can be the point
of turn, in positive, of a life. I will say more: only something painful
can push to really observe ourselves. To me it happened right this :why
the things had gone this way? Why constantly, in my life, I found me to
always make the same errors and to produce suffering for me and for the
other people? There was not perhaps something wrong in the things I did?This
consideration brought me to a self-criticism :under the weight of the
remorse, I saw me how I was really, I saw everything of my egocentrism, my
fatuity, the absolute power of the ego. I Reconsidered my preceding life
and I saw how so many pushes, also those more "noble", to es.
those of mine "political interest ",had as foundation the
rottenness of my ego, that wanted to be at the center of the universe, the
wish of affirmation. (Since then when I see a politician, also the
smallest, I don't really listen to what he says: listening what shines
through from his/her personality, I notice the variations of the power of
the ego, I observe the fatuity of his acting!).
We are what we think! And I had built
in me even me an ideology of the desire. They were years when these
ideologies were of fashion, the titles of books and songs that hymned to
the desire were numerous; there was even the title of a piece of
jazz: "At school of desire"! As if there be any need of a school
for this!We have too much of it already and it is that really what creates
our suffering. To desire always implicates something that is not.
It's a mental vortex that makes us blind to the present and it projects us
distant in the mind. We don't live in the present time, fully lost in our
dreams, we despise the Real and we amuse there with the imaginary one. We
are never happy, we are dormant in comparison to what there is, our true
life is in the mind. To pursue something, we never have time to
appreciate the existing one!
Another thing that we build
they are the masks. "The politician", "the revolutionary
one", "the professional", "the feminist" "the
leftist" (or rightist) and so on. THEY ALL ARE SOURCE OF
SUFFERING! We realize only of them when something pushes us to leave them.
As it is hard to clear ourselves of them. I noticed this to my expenses
when, under the push of the change that came me from the meditation, I had
to abandon my preceding mask, that of the "politican-more-or-less-revolutionary".
That labors! It was a big problem: I knew that the other ones had on me
expectations of a certain kind, in short they had framed me in a certain
way, and to know that I went to undo this beautiful construction: for an
instant I would have been NAKED!Here it is once more the fear of ours
pseudo-itself that always Wants to Defend himself/herself, he/she wants to
prevent us from realizing that the reality as it is indeed storms in the
life. (Therefore since then I look "strange" those people - and
I know of them - that say: "I am one that… "also those
that have a romantic vision of themselves - which means that they don't
succeed to see the life as it is).
Again: we are what we think, or
better as we think.
THE MISFORTUNE! People think about
living in a good world, that up there someone loves us and they pray for
avoiding the misfortunes. But misfortunes are even impossible to avoid,
the churches fall on the head to the priests and the pope also gets
sick. By the way I admire a lot this pope of ours for his will power but
the fact stays that nobody ever escaped to the physical suffering in this
world! However there was who overcame completely the mental suffering. And
since we live it with the mind, this is the point, here jump!
Physical suffering is as an arrow
that strikes us. Is it to us to avoid that a secund arrow strikes
us , that of the mental suffering (the continuous complaint, the
dissatisfaction, the "because I was hit? "). The reality is that
our control on the life is low. "There is a thing nobody can avoid,neither
human being nor divine, neither common man nor ascetic: precisely
the physical suffering, to get sick and to die",
this recognized 500 years before Christ the Buddha.
Since the second arrow is mental, it
is only training the mind that it can be won or at least it can be reduced
the impact of this second arrow. But it takes training! It takes training.
As we are, we are not equipped for overcoming the suffering. It's only
learning "to leave to go" in meditation, learning
"to see and accept"that we can improve our mental health. But
the people are not ready! It needs work to look at ourselves and to work
on the mind! Do you want to put a beautiful pill (or a prayer, that anyway
is better )? So I don't have to do the work to have to change anything of
me (I like myself so!). Who cares if I get poisoned using the
medicines and if then I have to take other medicines to recover ?The
important thing it is to remain in our masks and in our inactivities.
Returning to the misfortune! The best
years of my life were those of the misfortune, that is of the illness
and my parents' death! What a wealth in that period! Presence and
continuous attention, individualization of what was real and of what was
imagination, development of the equanimity and the acceptance, the joy of
the awareness to know how to live the present and to enjoy therefore
those dear people until it was granted…
A last curiosity: As is it
evolved in these years the meditative practice? Beh, to the beginning I
was very technical I now extend instead to a greater attention to the
psychological aspect. There have been, in these fifteen years, interesting
experiences and also deep. But to stick to them is not needed. Also these
must be allowed to let go. The same idea of the Liberation, that is our
purpose, must be allowed to go. Is this a paradox indeed, no? So,
only living ("watching however the watch"says the fairy to
Cinderella respect to the prophetic midnight). Also the Liberation, the
Liberty has no substance. What substance could it ever have? And at the
same time it is as another dimension, a dimension of the mind. But if we
substantialize it, it is not liberty anymore!
In short, that wealth of paradoxes!
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