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Dharmette: Buddha’s Mind (1 of 5) Fully Wholesome; Guided Meditation: Aspiration - Kim Allen

The following talk was given by Kim Allen at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on October 07, 2024. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Introduction

It is nice to see all of you. We are starting a fresh week together. As a brief introduction—I'll say more after the sit—I will tell a little story. One of the early influential teachers of the teachers who founded the Insight movement in the US was an Indian woman named Dipa Ma¹. She had a very difficult life with a lot of loss, followed by a powerful awakening that made her an embodiment of love and wisdom. She was teaching a retreat at IMS² in Massachusetts, and someone asked her, "What’s in your mind?" It’s an interesting question, isn’t it? She answered very straightforwardly: "There is metta³, there is concentration, and there is peace." That is a nice mind.

This week, we are going to be looking at a list that describes the Buddha’s mind. In this tradition, it is considered skillful to open ourselves to reflecting on the qualities and abilities of awakened people, and then on our own wholesome qualities. It is meant to reflect back into us. There is a list called the "Epithets of the Buddha," or the "Attributes of the Buddha," that we will be exploring this week in the talks.

There is also a way of formally meditating on these qualities, but it is not quite the right format for us to do during these morning meditations. In the meditations, we will be touching on our own wholesome qualities in various ways. However, if any of you are in the area and want to learn the formal practice, I am teaching it at a day-long retreat this Saturday, October 12th. That is called the "Recollection of the Buddha" practice. For today, we will meditate on a certain wholesome quality of mind.

Guided Meditation: Aspiration

Please find a posture where you can meditate well. It is fine if you are sitting, lying down, or standing; you could even be walking gently back and forth if that works for you. Check in with your posture, finding a way to be upright, or at least to have a straight spine, while also remaining relaxed.

Softening as you settle, you want to be alert and present but not tight. It is easy to be a little bit overly tight as we try to be present. Soften into the posture, closing the eyes if that feels comfortable for you. Perhaps take a couple of long, slow, deep breaths, and then soften on the out-breath. Let your breath fill the body to the degree that you can, so that you really feel the energy of it flow not only into your chest and belly, but into your arms, legs, and head. Let your attention spread over the wholeness of the body.

Greet the body by touching in with your attention to various parts. Soften the muscles of the face, the eyes, the eye sockets, and the jaw. Bring the attention down the neck and throat to the shoulder area. Soften there, letting the shoulders drop a bit. I like to imagine the shoulder blades sliding down the back. Move down the arms to the hands, and then into the chest area. Sense the heart space and also the physical ribcage—front, back, and sides.

Release the diaphragm, letting it just move on its own, and soften down into the whole belly area, inviting ease. I find it helpful to simultaneously soften the abdominal muscles and the lower back muscles, so the tightness in the spine falls away on both sides. Soften the hip joints. If you are sitting, sense the contact point with the seat. Relax into that, letting yourself be supported. Then release any tension in the legs, all the way down to the feet.

Invite mindfulness and presence. You have already been cultivating it with this simple connection to the body. Soften your gaze and let the mind take in the whole of the body. Know that you know the body, and be at ease with how it is. It is fine as it is. Allow anything else that is present—certain moods, emotions, or lingering thoughts—to be acknowledged.

For the beginning part of this sit, I would like to invite the use of the cognitive mind to reflect on your aspiration. It is up to you to decide if you want an aspiration just for this sit, or if your mind is opening to a wider aspiration about your practice. An aspiration is not a goal; we are not setting some requirement for a future self-improvement project. An aspiration is an uplift in the heart that we feel when we sense what is good or beneficial about this practice.

Maybe there is a sense of ease. We know there is an openness and a softness in the heart that comes from practice, and we open to that to whatever degree it is present. We know, "Ah yes, this is good." Or it could be a broader reflection, like knowing that over time our tendency to react has decreased, and feeling joy at the ease in relationships we have noticed because of that. We have a sense of, "Yes, this could keep going." For some, there is a sense of walking in the footsteps of the Buddha. The Buddha also practiced sitting meditation, which led to his liberation from suffering, and here we are partaking in the same action. How amazing.

Whatever it is, I will be silent for a couple of minutes while you touch into that. Try to feel it as a bodily sensation. It is in the mind, but can you feel it also in the body?

[Silence]

Now, allow the cognitive mind to relax and settle into the sensations of the breath. If there is a lingering sense of goodness, joy, or peace from the aspiration, consider if the breath can distribute that through the body. Just invite that possibility, noticing the effect. Then, allow even that intention to soften. This is a skillful use of the thinking mind for directed purposes, and now we settle into our usual mindfulness of the breath or body.

[Silence]

Just notice, as you continue to sit normally, if there is an effect from having brought in that aspiration.

[Silence]

If you find that the mind has drifted away, which is very normal, you could touch back briefly to the aspiration you evoked as a simple way of reinspiring and uplifting the mind as it starts again in the present moment.

[Silence]

As we continue to sit, you are welcome to continue with the breath or the body, or your regular practice. If you like, you can invite a deepening of the embodiment of this aspiration or wholesome wish for your practice. Really feel the goodness of it in your cells, in your tissues, even in the bones. You are not creating anything; you are letting the mind’s beauty infuse into or resonate with what is already open or free in the body. Have a sense of mind and body together, breathing through our goodness and the goodness of our practice. It is not selfish; in fact, it is very wholesome to really feel what we are doing in this practice. Rest with that, breathing with that, daring to feel it all the way to your core. Have confidence in your good intentions.

[Silence]

As we come toward the end of this sitting, sense how there may be some momentum generated from this way we have directed the mind. We can carry that out into our lives. Our minds will become occupied with other things throughout the day, but there is a momentum we carry from touching into this goodness. It travels within us and provides a bit of protection. Perhaps that momentum will make it less likely that we get knocked off balance by reading or hearing something disturbing, or even by our own habitual thoughts. Just as a bicycle is harder to knock over when it is moving faster, we might be a bit less reactive and more open to others and ourselves. There is some protection, some degree of refuge⁴, in that. Our practice benefits not just us, but those we encounter. What a beautiful thing to come just from paying attention for a period of time.

Dharmette: Buddha’s Mind (1 of 5) Fully Wholesome

The theme this week is "Buddha’s Mind," which might sound a little grandiose because the mind of the Buddha is actually unfathomable. But it is meant to capture the idea that it is skillful in our practice to touch into what it means to live in an awakened way. The Buddha was the exemplar of the awakened life. Does that mean wearing monastic robes and living in ancient India? No. Instead, we can look toward a list traditionally called the "Epithets" or "Attributes of the Buddha."

In the main list used in the Theravāda⁵ tradition, which is chanted every day in monasteries, there are nine of these attributes. According to scholars, the official list has ten, and it is actually used in every major Buddhist tradition. It is something common across all of Buddhism, from the earliest texts to modern practice.

Why reflect on the attributes of the Buddha? At a base level, it is meant to be inspiring or uplifting. Within that, there is mental training around how we handle ideals. I am going to talk about these qualities not as impossible ideals that we aren't measuring up to yet, but as beautiful qualities that we already have some measure of.

When I was a kid, I was a trumpet player for a while. At one point, I had the opportunity to meet a master trumpet player named Claude Gordon. He taught a method that included breathing exercises and very detailed practice methods. He was a very kind and precise teacher. I was certainly not on track to being a professional player, so there was never any consideration that I could be like Claude Gordon, but I felt a lot of respect for him. I wanted to bring forth similar qualities in myself that I saw in him. There was a kind of wise admiration going on—uplifting and motivating.

In the "Recollection of the Buddha" practice, we bring to mind nine specific attributes and turn them over in our mind, letting them sink in. It is parallel to this wise admiration. For some people, this practice is genuinely devotional, but it has other aspects as well. This week, we will reflect on these nine attributes with three aims: to inspire and uplift the heart; to see aspects of these qualities in ourselves; and to see how we can use them practically in our daily life.

