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Wisdom – The Ultimate Spiritual Hack

20/12/2021

 

Many people who become interested in meditation, wanting deep, profound spiritual experiences, find they do not have the opportunity to practice for the many hours a day required to achieve these kinds of results. Some resign themselves to a lesser goal, or try to redefine enlightenment as something a little easier to achieve.  Others look for a spiritual hack or short cut. In a previous article I pointed out how dangerous this can be. But you could say that there is an ancient and well-trodden, well defined spiritual short cut, we might call it the wisdom path. This can take you into the deepest states without you having to do long hours of concentration meditation. Just a little bit of calm will do. The wisdom path is one in which we learn to see the world in a different way, one that leads to letting go rather than the clinging to things which is the reality of the reactive and untrained mind. Wisdom is a way of seeing rather than a way of thinking so not a lot of intellectual study is required. The traditional way to learn it is to train with a teacher who has wisdom and naturally and gradually pick up their attitude and way of seeing over time. This is the most natural way to learn.

But if this way is so much quicker then why isn't everyone trying it? 
  
The central contemplation is of the impermanence of everything we experience. So this is not complicated but it can take a while for it to really sink in. Nevertheless, the reality is that through such contemplation one is going against the stream of the modern materialist view completely. The student in the modern world can be taken gradually into a whole new relationship with the world around him or her, seeing the ultimate pointlessness of it all. Over time the shift can be very radical and the students will need to be willing to shift their life-style to fit the new view in order to progress. We have to act on the wisdom we develop for it to become established in us and not cause a conflict in the mind. So this path is not without sacrifice, but in the longer term this is the sacrifice of a lesser happiness for a greater one. In Asia, Buddhist Monasteries are there as a place to go, a refuge for those who begin to feel disenchanted with the fleeting nature of the pleasures of life – those who, perhaps like Mick Jagger, ‘can't get no satisfaction’.  

One who sees impermanence will be inclined to change the priorities in life and abandon the worldly material gains which they at that point can see as not lasting; but this can also be a gradual path of simplifying life, one step at a time. This practice also combines very naturally with a practice of calming meditation. So as the student lets go, they find more time and space for meditation and this enhances their ability to see in a wise way, with a calm mind. Meditation becomes the way of smoothing out this path, calming down into a new life-style. And the results of this practice are not like the fleeting peace gained on a pleasant retreat but last for the rest of your life. In fact, if you believe in the Buddhist view of rebirth, what is gained of wisdom will follow you into your next life also – such an indelible imprint is made on the mind. 

What this path requires most of all is the courage to take a very honest look at life. What lies in the way is really only our helpless addictions to the pleasures of the senses and our wish to hang onto a dream that sooner or later is going to let us down.  



Picture
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I offer this for your reflection

Ajahn Kalyāno
http://www.openthesky.co.uk


​

Effects of body awareness

13/11/2021

 
​Establishing mindfulness of the body very calmly and fully has wide-ranging, transformative effects on the mind. Below is a set of tables in which these
effects are listed. The state and dynamics of the different aspects of the mind
are described with the body relatively absent (in the normal case of the
untrained mind) opposite the case where the body is fully present in the mind
(when mindfulness of the body is very clearly established).

