Absolute freedom and happiness – our true essence

The relationship of Dharma study to meditation

Through the study of the Teachings, we change the raw data of worldly desires into data about spiritual practice.

For example, you spend the whole day «hanging out» on the Internet: watching, listening, and reading everything. Your consciousness becomes clouded, although you may not accumulate any outright bad karma. However, the question is: what data is there coming into your Aggregates 3–5? Moreover, in what state will your consciousness be under the influence of this data? As a result, you will not be able to meditate properly. You will lack concentration. It's like trying to fall asleep, turning on loud music, and drinking something energizing.

Conversely, Correctly Fixing the Memory on the True Dharma creates the foundation for meditation, because we begin to correctly see both the outside world and our own impurities in actions, words spoken, and the workings of our minds. In addition, we constantly remember the right actions of body, speech, and thoughts, repeat and analyze the learned teachings, thus fixing and holding our wandering consciousness and training it to be present in the present moment. This leads us to awareness and concentration, which I will discuss below.

In meditation, only the data that we have accumulated will manifest. Therefore, it is very important what exactly we experience after we sit down to meditate. Then, when the data manifests, we stop it completely through concentration and Contemplation. But what happens if we don't change the original data and master Calmness and Contemplation from the beginning? For example, why has meditation become very fashionable and the world is getting worse? The point is that if one does not change the initial data with the above practices, they will remain at the level of the lower worlds, full of worldly desires and, consequently, suffering. And if the internal data is low level, and there is no ability to stop the effect of these outward data, then no matter how much you meditate, it will not get better. Nevertheless, ordinary people, trying to «be in the trend», sit and say: «I meditate». However, there is no point in sitting in your pants. There is only meaning when we persistently change the data of our Five Aggregates, controlling the actions of the body, speech and thoughts based on the True Dharma fixed in memory.

Right View

The most important aspect of Dharma's study is the difference between simple memory and memory fixation. For example, do you remember the content of a school program? Unless you are a school teacher, it is unlikely. This means that you cannot use the knowledge you have learned in school now, and therefore it is useless to you because it is not fixed in your memory and you do not apply this knowledge or confirm it through experience.

Further, suppose you read sutras or teachings for an average of thirty minutes a day and are satisfied with this. However, everything will be determined by what information you receive for the remaining twenty-three hours and thirty minutes. Assuming that during this time you absorb the information of hatred, animal ignorance, total entrapment in material things, blind attachment, envy, self-righteousness, and pseudo-spirituality (and there is simply no other information in modern daily life) and commit bad actions of body, speech, and mind, you will naturally take the path that leads to the lower worlds.

So, it is necessary to repeatedly fix in your memory the Teaching: «The Five Aggregates are this and that; the six worlds of the World of Passions are this and that; the Law of Karma is this and that; correct meditation is performed in this way; the preliminary practices leading to correct meditation consist in this and that», etc. Fixing the memory on the Teachings implies that we reread the text we need several times, then read it thoughtfully again, and then analyze and practice it consistently. By repeatedly doing this practice, the Teaching becomes inherent in us as the Right View of all objects and phenomena. A view based on the Teaching (the Dharma or Truth spoken by all the Great Gurus, including Shakyamuni Buddha) and not on our own delusions, worldly desires and fixed ideas. Thus, there is a substitution of data in our Five Aggregates, as I mentioned earlier. Next, the Right View will completely determine the principles of our behavior.

Of course, there is a downside: even perfect knowledge of the Dharma does not mean Enlightenment. Seeing and realizing all objects and phenomena based on Dharma is the Right View. Distinguishing objects and phenomena based on worldly information is hatred, ignorance, and greed, i.e., pain, impermanence, and dissatisfaction. Distinguishing objects and phenomena based on some «cosmic knowledge available only to the initiated» is pseudo-knowledge, leading to complacency and willful ignorance. In other words, Enlightenment is not the discernment of objects based on any information, but the complete stopping of dual consciousness and all information. However, there is no such thing as instant Enlightenment^[22]! It is preceded by serious spiritual practice, the basis of which is fixing the memory on the Teachings and practicing what is fixed.

Therefore, the study of Dharma forms the Right View. The right View is the foundation of all spiritual practice.

