The Spell of Views of the Good and the Not Good (Wrong, Bad, Evil)
The Spell of Views of the Good and the Not Good (Wrong, Bad, Evil)
Hosted by Sangha Live
Transcription, edit and adaption of first part of a talk and guided meditation . Second part for blog/post at a later date.
We have the last session this morning (Friday, 14 June 2024). These were the questions forming the theme for the morning talks on letting go explored in the previous days
Here is the link with the recording. SanghaLive, who hosted the event, offer recordings freely in their website’s Dharma library for those who could not attend.
Tree on the Dartington Estate, Totnes, Devon, England
https://sangha.live/dharma-library/daily-meditation-recordings-with-christopher-titmuss-week-of-june-10-2024/.
Monday. What are we holding onto?
Tuesday. Why do we keep telling ourselves to let go but we can’t?
Wednesday. What do we hold on to? What becomes problematic for us? What are the causes and conditions enabling the problematic factors?
Thursday. Why does understanding make letting go effortless?
Today (Friday). Theme: Liberation confirms nothing is worth being identified with including views of good and not good, good and evil.
We become caught up in attachment, clinging, control issues, possessive and so on. The mind lapses into willpower as the solution to letting go. “I have to let go. I should let go. It's time for me to let go.” This often does not work for us. Letting go comes as a result of practice, of insight, of understanding a problematic situation we need to drop.
We are not here to let go of everything, such as the Eightfold Path, which we sustain, cultivate and develop. What do we need to understand to move on, to create more space in our inner life to let go and move on? Understanding is a key factor in changing the point of view.
On Thursday, I mentioned yesterday that life constantly reveals a state of letting go. You and I experience this process of communicating. We let go of everything else for this session in this hour of our day. There is a letting go in every moment. Something new comes into nature, evolves naturally, changes naturally. These include the challenges we face.
Can we find authentic freedom in life, not tied to being in the Here and Now, to Consciousness, or Being but embraces the movements of the past that change the present? The present changes. Then what arises changes to form the future.
Can you find a timelessness in the adaptation to change and embrace change as a priority?
Impact of the Old
I was looking at the Zoom Chat column this morning. One Chat message asked about causes and conditions shaping the present. This reminds us of the unsatisfying influence of the old that can distort what arises in the present. We can hold on to the impact of the old.
If we hold on to it, we do not see past, present or future clearly. This affects our relationship to our view of the past, present and future. This is called karma. Karma refers to the unsatisfactory effect on our self, so to speak, on our activities, our relationship to ourselves, others, goals and objects. We explore these experiences. In direct experience, the self/ego arise bound up together.
There is an indispensable thread that runs through these teachings, standing the test of time. It is worth reminding you of this thread to develop wisdom. A sequence of conditions leads to the next sequence.
First, you listen (in a group, 1-1, podcast) or it could be the reading experience.
Second, listening/reading become a condition for reflection.
Third, reflection and meditation become conditions for clarity, insight and understanding. We meditate on the reflection, chew it over, stay quiet inwardly to understand things more deeply.
Fourth, we come to a point where we accept the understanding we have arrived at.
Listen, reflect, meditate, understand, accept - please remember this sequence and process.
If you find yourself too much in the intellect, too much thinking, thinking, thinking, then create space for yourself. Go for a long walk. Use your senses, seeing, hearing and touching to experience calm and clarity.
Be with the process of 1,2,3,4, for wise understanding and acceptance of the understanding.
A Guided Reflection Meditation: The Makeup of the World.
Please pause for 20 seconds or more between each sentence or two to allow words to go deeper to support a meditative reflection.
The world is made up of name-form, mentality-materiality, psychology-physicality.
From the point of view of human life, we experience an inseparability in the everyday world mental-physical constructs, our interpretation coming together as mind/matter, name/form. There is an identification with name and form.
What is the identification? You identity that I am sitting in front of the screen, and you, the Sangha, listen and look at your screen. This is normal and relevant. There are conditions outside of us holding our communication together. Being ‘identified’ (caught up in) with the event converts our view to being like a canary in a cage.'
We live in a world of names and forms. By name, I mean the words we use to describe form. This dynamic becomes meaningful to us, often seeing our view as the true reality,
Let us also recognise how easily our conditioning, whether psychological, emotional, hereditary, genetic or a combination, lands on name and form. We can distort the name and form of experience or perception,, exaggerate the experience in unhealthy, harmful ways.
The object of interest could be oneself or something outside of ourselves. There is a relationship with the inner and with the outer. Never underestimate the effects of the old in the name of the good.