Each row in the tables is a progression from the previous one representing
mindfulness practise (the domain in the left column) or its fruit (the right
column) going deeper and deeper.
​Body is not present in the mind 
Body is present in the mind
Only pleasant and unpleasant feelings are present – The body
is only recognised by these feelings and has no presence 
of its own
​Neutral feeling is present – the body has ‘presence’ 
Posture (and movement) are merely automatic/habitual 
Posture – aware of (and in control of) how you are sitting
standing or lying
In activity the body is projected out into the world, it is 
merely a tool
​ In activity a background awareness remains
Aware only of the purpose of movement 
​Aware (and in control of) active movement
Aware only of yielding to an outside force of some kind 
Aware of (and in control of) movement which is allowed
Not aware of the breath 
Aware of the breath
The body is sensed as feelings only 
Elements are sensed – the consistency of the body parts, 
hard or soft etc.
The outer appearance of the body of is seen as an impression of like or dislike
The outside of the body is seen neutrally as hair of the head, hair of the body, nails teeth and skin
The inside of the body is ignored or referred to only in 
relation to some purpose
The inside of the bodies is imagined just as it is, just as being present
Only feelings are sensed within the body 
An imagined image of an inner body part is stable 
Samādhi is experienced as clear outer awareness or space
(upacāra)
We experience an ‘external bodily nimitta’ – a calm, 
clear, stable image of the inner reality of the bodies of 
others
Samādhi is experienced as clear inner awareness or space
(appanā)
​We experience an ‘internal bodily nimitta’ – a calm clear,
stable image of the inside of our own body
Absent body as it influences physical feeling 
Present body as it influences physical feeling
Pain increases as the mind focuses on feeling 
 Pain diminishes or stays the same
​Suffering increases as the mind resists the feeling 
​Perspective on or relationship to pain changes, causing 
less suffering
​Mind sees body and physical feeling as the same 
Mind sees body and physical feeing as different
Body is assumed to be real, material
Body image is immaterial
​Bodily inner parts or organs are absent so that physical 
feelings are experienced ‘in the dark’
Bodily inner parts or organs are present in awareness so that feelings are seen, in a new light, as separate from that which feels them, also the ultimate impermanence of feeling is seen as it is experienced
​Absent body as it influences mental feeling 
​Present body as it influences mental feeling
Suffering increases as the feeling is trapped inside 
Perspective on or relationship to pain changes causing less of suffering – feelings arise in an open mind
Bodily organs are absent so that emotional feelings are 
experienced ‘in the dark’
​The inside of the body is present. The emotion is experienced in a new light and either sublimated or if the emotion still arises, it appears transformed and 
outside, related to the object (real, remembered or imagined) that was or is its source
We are attracted to an object or drawn into an activity and
lose the background awareness of the body
Through the lack of desire, dispassion, we experience in the context of seeing the reality of the body, we are not drawn in and we sustain the body in background awareness. We therefore experience the new object of desire in this context
​When we are averse to an object or activity, this throws us
back into our feelings
The cool awareness of dispassion is unaffected by an 
unpleasant object
​We notice the breath only as air entering and leaving 
The breath is sensed throughout the body and calms feeling
Our feelings about our body influence the feelings we 
experience inside them – we are not aware that this is the 
case
​The emotional feelings we have in the body are seen as the results of an action of body or mind in the same 
way as physical feelings
Feelings are trapped in the body
​Feelings are released and experienced in an open field 
of awareness that extends beyond the body
​Absent body as it influences the quality of the mind
itself
​ Present body  as it influences the quality of the 
mind itself
The body is merely a tool of the mind
Mind is composed, control of the body helps to 
control the mind
​Feeling and therefore the mind are restricted to, trapped
in the body
Mind is centred and movements of the mind out into 
the world are clearly seen
Mind moves with feeling, is never at rest, vibrates with 
the heat of passion
​Mind becomes still through resting on the body, is
cool with dispassion
Mind focuses through grasping feeling 
Mind is open, mind sees the mind
The focussed mind is dark and therefore blind 
Mind is open, bright and sees
​Mind is bound to the feeling of material elements 
Mind is released from the actual material elements
We always have thoughts or feelings about the body 
that prevent us from accepting it the way it is
We can accept the body as it is in bare awareness
Mind is in the body 
​Body is in the open mind
The body is a source of fear to the mind
​The body is a natural source of wisdom in the mind
The body is a source of desire and craving to the mind 
 The body is a natural source of compassion in the 
mind
We experience the suffering of attachment to the body 
​We experience freedom from suffering – the mind 
detached from the body – the body remains present
We are in denial of our own mortality 
​ We are aware of and accept the mortality of the body
– we see death but also see the deathless
​Absent body as it influences thought 
Present body as it influences thought
Unless the body is a theme in thought the body is 
absent from consideration
The body is taken into account in all consideration
​Only relative impermanence is seen 
Absolute impermanence is seen
​Only relative impersonality is seen
Absolute impersonality is seen
Thought is experienced as located in the head in subjective experience, as and when we are understanding it to be so
Thought is freed from being trapped in the head
​Ignorance naturally arises 
Wise thought naturally arises
Craving naturally arises
​ Compassionate thought naturally arises
​Absent body as it influences sense of self 
Present body as it influences sense of self
​We assume that our automatic pilot knows how to 
operate the body
As we take over supervision from the automatic pilot 
we realise that we don’t know our own bodies so well –
the sense of self in relation to it diminishes
We are not aware of the sense organs themselves as we
use them – giving the impression of a subject or self independent of the body
Sense organ is present in awareness so for example we are aware of the eye that sees – there is no sense of self that results
We look for solutions to sickness or ageing – the body 
is represented as a problem to get over
​We are clearly aware of the processes of sickness and ageing and our limited ability to change these – we see 
these as facts of nature
Picture
​I offer this for your reflection

Ajahn Kalyāno
http://www.openthesky.co.uk

A story concerning right effort

17/10/2021

 
​There is a famous story in the Arab world about how goodness can turn to bad and badness to good.  A very rich woman marries a very good man, approved of by her rich parents. He is the perfect caring and dutiful husband. After a few years the woman tires of him, however, he is no fun. She leaves him for another man who is rather wild and sensual. Then the lady has a terrible accident in which she becomes both deaf and blind. What then ensues is a shocking tale of how she is taken on a journey in which her first lover, very angry at having been deserted, seeks his revenge.

