Post #1270

The most important questions you can ask yourself are, “Who am I?”, and “What am I really looking for?” Most people are born, and then they live, and die, and they never once are aware of their breath, going in and out of their body. They are not aware of their body, their feelings, their thoughts, in the moment. That’s how far away they live from themselves. People rarely seek to find themselves. They rarely seek to understand their mind. They mostly seek to learn about external things. People know more about external things, rather than their own mind. People know more about the sun, the moon, planets, oceans, politicians, about their neighbours, relatives, celebrities, scientists, actors, actresses, sportsmen, and so on. But they do not know about their own thoughts and feelings. They are not aware they are breathing, within this moment. People will gossip about these things, but they do not like to talk about what really matters. They try to learn about economics, science, archeology, history, politics, entertainment, and so on, but they are not interested in learning about their own mind. They are not interested in the very thing that helps them to interpret the external world. They are not interested in finding out about what puts their experiences together, which is the mind itself. Because it is the mind that is the root of what we can experience. In the Kalakarama sutta, The Buddha says, this is like, going to see a magician perform tricks, and really enjoying the tricks he is showing, but not trying to find out how he is performing those tricks, in the first place. In this sutta, the Buddha compares the mind, to a very skilled magician, who is so good at tricking his audience, that they don't even know he's the one performing the tricks. People try to find out about things that are far away, but fail to see what is right in front of them, what is right within them. So, don’t you think we should discover ourselves first? Don’t you think we should try to understand what’s right within us, first, before we try to understand about the external world? If we want to find the reality, or the truth, shouldn't we first know about what puts that reality together? Which is our mind? "Cittena nīyati loko, cittena parikassati" The world is led on by the mind, by the mind it is swept away "Cittassa ekadhammassa sabbe va vasam-anvagū." They all follow the authority of that one thing: the mind. Samyutta Nikaya - 1.1.62 (Cittasuttaṁ) - The mind The Buddha’s Vipassana technique is fully about understanding ourselves. Once we understand ourselves, we can then understand our entire world, and then end your problems. Dhammapada Verse 65: Thirty youths were enjoying themselves with a prostitute in a forest, when the prostitute stole their valuable ornaments, jewellery, and ran away. While searching for her they came across the Buddha and asked him if they had seen a woman. The Buddha asked them whether it was better to search for a woman or to search for themselves. They sat down and listened to the Dhamma and instantly attained Sotapanna (first stage of enlightenment). All of them joined the Order of the Buddha and followed him to the Jetavana monastery. Because when you search for yourself instead, when you ask 'who am I', and start looking inwards, instead of outwards, via the practice of Satipatthana, the Sakkaya-ditthi (view of a stable, and continuous 'me', that exists now, existed in the past, and will exist in future, from moment to moment, fades away), because you start to see, how that 'me' was put together by your mind. When you see the process of how 'you', and your experience of the external world, were put together by the process of the mind,, you realize that this is all just an illusion, just like a magic trick. But, now that you see that it's just a trick, just an illusion, the mind, the greatest magician, can no longer trick you. This will lead you to the realization that there is no actual self, and that it's just another illusion that your mind creates. Realizing this is the way to Sotapanna.