Bro Teoh’s Thursday class dated 8 August 2019

Brother Teoh’s 8 Aug 2019 Thursday Class outline Short Notes

1. Sis Angie shares that there is more clarity in her practice. More awareness. Whenever the mind wanders off, she is able to bring it back.
2. Bro Teoh: The moment you are aware that you are not aware; that is sati. The moment you realise that you are not paying attention, that is attention. Attention of inattention, is attention.
3. To develop daily mindfulness, we must start by constantly reminding our self of the need to be constantly aware. We must determine to be aware throughout the day (ever-mindful/constantly aware). After developing the daily mindfulness, until it is very stable, our seeing will become very different. It is like suddenly, we can see all the external sense data and our internal mental movements (emotions/mental intentions/etc.) very clearly. It will dawn upon us that before we understand the dharma, all these are habitual heedless thinking borne of our mental stirring caused by avijja. Without wrong views or avijja (ignorant) there will be no mental stirring or reaction to sense experience. Why does one reacts to sense experience? – Because their mind lack wisdom and it is restless due to its inability to understand and accept the realities of the moment for ‘things are just the way they truly are’.
4. When there is wisdom to accept the reality of the moment (to understand the causes and conditions behind every phenomena), there will be peace within the mind and one can be peaceful from moment to moment (having true ability to make peace with all that transpires) while in the midst of living life.
5. This is learning to see things as they truly are because ‘people are just the way they are’ (deluded people do deluded things, etc.) and the ‘world is the world’ (when conditions are such things will be such).  This is right view.
6. However, the untrained mind has strong habitual tendencies (borne of habitual reactions to what we see, hear, recall from memory, etc.) when we lack the 5 spiritual faculties. And because of that, their untrained mind becomes agitated and heedless very fast. Ever so quick to form opinions, argue, take sides and fall into the duality trap of right/wrong, good/bad, kind/cruel, clean/dirty, fragrant/foul, pleasant/unpleasant, wholesome/unwholesome etc.
7. Once we have the stability of Sati, we will have the understanding to see things differently, without the mental reaction and stirring like before. Our mind becomes calmer, more peaceful and quieter. There is more understanding, leading to more equanimity of mind, then there is more joy and happiness in our heart. This is heedful living. No longer easily agitated, panicky, fearful and unhappy, which is heedless living.

8. Stability of daily mindfulness allows us to understand the form and mind clearly. (How one input the content of consciousness and cause the mundane mind to stir and arise.)

9. The Mundane mind goes the way of nature, i.e. it is impermanent, it comes and it goes, arises and passes away. If we are deluded, it has power over us. It can conditions us to stir/react to sense experiences and create the evil roots of greed, hatred, delusion (especially selfishness and sakayaditthi or self-delusion).
10. As long as thoughts are active, the egoic mind borne of wrong view is still there.
11. The real meditation only starts, when our daily mindfulness has stabilised.

12. Sis Angie has made some progress but she should continue to stabilise her daily mindfulness. When her daily mindfulness has stabilized, she will be different because by then “everything she do” she will be aware and her awareness will be very stable. It’s like, the phenomenon and her awareness moves as one. This is specific-phenomena awareness. With this specific-phenomena awareness, the mind no longer interferes (with its views, opinions, memories and conditioning). Should you choose to understand what it is, you may perceive it through the memory lens, then it stops (no further proliferation of thoughts and emotions, etc.)
13. Having a good religious routine is crucial, to cultivate daily mindfulness, throughout the day.

14. As a revision, the class did a review of their previous Thursday’s 1 August 2019 outline short notes.

15. With the daily mindfulness, one become more aware and more attentive. There is also more clarity and the mind is more sensitive. Then through constant contemplation and reflection the 2^nd turning wisdom of cintamaya panna will arise. This is followed by the direct seeing, then the wisdom (bhavanamaya panna) that arise is no longer just at the knowledge and contemplative level, but at a more penetrative insight level.

16. When mindfulness stabilized, the awareness within becomes so sensitive that even the slightest movement within, before the “like/dislike” arises, can be clearly felt. We can feel that the stirring is about to begin. And since we have contemplated deep enough to know that this stirring will lead to suffering, then the initial wisdom (yoniso manasikara) already developed will prompt us, at the moment of sense experience, to cause the mundane mind not to stir like before. With yoniso manasikara, avijja becomes attenuated/weakened, hence weakening sankhara
    leading to less and less heedless thinking within our mind.

     

17. With that understanding, we can develop sense restraint, leading to more calmness, and less sankhara (or stirring of mind). Being more present and aware, the space between thoughts start to lengthen, resulting in more peace, clarity, stillness and tranquillity of mind.

18. The meditative mind must be a “free mind” which is silent, collected and unwavering (in Samadhi) but not in concentration so that the mental hindrances are not suppressed. So that it can see things as they are clearly to develop the wisdom via the direct seeing.

19. Cultivation following the 10 steps of the Avijja sutta’s enlightenment sequence was re emphasis by Bro Teoh.

20. Reading the “PAEON OF JOY” (recited by the Buddha after his enlightenment underneath the Bodhi tree) from page 11 of our Chanting book.

    UDĀNA GĀTHĀ PAEON OF JOY

    Aneka jāti saṃsāraṃ, Sandhāvissaṃ anibbisaṃ, Gaha kārakaṃ gavesanto, dukkhā jāti punappunaṃ, Gaha kāraka diṭṭhosi puna gehaṃ na kāhasi, Sabbā te phāsukā bhaggā gaha kūtaṃ visaṅkhitaṃ, Visaṅkhāra gataṃ cittaṃ taṇhānaṃ khaya majjhagā ti

    Through many a birth I wandered in this saṃsāra (endless cycle of births and deaths), seeking but not finding, the builder of the house. Sorrowful is repeated birth. O house builder! You are seen. You shall build no house again. All your rafters are broken. Your ridge-pole is shattered. My mind has attained the unconditioned. Achieved is the end of craving.

21. Reading of “Pancasatavipassakabhikkhu Vatthu” from Dhammapada Verse 170:
    

    Yatha pubbulakam passe, yatha passe maracikam, evam lokam avekkhantam, maccuraja na passati.

    If a man looks at the world (i.e., the five khandhas) in the same way as one looks at a bubble or a mirage forming during a heavy rain, the King of Death will not find him.

(Above outline short notes draft was prepared by Sis Soo Yee)

With metta always,