"Oh, it's good to meditate. It's good to be mindful. It's good to be here this morning, to listen, to explore, to reflect. It's good to evolve and find out what might constitute a spiritual life. It's good to dive deeper into things. The Dharma is such a good thing in my life. "
The language of the good lands in the world of name and form. The good and the not good do not inherently belong to it.
Both sides believe they are the good guys
Influence of the old mind set feeds the idea of the good. We might ask,
Where do our problems come from?
Where does the good come from?
What do we usually think or say?
We say the idea the good comes as a reaction to the not good. It is also true to say, “the not good comes from the good.”
I am sure Russia, USA, NATO, Ukraine, Sudan, Israeli government and Hamas government identify with the view they embody the good and the other side are evil, dangerous, destructive. Each government believes their war is a form of defence, the right thing to do. Strong Identification with the so-called ‘good’ or ‘right’ leads to the view “We have no choice.” Pre-judice leads onwards into the depth of delusion and suffering.
Look at the outcome in trauma, terror and death.
Wisdom explores the challenge and practices to be mindful and clear about our views of the good and of the not good to respond major issues in a radically different way.
In Genesis, the first chapter in the Bible and Torah states, “Thou shalt not bite of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”
Inquiry sees into the impact of our views of the good, of righteous action, conditioned by the past views.
Example of the view of the good in our own lives or others
We say to friends, strangers or ourselves “You are doing good things. You are having a good life. You serve others.”
We may not realise that our holding on to the notion of doing good becomes anxious and tiring. People might praise us for our good work. This becomes a further pressure to succeed, until we feel exhausted, stressed or burnt out due to the attachment driving ourselves to do what is good and succeed. We become trapped in the duality of success and failure, victory and defeat.
If you hold a pet tightly, it will fight to get free. If we hold tightly to a view of the other or ourselves, sooner or later there will be a kickback.
Vigilance and insight into this duality preserve our energy instead of burning up energy trying to impress ourselves and others who agree with us. We act mindfully in using language to form views in our descriptions of people/situations checking whether we spend much time imprisoned in the language of right and wrong, good and not good.
The world of suffering often arises through being bound up with the good and its opposite, not realising it is a form of blind reactivity. These reveal presentations of the judgmental mind, preventing us from seeing our view of right and wrong. Views of right and wrong have a minor place but clinging to them inhibits us from a wise response. Without a wise response, our past patterns/conditioning make up our mind about the present.
This principle applies to all that we hold dear to us. In our circles, we might hold dear to spirituality, meditation, practice, Dharma, love, compassion. Holding tightly to such themes contributes to us facing the opposite or absence of in our daily life. The more we cling, the more reaction will come when facing significant challenges.
In the exploration of experiences, do you keep a sharp eye and ear open for any imprisonment into a view, an ideology?
Is there anybody in your life that you find yourself regularly judgmental about?
Do you need to take some steps to connect with such people you reject?
Non-identification means non-clinging
Identification with includes taking sides to support concepts of good and bad views. Freedom from identification with bears no relationship to rejection or detachment.
A human being has the infinite potential to explore wise, skilful and healthy responses as expressions of freedom. Views make no claims of perfection or imperfection. Yet, freedom can say ‘No’ to behaviour in order to protect children, family and groups of people and more and ‘Yes’ to compassion and wisdom without prejudice, without a divisive dualist mind set.
Infinite expansion of human potential includes opening doors within and without expanding that freedom to explore.
Are there any areas of your life to explore?
Are there any areas of your life to connect with?
The ego, the self can claim, “I got it. I got liberation. I got freedom.” Once we place liberation as an object, which we have got, it means we have placed liberation in the limited world of name and form or name and formless.
We missed the point. You cannot find freedom as an object or in an object. That views boxes in freedom.
Authentic liberation does not depend on the physical/mental/forms/names, yet sees clearly these constructions of the ‘world.’ The world consists of a mental construct of human beings. Such freedom does not reject the ‘world’ of psychology-physicality but recognises unfolding constructions/conditions.
Conditions include the influences or not of karma, the recognition of bare causes and conditions, not imprisoned to karma. Causes/conditions don’t possess the inherent power to obstruct liberation.
Application of Power
The Buddha used the word power, including the power to see the emptiness of holding, clinging, neediness, desiring, craving and acting in a possessive way.
The power to see the emptiness reduces or ends the harmful impact of the old. Knowing deeply the manifestation of primary conditions for the constructions of the ‘world’ does not create a problematic life.
Seeing, knowing confirms liberation including wise engagement in the formations of life.