Throughout the awful life-threatening ordeal that ensues her life is heroically defended by her second lover, the wild party animal. Throughout this ordeal she, being unable to recognize who is doing what, assumes that it is the wild man who is torturing her and the good man who is trying to save her when, in fact, the reality is the other way around.

This story has a lot to teach us as practitioners of the Dhamma. We can assume that what we see as the good side of us or of others is wholly good and beyond evil. Or we can judge our bad side too harshly, assume that it is wholly bad and cannot be turned around. We can be very black-and-white about states of mind or form fixed views. The Buddha encourages us not to be blind like the lady in the story but to remain vigilant and not to attach to a view, to follow goodness and to turn away from evil wherever we might find it.
​
Picture


​​I offer this for your reflection


Ajahn Kalyāno
http://www.openthesky.co.uk


​The Dhamma warrior

20/9/2021

 
In modern societies the values of self expression and individual freedom become contrasted with those of traditional, conformist communities. Organised mainstream religion can be seen as the epitome of such old-fashioned oppressive culture. I am not sure about the other religions but in terms of Buddhism I would say that sometimes appearances are deceptive. The Dhamma warrior is the ultimate peaceful revolutionary. Never mind the Dhamma punks, even a lot of the mainstream places can provide shelter for those seeking to realise and express their Dhamma, there is no more potent form of self-expression than this. Also to find freedom from suffering, there is no more radical, blissful form of freedom than that. What is more for all this with being contained within moral boundaries is that we can have the freedom to pursue our goals in a situation where we are protected from the greed or hatred of others to some extent, and have the freedom from the trouble we would otherwise be creating for ourselves by acting out our own greed or hatred.

And what use was all that greed, anyway? If we admit that richer societies are no happier than some of the more enlightened poorer ones – it's quite the opposite – then the great materialist dream begins to fall apart. We just have to admit that rich societies are merely carried away with greed or the hatred of jealousy or frustration.

naïve watercolour drawings of six Buddhist monks



​I offer this for your reflection


Ajahn Kalyāno
http://www.openthesky.co.uk

Ghosts

12/8/2021

 


​– what they might be and how to relate to them


I have a view about what a ghost might be. Or perhaps it would be better to say that I have developed a way of looking at ghosts, spirits and such things that seems to work both in my own mind and in relating to people to come to me to ask advise or help with their ghost experiences – these are a common thing for a forest monk to be asked about, especially by Asian Buddhists. This view of mine is not so easy to grasp so I do not always explicitly share this view, rather I relate to people’s stories based upon the view.

My view is based on the Buddhist view of dependent origination, of a particular view of causality which sees a relationship that goes both ways between consciousness and the world. In this context I would put the view like this: just as people remember a place, a place can remember a person, in the form of a ghost. This ghost will arise whenever the conditions in that place are similar to when the person was there. It is as though someone or something is partially arising again – not in material form but as an image. Other aspects of an event from the past may re-arise also. So to me ghosts represent evidence of some kind of memory there in the more subtle fabric of the world. This view seems to be substantiated by the fact that ghosts appear in the same places at the same times and often repeating the same acts over and over. There is also the possibility of a more refined species of spirit arising within the mind rather than in a material place. These, I would believe, are a manifestation of the minds of people not attached to the material world, of the mind of samādhi.


Let us try to refine this view further: Memory here is also not seen here as consisting of some kind of stored material or information representing a continuity of existence. Because it can be that our understanding of what a memory is means that we try to conceive of some kind of store consciousness or spiritual realm. Then, if this realm cannot be found, we dismiss the possibility of some different kind of memory and of ghosts at the same time. However, if we can understand memory instead as the re-arising of a phenomenon (either fully or partially) when the conditions come together to cause that phenomena. It can also be just a perception or partial perception that is recurring, a glimpse of something. 

This different understanding of memory underpins my ‘memory view’ on ghosts. We see how they arise and cease based on conditions rather than having a continuous existence. The difficulty comes in distinguishing a ghost of this kind from simply our imagination. Because such a ghost is so close in its nature to an imagined ghost, this discrimination can go so far as to need two people to see the same ghost at the same time (which is not so uncommon). A good meditator with a very calm mind can also see the difference because they know that while their mind is calm it is not creating or imagining anything and can judge this to some degree in others. Hence one role of meditating monastics is in advising people on their experiences in this domain.