More specifically in the context of Enlightenment, the following example can be given. If, without possessing the Teaching and the Right View, one tries to immerse oneself in meditation, it will not be meditation, but prostration. That is, people who do not possess the Right View sit cross-legged and say: «I am meditating» or «I am observing my inner world». The question arises here: what will such a person reflect on, what and how will he observe, not possessing the Right View? The whole point is that this «contemplation» or this very «observation» is something to be practiced and realized only based on the Right View. Just sitting in the Lotus posture will not realize Enlightenment – no matter how much you stay in prostration, no one will benefit from it. We benefit when having understood the essence of the Teachings and having thus equipped ourselves with the Right View, we change our actions, speech, and work of consciousness in accordance with what we have learned. It is in this case that we begin to see and understand what suffering is, how and why it arises, and, most importantly, what efforts we need to make in order to surpass suffering: what practices we need to engage in. If we read texts containing authentic Teachings and memorize them in order to acquire the Right View, then no matter what suffering arises, we will be able to make sense of any phenomena.

It should further be noted that the Dharma fixed in our memory is not the object of our attachment, but our equipment, or the tool with which we progress toward self-realization. However, when we arrive, for example, by automobile at the end point of our journey, we get out of the car, not stay in it. As stated in the Zen textbook known as the «Hekiganshu», «Words are only the chariot carrying the Truth. Truth is beyond description, but it is words that manifest Truth. Let us forget about words when we reach the Truth itself. This will happen only when we see through experience what the words point to».

Here we come to an important point. The faith I mentioned above can be divided into two types: the first is the faith that is accompanied by the maturity of the soul; the second is, we can say, blind faith. Faith that is accompanied by the maturity of the soul is a type of faith that is generated by a soul that is capable of understanding phenomena. In addition, blind faith is the kind of faith held by a soul without maturity, which has been told, «Do this» – and has accepted that one should do so. Hence, if we talk about what is necessary for the foundation of faith, it is two things – the right study of the Dharma and the Right View. If we can acquire this very Right View, if we can master it, then we can say that we have acquired the right faith. And right faith will turn into the right realization, that is, into the right devotion.

Thus, unlike the ordinary person who is seized by vague talk, and vague, undefined thinking based on worldly desires, the spiritual practitioner clarifies, and brings things to clarity one by one. «This I have cognized. This I have not yet learned, but it has been learned by those who have entered the path of practice before me. This is what is stated in such and such scriptures, but it is at variance with the spiritual experience of those who have entered the path before me, and is therefore distorted through numerous translations and commentaries by those who lack true spiritual experience». And having strengthened his faith, this person makes an effort to practice, by which his thinking about things becomes deeper and he begins to see clearly that this World of Passion consists of the three sufferings.

Therefore, to enter the process of Enlightenment, one needs serious preliminary practice, the central part of which is the study of the Dharma and the Right View. Having made the Teachings his equipment, and having established a solid foundation, the spiritual practitioner goes further – now he sees and understands what efforts he must make to attain Enlightenment, and what practices he must engage in.

Right Thinking – the true intention in accordance with the Dharma

When we become established in the Right View, we will have the Right Thinking. Right Thinking, without going into details, means two things.

The first is thinking based on the Teachings.

The second is an intention in accordance with the Teachings, which is the desire, aspiration, or determination to realize Enlightenment and Emancipation.

Here the question arises: what is the difference between the desire for Emancipation and other desires?

The True «Self» is like a mirror reflecting everything as it is. The Atman, or True «Self», originally possesses consciousness, will, and perceptions. Emancipation is when all of the above are stopped and do not come into motion.

Thus, our consciousness can be divided into four layers: actual consciousness, subconsciousness, superconsciousness, and the consciousness of the True «Self». In yogic terms, this will sound like the consciousness of the physical plane, the consciousness of the astral plane, the consciousness of the causal plane, and the consciousness of the Atman. When all levels of consciousness are completely stopped, and hence the Aggregates and the data contained within them are stopped, we realize the self or return to our original state of Nirvana. In other words, experience is not some part of the True «Self». The True «Self» has no experience – it exists at a distance from experience. However, if, because of Avidya, consciousness comes into motion, the Formed Experience is also activated, and we, i.e. the Atman, begin to associate ourselves with the Formed Experience.

