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‘I’m Not Getting Anywhere with my Meditation …’: Effort, Contentment and Goal-Directedness in the Process of Mind-Training |
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| Author |
Ajahn Amaro
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| Source |
Buddhist Studies Review
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| Volume | v.35 n.1-2 |
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| Date | 2018 |
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| Pages | 47 - 64 |
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| Publisher | Equinox Publishing Ltd. |
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| Publisher Url |
https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/
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| Location | Sheffield, UK [謝菲爾德, 英國] |
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| Content type | 期刊論文=Journal Article |
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| Language | 英文=English |
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| Note | Special Issue: Buddhist Path, Buddhist Teachings: Studies in Memory of L.S. Cousins
Author Affiliations: Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, Hemel Hempstead |
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| Keyword | Right Effort; right and wrong striving; expectation; contentment; goal-directedness; passivity; chanda; bhava-taṇhā; vibhava-taṇhā; dhammānudhamma-paṭipatti; iddhi-pāda; bojjhaṅga |
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| Abstract | This article draws on the teachings of the Pali Canon and the contemporary lineages that are guided by its principles. In particular, reference is made to the author’s mentors in the Thai Forest Tradition. It explores the respective roles of goal-directed effort and contentment in the process of meditative training, and skilful and unskilful variations on these. Effort is needed, but can be excessive, unreflectively mindless, unaware of gradually developed results, or misdirected. Contentment can be misunderstood to imply that skilful desire has no role in practice, and lead to passivity; though it is needed to dampen down an over-energized mind, or motivation rooted in aversion or ambition, and comes from insight-based non-attachment. Right effort avoids the craving to become or to get rid of, but is associated with a skilful chanda/desire that is an aspect of the iddhi-pādas, the Bases of Spiritual Power. Mindfulness aids the balance of energy and concentration in the Five Faculties, and the energizing and calming qualities in the Seven Factors of Enlightenment. In the end, from practising Dhamma in a way that is truly in accordance with Dhamma (dhammānudhamma-paṭipatti), progress naturally flows from seeing and becoming Dhamma. |
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| Table of contents | 1) Introduction
2) The positive aspects of goal-directedness and exertion
a. Aggi Sutta: the roles of investigation, energy and rapture
b. Sutta quotes regarding striving
c. ‘Just Do It!’
3) The negative aspects of energy and goal-directedness
a. Excessive ‘wrong striving’
b. Mindless/unreflective ‘wrong striving’
c. Perception of poor or absent results
d. Misdirection of effort
d.i. ‘I shouldn’t be experiencing anger etc…’ the need for peaceful coexistence/radical acceptance
d.ii. ‘We are not doing something now in order to become …’
4) The negative aspects of contentment
a. ‘Buddhists shouldn’t have desires’
b. Passivity/habituation/numbness
5) The positive aspects of contentment
a. Aggi Sutta: the roles of tranquillity, concentration and equanimity
b. Dhammānudhamma-paṭipatti – means and ends unified in Dhamma
c. Contentment through seeing all wholesome states as impermanent and subject to cessation, that is, via insight
6) Right Effort (sammā-vāyāma) as the skilful alternative to bhava-taṇhā and vibhava-taṇhā
a. Four aspects of Right Effort – right/left hand analogy
b. Chanda compared to taṅhā and related to the four iddhipādas
c. The role of sati in the bojjhaṅgas and indriyas
7) The transcendent view – positive and negative effects
a. Two kinds of Right View
b. Stillness flowing
8) Unentangled participating
a. The Middle Way – ‘not halting … not straining …’
b. Vijjā-caraṇa sampanno – ‘accomplished in awareness and action’
c. A self-adjusting universe
9) Making progress in accordance with Dhamma
a. Four modes of practice
b. Progress along the path: Being Dhamma
c. How to embody this principle? |
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| ISSN | 02652897 (P); 17479681 (E) |
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| DOI | 10.1558/bsrv.36752 |
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| Hits | 262 |
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| Created date | 2021.01.01 |
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| Modified date | 2021.01.01 |
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