Such a ghost theory as this is not an alternative to the idea of life after death but rather a way of talking about what life after death might be that does not presuppose the survival of a being or self. We may also see rebirth not as the survival of an entity but as something re-arising in another being’s mind in some other way. This may be as a perception, memory or thought as we may commonly understand it – simply remembering someone who has died. Or perhaps this can occur in another way through some other kind of memory or realization in the case of the ghost. 

So here we have a way of seeing and understanding ghosts that does not create a self in what we see. This will also be the way of seeing that is natural to someone who has through meditation abandoned the illusion of self. Philosophically this view is not supernatural nor materialist but between the two. As a practical approach this view seems to succeed in acknowledging and relating to our experiences of ghosts or the experiences of others without making too much out of them. In particular such a view does not induce a sense of being continuously haunted or physically vulnerable to a ghost which is perceived as having a material or energetic existence. It can be the case that, with an incorrect view, we can invest ghosts with more power over us than they really have, just in the same way we might empower our dreams or imagination, or even our negative emotions, through the unconscious action of our own minds.

Remembering all the stories I have been told over the years, I feel sure that Asian people will tend to believe too much in ghosts, often interpreting experiences in their own minds as ghosts, making them real (and getting very scared). Western people tend to be the opposite, reluctant to believe in ghosts they will interpret their experience as psychological. The perspective I have explained here can offer a middle way to these two extremes, not making the ghosts too real, not dismissing them either. 

Perhaps most interestingly – when we begin to see ghosts as a kind of memory we can begin to see our memories, in particular our traumas, as a kind of ghost. We can see memories as having a bit of a life of their own and the potential of relating to them afresh in the present moment. When memories and ghosts come together in this way in the same sphere of our experience, we need not initially try to discriminate between them (a reaction we can have that can end up paralyzing our ability to respond) but instead look for a skillful response. 
​
Playful image of a ghost







I offer this for your reflection

Ajahn Kalyāno
http://www.openthesky.co.uk

​

Buddhism and Yoga

17/7/2021

 
Looking around, I can think that a lot of people practising yoga are first of all out to stay healthy. I don't see anything wrong with this, as far as it goes. This I see as simply benevolence and I can have a lot of muditā (sympathetic joy) for the health and well-being of Yoga practitioners. It can be a shame, although, to not take the practice a bit deeper and add the meditation to it – where you can be as benevolent to your minds as you are already being to your bodies. It is also the case that problems can arise if we attach to being healthy – we are simply very unhappy when we get sick. The wisdom of the Buddha's teaching, brought alive through meditation, can help us to prevent this attachment without limiting our enjoyment in the moment.

Silhouette of man in yoga posture

So let us consider how Yoga fits with Buddhist practice philosophy. Yoga was already a highly developed science in the Vedantic tradition at the time of the Buddha. As I understand, the   Buddha incorporated the meditation practices of the yogis into his own practice and teaching. Within Buddhism we can see the physical practices of Yoga as a preparation for the meditation and as representing an overall discipline of benevolence in relation to the body,   the body being the first,mfundamental, foundation of mindfulness.

So the Buddha is encouraging us to meditate and explore our bodies with a calm, benevolent and accepting mind. In doing so, we discover that there are many ways in which the body and mind are woven together, so we find this also yields methods to gain emotional and psychological benefits. In particular there is the awareness of the breathing cycle. Here, on the simplest level, there is the possibility of a physical means for breaking cycles of stress. Stress tends to push the respiratory process into chronic overdrive. We can learn to arrest these patterns and reset our body's alarm systems. Combined with stretching we can also release the chronic muscle tension associated with stress. Furthermore we can greatly enhance our awarenessof our bodies, particularly in relation to posture. We can avoid the physical problems associated with poor posture and introduce a positive poise  and grace to our lives that can take our hearts and minds in a similarly upright direction. Mindfulness of the body, if it thus becomes continuous, provides the ideal basis for the skill of mindfulness as a way of life – there is a lot of evidence for the value of this in preventing mental problems such as anxiety and depression.

We can discover that our attitude towards our own body is formative of so much or our mental and emotional life, of our view of ourselves and others. Not only is a healthy body in many ways a healthy mind, but a healthy view of the body is also in many ways a healthy mind. In this respect the Buddha also teaches us to recognise and then both accept and see beyond the limitations of the body in a way that these limitations need not dampen a positive attitude to life. It can be important to realise that the sickness of the body is not necessarily a source of suffering in life if we have the right attitude, one formed by the correct view of the body and our relationship to it.

On the deeper and more subtle level, through meditation we can learn to deeply energise the body and mind. This is associated with the deeper benefits of long-term meditation practice – the possibility of the peaceful and blissful mind states of samādhi, which come with heightened awareness of the body and breath together. These can transform our lives –we will never be the same again. If you have not experienced such things yourself it is well worth meeting people who have experienced them, to learn to know these people: they are likely to be the happiest people you have ever met. Yet these states of mind are only experienced by those whose Yoga represents a broad and dedicated spiritual path, including the keeping of moral precepts – only then can our mindfulness be clear enough to go this deep. Being part of a spiritual community is of enormous help in establishing and maintaining this kind of dedication. If we have discussed so far principally the place of Yoga in Buddhist practice, this is perhaps the most important place for Buddhism within the practise of Yoga.




I offer this for your reflection

Ajahn Kalyāno
http://www.openthesky.co.uk


​Transformation

29/4/2021

 
In the absence of awakened teachers, what tends to happen is that we do not realise the potential of the practice to completely transform the mind. Then we go ahead and redefine Buddhism as a way of working with the ordinary mind rather than achieving this kind of transformation. Worst of all is when we go as far as redefining the ordinary mind as the enlightened mind or believe that we are all enlightened already. As a consequence we never even see the benefit of the practice or its real urgency. 

The first thing that we might need to admit is that in spiritual terms people are not all the same. In modern egalitarian society, already this can be difficult. But it is made more possible, perhaps, by adhering very strictly to the idea of equal rights on the conventional plane and by preventing any abuse of spiritual knowledge or position for unjust worldly gain or advantage, (this is an important reason for having a mendicant community at the centre of it all). In this way we make everyone the same on the conventional level and can then open to our differences on the spiritual level without risk. 

Still we need to be careful how we communicate on spiritual matters. We are best advised never to boast; and to talk about the practice in general rather than personal terms. This behaviour is what is natural to anyone with any real insight or depth of practice. They will be very humble in themselves, realising that wisdom and samādhi only came about when they went beyond themselves. It can also help others not to feel intimidated or jealous if they know that to arrive at such a transformation it takes an enormous, indeed heroic, amount of effort. Also the result may not be so apparent to the worldly eye. It is only after long association with someone that we may realise that their minds are profoundly different from the ordinary.


What can we really know? 

What we really can know is our own minds and the sense impressions (mind objects) that we gather from the world. Those two are all we can really know. We can arrive at this conclusion philosophically (fairly easily) and through meditation (through a lot of hard 
work) but if we arrive at it through meditation our experience of life is transformed. In meditation we can strengthen mindfulness, the knowingness of the mind, until the sense of knowing, really knowing, is completely tangible to us. Then the world will appear to us as mind objects within a bright field of knowing and we will never be the same again. 

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Artwork - restrained and refined Buddha with aura



​​I offer this for your reflection

Ajahn Kalyāno
http://www.openthesky.co.uk

Computers – Friend or Foe?

5/10/2019

 

In so many ways, even as far as uploading consciousness and achieving 'virtual immortality', man seems to be hoping to be saved by the computer. I would say the opposite could be true. Ultimately man's survival in more ways than one relies not on the computer but on doing what the computer cannot do. Firstly this is because in that way we are not made redundant by computers. Secondly, much deeper than this, because the impermanent, conditioned mind is like a computer programmed for survival. I would say that it is our own inner computer that binds us to an impermanent world.

This can include binary feeling as data even though the inner computer does not feel. The mind and body become entangled through this encoding. Feeling, pleasant and unpleasant is the binary code of the body that locks our minds into associative spins between mind and matter.

By contrast freedom lies in the great mysteries of consciousness and beauty. These two should be the focus of our efforts to avoid becoming trapped in an automatic world of binary thought and feeling. Here is all the wild, natural magic of the mind that emerges from emptiness and returns to emptiness in its pure acts of creativity.

The mind that includes emptiness cannot be coded and drawn into the endless reactive stream of the conditioned mind. The mind can even become based in its perception of emptiness. This is freedom.

Also, as a footnote, I think that if we consider the nature of mind in a deep way, not just on a superficial level as merely thought, computer analogies to human consciousness start to look fundamentally flawed. On a deeper level of information we cannot divide physical and mental processes. In a computer the software does not have a formative effect on the hardware so these are easy to divide. By contrast in biology the information contained within living organisms has a formative role in the development and control of the body.

If we understand our minds to be like computers we are limiting their potential to form the very substance that carries the information.


Picture


​I offer this for your reflection


Ajahn Kalyāno
http://www.openthesky.co.uk


​

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