Hence, while in the state of Avidya, we are not conscious of ourselves; moreover, we consider our Five Aggregates and the data contained in them as our true self. But the essence of the Atman is perfect freedom and absolute happiness, so naturally, the will of the Atman is to return and always remain in this original experience-independent state.

The problem is that our true will, or the will of the Atman – to return and always remain in the original independent state – is refracted, and distorted when projected through the Causal and Astral Worlds into the World of Phenomena. It is exactly like how a beam of initially pure transparent light is projected onto a screen, but in the process is refracted, scattered, and colored as it passes through three differently colored, dirty, and crooked lenses. These three lenses are our Distinction, Formed Experience, and Perception, and the dirt and multi-coloured paint on these lenses are the data we have accumulated. As a result, we (Atman), initially desiring to return to our true state of freedom and happiness, begin to search for these states externally – in objects and phenomena external to us. This search, conditioned by Fundamental Ignorance, or Avidya, forms our false «self» and the illusions of suffering and joy, which we believe to be the only reality.

Therefore, the desire for Emancipation is the true will of the True «Self», or our inner Guru, and the other desires are hatred, ignorance and greed formed by our past experiences which have nothing to do with us, i.e. the True «Self», and which only plunge us into the world of illusion.

However, as stated above, being in the ordinary clouded state, we are unable to understand the true intention, or will, of the Atman, i.e., our inner Guru. Nevertheless, there are Gurus who, by seeing their true nature, have realized the original will of the Atman. If we study the Teachings left by these Achievers, we first form the Right View and then the intention, or right tendency in our minds, to realize Enlightenment and Emancipation. This intention, which has arisen in us through the study of the True Dharma, is completely identical with the true intention of the Atman. If there is no such intention, true spiritual practice is impossible.

The Six Perfections (Six Paramitas) – the path to Enlightenment and Emancipation

The Six Paramitas are six types of consistent and persistent practice: Offerings, Keeping the Precepts, Patience, Perseverance Effort, Meditation, and Wisdom. The Six Paramitas are the foundation of our spiritual practice in today's world.

The Six Paramitas are described in detail in my book «Dharma – The Way Things Are. Real Experiences and Realizations of a Spiritual Practitioner». In this essay, I will only discuss the highlights of this practice.

The Six Paramitas is a kind of «set of six exercises» that we should do on a daily basis.

First, we should try to accumulate merit through virtuous deeds, offerings, and selfless service. This is the Paramita of Offerings.

Second, we should try to observe the Ten Precepts so that we do not accumulate bad karma and not waste but accumulate even more merit. This is the Paramita of Keeping the Precepts.

Thirdly, when engaged in spiritual practice, we will inevitably encounter difficulties, in which case we need to practice Patience. This is the Paramita of Patience.

Fourth, we need to make persistent efforts to study, contemplate, and practice the True Dharma. This is the Paramita of Persistent Effort.

Fifth, we should practice meditation daily. This is the Paramita of Meditation.

Sixth, we need to analyze the world around us and the manifestations of our own consciousness not based on fixed ideas and worldly desires, but based on the True Dharma. This will increase the maturity of our soul and will be the practice of Wisdom for us in the first stage. This is the Paramita of Wisdom.

However, the sequence of practice is that we cannot correctly and one hundred percent perform a difficult exercise without mastering the previous, simpler exercise that forms the basis for performing the difficult one. This is where the deep meaning of the word «Paramita» comes into the picture. In Pali and Sanskrit, «Paramita» means «perfection». From this point of view, the previous practice, when we have attained perfection in it, becomes the foundation for the subsequent one. In other words, we need to achieve perfection in Offerings, Keeping the Precepts, Patience, Perseverance Effort, Meditation, and Wisdom. By attaining perfection in each of these six practices, we will realize personal Enlightenment and Emancipation, even while remaining laypeople in our time polluted by worldly desires.

The basics of the Six Paramitas are the previously described devotion, fixing the memory on the True Dharma, contemplating, memorizing the Teachings, and forming the Right View.