There are nine of these, and we will cover the first two today. This list is progressive; the order is not arbitrary. If you stay with us throughout the week, they get more and more interesting and move toward something quite amazing at the end.

The first of the qualities is simply called Arahant⁶. It says the Buddha is an Arahant, which represents the goal of practice: a mind that is free of greed, hatred, and delusion. I like to think of this in modern terms as perfect mental health. We might reflect, "What would it be like to have a mind with no greed, no hatred, and no delusion?" That would be truly meaningful and amazing.

Through our mindfulness practice, we become aware of greed, hatred, and delusion in our own hearts. But it is very inspiring to reflect on the possibility of not having those. It is not about saying, "I’m not there, I could never get there," but simply reflecting on what that would be like. Practically, this reminds us to be mindful not only of moments when we fall into old habits, but also of moments where greed, hatred, and delusion are not present. After all, these unwholesome qualities are not with us 24/7.

I will share an exercise taught by the Burmese master Taungpulu Sayadaw⁷, a contemporary of Mahasi Sayadaw⁸. He would say: look into your mind right now. Usually, while we are listening to the Dharma, we are not terribly caught up in greed, hatred, and delusion. Look—there probably isn't much greed in your mind right now. You aren't obsessed with getting the next thing. The mind is likely pretty free of grasping. How does that feel?

And probably at this time, your mind is not wrapped up in hatred, rage, or detestation. You are just sitting and listening. How is the mind without hatred?

And your mind probably doesn't have a terribly distorted view of reality right now. We all still have ignorance, but in this moment, you are likely not grossly caught up in a grandiose self-view or some distorted understanding. You are listening to the Dharma. How is it to have a mind relatively free of delusion?

This is not too far from a taste of Nibbāna⁹. I want to be careful about being too grandiose, but there are moments of freedom throughout our day. Can you bring a recognition of this kind of mind into your day more often? We are not so far off when the mind is relatively calm and peaceful. Arahant is the possibility of having mental health, balance, and a degree of ease that is not dependent on conditions in the world.

The second attribute is Sammāsambuddho¹⁰, which means "fully self-awakened." I like to see this as the Buddha seeing all the way to the root of what is going on in the mind. He saw the underlying process. In a sense, he saw all the paths to freedom, not just his own. He saw so deeply that he could teach in a way that touches human minds in general, no matter where or when they live.

The Buddha lived in an ancient Indian culture 2,600 years ago, and yet when we hear the teachings today, we think, "Yeah, there’s something right about that." We read them and think, "My mind works that way too." A lot of gratitude arises in me from that, and I feel a connection to the long line of practitioners who have kept these teachings alive.

These first two attributes—Buddha-guṇa¹¹, as they are called in Pali—emphasize that the Buddha’s mind was fully wholesome. Our minds, too, have many wholesome moments where we see into the reality of human experience. We do our best to meet it without greed, hatred, and delusion.

There is a sutta¹² where the Buddha says (I am paraphrasing): "A person whose mind has little greed, hatred, and delusion is close to me, regardless of their physical distance. Whereas someone who is following right behind me, holding my robe, is far away from me if their mind is filled with greed, hatred, and delusion."

It is important to notice and reflect on these wholesome qualities within ourselves. As we all know, greed, hatred, and delusion are the roots of wars and various other problems in the world. They lead to the spread of agitation and harmful views. When these roots are unrecognized, they grow out of control. Each time we bring in our wholesomeness, our aspirations, and our mindfulness, we contribute to the reduction of those forces in the world.

How beautiful is that? We have done it together this morning. I hope you will keep that in mind as the day unfolds. Each of our moments of wholesomeness is simple, but they add up to a rushing river of all of us doing this together. This is our first understanding of these attributes, and they will continue to unfold day by day. Thank you for your practice, your good heart, and your good aspirations. May they benefit many people today. Be well.