I haven't actually been implementing the joy generation meditation because I'm lazy, but I've been carrying it around, and that in itself has been good. Just knowing it's there, just recognizing it there creates a little brief glow of joy.
I may also be a little afraid of implementing it and finding it not working. Was it just my imagination? If I'm generating joy from within, how can it be real if it's not connected to something without?
I'm not really afraid. If it stops working, all meditations have times when they work, and times when they don't. It depends on my state of mind during a given time period. If it's false, then that's truth, and I'm ready to throw it away if it turns out to not be a truth to me.
I've also been carrying around the pristine cognition meditation, which isn't really new, but may just be a new form from concentrating on the idea of the word "pristine cognition". It is focusing on all my surrounding reality as a primordial pristine cognition, rising to manifest in these forms, and immediately fading into other forms as I move, as time moves.
Nothing is real in itself, but is all a form of the ground of enlightenment, all of it is the path, all of it is everything, all of it is teaching me, all of it is me learning. Each moment is a karma manifesting moment arising out of the pristine cognition, each moment is a karma creating moment that we have individual control/mindfulness over.
Finally, I've been carrying around my "four point starting point", a meditation loosely based on some other teaching called the Four Noble Truths, but I don't like taking teachings as they're given, until I've processed them through my own reality and understanding.
Point one: Life is impermanence. Everything we sense or perceive is in flux and will not last or stay the same. Even history is impermanent, because past fact is still a function of present perception.
Point two: Human suffering is caused by attachment to, desire for, or aversion from things that are by nature impermanent. A great line I read once relating to this is, "We all strive for happiness, but we keep doing things that make us unhappy".
Point three: It is possible to cultivate a life perspective/philosophy that strives to understand and minimize the suffering.
Point four: A teacher, who went by the name of Bud A., once recommended an 8-point path to follow to cultivate that life perspective/philosophy. His 8-points, I think, were more geared towards monks, but is a good starting point for each of us to implement our freedom to come up with our own 8-point path.
His were:
1. Right understanding
2. Right intention
3. Right speech
4. Right action
5. Right livelihood
6. Right effort
7. Right mindfulness
8. Right concentration.
Mine, for the time being, are:
1. Mindful speech
2. Mindful action
3. Mindful thought
4. Mindful service
5. Mindful effort
6. Mindful wisdom
7. Mindful meditation
8. Mindful compassion
How do these help me get through my days? The joy generating meditation helps remind me that joy shouldn't be sought for on the outside, and is something inherent in or about myself. The pristine cognition meditation is very practical for me because it is immediate in every moment of my day to think of this process happening now. And the four point starting point meditation helps connect me to an established tradition, even though I'm making it my own, and implements a structure to the general path.
Or not.
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| THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2:55 p.m. - default shot. |
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| FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2:02-2:14 p.m. - still hanging out with each other. Believe it or not, the top pic I was shooting the poster. Don't believe me? Oh well. |
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| SEPTEMBER 9, 12:52 p.m. - Taipei architecture from the Taida campus. |
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| 7:56 p.m. - Miramar Mall, Dajia. Chances are that if I was in Dajia, I was with Hyun Ae. |
