Personal Blogs

It is hard changing the way I talk to myself. It does work, but it can be challenging at times.

It's helpful to find a way to pause the inner monologue, so I can step back from it, reflect on it and then practise narrating things in a different way, which can help change my perceptions of things.

Sankaras are moral choices, intentions, the tendencies of the mind, the inner volitions, that produce our karma (our speech and action). 

When intentions are driven by craving and ignorance, they produce Samsara.

As beings become less ignorant of their intentions they can learn how to change them to something more helpful, which in turn changes their karma.

It takes time, and one will fail over and over again. I certainly do, I'm no angel. But I am learning that that is part of the training too, learning how to fail well, with wisdom (-:

Trying not to be so hard on myself when I don't always get it right. To experiment and play, investigate. To become a friend to myself instead of a horrible boss. Training myself to see the mind as a team, and to be compassionate and friendly towards it instead of bossy.

Training the mind is like when one learns to paint, or to make music, or learns a sport, or learns to ride a bike. Effort is needed at first, but the effort is something we already know about, it comes naturally to us. We use it without thinking when we learn a new skill.

I am concentrating mainly on learning to calm the mind at the moment. Developing serenity practices that help quieten the thought energies and bring the mind to stillness and balance. These are also samadhi practises. I find these practises very challenging at times, but they are very helpful and worth the time spent learning them.

Upāsaka means male lay follower. A female lay follower is called an Upāsikā. We make the determination to follow the five precepts.

These (in no particular order) are:

• To refrain from false and harmful speech.
• To refrain from taking the life of any living creature.
• To refrain from taking what is not given.
• To refrain from sexual misconduct (misconduct here is defined as infidelity or sexual abuse).
• To refrain from consuming intoxicants that lead to careless behaviour and breaking the other four precepts.

They aren’t vows or commandments. They are training rules and guidelines that one strives to follow to live a moral life and maintain peace of mind.

The precepts are important for two reasons. First, by keeping them, you are no longer causing harm in society. This means you become a person that others can trust. Which is important. We all know stories of spiritual people who tarnish the reputation of spirituality by behaving in immoral ways.

The other reason is for one’s own benefit. By taking the precepts, one is training the mind to abandon unwholesome tendencies that lead to suffering (both for ourselves and others). By not engaging in immoral activities, one does not become stressed by the unwanted repercussions that come back at you (like a boomerang).

The precepts cover roughly a third of the noble eightfold path (right speech, right action, right livelihood).

The five precepts will also reveal the mental dispositions that keep causing us problems in life.

For instance, my biggest problem was with intoxicants. It was a long, hard struggle for me to become free of those. I used to be an addict and have had problems with substance abuse since I was a kid. I won’t go into details here because it will make this article too long. But I may perhaps share more about that in a future article when I am feeling braver.

Without a foundation in morality, one will struggle to make much progress on the spiritual path. Morality is an important component for developing peace of mind.

Without it, one will also struggle to meditate. Regret and remorse will prevent one from entering the deep states of absorption known as samādhi.