1989-06_17 Anapanasati_ Full Awareness of Breath Series - Tape 15 - Q&A 4

Talk: 19890617-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-anapanasati_full_awareness_of_breath_series_tape_15-33818 Start_time: 01:05:56 Display_question: May I share how direct contemplation of the mind allowed me to see thoughts more clearly? Keyword_search: anatta, attention, thoughts, thought, clear, clearly, ocean, impermanence, taste, illusion, attachment, value, powerful, forms, control, suffering, contemplation, conclusion, self, breath, internalized, attach, separation, understand, salt, energy, arise, pass away, think Question_content: Questioner: I found that I could be more attentive to my thoughts. It takes more attention, and so that I could see those as they came up basically more clearly. Larry: Great. Now you see, once you see that, then do a lot of that, because the lesson can be learned anywhere. It's what the Buddha referred to as an ocean of impermanence. Like, the taste of the ocean is always salt, right? You take a cup here or a cup there, you're always going to get salt in it. Wherever you taste is impermanence. So, for you, it's thought. Break_line: Now, each one has its own value. Thought is particularly powerful. Once you start, first of all, your relationship to thinking changes. You'll see what thoughts are these packages of energy that arise and pass away. What it can help you with is to not get so attached to thinking. So that when thoughts arise, you'll know that it's a thought. It doesn't mean it's worthless. It means that it's a thought. Do you see what I'm getting at? Break_line: Whereas if there's no sense of impermanence, the illusion that we identify with the thought as being what the thought says it is. In other words, the description is never the described: clock. That thought clock is not the clock. Okay, so we have a lot of stuff going through our head. Now, it's not that they're—obviously, they're very powerful. Thoughts get translated into forms. We make buildings out of them and wars out of them and religions out of them. But when you start to see that a thought is just a thought, it comes and goes. You start to learn about the true nature of thinking. Then you can use thinking, but less and less will it be in control of you. Well, that's a big one. How much suffering comes from having unwanted thoughts? Huge. How often do we get caught in our thoughts, mistaking them for something, for some thing? Break_line: But, more generally, you found that of the contemplations that was the one, a direct contemplation of the mind, that that one you have an affinity with. You like it, it holds your attention, and you're beginning to see arising and passing away. You'll see everything there. That one, once you get onto that one, it makes it pretty easy to see anattā because self is put together largely by thoughts. I'm a this and I'm a that, verbal conclusions. I used to be, I am, I will be. Full speed ahead. And you're with the breath while you're doing that. Questioner: <inaudible> Larry: That was my question. Good. And if you don't need it, if the day comes you don't—fine, then just be with the thinking. The key thing is the seeing, the mindfulness. And the breath can be very helpful. Questioner: I never could do it before… without the breath. Larry: I understand. Some people… one other way in which a number of people are reporting its help is working with physical pain, being able to look or things like fear. It's as if the breath soothes what's happening while you're observing it makes it easier to be with it in a consistent way. Questioner: I've also seen that. Larry: Good. Anyone else seen anything on the thirteenth? Don't worry about the fourteenth of fading. That comes out of seeing impermanence. As you start to see arising and passing away enough and it becomes internalized, it becomes harder and harder to get attached to things. You may even want, wish you could get attached and you can't. You should be so lucky. But it does happen. Break_line: Again, it's not saying you can't enjoy the thing. The suffering comes not from the thing, but from the way in which we relate to it. We relate to it as if it's something that's permanent and won't change. And since it does change—it's not a question of opinion, it does change. So, then our way of relating to it is faulty. How can it produce anything but suffering? Break_line: It becomes easier to live. Separations become easier. You understand it's part of life. You feel the pain of it. It's not to deny anything. But, more and more, as we begin to see that it's normal to come together and go apart, then we're able to do that more. Coming together can be more poignant and rich. And the going apart is also a part of obviously as much a part of life as coming together. So, we begin to live the way things are. It's just a lot easier. To whatever degree I've been able to do it has made my life smoother. Anything else before we ring the bell and you’re sentenced to oblivion, your idea years are terminated? End_time: 01:11:06