how to break the vicious cycle

hardy · Newbie User Joined: Jul 27, 2008 Posts: 4

dear friends

I gained some knowledge through books about sufferings. How they keep on going for a long time . It's depended on reaction part of mind.

This is what happens :
When our senses come in contact with anything, it is normal cognizing . Next , the recognition happens. Our mind percieves the sense object as good or bad. This causes a sensation in the body , i.e the anxiety or fear in our case and the 4th thing that happens is reaction. If perception is good, for example somebody says something good a good sensation occurs. But if something bad occurs, a bad sensation. This is common to everyone. Next comes the reaction part. If the sensation is pleasant we become attached to it with cravings. we want this to happen again and again. If the sensation is bad, aversion arises, i.e, we want to supress it or destroy it. The two reactions of our fear. We either escape( supress) or try to destroy. Both these reactions are unfortunately keeping the cycle going on. This happens in all suffering.

So Budddha came up with an answer. He said if we can stop the reaction part by being equanimous to the sensation even though it may be painful or pleasant, we are able to break this cycle. And this is not the end of story. He found a way to be equanimous. Thats by doing what he called " bhavana maya pannya" Which means seeing things as they really are.It teaches us to be aware and equanimous. The word meditation is used in english which has totally different meaning. Many people call concentration as meditation which isn't true. Concentration can never take away the sufferings.

If what i said sounds logical , plz visit vipassana meditation website. It has more on this and u can buy the book " the art of living " by william hart. It's very affordable. What i said above is from that book. It has more to it...

Our sufferings are painful but this might be beacause of our own past deeds. Stop blaming parents and taking tolls on how long u keep awake etc etc. I feel this is a waste of time. We need to suffer for a long time , perhaps not so long if we follow the right way. But try to understand what Buddha said. If it finds right with ur own common sense follow it.

Buddha's main teaching was things arise and passes away. With our ignorance we think the pleasant things and unpleasantaries are continuous and so we create attachments. If we can come out of this ignorance , we can get over cravings and aversions and hence no reactions(phobia or anxiety for us).

One more thing... we try to close ourselves from world. But has this made any differnce? In my own experience , i suffered much more when confined to myself. Other problems started which i never thought would occur. So taking pain isn't a bad thing. As we learn to be equanimous, we will stop reacting with aversion one day and the suffering will stop.

All this knowledge is book based . I think this is the right way.
goodluck

sabbath92002 · Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 7:41 am Post subject:

Great post! Especially the part about everything is temporary, and instead of seeing this reality we form attachments. Our lives are way too short to spend them hiding from our own emotions and thoughts.

By the way, I had to look up the definition of equanimous, dictionary.com says equanimity: mental or emotional stability or composure, esp. under tension or strain; calmness; equilibrium.

Hardy, have you read about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) yet? It's kinda like Buddhism, in that it uses mindfulness and concedes that life is full of pain, plus it adds values to guide and motivate. I'd love you to read some of it so we could talk about it. I've been using it for three years and it has helped me a lot. Below is a link to the latest ACT self-help workbook, which is the best one yet imho.

http://www.thehappinesstrap.com

_________________
Accept your reactions and be present
Choose a valued direction
Take action

http://www.contextualpsychology.com/act

hardy · Newbie User Joined: Jul 27, 2008 Posts: 4

hey sabbath

I gone through some ACT sites before u posted this and felt like they can reallly help. Go ahead friend. It seems pretty much the same way Buddha helped people come out of sufferings. But one thing.. i hear all buddhist teachers telling don't try too hard or don't do meditation with expectation. And Whatever teaching u hear don't believe in it without trying it.

My meditations become too weak when they r done with expectations. So experiment the method that u have n dont believe it blindly. Even if its buddhas teaching. I think there is a right way of doing this. Not hurry.

sabbath92002 · Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 10:26 am Post subject: