If I start to say what it does NOT consist of, it would never end. The catalog of what is not Buddhism you have everywhere. They have turned it into a hypermarket of barbarities that only sustain them either faith, or tradition or directly to the threat. Let’s make it clear once and for all.
Buddhism is exclusively about ending existence, eradicating it, not to be reborn. It is stupid to dedicate yourself to anything, however beneficial, if after this life you start again from scratch. Remember the movie «The Day of the Marmot». What you do for tomorrow, serves for tomorrow, but you’re still stuck there. What you have to do you have to do now.
That is why the Buddha clearly said that anything that leads to a single moment of existence is like shit, although little smells very bad. He never praised merit, being a good person, being popular, being kind, being courteous … There is only one goal and it is enlightenment.
Enlightenment, even a small one, is enough. You know there are four levels. The most basic and, therefore, most accessible level is the «entry into the stream». Once you enter, whether you want it or not, you put yourself as you wear, whatever you do, in a maximum of seven lives you merge in Nibbāna.
You can aspire to more, of course, but to enter the current is the most peremptory. So much so, that the winners of the current, the sotapannas, are called «apprentices», are the nobles of lower rank, but they are no longer ordinary people. A sotāpanna is above, in rank, of the entire monastic world Buddhist structure, since it is constituted only by ordinary people, not by nobles.
Once the clear objective, the next is to stop suffering that is done in three ways, one of which is to apply the Noble Eightfold Path, which works, but is not radical and is somewhat complex to implement. The ideal is to start the dependence of happiness at the root, and with this we get that the emotional reaction does not exist since nothing is «pleasant» and nothing is «unpleasant».
By diminishing the suffering you will have achieved the state of a return, or sakadagami. If you manage to eradicate suffering, you will be an anagami and you will not return any more. The normal thing is that at your death in the «draw» it is your turn to merge in Nibbāna directly, and it is very rare for you to stay «on guard» like Mahabrahma, which is not a bad thing either.
And then, beyond that is the eradication of all ignorance, you will become an arahant, a sage. You will see things as they are, but getting there is a plus for those who achieve non-return, want to reach the highest.
Well, the issue is, and how is it done?
To begin with, it is essential to do jhānas, and do them daily. This has multiple uses, but perhaps the most significant is that unwanted thoughts disappear. The crazy monkey disappears. This is important because it works like an antivirus of the mind so that we can work with it directly without being running away every twenty seconds.
If you know how to breathe, learning to do the first jhāna should not take you more than six sitting. First you learn to generate the necessary neurotransmitters for the cocktail: dopamine, serotonin and anandamide (pleasure, happiness and joy). Once all three in the brain, are shaken with epinephrine and reached the point of maximum tension, the enkephalins are released and jhāna is entered. A state in which there are no thoughts, everything is black, you do not breathe and those who observe «leave».
After a month or two, you will see that reactive thoughts no longer appear during the day. You can be scared because you’re not used to not having yesterday or tomorrow, but do not worry, the brain knows how to tell you what is important to you.
Later, one day, just by sitting down you will enter into jhāna, without any exercise. Your brain already knows what you’re going for and gives it directly to you. You will continue to experience pleasure, happiness and joy, but you will not need any exercise to do it, just sit down. It is the second material jhāna. In addition, it is deeper and will help you to take control of the mind. With it you can see that there is no «nobody» in there, that all are impermanent processes that arise and cease. You can see them and you will see their dynamics and you will be able to program them.
After a few months, one day you will sit down and enter jhāna, but, forget about pleasure, there will only be happiness and joy. You are in the third material jhāna, and as you will see it is deeper. Go on like this, and one day when you sit down you will enter into jhāna without pleasure, neither joy nor happiness. Your brain already knows in what way to put itself without you having to say it. You are in a fourth jhāna and there very interesting things happen, like seeing past lives, for example. Once you have experienced it, you will have no doubt about it.
At this point, you should try to squeeze happiness until you get sick of it, you’ll need it later. You know how to shoot serotonin, but let’s get more.Use the Mettā-Mudita binomial, unconditional love more joy for the welfare of others, whenever you can. For example, on the street smile of happiness to everyone you cross, sending you all your love. If he responds with a smile of happiness, «róbasela», make yours happiness with Mudita.This will literally take you out of happiness, which will be useful later on.
At this point, it is time to move on to the next exercise, which consists of concentration meditation that consists of concentrating on a given point in a way that encompasses the entire field of consciousness.
Once you have a good mastery in concentrating absolutely on the minimum, it is time to make the assault to the current. It is done once and only once. It consists in concentrating absolutely in a point and it is left to the attention that goes changing of object, at the beginning slowly and more and more quickly. At the end of the hours, it will go so fast that you will concentrate absolutely on all the sensitive points of your body. It will be like an explosion that will leave you exhausted.
You will begin to see that, among other things, the ceremonies, processions and those silly things seem ridiculous to you, that you no longer have any doubts. If you previously doubted everything, not anymore. You are simply unable to doubt, the suffering of the doubt disappeared, and finally the concept of «I» also disappears. You know that there is no «I» or anything like that, and besides that, the brain is not a Cartesian theater with a bug that is the observer. All your neurons think and decisions are not made by the «voice» inside. Moreover, you will see that first you do things and «after» the voice will say that you want to do them.
Congratulations, you already entered the stream. But notice that happiness has been swept away. That is why the Mettā-Mudita exercises should be done before entering the stream.
You can take a break, but his thing is to continue.
Do not leave the practice of material jhānas,
Now, we can use the exercise of the noble Eightfold path that what you are looking for is that you do nothing by attachment or by aversion or ignorance. The objective is to reprogram the behavior which will take you 90 days, more or less, provided that you are doing it constantly, without being confused. Once this time has passed you will no longer do anything motivated more than for your convenience, not passions or ignorance.
The first thing is the correct understanding, which is a first wheel gear. In it we will know how to do the exercise better and better, we will know that it is «correct» at each turn of the wheel. Once we know that we are going to put our intention, we will not program to do the «right» thing. Then, it is the right action, which is not to kill, steal or have problematic sexual relationships. This is easy because knowing what it is to steal or kill or with whom we should not relate is easy, we do not have to evaluate anything, it is not done and this is because those three behaviors are done exclusively either by attachment, or by aversion or by simple ignorance. The consumption of intoxicants should be avoided because it induces to act with ignorance that is the worst of the worst. The fourth gear is the correct word, and here you have to pay more attention. The idea is not to lie, no matter what happens, to keep quiet, but NEVER to lie. Exaggeration if cheating, rather to emphasize is not unacceptable. Nor is saying what feels the way you feel, saying things frankly, sometimes, even with strong words that are not made to lie or hurt or hurt, but to reaffirm what you say.
And now comes the good, the right way of life, the most difficult. It is up to you to evaluate if the things you do continuously, each one of them, you do or avoid them moved by attachment or by aversion or ignorance. It is essential to be very attentive, because if we mislead the brain it will not be reprogrammed and will continue with its nefarious tendencies. It is obvious that only with the correct attention and the right effort can you achieve it. The union of all this, and not neglecting the practice of jhānas, will lead you to know what to do and how to do it to avoid the three roots of evil, attachment, aversion and ignorance. That is the correct wisdom that culminates in the liberation of suffering. That wisdom reconnects again with the first gear, the correct understanding that, as we saw, at each turn of the wheel we will refine it.
After three months, 90 days, you will have said goodbye to suffering. That is already very good.
To eradicate existence and not be reborn, you must do this, eradicate attachment and aversion, in the ways in which consciousness can function in the future. As you have entered the current you can only be reborn as human or deva. Well, you must enter the spheres of the devas and do this work of the noble eightfold path there.
And how do you access?
It is only accessed through the practice of immaterial jhānas. Instead of being based on neurotransmitters, the immaterial ones are more akin to states similar to hypnotics, but much deeper.
This is a job that takes more time, because they are different levels and there is more subtle and less coarse the attachment and aversion
When you have torn the attachment to existence, it will be uprooted and you will not be reborn and you will have finished your work.
This is the plan and this is the route.
How much study do you see here? How many suttas? Praying to Buddha where is he? Dress up with a curtain of what’s good?
This is pure practice and what you will experience you will not be able to describe it in such a way that a normal person can understand it. No matter how famous a monk, he will not understand anything, because he does not have the qualia to make the comparisons and the words without the qualia lack meaning.
In short, that’s the way it is and that’s how it is done. That a gang of unsuccessful and ignorant do not tell you that it is impossible, if you know how to breathe. That, if not, leave it.
You are slow to put on.
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